The for this week is to answer the the following questions from the textbook

Partnering And Strategic Alliances Management Assignment [Pick the Define the term partnering? In a nutshell, partnering is forming collaborationto gain asharedadvantage. A business is comprised of many links like in a chain. These include manufacturers, fellow employees (internal partnering), suppliers, customers and those businesses that can also be possible consumers (external partnering). Partnering refers to forming a business relation based on trust and commitment. Thus it should be done following a proper channel involving a partnering briefing, its presentation, identifying the key personnel, building a team, deciding on a mission statement and selecting the main goals. It allows both the partners to gain maximum benefits creating a win-win situation for them.
2. What are the benefits of partnering?
As the term implies, partnering is beneficial for both parties involved. The main objective of partnering is to improve quality of the business. It results in the betterment of important areas such as manufacturing process, the products itself, relation between the consumers and suppliers and in turn the customer contentment. Together these things increase the effectiveness of the business. A perfect example of the disadvantage of not having a partnering is the green Volvo case. Volvo manufactured a lot of green cars which could not gain the public interest and had almost no sales. To quickly sell this model, the marketing and sales departments started heavy promotions such as large discounts and rebates. What they did not do was to inform their suppliers of the case. So when the Volvo suppliers saw the green cars sell at such a speed, they doubled the manufacturing of the green cars. The result was loss of a lot of money and resources. We can say that partnering removes the invisible wall that exists between the manufacturer and customer and the supplier and manufacturer. Some of the advantages also include reduced costs and increased speed of the whole working process.
3. What is partnering with suppliers?
Nowadays people avoid going into the manufacturing business alone. Most companies tend to partner with their suppliers in order to form a mutually valuable working relation. Rick Hughes, the chief purchasing officer of P&G, a consumer goods company, talked about their strong regard for partnering with suppliers ‘We expect the best from our business partners, and we are focused on growing long-term relationships that are sustainable, innovative and create joint value’(Jusko, 2011). There are however some requirements that should be met by a supplier to be able to partnering. In order to form a successful supplier partnering, the supplier personnel should interact with the employees who use the products of the company. They should be asked about the quality so the necessary improvements can be made.
4. Explain the rationale for partnering with customers?
The customers are the end of the chain links and to achieve their satisfaction is a business’s primary concern. There is no better way to do this than partnering with them. An organization can find out the needs of the customers by asking them directly about it. There is no need for any guess work if you are partners with your customers. If your consumer is involved in the whole process starting from the manufacturing, it will save costs as the product will be exactly what is in demand it. The manufacturer will not have to make changes again and again which highly increases costs. Partnering with the consumer is only useful if they are involved early on in the product development. They can give their ideas and suggestions about the product details such as the design. When the customers will see that their ideas are being brought into use, they will give a positive feedback and sales will increase. This partnership is very valuable as it saves time, resources and money.
References
Jusko, J. (2011, May 12). How to build a better supplier partnership. Retrieved from http://www.industryweek.com/global-economy/how-build-better-supplier-partnership