At MSIP, we are passionate about building collaborations and partnerships. Why? Because we believe that they can bring a variety of skills, capabilities, and technologies together to deliver step changes in results.

But how do you go about finding the right collaborative partners and how do you ensure success? As it is Christmas, we thought we would share 12 top tips that you might find helpful.

1. Understand your why – why do you need collaboration?
2. Also understand your what – what do need to bring “in” that you cannot do yourself and what can you offer to a partner?
3. Define your objectives clearly so that you can share these with potential partners. Also, this will help in the later stages.
4. Use ALL of your networks and business support organisations to identify options and …….
5. Evaluate each of them. Don’t just go with the first one you find and make sure that the “fit” is right for each of you.
6. Agree the ground rules up front – how are you going work together, how are you going to deal with intellectual property, who is paying for what?
7. Build a shared plan to ensure visibility of the timelines, milestones, deliverables, and end point.
8. Get it written down and formally agreed so that everyone understands what is expected of them.
9. Continually monitor to ensure each partner is getting what they need from the relationship, if it is weighted towards one partner then this can jeopardise the relationship.
10. Celebrate successes and tackle difficulties before they become too big – this will help to build the collective sense of “team”.

But that’s only 10 top tips!!

The final two relate to MSIP. We are committed to working in partnership to progress emerging technologies for a greener future.

11. If you are a like-minded organisation and want to find out more, join us on our LinkedIn page or
12. Get in touch at [email protected]

Sarah Petrie, Innovation Director, MSIP