Winning New Business: Friend or Foe? Not going it alone

In an age of coalition Government, the ‘Big Society' agenda and focus on the entrepreneurial spirit, collaboration is emerging as a strong theme across all areas of society and industry.

For SMEs, collaboration is fast becoming not only a realistic, but an essential route; working in partnership to win bigger contracts, access new markets and gain a stronger position in the marketplace.

However, for many businesses, there are very real concerns around knowledge sharing, particularly when it comes to disclosing ‘trade secrets' and placing trust in external partners, often ‘competitors', can be a huge hurdle to overcome.

So why should businesses collaborate? What are the personal skills and attributes required? How do you go about finding a partner to collaborate with and once you have found that partner, how do you form an effective and mutually beneficial way of working together?

Four Service Network member companies are working in partnership to bring you this session:

• Darren Richardson from brand communications agency, Gardiner Richardson, will set the scene and give us some food for thought, asking us to consider why we should collaborate.
• Anne Cuthbertson from collaborative leadership consultants, CPCR, will then provide background; exploring different ways of working in collaboration. She will later share tools and questions to help you meet the leadership challenges of collaborative working.
• Market research company Explain and brand agency Better, who are already successfully working in collaboration, will then share their experiences; discussing why and how they went about collaborating, the challenges they faced and the benefits they derived from turning competition into collaboration.

Don't miss this truly collaborative event which could open up a whole new world of opportunity for your business.

The Service Network AGM will take place after this event, commencing at 11.15am. A separate invitation email will be sent to Service Network members with further details.

Cost: Free to Service Network members, £35 + VAT to non members.

To avoid a cancellation fee of £35 + VAT please inform the Service Network team in writing at least 48 hours before the event if you register but can no longer attend.