Two-Day
Short Course

Customer Partnering

Creating sustainable value in, and through, Partnering.

Whatever the shape of your critical relationships ­ joint venture, alliance, outsourcing or strategic customer - they are only sustainable with the right combination of behaviours, processes and value-add proposition.

The key to long term viability in delivering sustained results is partnering capability. Join us to explore:

• What are all these weird and wonderful business liaisons and ventures; and how do I know what will work for me?
• How do we choose who to do it with, engage them and then structure the relationship in a way that creates sustainable value?

Course Outline

This workshop provides an opportunity to explore the issues, to learn what works and understand the value in Partnering Relationships - which Drucker refers to as "dangerous liaisons".

Participants will learn to use various practical tools and will gain insight through applying them to their own real-life ´case-study´ of a relationship they are currently involved in or seeking to establish.

There course is based around six learning modules, these are:

1: Why Sustainable Partnering Relationships are Important.

The global competitive dynamics of business require sophisticated relationship management and smart business ventures. Partnering is your vehicle for establishing and sustaining intelligent relationships that support your growth.

Topics include: Sustainability, Partnering, Success Principles, the Drivers, Global environment, Partnering Capability

2: Strategic Decisions about Partnering

Understanding how it fits with and supports your Business Strategies is fundamental to success - what are the issues, are we ready and is now the right time?

Topics include: Industry context, Business Strategies, Partnering approaches, what you have to give up

3. Identifying and Engaging Partners

There are so many companies out there to (potentially) partner with, you need to have a clear understanding of how you identify them, chose who to work with and negotiate a deal.

The Partnering approach requires a different, more collaborative, approach to working together.

Topics include: Identify and assess potential partners, Formal and informal approach, Evaluation, Due Diligence, Negotiation, Contracts, Charters, Trust.

4. Managing the Challenges

The one certainty is that there will be challenges and things will go wrong. This module will explore these and aid understating. Learning how to deal with challenges will avoid the "danger" that Drucker referred to and help sustain success in your relationship.

Topics include: the Causes of Failure, Internal Terrorists, Risk Management, and issues such as - Does size matter?, Dependency v Flexibility, How long to hold on?, Does end = failure?

5. Sustaining your Success

Once you have established the relationship, you need to live with the consequences! Learn how to build the relationship, manage it and drive high performance.

Topics include: Relationship Strategies, Transitioning, Working Agreements, Success factors, ABC (Attitudes, behaviours, culture), Performance Management.

6. Measure and Monitor the Exchange of Value

At the heart of any business relationship is the "exchange of value". Sustainable success requires that the exchange is fair and creates a genuine win-win.

Topics include: Exploring 'Value', the Value Exchange, Value Management, Reaping the rewards of success! The course will be participative and will use practical examples to help participants understand what works, risk mitigation and the processes involved.

Who Will Benefit by Attending?

This course is relevant in all industry sectors where businesses are forming partnerships to gain competitive advantage or simply to position for the 'right to play' in the future.

It is particularly useful for people looking to achieve a competitive differentiation in situations where establishing a good relationship is a key to success, e.g. bids for deals, alliances delivering a project, customer retention.

The same underlying principles and processes apply to all businesses, small and medium enterprises as well as large scale corporates.

The people within organisations who should attend include:

• Directors, CEO's or General Managers
• Commercial Managers
• Business Development and Sales Managers
• Relationship, Partnership, Alliance or Joint Venture Managers
• Strategic Account or Relationship Managers
• Strategy and Business Planning Managers.

Expected Outcomes

The Course Participants understanding of the following areas will be enhanced:

• the nature of sustainable business relationships
• the issues of value and the exchange of value
• business and relationship issues that need to be managed
• the basis on which to ensure a successful relationship is established and delivers results.

This understanding (and some specific approaches that will be outlined) can be used to:

• Capture new opportunities for partnering ventures that support success
• Manage the risk of relationship breakdown - for example; to mitigate the risk of alliance dissolution, to retain strategic customers, ensure successful outsourcing etc.
• Enhance the delivery of value to stakeholders
• Improve stakeholder (e.g. customer, employee) satisfaction.

Participants will be provided a perspective on the partnering approach, and some of the methods to be applied at various points in the process to support ongoing success in the relationship.

Feedback from attendees:

"I found your short course, value for money, and informative. And for my business, from where I am with certain clients, a timely reminder of where we should be in regards to developing new and existing partnerships.
Already I have seen results, based on the client I used in my case study. In addition to this we have a potentially large partnership agreement with one of our clients in the pipeline, so a lot of what I took from the course we plan to implement in discussions with them."
Kerry Brett - General Manager
Metrobox Auckland

"A well thought out course targeting all the potential pain points organisations face when contemplating partnering as a strategy. The course tutor (Gillian) was fantastic having spent many years in the commercial sector herself. The combination of these two things allowed me to test our commercial assumptions, refine existing strategies and provided us with the tools to evaluate our true position vs perceived position in the partnering process. A worthwhile investment in both time and money".
Nick Boag - Vertical Markets
Alcatel New Zealand

"I found the Strategic Partnering course was well structured and presented. The practical advice given, provided me with the tools to clarify the pitfalls, benefits and ongoing processes necessary for successful partnering which I was able to use immediately."
Brenton Lee - General Manager,
Miles Nelson Manufacturing Co Ltd

"I have been able to use the principles of the Strategic Partnering course to good effect. Offering of your course through the Ak. University was timely for us, as we had not long beforehand identified partnering opportunities with two leading French companies that, like us, operate in the viticulture industry, and we have recently concluded successful partnering agreements with them both. They are important components to our strategy for future commercial success."
Mark Corban
Corbans Viticulture

“Just a very short note to say "thank you" for a really outstanding course this week. I feel I have really gained some significant insights.”

“Great course. Great value and I am already applying the principles internally here with my team and other departments.”

"...given me a comprehensive view of the steps required...in developing a partnership, and the implications and pitfalls that need to be considered."

"Very practical, hands-on advice"

"Good Presentation, knowledgeable and experienced presenter, good tools."

"...interactive and fun."

"speakers and real life examples - especially reality of doing it right, with examples of unsuccessful partnerships."

"Though provoking"

"Provision of tools and ideas to take back and apply."