Strategic Outreach
How can strategic outreach help us grow the business?
Strategic outreach - partnering relationships that build a business ecosystem - has become critical to differentiating, innovating, and growing a business. It requires extensive planning and management.
The first step is to determine the role of these relationships in terms of business objectives. Is the purpose to optimize product-centered value? Is it to attract capital, either with or without the know-how and outreach of professional investors? Is it a combination of both? What is the primary outcome desired for your company? What desired outcomes can you deliver to market or investment partners?
Strategic partnering centered on products or services can support a number of different growth strategies, such as:
- Extend the brand. Grow a customer base through an extended presence.
- Monetize the value of an existing customer base through cash payments by a partner in return for access.
- Secure access to a partner's customer base through exposure and distribution.
- Strengthen customer relationships and retention by delivering added value to customers.
- Move R&D off a corporate balance sheet.
- Expand capabilities through technology.
- Stimulate demand for your product or service through promotion of a partner's technology.
- Block competition.
- Generate stronger financial returns.
Strategic partnering can also be centered on investors - high net-worth individuals, professional angel investors, seed capital funds, venture capital funds, equity funds or corporate investors. What are your funding strategies?
Each situation requires considerable planning in order to understand and document the context, define marketplace deal rationales, plan preliminary deal structure and materials, and conduct research on relevant players, deals and target partners.
Each relationship then requires careful planning and ongoing management.