By Strive Masiyiwa
When most #Startups think #Partnership, they think in terms of #Investment, but actually it is a very small part of the #Partnership 360: You must be looking all round you for opportunities to partner and develop strategic relationships that can help grow your own business.
Partnerships require you to demonstrate three things to the other party:
1. Competence at what you do.
2. Reliability.
3. Integrity and trustworthiness.
You and your team must be completely immersed in the idea of finding different types of #Partners. You search for them armed with the #Entrepreneur’s Toolkit:
1. Does the partnership give you access to a product or help improve your own #Product offering?
2. Does the partnership help you access the skills of #People, you don’t have?
3. Does the partnership help you access and develop more efficient #Process that drive SPEED, SCALE AND CAPACITY?
4. Does the partnership help your #Innovation?
5. Does the partnership help your #Marketing of both the products and the business?
6. Does the partnership help lower your #Cost?
7. Does the partnership give you access to #Resources [including but not limited to Capital]…?
I evaluate every single potential #Partnership using these principles. I don’t wait for potential partners to find me; I go looking for them, always clear on what I want and need to grow my business.
Write them down carefully, and every week track your progress. Even if you are not running a business, you can still track partnerships that you read about, and break them down in terms of what I just outlined.
Go back to Business Wars Podcast on Sasai App [which is free], and review each battle with the Toolkit. You will be amazed what you learn: Successful businesses are scaled through Partnership 360!
• Masiyiwa is telecommunications guru and founder of Econet.