Strategic Partnerships

One of the strategies that experts consistently find to be among the most powerful for putting an entrepreneurial company on the path toward economic well-being is the use of joint ventures and strategic partnerships. Author, consultant and educator Robert L. Wallace has studied the habits and practices of entrepreneurs and, in Strategic Partnerships, he shares how entrepreneurial organizations can best leverage their respective strengths, minimize their weaknesses, and pool their resources to attain goals both large and small.

• What are joint ventures? Joint ventures have specific elements and appear in a variety of forms, depending on how tightly the two partners are linked.
• Why enter joint ventures? The survival of your organization may one day hinge on your willingness and ability to partner with another company, in order to break into new markets, increase sales to existing ones, or break in new products.
• What do joint ventures look like? Joint ventures can be complex undertakings, which many entrepreneurs struggle to build and maintain. It helps to have a map or template to follow as you venture into your partnership.
• How do you choose a partner? Don't skip past your due diligence responsibilities - carefully vet your prospective partner through detailed analysis and recognition of its strengths, weaknesses and goals.
• How do you make the relationship work? Joint ventures are very much like marriages - there must be trust, communication and a sense of shared interests in any joining of businesses. Even while this is true, you must be vigilant, looking after your own company's interests first and foremost.