In general, larger corporations have defined strategies to systematically work with partnerships to address new business within industry verticals related to their own existing core business. Common main criteria are that partnerships must be based on sustainable business and act as a lever for growth. For these partnerships to turn out well, strategies around ownership structures, financing, business models and risk management are essential.

Strategic challenges, what, when, how … ?
The creation of a strategy would be simple if we had a clear understanding of all causal connections between actions and outcomes. But this is not how the world works. We generally don’t have such information when designing a strategy. And therefore, the creation of strategy goes beyond determining goals and decision-making. The development of strategy is a type of problem-solving, and as with all problem-solving it helps to have structures that address the problem at hand. When going into structured partnerships there are quite a few “problems” in need of answers:

• Objectives
  
  
  
  • What do you want to achieve long term?
  
  
  
  
  
  • Which markets do you want to address?
  
  
  
  
  
  • What position do you want to take in the value chain?
  
  
  
  





• Ownership
  
  
  
  • What responsibility do you want to take?
  
  
  
  
  
  • What risk is acceptable?
  
  
  
  
  
  • Company structure?
  
  
  
  





• Business Structure
  
  
  
  • How do you structure your business to best achieve your goals?
  
  
  
  





• Investment Format
  
  
  
  • How to finance participation?
    
    
    
    • Available support? Other financing options?
    
    
    
    
    
    • Quantitative perspective
    
    
    
    
    
    • Balanced/Optimized
    
    
    
    
    
    • Regulatory perspective
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  





• Business models
  
  
  
  • How do you create the right business conditions?
    
    
    
    • Risk/Reward
    
    
    
    
  
  
  
  





• Risk management
  
  
  
  • Risk identification
  
  
  
  
  
  • Steering
  
  
  
  
  
  • Exit strategy
  
  
  
  

Other, more generic, challenges also need your attention
Partnerships can offer various strategic advantages, but they also come with a set of challenges that must be navigated effectively for the venture to succeed:

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