Business Alliances Step 1: Know the partner
The best guidance I received in my high-tech partner management career was from a Fortune 50 Chief Strategy Office when I asked how to define success working with a particularly difficult company. This industry leading software firm was well-known for engineering prowess and unpredictable business behavior. The partnership required diligence, patience and a bit of crystal ball magic to anticipate objectives and priorities.
The direction from the CSO, who joined me in the goal of steering this partner to a long-term win-win business engagement, was simple. “Know them better than they know themselves,” he told me. “When you know them better than they know themselves, you can then build a strategy from knowledge, and play chess 10 moves in advance.”
This was simple direction from a very smart business strategist. It was not enough to be smart and plan well, the requirement was to know the partner so well that I could live in their head, anticipate their priorities, understand their organizational concerns, and plan a course of action for the two companies that went beyond their vision.This understanding of the company goes beyond the obvious, including culture.
I have a favorite metric to see if I’m on the right track in understanding the culture beyond the revenue, key objectives and org charts. I like to define the company in one sentence goes like this. “(company name) is a company who likes to work with partners who (fill in the blank)”. For example, one large silicon valley company I worked with values people above all else, so I would characterize them as “Acme is a company that likes to work with partners who they like and trust.” Yes, this is a real company, and many of you regularly use their products. They partner with people they like and trust above all other qualities, including revenue, believing that a strong business partnership starts with getting along with each other. Another technology company, with a bent toward the formal, can be described as “ZoomZoom is a company who likes to work with partners who have technology that ZoomZoom wants and can’t develop on their own.” For this company, engineering innovation is the common language for partnerships.
One of my favorite partners was a company “who liked to worked with partners who take risks.” Another, who would become one of my least favorite, was a company “who did not end discussions until they felt they had the upper hand.” I am presently working with a company that “likes to work with companies that dream big and swing for the fences.” After writing this one-sentence description for a new partner and revising it for a few days, I test it with friends who know the company, or, better yet, have worked there, and I keep revising the words until the language is precise.
Every company has a public and private personality. Knowing the company better than they know themselves, from culture to finances, org structure, corporate objectives, supply chain, product roadmap, internal power struggles and external appearances, makes all the difference in the world.
Next steps… gathering the data to and developing the account strategy.