The research is clear. Collaborative relationships help companies achieve “win-win” results and outperform power-based relationships. In a world of increasing complexity, the ability to cooperate efficiently with suppliers, customers and other strategic partners provides a significant path to competitive advantage, innovation and growth.

Unfortunately, many companies struggle to develop highly collaborative relationships. Business people “say” they want to be more collaborative and drive innovation. But examining their negotiation processes and the resulting contracts reveals organizations all too often come to the bargaining table with negotiation tools that promote opportunism as each party seeks to get the best “deal” for them themselves. And more mature organizations, who recognize the need for a win-win approach still focus heavily on the deal and not on developing a relationship that will deliver innovation and growth.

To harvest the benefits from efficient collaboration and truly strategic partnerships, the adoption of new – collaborative – ways of negotiating agreements is necessary. This white paper’s purpose is to present social theories proving that new ways of negotiating collaborative relationships are needed, along with the necessary conditions for their adoption and a step-by-step process that shows how to adopt them.

The white paper has four parts:

• Part 1 outlines the case for collaboration, sharing influential research proving a collaborative approach – not a power based approach to negotiating agreements–creates better results.
• Part 2 explains that collaboration is a choice.
• Part 3 highlights the conditions for a successful collaboration.
• Part 4 reveals a 5-step process that any company, large or small, can use for negotiating highly collaborative relationships.

The five-step process outlined in Part 4 is detailed in
Getting To We – Negotiating Agreements For Highly Collaborative Relationships.

We encourage you to read this white paper with an open mind. Companies that have challenged conventional negotiation approaches and best practices are achieving extraordinary results. We hope that this paper will move you to accept the challenge and adopt proven collaborative practices within your organization: you will unlock the hidden potential of strategic collaborative relationships.

Contributors: University of Tennessee
Categories: Whitepaper
SRC Type: Category Specific, Information Technology (IT), Sourcing, Sourcing Management, Strategy, Third Party Management