The letter and spirit of business partnering

Like blood to the human body, so are customers to the survival of any business venture. Every business owner and manager knows this; hence most have little or no resistance in aligning with customer-friendly initiatives.

However, the customers they usually focus on the external constituency who are the recipients of goods, services, products, or ideas offered by a business entity in exchange for monetary or other valuable considerations.

While spending huge on marketing and publicity campaigns, organisations sometimes forget that they must also consciously strategise on how to serve their internal customers better.

These internal customers are those who make the strides of satisfying external customers seamless or difficult as the case may be. They help their organisation serve the end customers and are a very integral part of the value chain.

In explaining business partnering (a term which has become popular among business leaders, HR and finance practitioners), Maurizio Droli highlighted that the goal must always remain to create, organise, develop and enforce operative (short-term), tactical (medium-term) and strategic (long-term) partnerships in the achievement of organisational objectives.

These operative, tactical and strategic partnerships must start with the internal customers and then extend to end customers. This is the approach of organisations looking to create incredible end customer experience and to develop from inside out.

A lot of times, the brilliance, glamour, service delivery excellence and quality products external customers are expecting from many organisations start with those organisations paying attention to their internal customers. The growth of such organisations is as a result of prioritising the importance of service to internal customers.

Tips to consider when working to improve the satisfaction of your internal customers as a business partner:

• Establish credibility with functional knowledge

• Engage and gain Trust

• Understand the partners business

• Over-Communicate

• Show Empathy

Are there deliberate attempts to develop your business partners as trusted advisors? Who is responsible?

Ngozi Adebiyi is the lead consultant at OutsideIn HR, a firm that focuses on practical interventions that address the challenges of businesses today. The Firm also specialises in HR Business Partnering, Engagement & Retention with the goal of “Revolutionising HR in Nigeria