BS ISO 44004:2021 pdf download – Collaborative business relationship management — Guidelines for large organizations seeking collaboration with micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs)
5.6 Collaborative competence and behaviour
Establishing and developing collaborative behaviours, skills and capabilities significantly enhances relationships between organizations. Fundamental to successful collaboration is the assignment of personnel with the appropriate competence and skills for collaborative working. The competences of the individuals involved impacts on their behaviours. Working in a collaborative venture can significantly challenge many individuals with the result that they do not fully engage or fail to understand the importance of their contribution and their responsibilities within the collaboration.
In larger organizations, business skills development, competence assessments and training are often well established and managed. In smaller enterprises, the trend is more likely to be technically focused and more loosely aligned to complicated people management processes, although the agility and flexibility within smaller organizations is more likely to have evolved through practical need and application. When evaluating the capability of smaller organizations, there is a need to take a more flexible approach to assessing competences and behaviours beyond the desired technical capabilities, since their training and development approaches tend to be from hands-on-learning as opposed to formal qualifications. Sharing and coaching not only enhances competence but additionally raises the awareness of the importance of collaborative behaviours to achieve the desired outcomes. It also contributes towards building a stronger relationship. The large organization should:
a) when assessing technical and collaborative capability in an MSME, emphasize practical experience and management commitment to collaborative working;
b) where practical, share its own development training, mentoring and coaching with smaller organizations.
5.7 Trust and commitment to mutual benefit is essential for delivering to the full potential of the collaborative business relationships. To be sustainable over time, organizations need to ensure that the trust in the personal relationships among the individuals working in the collaborative relationship enables them to overcome conflict and adversity. This in turn builds sustainable relationships at an organizational level. Confidence that each organization is also looking out for the interests of their partner(s) helps build and sustain trust in relationships. There is much to be gained from mutual agreement that each party’s success is a function of everyone’s success. The attitude of larger organizations, driven by success, size and confidence, can often be interpreted as arrogance by those outside the organization, and particularly by smaller organizations. A sustainable relationship requires the organization to look for the interest of the other partners. it is the responsibility of the leadership of the larger organization to foster and reinforce on a regular basis its commitment to building trust by promoting mutual benefit. The challenge always arises in times of crisis because of the temptation for the larger organization to focus on its own interest. When large organizations act this way towards MSMEs, the consequences for the small partners can be devastating.
The large organization should:
a) ensure senior leadership supports the organization working for mutual benefit;
b) take action so MSMEs recognize that their interests are important and protected, e.g. establish a trust and commitment system.
5.8 Value creation Value creation is at the core of any collaboration and seeking additional value beyond its initial purpose enables a more sustainable collaborative relationship. A significant benefit from working closely with other organizations is the ability to share ideas and develop new opportunities. At the same time, a focus on continual improvement is required to ensure the collaborative organization benefits from and adapts to change. Working with partners brings added insight and, as trust builds, so does the opportunity to enhance working practices.
Innovation is a potential benefit to both large and small partners, but the large organization needs to recognize in a fair and equitable way how the investment and risk to harness the opportunities can be proportionately higher for the MSME. Where additional value or innovation comes as result of working together, it can often become a point of tension between large and small organizations. The value creation should be for mutual benefit. It should not undermine the relationship and leave one partner feeling exploited by the other.BS ISO 44004 pdf download.