What is the efficiency of your company? Do alliances help boost your productivity? I, along with many others, believe that they can. If you could incorporate collaboration into your corporate culture, Would you? If all your business silos worked together, how much greater productivity do you believe you’d see. I’d wager that you would get plenty.
Does there need to be a need?
According to my experience, leaders in business tend to not make changes until they’re experiencing much discomfort. Perhaps you’re experiencing some level of discomfort that drives you to take action? If so, it’s an excellent thing. To be able to effectually bring about changes in the organization, leaders need to be feeling discomfort. Convert your pain into motivation. Inspire yourself to study the concept of partnering for productivity improvement.
Productivity Boosts
The benefits of productivity increases resulting from partnerships are numerous. A three-year study of Brown & root/Braun’s partnership together with Union Carbide Corp., Danbury, Conn., B&R/B discovered from 18 studies that the efficiency of jobs in partnership was between 16% and 17% higher than the previous levels.
The Arizona, California, and Utah Departments of Transportation have realized that the partnering method benefits everyone who is involved. The DOTs refer to it as Partnering Workshops.
Construction companies have particularly profited from partnership workshops by cutting through the maze of lawsuits, claims, and adversarial relations through the idea of cooperation throughout the course of a construction project. Recognizing potential risks to relationships early is another advantage. Benchmarking (companies sharing data on the things they excel at), particularly in the aerospace sector, has led to increased productivity and lower costs throughout the entire spectrum.
Many of the productivity enhancements that are possible through alliances with strategic partners:
1. Market intelligence on new processes, products, as well as competing technologies and markets. The better market information also brings efficiencies in sales as well as distribution.
2. The forecasting of the market for orders with large quantities creates efficient production schedules. Production schedules for any or all companies significantly improve productivity.
3. The improvement in product quality is due to better market understanding; working in focus groups with other organizations with similar customers will help to avoid making a mistake in product development.
4. Better working relationships reduce conflicts and increase overall productivity.
5. Structured communication that improves communications to increase efficiency in operations can be achieved more easily by working with experts in quality.
6. Improved services with collaborative efforts boosts efficiency.
7. Collaboration in information sharing can increase the chances of better market intelligence and problem-sharing.
8. The improvement in business culture and culture results from employees who see collaboration as a way to improve their organization’s engagement to make improvements.
9. Reward, recognition, or award system that helps you meet and/or exceed set goals keep employees and alliance partners actively engaged in collaboration efforts.
10. A reduced paper load makes everyone’s lives easier.
In the end, the value of developing strategic alliances with other organizations is the possibility of collaborating on mutually beneficial initiatives. Together, you can address your own problems as well as those of your suppliers to your customers as well as your employees.
Know What You Have in Mind
Be sure to know what you’re hoping to gain from each of your alliances! It’s not often that a business is able to be everything to everyone. Cooperating with other organizations is the best solution. Embracing the concept for strategic alliances can bring you closer to your goal than you would be without these essential connections.
Embrace Collaboration
And, most importantly If a business embraces the concept of collaboration via strategic alliances, then the outcome is a boost in terms of quality, productivity, and profit. The first step is to ensure that this concept can be formulated in the executive department and carefully implemented throughout the organization in a way that allows line and middle management to appreciate the benefits they’ll receive. If not, it will be sabotage of your organization’s norms. This is accomplished through collaboration and cooperation.
Ed Rigsbee, CSP, for more than two decades, has been frequently known as”the Renaissance Man. He has helped business owners and companies of all sizes grow their businesses through strategic alliances. He is the co-founder and director of a non-profit public charity. He often posts articles and blogs on personal relationships. He manages a Facebook Group, Relationship Glue, and a LinkedIn group. Members ROI Associations & Societies.
Ed has been an adjunct professor at two California universities. He is an author on Developing Strategic Alliances, PartnerShift-How to profit of the Partnering Trend, as well as How to Master the Art of Partnering. Ed has over 1500 hard-copy publications to his name. He is a frequent keynote presenter at trade and corporate associations, teaching North America how to access their Collaborative Advantage.
He has shared his unique Member Value Process worldwide with professional associations, trade associations, and societies. It is the foundation for grass-root member retention and recruitment campaigns.
