Tim's Library

My experience says there are several reasons that business partnerships are like marriages:

1.  When you stop talking, the partnership dies – even if it appears to be alive

Some issues are just hard to talk about. Something about my partner annoys me or vice versa. After a time, just for the sake of peace, we avoid those issues. And yet avoiding the issue is a form of despair; it’s essentially deciding the other “will never change.”

Then, over the years, the list builds up.

Here’s the problem: No discussion means no resolution - ever.

Ignoring a sensitive issue actually guarantees it will never be solved.

2.  The bottom line is it’s 50% your fault, 50% your partner’s

The American way of dealing with issues is to assign blame.

Yet, no matter who is to blame, assigning blame in a partnership is a useless exercise because any problem that affects a business is by definition 50/50. Not 51/49 or 49/51.

Think about it: if my partner hates dealing with numbers, is it enough to say that’s her fault? Or is it better to instead take her issue on as if it’s my problem too. A friend said to me the other day, “it’s not my fault, but it’s still my problem.”

3.  Regular meetings, with agendas, are essential to partner success

Partners can become too casual. People who see each other every day figure they’re talking to each other all the time. And they are. But too often the conversation is not about the important recurring issues. The result is often that big issues sneak up on the partners.

To avoid this, partners must have weekly dates with agendas that are closely tied to partnership and business goals.

4.  Remember to watch for those who will try to divide and conquer you and your partner

Self-interest is in our human nature. So too is the “divide to conquer” gene. Ambitious employees often will pit you against your partner.

That situation creates danger for the partnership and for the business.

If you’ve had a teenager, or ever been a teenager, just remember when you heard the words, “But Dad, Mom said…”

5.  Without stated exit plans, one or both partners will likely be disappointed in the end

Every great partnership includes an exit plan. Each partner needs to define what they want over time. Because of that, even my 32-year-old partner has written his exit from our business, which he plans to make 12 years from now.

6.  If there are certain things you can’t really trust your partner for… you don’t have a partner

Don’t be afraid to have your business partnership facilitated by a professional moderator or coach. Let’s face it: partnerships, like marriages, take a lot of work.

Editor’s Note: Our foundation supported development of two functional CDFIs in Cleveland over the last two years. We have also recently been approved to formalize our microenterprise work in our little county of Ashtabula, Ohio, as a CDFI. That’s why I enjoyed this article and hope it could inspire a reader or two to pursue such a worthy cause. My favorite Muhammed Yunis quote is “poor people usually aren’t poor because their stupid – it’s more often because the system doesn’t allow them a chance to retain the product of their labor.”

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222683

Editor’s Note: I recently met Professor Wei-Skillern at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business where she was teaching a class in social enterprise with Rick Aubry of New Foundry Ventures (http://newfoundryventures.org/). Her decades of research on successful nonprofit collaborations highlight key success factors required for collective impact initiatives to succeed.

• http://www.fsg.org/KnowledgeExchange/Blogs/CollectiveImpact/PostID/296.aspx (summary)
• http://www.fsg.org/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/PDF/Networked_Nonprofit.pdf (full article)

“Do not depend on the hope of results. When you do the sort of work you have taken on, you must face the fact that your work may apparently be worthless. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate on the value, the rightness and the truth of the work itself.”

Thomas Merton

Editor’s Note: I worked in an Interpublic Group advertising agency from 1979 to 1987. And so I was on Madison Avenue after the period covered by AMC’s hit show, Mad Men. If you hope this book is about the television show or contains salacious content as the show does, you will be disappointed. It is instead an intelligent review of the period the show covers, often referred to as the “golden age of advertising.” Cracknell himself spent 40 years in the business as a writer and creative director so his words mean more than an observer. If you have interest in the business of advertising, this is a nice history of the business with special focus on the “creative revolution” of the 60’s, the period covered by Don Draper and his colleagues in the TV show. I respect the ad business more than most because when it’s done well, as it was in the two agencies I worked for, it is a valiant and constant struggle between creativity and business discipline. The excerpt below, from the book’s epilogue, reflects my feelings about the current state of the art.

Excerpt: “Creative endeavor will never fully flourish when the only imperative is profit. It loses sight of the fact that…advertising is entirely about people. There is nothing else, no plant and equipment, no raw materials – it’s just people and their ideas…Contemporary advertising has painted itself into a corner where there is no financial and emotional tolerance for failure. And a creative endeavor without room for mistakes is a contradiction in terms.”

Editor’s Note: An oldie for this month since I’ve had some grey clouds the last few months. Then we spent last week celebrating my son Kevin’s love for his new wife, Chiara, reminding me that “it’s all right.”

Excerpt: “It seems like years since it’s been clear”