Finding, developing and managing partnerships with other businesses is a complex game. On the surface, they can appear to be a cheap and fast way to expand business. However there are many challenges:

• What sort of relationship best meets the needs of everyone?
• Will it cannibalise my other business, or cause conflict with other partnerships?
• Can I trust them? Can I protect myself?
• How much is it worth to my business?
• How much value do they add?

Sometimes a casual, one-time thing for a specific customer or job works well. Other times a formal arrangement requiring great commitment from both sides is needed. While there are no fixed rules about what works for any given circumstance, there are common factors that help point to the type of relationship that will work.

There are two key principals that are essential to consider: “purpose” and “value”. If each party has a clear purpose and knows their true value, then any business relationship has a strong chance of success. The purpose will help determine the nature of the relationship -co-marketing, franchising, joint ventures, distribution, reselling, relicensing, the list goes on. The value determines the role in the value chain – retailer, wholesaler, solution provider, value added reseller, agent, supplier, licensor, and so on.

Creating a formalised arrangement such as a franchise, distribution agreement, supplier terms of trade, etc, can have a profound, scalable impact. Create It once, get it right, then re-use. The cost and risk of incremental business is dramatically reduced. At the same time your appeal as a business partner is increased, because the wrinkles have been ironned out and your value has been proven.

Building partnerships enables a business to entrench itself in their eco-system. It creates barriers to competitors, and enables a market reach that would be uneconomic to achieve any other way.

If your business had a body, what would it look like? Is it trying to run on skinny, under-developed infrastructure legs, or grab at market opportunities with uncoordinated commercial arms? Never mind, I’m sure that stylish Branding Jacket will cover that slightly chubby middle management bulge. You know, that area just above where the belt gets tightenned.

Seriously though, a business is very much a living organism – every part performs a function to keep it alive, it needs an eco-system to survive, and most will live a complete life from inception to termination.

And just like a person, there are times in the life of a business where it can benefit hugely from outside help. Young businesses can be far better prepared for life if they have experienced advisors. Aspirational businesses can achieve greatness with training. Injured or sick business may need expert assistance. Even fit and healthy businesses  can benefit from regular checkups.

 At Innovise we’ve constructed a detailed anatomical model of a business which we use to provide advice, training and assistance. There top level components are :

1. Management
2. Operations
3. Commerce
4. Infrastructure

That might seem pretty basic, like describing a body as made up of a head, torso, arms and legs. To understand the health and fitness of a business it is important to look into how well these components are performing their functions and how well they work with each other.

What makes a business different from other living things is that it can re-write its DNA and evolve. The need to evolve can be driven by many things such as survival, passion, or a changing environment. This is more than just getting a business in peak condition

Information Technology has made profound differences to the way we do business. It used to be obvious – computers enabled staff to be more productive than paper-based alternatives. Today, its not so simple.

In the good old days, 10-15 years ago, the brochure was being replaced with a website and direct mail began moving to email campaigns. The Web has exploded into life and has been rapidly evolving ever since. The rate of adoption by everyone has been spectacular. So has the rate at which online users are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

At the same time, traditional computing environments have been maturing. Administration and security overheads are changing the cost/benefit equations. The benefits from upgrading software applications are less pronounced than the initial changes from manual to computerized systems. Today, businesses have to consider multiple internal systems, numerous online options, and choose between many communication channels. Adding to the complexity, the flow of information has turned into an avalanch.

Technology now provides the world with a constantly expanding, splitting, evolving environment in which businesses need to invest and plan. The simpler days when the latest big thing led business changes are disappearing. So what role does technology play today?

Technology is now the great enabler. There has never been a better time for businesses to get creative and use technology to customise their commercial and operational activities. Businesses are now only limited by their imaginations.

Therein lies the challenge. Technology used to restrict options, making investment and planning decisions simple. In a world where technology is constantly expanding and anything is possible, how does a business decide what to do?

The answer is to call Innovise! While that is definately a good idea, the real answer starts with businesses really understanding themselves, the eco-system that surrounds them, and what is driving them. The question then changes from: “what do we do with technology?” to a more focused “what technology will enable us to do xyz?”

It is the greatest challenge, creating and developing businesses. The potential of a fantastic idea, the huge opportunity in the market, taking big risks for the chance of massive returns. The biggest risk of all is stepping into the unknown – doing things your business has never done before. Whether you are starting a new business, expanding, diversifying or pursuing an unfamiliar opportunity, timely advice from someone who has been there can make an enormous difference.

Every situation is unique with a combination of people, investment, vision and environment. Also every situation is the same, requiring the same processes of learning, decision making and carrying out actions. While experienced advice or strategic introductions can be invaluable, they are only useful if a business can get the apply the advice or turn the introduction into an opportunity. It is hard to make good decisions or accept information that contradicts key assumptions. It is just as stressfull to carrying out changes that are painfull, risky or simply hard work.

Innovise has the experience to provide useful advice regarding many common situations. However, the primary value Innovise can add is educating people in how the process of change works.