More 2 Marketing

Susan
More to marketing. Welcome to more 2 marketing, a podcast on marketing, product and everything in between. I’m your host, Susan, and today I have a very special guest. My guest is gonna be talking about her expertise in partnership, so I’d like to introduce Meenakshi. She’s going to share some of her insights and experiences in creating meaningful. Partnerships throughout her career, she’s done a whole array of strategic partnerships, and it’s always been at the core of her heart to be able to build up those relationships, to have those win win situations. But Meenakshi welcome.
Meenakshi
Thank you, Susan. Such a pleasure to be here.
Susan
I’m so happy to have you on on the podcast today. I know we’ve been trying to catch each. Other for a while, but can you? Tell me a bit more about you and and what you actually do for your role and. The partnership part as well please.
Meenakshi
Sure. Thank you so much. I’ll start a bit back. I have been in the industry for about 20 years and in this time I’ve had the privilege of taking on diverse roles and in different countries too, including India, Europe and Australia and New Zealand. This journey has exposed me to a variety of partnerships and collaborations in the technology. Currently, I lead strategic partnerships in the telecommunications space, which has a strong focus on the mobile technology. The best part about my role is that I get to collaborate with some of the most innovative and remarkable organisations in the world and as a side hustle, I also lead the employee. Networks of women and allies at my organisation, which also takes me to partner with a lot of stakeholders across the business as well as work with some of the amazing partnerships, in least gender space.
Susan
Definitely you have a huge passion for partnerships and I love that you’ve got the side hustle as well, which is enriching women and also allies within the organisation as well. So that that’s just a beautiful add on to your skills that you already have and naturally flowing through. But I suppose the first question we should ask and answer for the audience is what is strategic partnership? Would you be able to elaborate a bit more on this please?
Meenakshi
Absolutely. And I I think you hit the nail there. Strategic partnerships, as the name suggests, strategies at the core of it. So two more organisations coming together to form an alliance on the basis of a core strategy or shared goals or objectives as I would simplify that. It involves pooling resources, expertise and efforts to achieve the objectives that are common to both of them, and I think I’m. I’m using that word common and mutual quite a bit because it’s not a one way St it’s about, you know, how can we add value to each other? How can. We help each other in creating value for our customers. In my current flow which is in the enterprise space, it often involves around providing customers with unique experiences that wouldn’t be possible alone. So if we think about mobile and how we use mobile, there is a device that is offered by 1. Partner and then there is connectivity, which a telco would provide and then their apps on top of it. And none of them kind of alone stand on their own. It’s about bringing these couple of partners together to be able to provide that unique experience to customers. Customers do not care about you know basically. What we’re providing, it’s about what value it is bringing for these customers, so strategic partnerships coming back to your question are essential because they offer unique advantage for organisations as well as customers and help accelerate product development, business growth and expand market reach. Ariana.
Susan
Yes, no, completely agree to have the right strategic approach and partner is essential for that growth, particularly in that space where you need to differentiate if you’re so similar, you need to find that way to work together to be different, to be unique, to make people want to stay with you.
Meenakshi
Absolutely, absolutely. Really. Also you know one of the other things that I’ve learned over my time in partnerships is to really look at partnerships or you know how we come together as a cycle and there are different stages in that cycle and then kind of you know rotates over the time. So it starts from that. Goal of strategic aspect in terms of you know what are we trying to achieve, it’s crucial to consider that at the start and being clear about you know what are we trying to achieve? What are we trying to solve for and from there on it involves establishing a. Steady rhythm to achieve these goals. And and then consistently measuring that success as well, and then revisiting the cycle around the stage where we start over again, in essence, it’s about how do we further create value, how do we take it to that next? Level for example. Strategizing, defining milestones, establishing a Co selling or Co marketing motion through a go to market model. Then progressing to strategic opportunities for Co innovation and then restarting the cycle again. There are some considerations that I think all organisations should pay attention to when they’re actually looking at partnerships. What are those clearly defined goals? Cultural compatibility? For example, there are often, you know, from a culture perspective we’re so different that it’s difficult to come together and and work in a certain fashion. Transparency, for example, in terms of, you know, making sure that you know what is not working, that that’s something we should constantly revisit and a mutual commitment to each other’s success is also quite pivotal. You know, looking out for each other that. This is and also understanding if if there’s no common objective, then you know what is the exit strategy as well that you know there’s no point continuing that if it doesn’t make sense anymore.
