Joint efforts in credit planning
After completing the steps described above, you are equipped to begin your strategic planning. You’ll also need to use the information you gathered from your internal assessment. But probably the most valuable information you’ll need at this point is your Organizational Process Model because this will help you and your partner determine how to integrate the two organization processes to provide the value-added component for which your partnership was created.
As you build trust through your joint efforts in strategic planning, you can begin to share information and resources with each other. I know of a french fry producer who liked the potatoes of a certain farmer in Idaho. Unfortunately, the potato farmer could not produce the number of potatoes required by the producer because he didn’t have enough acreage. So the producer bought a nearby parcel of land for the farmer to use, and over a ten-year contract the land became the farmer’s property. Both sides benefited: the farmer received a fair price for the potatoes he produced on the land; the producer increased his supply of potatoes. Partners who invest in each other’s success both achieve more.