Relationship Capital and the Growing Importance of Partners

When thinking of relationship capital, most people default to customers, who obviously are fundamentally important to your business.

However, relationships with other kinds of partners are growing stronger and more important for the same reasons as those described yesterday for customers: increased outsourcing, increased linking of systems and the need for co-creation and innovation. I’ll talk about partnerships in value creation and those that provide support systems for your organization. Read more

Nasty Surprises

The news has been full of nasty surprises in recent months. Troubles at financial institutions. Surprise losses at Southwest Airlines from fuel price hedges. Lead paint on toys sold by Mattel.

Of course, all these surprises have external causes but that’s not enough of an answer or an excuse. It would be very dangerous to write off the many nasty surprises facing us today as out of the control of Read more