Susan
I think you you’ve hit the nail on the head with that last one. I don’t think enough emphasis or even research has put into how would you go about an exit strategy at the beginning if you had to do? Do that because it’s one of those things that you want it to be amicable. You don’t want it to be destructive at all, so it should be something spoken about. I believe up front. So you’ve already got plans in place. If that ever does occur. So it’s not as awkward as it would be if. It hadn’t been brought up.
Meenakshi
Yeah, and and that comes to that success criteria, right? So you know, what are we trying to achieve for and what does good look like for each other? So if that’s not defined, then we’re kind of all shooting in the dark. So constantly looking at, you know whether we are achieving success or not and why are we not? Leaving it maybe as two organisations we thought we would bring that value together, but because we have a completely different way of operating or working, it’s it’s not something that’s coming through. So if those success measures are not being met, what is our strategy? Are we really looking at it or it doesn’t make any sense? Anymore. So because strategic objectives for two organisations and two big organisations especially can change over time.
Susan
Ohh, and even quickly too. Yeah, things can change even sometimes in the day or the week, depending on what activities have happened in the market. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I think one of the the the other key things that you said there was transparency. And I’m gonna add to that of the honesty. Yeah. So being transparently honest and trusting in your partner to share whatever you need to to get those goals. And it could be you hit a road bump.
Susan
Or you hit a roadblock. Unless you’ve got that transparency and honesty. You can’t get around that, and that’s where you’re failing to hit those goals and working together for that win, win, opportunity that you’re trying to build.
Meenakshi
Absolutely. And one of the learnings for me as well is that you know, while the external partner relationship is important at the same time the internal run is also quite paramount when we are actually working. Partners. So internal stakeholders. So if I look at partnerships, most of the partner alliance managers are kind of in the middle and then we’ve got variety of stakeholders that kind of are either an input or a critical element to the success of a partner relationship. So we’ve got product, we’ve got marketing we’ve got. Senior executives in the mix we’ve got. Sales, all of them kind of come together to make a partner relationship successful. So how do we get that whole engine running is quite is quite important and and really looking at that strategic element from our perspective as well that you know this is how we started with this partnership and really looking at it. So for example in my. Partnerships that I’ve always worked with. Is a constant rhythm that is always there around. Looking at our goals.
Susan
Your place of work? Yep.
Meenakshi
Yeah, there’s a working and you know we, we call them QBR’s quarterly business reviews in terms of, you know, talking about where we started, what are we trying to achieve, how we’re progressing towards it and is there anything we need to kind of think about and consider for the next three months and then a horizon. Planning aspect as well. So there’s a base that we need. To kind of work through. To really making sure we’re turning the wheels, but at the same time, what are some of the strategic opportunities that we would continue to look to have have more value in that partnership?
Susan
Exactly. And if you could just, I know you’ve given us a whole pile of key things to consider when you’re talking about partnerships. Is there one that really stands out that you really need to pay attention to the most?
Meenakshi
I I I think it’s that goal mutual goals and that is something we need to constantly look at 90 days planning and then that long term planning as well. So making sure what are our short term goals and what are the long term goals that we’re looking to achieve because you know once we have achieved one set. Of goals, what’s next?
Susan
Yes, exactly. And one of the things I love about when iterations happen during this process is you put a benchmark.
Meenakshi
Yeah.
Susan
Benchmarks is so important and there’s so many organisations out there that don’t actually do a benchmark before they make changes.
Meenakshi
I can’t agree more and I was having this discussion with some of my colleagues recently that it’s often easy to get into that, you know, get into a tactical mood in this role because you know so many people are asking you about so many.
Susan
Definitely.
Meenakshi
Things I the the amount of stakeholders that I mentioned, you know, often there’s a lot of noise where you know people are asking you for. Can you help us with this or you work with this particular partner? Can you give us this particular discount or something like that. But at the same time coming back to your strategic objectives where? Does it fit and how is it helping you achieve those strategic objectives together is something you should constantly look at and having a rhythm to it is quite important.
