What makes one partnership successful while another flounders? Learn the secrets of success in this strategic guide to successful partnering.

Winning Strategies for Supplier Partnering explores the various type of partnerships, including mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and licensing agreements and it identifies the key attributes that promote success in each type of venture.

Many suppliers view partnerships as a means for supplying complete systems, expanding global capabilities, reducing costs, and improving product quality and technology. But to effectively achieve these goals, suppliers must be aware of those factors that promote success and limit discord.

Winning Strategies for Supplier Partnering will help companies contemplating a partnership as well as those suppliers already involved in a partnership

While partnering has become more prevalent, little has been learned about the success of these partnership ventures. The report examines the reasons behind the partnering phenomenon, and explores how successful automotive supplier partnerships have been in terms of sales, quality, lead time, profitability, quality, and global expansion. It then addresses those factors that help or hinder the success of a partnership. These factors include:

Type of partnership: explores the advantages and disadvantages of mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances, and licensing agreements

 

Initial research: examines the risks of spending too much or little time conducting due diligence on potential partnership candidates

 

Type of partnership agreement: discusses issues such as formal versus informal agreements, oral or written agreements, items covered in an agreement, and the duration of the agreement

 

Amount of commitment needed: evaluates what type of management support is needed for successful partnerships, the benefits and challenges of establishing core partnership teams, and resource requirements for a successful partnership

 

Balance of power: analyzes the balance of power and the sharing of responsibility within the partnership, including management decisions, engineering design responsibility, and product quality and related liability issues

 

Partnership interaction: examines how successful companies manage and monitor communication between their partners, how they determine how much communication is required, and how often they should communicate

 

Differences in cultures and management styles: explores if companies of different cultures can be successful, how differences in culture help and hurt the relationship, and how to manage cultural differences when they are uncovered

 

Competitors as partners: evaluates the risks and opportunities of partnering with a competitor and discusses how to successfully manage a partnership with a competitor

Key Benefits

	Identifies key attributes that contribute to a successful partnership
	Provides a framework for structuring an acquisition, joint venture, merger or strategic alliance
	Helps you evaluate the success of your partnership and compare the results to that of others suppliers in your classification and product area

For more information see Winning Strategies in Supplier Partnering:

	Table of Contents
	Executive Summary
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