Building Strategic Relationships

"The layers of management will be reduced, more authority will be delegated throughout the organization, and greater reliance will be placed on outside resources."

"Partnerships come in virtually all sizes, shapes, and classifications. They exist in both the private and public sectors, and . . . sometimes bridge them."

"As we watch all these new partnerships being born, the question becomes why."

"The complex system that is formed includes a nonhierarchical structure, a collaboration-based culture, and a relatively equitable distribution of power and authority among the partnership's chief participants."

"Function-oriented partnerships are characterized not by compliance and legal agreement, but rather by complementarity, compensatory relationships, and expansion."

"Interactive networks typify successful partnerships."

"Partnerships inevitably involve change; for when we enter such a relationship we open ourselves to alternative perspectives and needs, which we must somehow integrate with the dominant perspectives and needs within our own organization."

"The decision to partner usually seems to be motivated by three factors, factors that tend to drive many business decisions?not just the decision to enter a partnership. "

"Partnerships always require some risk-taking."

"The reasons why whirlwind courtships often produce partnerships vary widely."

"At the heart of the process of turning a vision into value is the effective management of the relationships that are central to any business and any partnership."

"In any partnership, growth entails an increasing need to coordinate and integrate activities."

"Covenants, not contracts, lie at the heart of successful partnerships."