Susan
Yeah. So make sure no, I suppose scope creep comes in and that you’re always aligned for your goal, and that’s what you’re setting your star to, yeah. I love that. So I feel that strategic partnership can have a way of achieving a lot of competitive advantage from what you’ve been describing. What are your? Thoughts on using strategic partnership for that competitive advantage?
Meenakshi
Absolutely. They, you know, the reason for strategic partnerships to exist is actually how they lead to competitive advantage for both organisations. By collaborating with partners who offer unique resources or expertise, AC company can quickly differentiate themselves in market, innovate faster and address customer needs more comprehensively. One of the analogies I’d use is my Home Office. For example, I’ve got my laptop, I’ve got my desktop. Screen I’ve got my wireless mouse and keyboard. I’ve got my phone and I have my Internet. If we didn’t have partnerships, none of. This would work.
Susan
Got.
Meenakshi
We won’t talk to each other, so one company would have to come up with all of these things to talk to each other. So it’s it’s the partnerships that has quickly made it possible for customers to have. All of these solutions working together and being more productive and it’s a much faster and more sophisticated approach to get to market.
Susan
Definitely and. Again, coming back to that keyword you just said customer, it does come back to you gotta make sure whatever you’re working on with your partner, you’re making sure you’re fulfilling a need or a want.
Meenakshi
Yeah. Absolutely. And I I can’t emphasise enough on it. It’s it’s something which is paramount to it. And often, you know, we. Kind of start thinking about a product led approach. You know this is a product and we need to kind of get this to the to the customer, but customers don’t care about, you know what your product is and what are you offering. They care about how it solves for their challenges, right? It doesn’t matter to them. You know, you might have the most fantastic product if it’s not.
Susan
Exactly.
Meenakshi
Of value to them, and if it doesn’t help them solve for a challenge, and we often kind of start thinking from that perspective in terms of. Looking at customer problem to give you an example, employee productivity is is a key trend that most of the organisations, especially after COVID are looking to solve for, and it’s about then working backwards from there. You know what are the offerings we have? What are the different partnerships we have and how do we bring them together to help solve for that particular challenge. And in the mobile space itself, you know we we’ve got so many opportunities, you know device convergence which is about you know devices not a stand alone device anymore, it connects with our TV, it manages our lights in the house, it manages our fridges as well these days. How do you actually get them to talk to each other? Sorry, customers are not looking at, you know, or buying a cool fridge. What does it solve for them? It’s, it’s that ease of using your mobile to be able to control all the systems in your house that that’s what they care about. So it’s about really bringing those partnerships together. So Samsung might be offering you a.
Meenakshi
Or TV. Then you know device company and. Could be offering.
Meenakshi
Another particular device could be Apple, could be Samsung, could be Google and then you know another telco provider would be providing you with the connectivity in there. So how do you bring all of these together to talk to each other and to come up with a comprehensive solution for the customer, that’s what they care about.
Susan
I think one of my favourite examples from a few years ago that I heard about was. Some of the latest cars on the market, they now come with apps and you could be sitting at your desk, turning it on and getting your engine started so that your air can be could be on some serve walking into your car that could be sitting outside in the sun and being very, very, very hot inside. It would be a nice cool 21°. When you walk down the stairs. So again, that partnership of how that came about is amazing. To think that we’ve got that that was, I think four years ago that started I think around that it was just amazing to see that those partnerships are working in that way and. That’s how that. Product is now being pitched to that customer. So that they’re always going to be comfortable and can plan. Ahead for their trip.
Meenakshi
Absolutely, absolutely. I I think all the new cars are now coming up with a SIM card in there and you know that’s another layer of connectivity and mobile apps that you’re using.
Susan
OK. Definitely, definitely. Lots of SIM cards out there. Absolutely. Thank you so much for going through competitive advantage. But how do you actually go about using tools or frameworks to actually bring this picture to life? What helps you every day that you use with your team and yourself?
