Building productive Partnerships

innovation

Partnerships have helped develop innovative products and services and strong companies.

For example,

YouTube was created in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Eric Skaggs, Jawed Karim, Martin Pauer, and Steve Chen. It was later acquired by Google in 2006.

Its business model is based on advertising and paid membership.

Innovation: YouTube features include watching and listening to ad-free videos and music, downloading videos and music to watch offline, playing videos and music in the background even while working, the YouTube music app which can be used to explore music, YouTube originals which comprises of original movies and series by YouTube and YouTube kids meant for kids entertainment.

Two Chinese Jack Ma and Eddie Wu in 1999, developed Alibaba and the company grew to become China’s biggest online business company and one of the largest internet companies in the world today.

Business model: Alibaba makes most of revenue from its commerce segment which includes Alibaba.com and AliExpress.

Other services it provides include:

· Cloud computing - which has Alibaba cloud

· Entertainment and Digital media - which has Youku Tudou and UCWeb

· Innovation initiatives – which includes YunOS, AutoNavi and DingTalk

Operational costs include:

· Traffic acquisition expenses

· Content acquisition expenses

· Payment processing fees

· Costs associated with the operation of websites

· Logistics expenses

· Business taxes, VAT and allowances for doubtful accounts

· Subsidies

Three Stanford students Evan Spiegel, Reggie Brown and Bobby Murphy met to start Snapchat in 2011. The idea was to find a way to save pictures they took and never lose them.

Snapchat has a business model based on advertising. Revenue is made from Snap ads, sponsored lenses, location based sponsored geolifters and Snapchat discovery which is the most expensive service offered by Snapchat.

The laws of Kenya allow for partnerships and define a partnership as the relation which subsists between persons carrying on a business in common with a view of profit.

There exist different types of partnerships including general partnerships, limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships.

There are also different types of partners including partners by contribution, duties and responsibilities, general partner and a limited partner and an equity partner and a salaried partner.

If you keep in mind the above two latter points then how would you find or choose your partner? For this keep in mind the next eight very important points.

Your partner must share your passion, ideas, interests and vision so as to ensure good communication and business prosperity.

You cannot be good at every task required to be done such as accounting, human resource, marketing, IT and operations. A partner should have skills that compliment your skills and help grow your business.

Find a partner that is professional, honest, ethical, you respect and shares your business values.

Find a partner that has the energy, time, focus and experience you require.

If you need to grow and expand your business, find a partner that is financially stable. Find a partner that can offer you the financial resources and assets you require.

If you need to grow and expand your business, find a partner that can increase the value of your business. Find a partner with important credibility, connections, networking and expertise.

If you need to grow and expand your business, find a partner with a large online presence and following, an already well established brand, a large consumer base and well established diverse product lines.

There are several requirements of a partnership including that the relationship should be brought through a lawful process, the relationship involves two or more people, the two or more people carry out a professional business, trade or occupation, the business must be carried out by all the partners or by some of the partners on behalf of the others and that the business is carried out with the sole purpose of making profit.

Cheers,

Peter Kirimi Mburugu.

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