Page 68 - Lighting Magazine February 2019

on the mark
The Importance of Strategic Partnerships
How much you move your company forward this year may come down to how well
you play with others.
The quote “No man is an island entire of itself” by English metaphysical poet John Donne can also apply to your busi- ness. It has been proven that humans work be er together. In this month’s
column, we will explore strategic partnerships — those important collaborations that are impera- tive to push through all the noise and come out ahead in the marketplace we are experiencing.
One thing is for certain as we kick o 2019, the tactics used in an inward-only focused business strategy are expiring, or at least severely endangered. While in the past these old methods have led to business success in the era I will call “pre-worldwide web,” it is no longer the best model for succeeding in this exciting paradigm shi .
The strategic partnership model applies to every element of the modern showroom. Whether it is the blending of the once solitary silos of the marketing and sales teams or forming alliances that must permeate into every corner of an advancing business — the viability of any enterprise in the future demands the creation of allies to continue to experience positive progress.
busIness reLaTIonsHIps vs. sTraTeGIc parTnersHIps
Successful strategic partnerships are founded in a coherent collaboration that bene ts all of the players involved. To best understand it, you must rst acknowledge there is a di erence between a good business relationship as it has been pursued since the 1990s and the successful strategic partnership needed to move forward today.
A business relationship can be distilled down to an association of individuals, each with a goal to positively impact their personal advancement or
BY MARK OKUN
64 enLIGHTenment Magazine | february 2019
www.enlightenmentmag.com