Meenakshi
Yeah. And you know, coming back to that customer at the centre of whatever we think these days, my favourite tool is lean, which is it’s canvas that helps me really work backwards from that customer challenge. Because it can be quite confusing when you’re actually holding or managing or working with a couple of partners in a particular space, because there’s more to partnerships than just mobile. So kind of really working backwards from that customer challenge and thinking about, you know, what does the customer want, how are we engaging them? What are some of the things that they need to solve this problem and what are the key partnerships we need to look at? Is a very nice visual way to look at. Things the other one I often use is the customer or partner journeys and looking at you know any problem from that journey perspective, you know what is the challenge we’re trying to solve for and working backwards from there is quite powerful and I love to kind of look at it from that perspective and coming up with what are the bottlenecks. What are the key points of optimization we can? Had to then find out opportunities to solve. I also use what quite a bit, especially from a strategic planning perspective. So really looking at what are the strengths of this particular partner and especially at the time when we’re looking at a strategic angle in terms of what are we trying to solve forward and what are we what can. We actually look at together. It’s about really looking at what are the strengths of each of us, what are the opportunities, what are some of the weaknesses we should be watching out for. What are the? Threats. That’s another good way of looking at. Plus with each. Partner depending on the stage they’re in, each partner would have their own partner management portal as well. Where you know which helps us really track those success measures, I would say. So we kind of you know, come up with a strategic plan for the year. Sometimes it can be a couple of years as well. And then the partner portal or the partner app is basically a way for us to continue to manage our success metrics and. Input information in terms of how we’re going.
Susan
Yeah. Now I love that you’ve got at your fingertips the ability to see how it’s tracking. Because that helps you if you need to pivot as. Well, so. It’s so good to have that in real time. I I’m still another one. I’m amazed with there’s a lot of companies are still only looking at this once a month, whereas some, some partnerships you do need to look at it almost on a daily level sometimes even depending on what the product is or the service even. Shorter periods.
Meenakshi
Depending on the size of it and one of the things I’m quite passionate about is scalability, you know, how do you actually come up with something which is scalable and something and data is always very powerful. So how do you actually use data and analysis to kind of build a system for you? Where? Gives you the right kind of insights and it gives you the right kind of opportunities to kind of go after.
Susan
Exactly. What? What? Actually you’ve told us a whole pile of different things. But what’s some of that super, super excites you about partnership to that extreme that just makes you giddy inside us, folks. Because I know you love. Partnerships.
Meenakshi
I do and thanks for asking that question. You know there there’s a whole pile of things that are exciting about partnerships. But I think if I have to put my finger on one thing, it’s the potential of innovation and growth that comes with with these, you know, two amazing companies come together and I’m a big fan of strengths based work and personally as well I I really when I look at my development as well, I look at from a strengths perspective, what are my strengths and how can I continue. You do use them in my day to day, so it’s it’s really empowering to see two strong organisations coming together and looking at their strengths to, you know, go forward and market, innovate and solve for those customer challenges. So you know two strong organisations coming together bringing their diverse. Expertise, which they’re masters in that actually creates a resource convergence which creates a lot of value for customers. The ability to Co create value, solve for complex challenges and reach new heights is incredibly powerful and motivating for me.
Susan
And it, and even when it’s successful or isn’t, it’s still something to be able to achieve and be able to work through that as well as part of the problem solving to then deliver to market.
Meenakshi
Yeah, absolutely. And innovation is, you know about really constantly looking at opportunities that could solve for it. It’s about the potential and possibilities you can create.
Susan
Exactly. And again, I’m being on the frontier of now to utilise latest technologies and future technologies must make it even more exciting too.
Meenakshi
Yeah, absolutely. It’s such an amazing space at the moment. And as mobile is becoming the commodity that you know, nobody gets out of their house without a mobile, it’s it’s really a powerhouse in your hands, can be distracting as well. I’m not a big fan of my. Kids having mobile. But it is a powerful device in your hand, you know from the days of a room, a big room of computer, you know, the computer would take a big room space to your hands. Is is an amazing possibility, which probably no would nobody would have seen at that time. But I think if I look back, you know, through partnerships we’ve been able to achieve.
Meenakshi
And innovate faster.
Susan
Yes, and. Particularly, even I’ve even heard things about Covid’s brought forward in technology 10 years because of the fact that everyone had to work from home so that there is also exciting as well to see how that partnership came about to then build these technologies to then bring everything forward so quickly too.
