Fintech Partnership Series

If the recent market success of companies like Plaid and Stripe tells us one thing, it is that the financial services and fintech ecosystems will, in the coming decade, become increasingly complex, interconnected, and interdependent. Effective third-party collaboration and partnering will no longer be a competitive advantage, but an operational necessity.

Players who resist this change and/or fail to proactively plan for this increasing interdependence will struggle to meet the changing needs of consumers, and fall behind more nimble competitors.

Meanwhile, those organizations who are able to form and nurture key partner and vendor relationships are likely to spot and adapt to market changes more rapidly and easily.

In this series, we talk about opportunities and challenges organizations face across the partnering lifecycle: from deciding whether, and if so how, to partner; to launching and managing individual partnerships; and to partnership portfolio management.

Developing Strategy

Partnerships can be complicated to execute, and frequently carry some form of meaningful competitive risk (i.e., disintermediation, replication of IP). And, at the same time, they can often accelerate time to market, increase market share, and/or make the difference between success or failure. Unfortunately, the combination of definitive risk and uncertain benefit means they are often overlooked or discounted (in risk-averse organizations) or overutilized (in risk-loving organizations).

Companies with mature partnering capabilities take a disciplined approach to determining whether, and if so how, to partner by asking the following questions:

Which needs in our customer’s value chain are we focused on addressing?
Where are we currently unable to fully address those needs on our own and why?
How should we close our capability gap? Should we build our own capability? Acquire it? Partner with a third-party?
What are the best ways for our end-customers to consume our solutions?

Managing Coopetition

Defining strategies to meet customer needs in complex, interdependent markets.

Making Build/Buy/Partner Decisions

Amidst rapid growth in the fintech space, start-ups and corporates alike seem to be making the decision to build, buy, invest, or partner for capabilities opportunistically, without holistic consideration of the implications of those decisions.

Partnership selection, negotiation, and launch negotiations

Once an organization has decided that a partnership is the best path forward, it must compare potential partners, identify the best fit, and negotiate an agreement with implementation in mind. Organizations that do this effectively understand how to approach persuasion as an opportunity for joint problem-solving, and skillfully maximize leverage and total value in every negotiation.

Comparing Potential Partners

The success or failure of any partnership strategy lies not only in the strategy itself, but in the coordinated execution of the strategy by two or more companies.

Defining Joint Solutions

You've decided you want to build a new solution with another company. Now, you need to define the solution and each company's contribution at a deep enough level to negotiate a contract.

Managing Partnerships

Any partnership or third-party relationship of significance requires collaboration between individuals within two or more organizations that have different strategies, structures, processes, capabilities, and cultures. In the financial services, fintech, and techfin markets where many collaborations involve massive, established companies with start-ups, these organizational differences can be both a source of opportunity, and a contributor to failure. Mature partnering organizations follow a few simple rules for making alliances work, and even identify opportunities to leverage partnering know-how to enhance collaboration with more transactional supplier relationships.

Making Partnerships Work

Two organizations decide to work together toward common objectives because of - not in spite of - their differences. So how do we manage these differences, and avoid the challenges of the most common approaches to collaboration?

Transforming Partnerships

Even the most successful product, sales, or technology partnerships can live out their lifespans. Because partners are rarely in complete agreement about whether (or how) to sunset a relationship or transform it, these situations often present their own unique challenges.

Sunsetting a Relationship

Partnerships, successful or not, usually come to an end at some point. And, whether driven by changes in strategy, shifts in the market, failure to realize an opportunity, or something else, partnership transitions can be painful and costly.

Financial Services and Fintech Partnership Series

Maintaining advantage in an increasingly complex and interdependent finance and fintech ecosystem