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.
Overall, the analysis suggests that credit spreads are highly correlated with the business cycle and that there is a leverage cycle that is closely related to macroeconomic activity variables. While carry-driven strategies may work most of the time, a thorough understanding of the leverage cycle helps to anticipate a harsh credit environment, even before it is reflected in GDP growth and equity performance. As the years 1997–2000 have shown, information from the equity markets is clearly not sufficient as an indicator of business and financial risks in the corporate sector. Most companies go through a regular cycle of leveraging and deleveraging, which is related to the profit and Capex cycle. Especially trends in mergers and acquisitions have a significant impact on the performance of credit markets.