Meenakshi
Absolutely. So you know, I was reading somewhere we are in the fourth industrial revolution and this is the fastest of all the previous revolutions that we’ve had and especially AI and chat, TPD has has really progressed. I think the adoption of chart GPT was the fastest in the history we’ve had. And yeah, we are at a very interesting space or time from our technology revolution or technology progress perspective. As part of my, you know, my side hustle, you know technology is something we always talk about and. You know, how do you kind of progress women? So we we are doing a programme, you know, next month, which is about unpacking stem. And and in that one we are bringing one of the experts in the industry from an AI perspective. And in terms of what was the past, what’s the present and where it’s going and we’re doing an Expo as well there showcasing some of the amazing technology that we have within our organisation. But at the same time really. Showcasing people how they’ve kind of progressed and how how this particular time is so amazing to kind of get your hands steady.
Susan
That that would be an absolutely fantastic show to go to as well to be able to see all that, not just from your company but from others as well and then maybe civil partnership opportunities can appear there.
Meenakshi
OK. Yeah, absolutely.
Susan
Thank you so much for going through this. But before we do our wrap up, I have to know it’s the question I ask everyone. If you were a brand that best represents you, what brand would you be and why?
Meenakshi
That’s an interesting, very interesting question. The one that jumps out for me is Canva. It has to be Canva. You know me. I love simplifying things and I I fondly remember an example. You know, one of my colleagues and I love the detailed work that this person does. And you know, there was a slide of 40.
Meenakshi
Five, there was a slide deck of 45 pages and we used it to five, which was modifying.
Susan
45 and you simplified it to five.
Meenakshi
We we agreed at a happy medium of 10. For the final one. Yeah, I love to love that ability to simplify things. And Camilla has done it. You know, it was not the first design software in the.
Meenakshi
But I think what they what they did well or revolutionised was the simplification of it. They kind of gave the power of simply designing in everyone’s hand and I think that’s just amazing what they have been done. And the other thing that I love about Canva is their values and their commitment for doing good. I was talking to somebody. The other day, and I was like, you know, a lot of companies talk about values, but is it really something that they live by? And this person told me that, you know, even the toilet paper is sourced? From good sources. So it goes down to that level and sustainability and values is talked about in canvas. So that is something that really resonates with me. You know, their ability to innovate through simplification and overall broader values of creating a positive impact in the world is something that resonates with me. So I’ll COVID camera.
Susan
Wow. No, I love that one and. It does sound like it resonates really well with who you are at your core as.
Meenakshi
Well, yeah, absolutely.
Susan
Sir, thank you so much Meenakshi for talking to us about strategic partnership. I’ve definitely learned a lot, particularly to make sure with the alliance with the other party, whether it’s 1-2 or more that we always have a shared goal and objective in mind. Always making sure that what we deliver is something that is common and mutually wanted and wanting to build upon as well as hopefully being adding value and some uniqueness into the market for our customers. I also love that you spoke about seeing the goal up, but also looking at a short term 90 day versus also a long term viewpoint as well and having that transparency and honesty during the whole process as part of that natural engagement but never forgetting to have an exit strategy put in place just in case. Because you never know when you’re measuring all of the metrics, isn’t actually achieving what you thought it would. You may have to pivot, or you may have to exit so it’s good to always have those benchmarks and understand the needs for critical success. Yes. The other piece you also talked about was making sure as part of this you’ve got internal and external people. You’ve got to bring on the right for partnerships. So you’ve got to make sure that critical success is there with all stakeholders involved as well. And I have to say I’m a fan of the tools that you’ve brought up lean business. Canvas and the customer journey mapping. In your case it’s the customer partner journeys. Because I do love that one page visual, it makes it so simple, so clean, and anyone can do it and understand it and see those ball necks or opportunities. Plus, who doesn’t like a good old spot? It’s a great moment in time snapshots to be able to help you understand where you are in that moment. So are there any parting words? Actually, before we sign off for today.
Meenakshi
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed this conversation with you and yeah, just thank you for having me.
Susan
Ohh thank you so much. Don’t forget to follow more to marketing podcast to be able to hear more fantastic podcasts like today. More to marketing.