While JH Greene preps our booth for the Who’s Who in Building and Construction Showcase tomorrow, we are also prepping our vendor lists for a hike in subcontractors and construction affiliates. With these partnerships come different ways both parties can benefit—our goal is to fully understand all forms of affiliation in construction and use these intricacies to reap stronger benefits for both sides.
AEC Business’ blog targets each form in a post by Aarni Heiskanen. Although not all partnerships are a cut and dry system, his article points out three forms of alliance in construction that do hold truth: operational, tactical, and strategic. The following is a brief synopsis of Heiskanen’s ideas on the advantages and watch-outs of each type.
The Operational Partnership:
This partner saves a firm time and resources. From a construction perspective, this is where subcontractors and outsourced options come into play. What is unique about this relationship is the need for alignment on goals, as each party is on the same team. Conflict in this arrangement works directly against your productivity and progress. The article highlights that “An operational partnership requires a clear agreement on responsibilities and work distribution between the partners. Since the goal is to make the process lean, your partner must pay attention to systematization of their processes, information management and communication.”
The Tactical Partnership:
An example of a tactical partnership in the construction world can be seen in the example of a contractor, architect, engineer, and surveyor coming together in the overall process as separate pieces of the puzzle. Serving as unique providers of their own expertise, tactical partnerships combine diverse specialists to one end goal which they all service in a different way. As Heiskanen calls out, this collaboration leads to efficiency through the reduction of rework and errors, which allows each participant to profit more.
The Strategic Partnership:
A strategic alliance is somewhat a hybrid of operational and tactical partnerships in their functionality. There is a common goal, as is the case within operational, and each party is offering a unique expertise, often different from one another, as is the case within tactical. However, within a strategic partnership there is a shared idea of a way that two areas can come together to make something optimized. These partnerships stem from a shared idea that something can be improved through idea sharing and knowledge exchange.
Whichever partnership is forged at the Who’s Who in Building and Construction Showcase, JH Greene recognizes that a common denominator in each type of relationship is the need to align on objectives, on both a project and larger operational level. If you find yourself at the showcase looking to discuss any type of partnership, our booth welcomes your visit. If you are just looking to chat with a new connection, we’re always open to that as well.
Sources referenced:
aec-business.com/strategies-for-successful-partnering/
