Competitive Partnerships

There’s the old saying: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” In business, this saying can be particularly true to keep tabs on your competition and what they are up to. It’s nice to know what moves they are making. It feels great to know where you’re ahead of them. It can be motivating to know where you are lacking.

But what if you used that information of where you’re ahead and where you’re lacking to bring your competition even closer? Closer to the point that you partner together and form a competitive partnership.

It’s not as crazy as it sounds. In fact, competitive partnerships can serve a purpose to benefit you and your competition. For me, some of my best partners are technically competitors and we’ve established ways of working together that are mutually beneficial.

In this article, I’ll look to explain the what, why, who, how, and when around these competitive partnerships.

What is a Competitive Partnership?

I thought I was pretty clever when I “came up” with the term in summer of last year. But I quickly realized my cleverness was shared by others as I did further research and found this term and idea has been documented already. The name “competitive partnership” itself, while oxymoronic, does a good job of describing what it is – competing entities that partner together.

It’s a strategic approach that brings together organizations with similar goals and interests to achieve mutual benefits. It is without a doubt a unique form of collaboration that thrives on the principle of intentional alignment and cooperation without compromising distinct competitive advantages.

That answers the “what”, but what about the “why”?

Why Have Competitive Partnerships?

Depending on what you are trying to accomplish, the idea of partnering with a competitor can greatly improve the outcome. Whether it’s to accomplish work for a client, benefit the public, or develop something new, there are numerous reasons to come together:

• Expertise – It’s good to know your strengths and weaknesses, same goes for your partner’s. If they can do something better than you, perhaps that work is given to them, and they reciprocate with work where you excel. Perhaps in a large project you need to rely on their expertise for a particular deliverable or phase. Leverage these strengths where one falls short.
• Sharing the burden – Perhaps a project or body of work is too big. It may be nice to get some support from others that do similar work. Without sharing too much intellectual property you can still accomplish the work and provide the client with the solutions they need.
• Diversity of thought – Getting together with the competition can bring about ideas that challenge each other. As you both have expertise that varies and likely different approaches to solutions, it can open your mind to new ways of thinking.
• Creativity – With that diversity of thought and new ways of thinking also comes creativity. Putting together varying thoughts and challenging each other can bring about ideas that neither had thought of before. This could be a market disruptor or a solution to solve a one-time problem.

These reasons help paint the picture of why partnering with the competition could be the right thing to do when the timing and opportunity make sense.

Who Benefits?

The simple answer is everybody; assuming the partnership is done appropriately. Companies of any size, from international enterprises down to independent consultants, in most industries, can benefit by partnering with their competitors in some capacity.

From this, the client ends up becoming the real winner by receiving the output of these benefits. As a client, seeing you and your competition put aside your differences to help them become successful is a pretty powerful statement about what you are willing to do for clients. They won’t forget that.

Of course, this could also mean introducing a client to your competition, which can always create a little angst. But with proper protocol, concerns here can be mitigated.

How Do You Establish a Competitive Partnership?

Before I list out steps to take when setting up a partnership with your competitor, keep in mind that there needs to be a clear need (from you and the partner). Don’t set something up if you don’t need to. But when it makes sense, here are some things to consider:

1. Identify strategic alignment: Choose partners whose objectives align with yours, ensuring that collaboration brings mutual benefits without compromising core strengths.
2. Clear objectives: Define the specific goals of the partnership, whether it's joint research, client work, or product development. What do you both want to get out of it?
3. Open communication: Establish transparent communication channels to facilitate the exchange of ideas, information, and resources. Be open and honest, too.
4. Resource sharing: Determine what each partner brings to the table and how resources will be shared for maximum efficiency. Use a RACI to be clear at a task level of who is doing what.
5. Legal framework: Create a legal framework that outlines responsibilities, intellectual property rights, exit strategies, and even how you will administer payments (if needed).
6. Metrics and evaluation: Establish key performance indicators to measure the partnership's success and make necessary adjustments. This helps you make sure that the juice is worth the squeeze for both sides.

When It’s Just Not Right

On the other side of the fence of pursuing a partnership, sometimes these things are just not meant to be. Maybe you tried to partner, and it didn’t work. Or perhaps you stopped it before it could even start. Here are some other sides of the story to consider on why a competitive partnership may not be for you:

1. Divergence in objectives: The initial shared goals are no longer aligned due to shifts in business strategies or if you can’t align in the first place.
2. Diminished returns: When the partnership no longer generates the expected value or fails to provide the right value for either side or clients.
3. Change in market dynamics: If shifts in the industry or market make the partnership obsolete or less relevant. Perhaps now is not the best time based on current conditions.
4. Conflict of interest: When conflicting interests begin to outweigh the benefits of collaboration.
5. New opportunities: If new opportunities arise that could be better pursued independently.

All of these can lead to some tough conversations that require honest answers from both parties. You must make sure it’s right for both sides; and if it’s not, call it and move on – with a smile on your face.

Power of Partnerships

Competitive partnerships represent a forward-thinking approach to collaboration, enabling organizations to combine strengths while preserving individual competitiveness. Regardless of industry, it’s important to have a network of peers (competitors or not) and know what they do well. A powerful network will lead to powerful partnerships, and you may just find that your competition are actually great partners. Know your strengths and leverage your competition’s – it may be quite beneficial to both parties. Either way, keep those enemies/competitors/partners close.

Are you working with multiple partners in the contingent workforce space and having trouble getting them to work together? Perhaps you’re thinking of working with the competition? An outside, neutral consultant like CWM Strategies can be the answer you need to work through how those partnerships successfully operate so you can get the most out them.