Accra, Ghana//-The Chief Corporate Services and Sustainability Officer of MTN Ghana, Madam Adwoa Wiafe has urged businesses to forge meaningful strategic partnerships to drive their growth at this critical time of the global economy.
What are strategic partnerships?
According to her, it is not every partnership that brings dividends. Sometimes it is to help another entity. “We are talking about strategic relationships meant to bring in some purposeful business. It is important that you consider bringing in your personnel and how you manage the reputation of the relationship”, Madam Wiafe said this on the day one of the eighth Women in PR Ghana Summit 2024 held on Zoom.
Speaking on the topic: ‘Leveraging Corporate Partnerships for Reputation Building, she added that ecosystem partnerships are partnerships with various players from different areas but coming together to leverage their resources to be able to produce a product.
Madam Wiafe cited an example of such partnership as Microsoft which is leveraging on different partnerships to be able to product its Microsoft products across the world.
She quoted PwC’s definition of partnerships to buttress her explanation. “A strategic partnership involves some shape of a formal agreement between two (a bilateral partnership) or more (a network partnership) parties”.
The parties have agreed to share finance, skills, information and or other resources in the pursuit of common goals. They come in various forms as the illustration below demonstrates.
Madam Wiafe also noted that systematic challenges could be tackled through collaboration, emphasising that collaboration and partnerships between stakeholders could contribute to positive change and sustainability.
Partnerships aren’t just about cooperation
According to Harvard Business Review, 94% of executives in the tech industry see innovation partnerships as a necessary strategy. Whereas 53% of deals are more likely to close when there is a partner involved and close 46% faster, Partner Hacker said.
Touching on building a crucial partnership for success, Madam Wiafe identified eight parameters to a successful partnership.
These she mentioned to shared vision and goals, complementary capabilities, collaboration and resource sharing, cultural fit, open and transparent communication, and trust and mutual respect.
Partnerships can increase reputation risk
“Reputational risk is a threat or danger to the good name or standing of a business or entity”. She explained that the reputation risk could also occur through the actions of a partner, its employees, and associates.
Some of the reputational risks are unethical behaviour such as bribery and corruption; regulatory breaches, criminal sanctions, disputes, and poor social practices, among others.
To address these, she called on business leaders to deploy risk mitigation measures by taking due diligence and risk assessment and communicating openly and honestly.
