Partnering
Business partnering is the joining of two or more businesses to exchange resources, share risks, or divide rewards from a joint enterprise. Business partnering can take any of a number of forms such as:
- a strong relationship with a major customer
- a partnership with a source of distribution
- a relationship with a supplier of innovation or product, or
- an alliance in pursuit of a common goal (commercial collaboration).
Partnering and alliances can be the quickest way to grow your business, particularly in times of change. Without implementing difficult and time-consuming internal changes, they allow you to:
- Move rapidly
- Adapt with greater flexibility
- Increase your market share
- Gain access to a new market or beat others to that market
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Quickly shore up internal weaknesses
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Gain a new skill or area of competence
- Succeed although your company lacks otherwise key resources.
However, experience with partnering in the ICT industry is not without its downside. As the “dot com” crash shows, partnering for partnering's sake achieves nothing. A partner relationship must deliver a win-win for both parties - irrespective of the purpose and form that the partnership takes. Importantly, the development of such a relationship must be driven from your business strategy.
The IIB can assist you to become “partner ready”, identify and facilitate appropriate partnership opportunities as a valuable way to build your business.
Partnering workshops
As part of the Queensland Government’s four year strategy, "Smart ICT -
taking it to the world", the Partnership Skills Program has been designed
to develop and extend the knowledge and skills essential for effective
relationships involving other ICT firms, key clients or service providers.