The Partnering Imperative - Making Business Partnerships Work

There is no shortage of strategic reasons for taking partnering seriously in today's converging and colliding marketplace. However, there certainly is a lack of credible explanations as to why so many fail.

This book provides the ingredients for successful business partnerships. It identifies the value that effective partnerships can generate, the reasons why so many run into difficulties, and the imperatives for leaders who want to make partnering work in a globalized, digital world.

A powerful series of insights into one of the major issues of our time: how to create a partnership that generates innovation and other key advantages. Original, perceptive, wise and easy to read. -Dr Charles Hampden-Turner, Cambridge University, Judge Institute of Management Studies

Deering and Murphy have written with great clarity and insight on a difficult subject. Partnering will continue to grow in importance as firms shrink in size and look outside their boundaries for some of their critical resources. This book offers clear and practical guidelines for the manager who has to grapple with the multilevel and multicultural complexities of the partnering process. I highly recommend it. -Max Boisot, Snider Center for Entrepreneurial Research, Wharton Business School

Anne Deering has 18 years experience as a consultant with global management consultancy, A.T. Kearney, working with senior executives to resolve complex business problems. Her consulting experience in Europe and North America has been primarily in the areas of partnership development, leadership and team development, organizational learning, organizational redesign and strategy. She is co-author of The Difference Engine, and of Alpha Leadership: Tools for business leaders who want more from life.

Anne Murphy is responsible for co-operative partnership development at Lancaster University Management School. She has a background in management learning and extensive international experience as a designer and facilitator of corporate learning initiatives. At Lancaster, she develops new learning and research relationships at the interface between the academic and business communities. She is co-author of The Difference Engine.

List of Figures, Tables and Boxes.

Acknowledgements

Introduction.

1: A New Kind of Enterprise.

2: A New Language for Partnering.

3: Searching for Fit.

4: Living with Difference.

5: Exploring Common Ground.

6: Trading in 'Common' Sense.

7: Someone at the Helm.

8: On Trust and Conflict.

Afterword: The Dos and Don'ts of Effective Business Partnerships.

Appendix A: To Acquire or Not to Acquire—That is the Question.

Appendix B: Partnering Grid Self-Assessment.

Appendix C: Partnering Objectives Assessment.

Author Biographies.

Index.