Current business environment is unforgiving of organizations that are slow to adapt. Provide change and to expand their abilities, many organizations have experimented with several sorts of strategic partnerships with the customers and providers that aid them produce products and services economically and design them. What makes such partnerships - which the author calls adaptive strategic partnerships counterintuitive is that they are being used in situations where the two most relevant flows of organizational economics would contend for vertical integration.
Back in 2004, Bharti Airtel's supervisors found that negotiating and upgrading contracts with sellers interfered with their ability to concentrate on outsmarting its contest and pleasing the customers of the company. Instead of expanding network infrastructure by purchasing increasing levels of gear (including exchanges and mobile antennas), which often leads to unused capability, Bharti Airtel pays the vendors to operate the network; it compensates them based on telecom volume, paying only when gear is in use. Along with reconsidering its way of network capability, sellers take accountability for network performance and troubleshooting. Generally, companies with external associates rely on simple tools for example service-level agreements, which provide for performance standards to evaluate conformity and stipulate what is expected from each party.
However in handling its partnerships with vendors, a joint governing structure that motivates individuals at distinct levels of the organizations to communicate and face issues as they erupt is utilized by Bharti Airtel. In a few cases, such interactions have led the business and its particular partners to redraw the extent of their cooperation ( for instance, delegate responsibility for building and keeping the cell towers to a new company), something that would be harder to do in a more traditional partnership. The incentive system rewards sellers for efficient network management. Bharti Airtel and its partners are incentivized to develop procedures that improve learning, innovation and mutual trust, by sharing information with its telecom equipment providers. Various other firms are transforming the institutional framework on three dimensions: 1) incentives 2) information and 3) cooperation mechanics. They are paving the way for the fresh level of collaboration by handling throughout these dimensions.
Rewriting the Playbook for Corporate Partnerships case study solution
PUBLICATION DATE: January 01, 2014 PRODUCT #: SMR474-HCB-ENG
This is just an excerpt. This case is about LEADERSHIP & MANAGING PEOPLE