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176 CHAPTER 5 • PuRCHAsing And suPPly sTRATEgy
concept is that either party could end the partnership. That is (partly) what keeps each
motivated to do the best for the other. Maintaining the relationship is an affirmation
that each partner has more to gain from the relationship than from ending it.

Multiple points of contact
Multiple points of contact mean that communication between partners involves many
links between many individuals in both organisations. Although this sounds like an
action rather than an attitude, it is best thought of as an attitude that allows, and indeed
encourages, multiple person-to-person relationships. It implies that both partners are
sufficiently relaxed in their mutual dealings not to feel they have to control every dis-
cussion and development. Over time, this may lead to a complex web of agreements
and understandings being formed, perhaps not in the legal contractual sense of a sin-
gle ‘all-embracing’ agreement, but as a multi-stranded, intertwined ‘velcro-connected’
binding of the two partners.

Joint learning
Again, this sounds like an action but, in reality, is more of an attitude that encourages
approaching the relationship in a sense of mutual learning. Presumably, a partner has
been selected on the basis that the partner has something to contribute beyond what
the customer can do for themselves. While the customer would not necessarily wish
to gain technical knowledge of these core processes (they have, after all, decided not
to do these things themselves), it may be able to learn much about the application of
whatever is supplied.

Few relationships
Partnership relationships do not necessarily imply single sourcing by customers,
nor does it imply exclusivity by suppliers. However, even if the relationships are not
monogamous, they are not promiscuous. Partnerships inevitably involve a limit on the
number of other partnerships, if for no other reason than a single organisation cannot
maintain intimacy in a large number of relationships. Furthermore, it also implies that
the other partner has some say in the others’ relationships. Generally, partners agree
the extent to which they might form other relationships, which may involve some
longer-term threat to their partner.

Joint coordination of activities
Partly because there are fewer individual partners with whom to coordinate, the quan-
tity, type and timing of product and service deliveries are usually subject to a greater
degree of mutual agreement in a partnership relationship. However, notwithstanding
the mutuality of interest, it is usually the customer side of a partnership that has a far
greater say in the coordination of activities than the supplier. Customers, after all, are
closer to the demand-driven end of a supply chain and thus subject to a greater degree
of demand-pull. A customer’s increased involvement in a supplier’s day-to-day plan-
ning and control (combined with a degree of trust) allows inventory to be reduced.
Information transparency
Open and efficient information exchange is a key element in partnership, as well as the
natural consequence of the various attitudinal factors discussed earlier. It means that
each partner is open, honest and timely in the way they communicate with each other.

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