When and how should you invest with partners? (94.397Kb) - DOWNLOAD

Good, deep, long-term relationships with partners are increasingly important in most industries. Such relationships deliver real value.

But they are hard to forge. 

Many suppliers are wary of wasting money with partners who are not really ready to commit or to give anything in return. Dig deeper and you usually find suppliers have a history of disappointment here.  There may even be a mindset within the industry of apparently milking big suppliers for all they have got.

Part of the problem is that most suppliers approach such commitments piecemeal and informally, often making decisions about when and where to invest based on personal chemistry.

Suppliers also often get stuck in selling mode, rarely quantifying what the other party is really prepared to put into the pot.  This again leads to suppliers over-committing, without really measuring return.

Partners are often unappreciative of the effort suppliers are making. Indeed they may not even be aware that you are making a special effort!
Yet there is a way out of this mess.  This involves systematically mapping out how far suppliers and intermediaries are prepared to go, in exchange for a particular level of commitment from the other side.  

“Dig deeper and you usually find suppliers have a history of disappointment.”

Pfizer recently initiated a project to work out how to develop better alignment and stronger relationships with primary care trusts (PCTs) in the UK National Health Service.
PCTs are powerful influencers with an increasing role in controlling the NHS budget, commissioning services and specifying the drugs which are prescribed throughout an entire region. Their role as influencers is broadly akin to that occupied in other industries by say IT or telco consultancies or architects.  However, this approach goes beyond influencers and can be used very successfully with dealers, distributors and large retailers.

The pharmaceutical industry has found it hard to develop long-term relationships with these important players. It often feels that PCTs are not prepared to reciprocate investments and commitment. This is not for want of trying. There have been successes - for instance, Pfizer is involved in a public/private partnership with Haringey PCT in North London in a disease management programme designed to improve patient care in heart disease and diabetes.

But often PCTs seem unwilling to form partnerships.

There was a puzzle here.  VIA’s annual survey of PCT decision makers reveals that almost one third of respondents say they would like to form long-term alignments with pharmaceutical companies.