Should You Treat a Vendor as a Partner?

Given the variety of skills needed to respond to today’s market, most organizations need to form partnerships to compete. If you have successfully worked with a vendor, you might consider them for a partnership role. Here are things to consider before discussing a possible partnership with your vendor.

First, there are no conflicts of interest with the vendor’s other clients. If you were a major retail department store, and your vendor supplied strategic services to your most direct competitor, this could be problematic.

Second, if your vendor’s capabilities are vital to help your business growth, having them take part in your growth-oriented ventures could be advantageous.

Third, if your vendor directly serves your customers, it’s recommended that you work with your vendor to ensure they can properly represent you and respond in a way you want your customers to experience.

Fourth, there may be instances where your vendor has enabling technology or knowledge they can share. This can help you evaluate various options for your strategic direction.

And last, if you’re confident that your vendor will only make recommendations that support your strategic intentions, and not make suggestions for the purpose of pushing their own interests, it can be beneficial to discuss a possible partnership.??

Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich is quoted as saying "It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed."?This is a critical mindset for partnerships. One of the most powerful instances where that philosophy can be represented is in a strategic planning session. When the conditions I discuss here exist, you might consider negotiating a partnership with your vendor. There is still a long road, however, as a partnership agreement must be negotiated.

?Additional thoughts can be found in my project management and outsourcing classes on LinkedIn Learning, including:

·??????Project Management: Technical Projects which can be found at: https://www.dhirubhai.net/learning/project-management-technical-projects-2021/what-is-a-technical-project?autoAdvance=true&autoSkip=false&autoplay=true&resume=false&u=2125562

·??????Project Management Foundations: Risk which can be found at: https://www.dhirubhai.net/learning/project-management-foundations-risk-14910484/project-risk-a-battle-of-resiliency?autoplay=true&u=0

·??????Outsourcing Fundamentals, the first of six courses on outsourcing, can be found at: https://www.dhirubhai.net/learning/outsourcing-fundamentals/key-components-of-outsourcing?autoAdvance=true&autoSkip=false&autoplay=true&resume=false&u=0

This series of courses focuses on defining services, performing service level management, and helping figure out what is required to support a business in an outsourcing or service provider scenario.

?This article is part of Bob’s Reflections newsletter series, which discusses project management, outsourcing and “intelligent disobedience”, a leadership approach. If you want more of this content, you can?subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library or check out https://intelligentdisobedience.com/‘