The more experienced I become as I progress through my career, the more aware I become of the importance of partnership in business. But what does partnership actually mean?
It is certainly true that it is a word often bandied about to mean whatever potential clients might want it to mean in order to secure business, but often this is not the case for those of us who are left with the responsibilities of delivering on projects and forging day to day relationships with clients and stakeholders. How does partnership actually translate into something meaningful and rewarding for all concerned?
It has been a number of years now since I left the large corporate world behind me. It was clear to me in my particular instance that the meaning of partnership in the global organisation I was part of didn’t mean the same as what I wanted it to mean when working with clients both in the long or short term to deliver work I was proud of and felt had been done to the best of my ability. That is to a great extent the nature of interactions between large organisations and perhaps it just wasn’t for me; there is little room for personalisation or adaptation, both of which are critical to a successful partnership in my view. Without these things we are simply offering a pattern cut service which is at odds with the concept of sensitivity to individual needs.
So, I and a friend did what we had always jokingly talked about with other like minded colleagues over the years, and established a business to fill a gap that we very much perceived was present and aims to offer the kind of service we would like to receive.
Our company has 4 core values that we expect anyone who works in our team to demonstrate. These are Integrity, Respect, Transparency and Partnership. In my view it isn’t possible to create a strong and successful partnership without evidencing the other three values.
Our team is proud to be supported in being able to offer the service level that they can be proud of, and a ‘one size fits all’ approach is never offered to clients because, well, it just doesn’t fit! It’s not just about our clients though. The same principles apply to those who work in our team. Internal partnerships are critical to high performing teams and can only be achieved when the team functions in an environment where there is respect, transparency and integrity. When this is overlooked, cracks begin to appear, and ultimately the client service level falls to below the standard we all strive for. Richard Branson has famously said ‘look after your staff and they will look after your customers’, and this is something I strongly believe in at a grass roots level. Most people spend a significant proportion of their week in a working environment, particularly in recent months, and juggling other commitments, whether they be children, animals, ageing relatives, chronic illness or even just ‘life stuff’, it is important that everyone in the team is given as much autonomy as possible to fit everything in whilst still providing great service to clients. This in itself is often much more challenging than simply arriving at, and leaving, the office each day. Increasingly, work life boundaries can become blurred unless carefully managed, and it is difficult to switch off without establishing boundaries that work for both individuals and the business. This kind of working is likely to continue for some time for a lot of people as we are all working in new ways and as a business we need to be sensitive to how we can adapt, but still deliver, a service that we would all want to receive.
For us as a business, the last few months have demanded that we think outside of the box and try to adapt to use the time and opportunities we have to best effect. As a result, we have forged many great new partnerships and potential partnerships with other individuals, companies, potential clients, networks, and service providers.
So, here’s to new partnerships, both internal, external and client, built on transparency, respect and integrity!
This article was written by Elizabeth Ralph, Chief Operating Officer at Medilink EM Member company, Afortiori Development.
Afortiori Development Ltd is a full service Clinical Research Organisation, based in the UK and Ireland. It offers client centric services to a variety of clients in the medtech, device and pharma sector.
It was founded in 2016 by Nicola Wall and Elizabeth Ralph to offer high standards of professional services delivered by experts in their field.