Building High Performance Business Relationships

by Douglas M. Lambert, A. Michael Knemeyer, John T. Gardner

In an environment characterized by scarce resources, increased competition, higher customer expectations, and faster rates of change, executives are turning to partnerships to provide sustainable competitive advantage. Partnering provides a way to leverage the unique skills and expertise of each partner and may also lock-out competitors. Partnerships, however, are costly in terms of the time and effort required. A firm cannot and should not partner with every supplier or customer. It is important to ensure that scarce resources are dedicated only to those relationships which will truly benefit from a partnership. Yet, many organizations become involved in relationships that do not meet management expectations and/or which end in failure. How can managers determine, in advance, if a relationship is one which will result in competitive advantage, and is worthy of the time and resources needed to fully develop into a partnership? Further, all partnerships are not the same. How does management know what type of partnership would provide the best pay-off? These questions may be answered by using the partnership model presented in this book. The partnership model provides a structured and repeatable process to effectively and efficiently build and maintain tailored business relationships that may become an asset for executives looking for competitive advantage.

The book also includes The Partnership Model Toolkit, which provides resources to help sell the benefits of the partnership session both within your company and to a potential partner, materials to help participants prepare for the meeting and all of the slides and handouts required to conduct a session.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2009