During the Thailand Startup Week hosted by HUBBA, I had the chance of sitting in on Kelly Payak’s presentation regarding business partnerships. Kelly is responsible for creating and developing HUBBA’s business and strategic partnerships around the globe.

It is always enjoyable to sit in on a presentation hosted by someone well versed, experienced and knowledgeable about the topic.  Kelly is all that and more, her passion and love for what she does clearly shine through.  The presentation was both insightful and detailed, leaving all attendees with a wealth of knowledge and information.

The presentation started off with a group session among attendees having to discuss what they think partnership means in today’s business world and to them generally.  Most groups understood the general meaning behind the term partnership and gave a few meaning and perceptive answers.  Some of the answers included:

• To add value to relationships
• A cooperation to achieve similar goals
• To build on each partners strengths, knowledge, and experience
• An agreement to assist and collaborate.

Kelly confirmed that all these elements do indeed make up a partnership.  However, the basis of a partnership is what it needs to be at any given time to ensure that your business grows without taking advantage of your partner.  The nature of the human elements involved with ultimately dictate the direction of the partnership agreement.

Partnership agreements are not solidly structured agreements as they have a nature to change and develop around how your business is changing, how your needs are changing, how your product is changing and how your team is changing.  Partnerships are very human as you need to talk to people that you do not have any personal connection with and find a way to come together to achieve similar goals and objectives.

Defining the partnership agreement

Partnership agreements always start off with a strong anchor.  This anchor is your common interests and will assist you in keeping your focus and grounds you to your mutual objectives.

Common interests, across the spectrum of business, will feed cooperation.  Demonstrating to a potential partner that you are offering something that adds value to them.  People are more likely to listen or be more receptive to your ideas if you show that you care about their interests as well.

At the onset, it is vital to establish the common ground between yourself and a potential partner.  Mutually exclusive goals and objective between partners is never a recipe for success.

The first step is to establish what your goals are, and discuss with your potential partners what their goals are.  More importantly, discuss with your team when your strategy is.  It is once again pointless to pull your company and team into a strategy where you alone see the benefit.  You will need your whole team on board to ensure a successful partnership.

Thorough research is vital to establishing a strong partnership.  Finding areas of mutual strengths, but also of a potential partners weaknesses where you are able to help will go a long way in convincing a potential partner to work with you.  A partnership agreement should aim to supplement each other strengths and augment each other's weaknesses.

There is an old saying: “You scratch my back, I will scratch yours”.  Ultimately, this means that if you do something for me, I will do something for you.  And that sums a good partnership agreement.  Partnerships should at all times offer value to both parties, and create an environment for you to create credibility within your ecosystem.

Types of partnership agreements

Once you have thoroughly grounded your objectives and how you can add value to your potential partner, there are basically two types of partnership agreements you can enter.  You will need to decide if you want a flexible agreement that grows and changes with your changing business needs, or you can enter a one-time agreement that has a set time-frame, objectives and deliverables.

No matter the agreement entered, always be prepared for objectives to change and morph according to needs and marketplace trends.  Always be flexible and communicate often to ensure that your ultimate goal can still be achieved.  At the same time, make sure you are not the one taking advantage of your partner as goals and objectives change.

What happens most times with partnership agreements is that one will morph into the other.  Meaning, you may start out with a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with clear and set deliverables, timeframes, goals, and objectives then once the end date of the MOU has been reached, the agreement just continues in a more flexible way as both parties realize the relationship is still beneficial.

Ultimately, no matter the nature of your agreement, it is vital that all projects have an end date.  It is beneficial to both parties for projects to have a set time frame as you are better able to gauge the success or benefit of the partnership agreement.

Finally, Kelly stressed that one must always keep in mind that business partnerships still require a human touch.  Be aware of what you are projecting as you are representing your organization, product, and reputation.  Be sure to do your research so you know who your audience is when you pitch a potential partnership deal.  You do not want to be pitching a marketing project when the company already has three marketing partnership deals.

Communication is key to all successful partnerships.  Be clear with your goals to all parties involved and be sure to keep track of the project.  Clear and constructive communication will ensure that all parties are on track and that the project is still beneficial.  Effective communication with your partners will grow your credibility and reputation.

In business, there has always been a place for strategic partnerships, in the modern business era, partnerships are still relevant.  And in the tech and digital ecosystem, partnerships are vital to ensuring a bigger reach in the marketplace and to ensure that you remain relevant.