We’ve talked before about strategic planning. We’ve mentioned the importance of collaborating when creating strategic plans, different models of strategic planning, how to incorporate information technology into your strategic plan, and more. In this article, we’ll talk about strategic partners, and how Crimson Technology Partners could be the right strategic partner for your business.
What Does it Mean to Have a Strategic Partner?
Having a strategic partner – or a strategic partnership – is a fairly simple concept at its core. A strategic partnership is formed when two businesses decide to join together in a mutually beneficial relationship.
It can be quite informal (as little as a handshake agreement) or quite formal (think joint ventures or cross-holdings). The gravity of strategic partnerships varies a great deal as well. As such, companies partnering with one another could experience huge shifts in their operations. Or it’s possible that the partnership could only affect one small facet business.
Why Form a Strategic Partnership?
There are many reasons to look to a strategic partnership as a potential solution to an issue, or issues, your business is facing. Even if your company is not seeking to solve any specific issues, strategic partnerships can provide a myriad of benefits. Crimson Technology Partners, for example, is a strategic technology partner for many businesses.
Although these companies may excel in many fields, being on the forefront of information technology trends may not be one of them. In this case, having Crimson as their strategic technology partner has opened up a whole new world of resources, ideas, and expertise for the companies. And they are able to do so without having to hire a full-time external position or take on too great of a risk.
Oftentimes, businesses will begin strategic partnership conversations with like-minded companies without any specific goal in mind. These types of partnerships frequently yield extremely beneficial results As a result, sharing resources and ideas can lead to innovations that were not even on the table when the partnership talks began.
Conversely, it is also wise to form strategic partnerships with companies in different fields than your own. This can lead to a complementary business relationship that benefits both parties. Perhaps your client is looking for a service that you don’t provide, but that one of your strategic partners does. If you recommend your strategic partner’s services to the client, there’s a good chance they’ll reciprocate when one of their clients is looking for a service that you provide.
Common Types and Examples of Strategic Partnerships
Strategic financial partnerships
Every company needs to deal with money, but not every company (far from it) specializes in money. Many businesses choose to form strategic partnerships with various financial entities that specialize in different aspects of their financial profile. This could include investment experts, bankers, accountants, bookkeepers, and much more.
Strategic marketing and communications partnerships
In this day and age, virtually every business benefits from a strong media presence. However, many do not have the resources, knowledge, or bandwidth to effectively carry out a marketing strategy in-house.
Luckily, there are a plethora of agencies offering expertise in marketing and communications for businesses. These will serve to benefit a company’s media and even online presence if they do not already have a marketing expert employed.
Strategic technology partnerships
This is our favorite kind of strategic partnership here at Crimson Technology Partners. As with marketing, our economy is becoming more reliant upon technology. Thus it is essential that your business doesn’t fall too far behind the technology curve. Now more than ever the information technology world is rapidly evolving. And it can be challenging to stay abreast of all the changes.
Luckily, that’s why we’re here. As your business’ strategic technology partner, we’ll make sure to inform you of important developments that could save your business capital and increase efficiency. And even better, we’ll give you the advice and expertise to ensure that you stay ahead of the technology curve, instead of struggling to keep up with it.
Is There a Way to Mitigate the Risks of Strategic Partnerships?
The most common reason that strategic partnerships fail is that they are not mutually beneficial. The best way to prevent this is to have clearly stated goals and expectations when entering into your strategic partnership.
Do both parties have a clear initial understanding of expectations and benefits on both sides? It will therefore greatly increase their chances of actually achieving those goals and gaining success with the results.
Another common, and related, risk in forming strategic partnerships is a lack of follow-through. Just as you would when creating a strategic plan, when entering into a strategic partnership we recommend establishing clear checkpoints and a regular follow-through strategy. This will ensure that both parties are keeping up their end of the bargain.
One effective way to counter both of these risks is to document everything. From their first meeting, strategic partners should record what each party is offering in the partnership. In addition, they should incorporate how and when they plan to achieve it. Documentation goes a long way to prevent confusion and misinterpretation.
A note about partnering with Crimson
After 25 years of experience in the field, Crimson Technology Partners is an accomplished leader in executive-level, technology-centered leadership. With many years of successful strategic partnerships, we’ve gained some insight into how to create and manage a mutually beneficial partnership.
As such, we have extensive experience and expertise in the technological environment that will ensure your business is a leader in the current technology marketplace. Our team is small enough to give your company the personal, catered attention that you deserve. Yet, we are also large enough to offer all the resources and knowledge that you need to bring your technology profile to the next level.
We Help Lead Your Company into the Future
Contact us here: our team of professionals have decades of experience working in technology executive roles and are well-equipped to coach and mentor leaders across multiple industries. We offer fractional CIO resources and our Surge CIO™ or Gap CIO™ solutions as well.