Thoughtful Investments

As we all know, long-term relationships take mutual investment in time and resources. It may seem obvious that it is important to perpetually evaluate and invest in your partnering relationships; and as the identified market opportunity reveals itself or as a business matures, these decisions become clear. If the opportunity has been mapped out, as in the above activity, there should be a clear understanding of the different types of expertise needed to discover, experiment, nurture and deliver on a meaningful solution as envisioned. The biggest difference today is that the speed and efficiency at which this is being done is actually accelerating and is much more iterative. Constant, forward-looking planning and broad investments are required in order to ensure the right partners are involved at the right time to provide a valuable contribution.

However, an investment in partnering activities where their primary contribution is many months off and the role is ambiguous at best is difficult. Specifically, justifying near-term return on these investments in financial terms is impossible. In actuality, as the final system solution materializes, some of the thoughtfully considered value expected will not materialize when a particular partner’s expertise is not needed. This is a gamble worth taking. Not making these investments in advance is much worse, because a poorly timed partner contribution or a missed chance at discovery negatively can impact a truly meaningful offering.

Small resource investments with multiple partners throughout the development life cycle will build knowledge, confidence and visibility on the partner side. The effect of this is that the partner itself can then make better informed decisions that are beneficial to the viability of the market solution. It might trigger a well-timed capital investment, the hiring of additional expertise, or the introduction of a potential strategic business relationship by that partner. For example, a firm that typically makes low-volume, silkscreen sensors has been working with a consumer health and wellness customer on early process development. Knowing when this customer’s roadmap specifies high-volume production helps them make an informed capital expense decision that they have been weighing for some time. The resulting investment in an automated high-throughput lamination machine benefits that customer at the right time, without any additional investment, but also benefits the manufacturer’s other customers who have indicated they too would like this capacity.

Small, up-front investments help to socialize partners to the specifics of your market segment, regulatory environment and go-to-market business model. All of this adds to the partner’s body of knowledge and ability for better problem solving when needed. Such engagements provide the opportunity to ensure all partner business values and objectives are aligned before taking the relationship to the next level. Mistrust based either on misunderstood or misaligned values can derail a relationship and become especially difficult once significant resources are invested by both sides.
Additionally, continuing to engage partners beyond their primary contribution is important to enable access and mindshare for issues that may arise in clinical trials or on-market distribution. These issues could range from a supplier process falling out of specified tolerances, to end-of-life component identification needing immediate design mitigation, to further localization of the solution in multiple geographic regions. In all cases, the competency to managing these relationships throughout the development life cycle for the benefit of creating a comprehensive system solution is critical. The benefits of investing resources in these partnerships continuously far outweigh transactional sourcing at the time of primary contribution.