What is a Partnership?
A partnership is a tailored business relationship based on mutual trust, openness, shared risk and shared rewards that results in business performance greater than would be achieved by the two firms working together in the absence of partnership.
Click on any part of the model (ie Drivers) for a short description
While practitioners and academics have championed the value of partnerships, the challenge is to find effective methods for developing the appropriate type of relationship. It is important to ensure that scarce resources are dedicated only to those relationships which will truly benefit from a partnership. How can managers determine, in advance, if a potential relationship is one which will result in competitive advantage, and is worthy of the time and resources needed to fully develop into a partnership? How does management know what type of partnership would provide the best pay-off? These questions may be answered by utilizing 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. One example is the Wendy's and Tyson relationship, which was the basis for a 2004 article in Harvard Business Review. You can also read about the Partnership Model in the new book, Building High Performance Business Relationships, which contains an in-depth description of the model, provides details about how to use it and includes the support materials needed to conduct a partnership meeting.
The partnership model
Click play to watch Dr. Douglas M. Lambert provide a brief description of the partnership model.
“At The Coca-Cola Company, we use supplier segmentation as the foundation of our global supplier relationship management process. Partnership sessions are held with suppliers that were categorized as strategic during the segmentation.”
— Martha Buffington
Director, Supply Chain Strategy and Program Management
The Coca-Cola Company
"The partnership model described in this book provides the structure to be successful. "
— Don Klock
Former Vice President,
Chief Procurement Officer,
Colgate-Palmolive
"I think the model is invaluable and I have seen it work with all types of
relationships”
— Joe Gordon
Vice President of Supply Chain,
Noodles & Company
“It is easy to put the commitments on paper, but it is more difficult to put them into action”
— Judy Hollis
President, Judith L. Hollis, LLC
Former SVP Wendy’s International, Inc.