Strategic Relationships Need to be More Effective

Strategic relationships are crucial. They are also mostly less effective than they need to be. The growth of relevant industry bodies and standards reflects the accelerating pursuit of more healthy relationships. But are the right approaches being adopted?

The need to improve the effectiveness of strategic relationships is widely acknowledged, and can be seen in:

• The growth of “relational contracting” and “collaborative working” as disciplines.
• The increasing number of associated professional bodies and industry associations, many of which we work with, e.g.:
  • WorldCC, where we have explored sustainability as a potential route into the value of commercial relationships.
  • ICW, where we have encapsulated their key relationship management tools in our diagnostic framework.
  • ASAP, where we co-authored and developed their PCAP tool.
  • LGA, where we helped develop and manage their National Procurement Strategy diagnostic.
• The development of relevant standards, such as ISO 44001.
• How prominently relationships feature in lists of CEO priorities (increasing value chain resilience, enhancing understanding of what customers value, promoting ESG and sustainability with partners, etc).

Healthy vs Unhealthy Relationships

All of these things aim in whole or in part at making “unhealthy” relationships more “healthy”:

However, the approaches most commonly adopted usually have the opposite effect.