I mentioned upcoming business collaboration opportunities for Brainzooming yesterday, including co-presentations, creating content, and developing new workshop and training offerings.
What to look for in a business collaboration?
Shame on me, but I've never put the criteria I look for from a business collaboration into the type of strategic decision making tool we develop for clients. The criteria are in my head. There is a time for everything, however.
Here are criteria to evaluate when considering business collaborations:
- There is a clear way we can be of help to the collaborator.
- The collaborator brings something different (and complementary) to what we do and offer.
- The other party shares comparable core business values to us.
- There is a mutual commitment to learning from the business collaboration.
- The collaboration will yield mutual benefits.
- Beyond learning more from the collaboration’s outcomes, it should provide an opportunity to learn about each other and our brand.
- The collaboration helps us grow in a new way.
- The collaboration helps us reach a new audience.
- With an event-based collaboration, it provides opportunities to extend it in strategically smart ways.
- The other party is as enthusiastic about the possibilities from the collaboration as we are.
- The collaboration doesn't have to be completely aligned with what we are trying to do, but giving attention to the collaboration won’t become a distraction to important goals.
- There is a clear motivation for both of us to invest in the collaboration to make it as successful as possible.
- There is a mutual contribution from both parties toward the strategy and ideas.
- There won't be a big exit cost if the collaboration doesn't develop successfully.
- The investment and work to make the collaboration successful is spread among both parties, even if the types of investment in it are markedly different.
There may be more, but thinking back on business collaborations from the past few years, those items characterize the decision making and expected impacts of our varied collaborations. - Mike Brown
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