With Bonnie Koenig, President of Going International and author of "Going Global for the Greater Good: Succeeding as a Nonprofit in the International Community" (Jossey-Bass).

If you are working on a new cross-border partnership, you should make sure that it has at least these four characteristics:

Mutually beneficial Both partners in the working relationship should benefit from the association

Flexible You should be able to make changes to the partnership, should either organization face changes in its own environment

Respectful You should take into consideration and appreciate cultural and organizational differences that may exist between you and your partner

Sustainable Although international partnerships often begin from personal relationships, they shouldn’t be dependent on those individuals to continue

Before making the final decision on an international partnership, you should also follow the following four steps:

Have an open attitude You should be able to demonstrate that you want to be collaborative. Don’t do all the talking: listen and learn!

Do your background research You should be able to understand the social and cultural environment in your partner’s country and culture

Clarify expectations You should take full inventory of several key factors before entering into a partnership: each partner's self-interests and goals, organizational priorities, core competencies (strengths) and challenge areas, and available resources.

Don’t rush! Allocate enough time to make sure that both partners understand each other’s culture and expectations. Try to build personal relationships.

Feel free to share your experience about successful (and not so successful) international partnerships. In your experience, what has worked (or not worked) and why?

Bonnie Koenig - Jan 10, 2006 12:37 pm (#1 Total: 20)
President, Going International


Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s discussion on "How to Launch a Successful International Partnership". I am Bonnie Koenig, a former executive director of two NGOs that are internationally engaged, currently a consultant working with NGOs on international strategies, and the author of Going Global for the Greater Good (Jossey Bass, 2004). Throughout the coming week I look forward to sharing experiences with you about successful (and challenging!) international partnerships.

Some of what I have found that can make for successful international partnerships is listed in the introduction to this workshop above. For those of you who are new to international partnerships, what do you want to ask/ learn from your peers? For those of you with some experience, what has worked (or not worked) and why? What can others learn from your experiences?

I look forward to our exchange!

Dilip Saha - Jan 11, 2006 12:22 am (#2 Total: 20)


How can we build up international partnership. With out any consultant appointment or linkage with donor agencies it is not possible to build up relationship with others.

Bonnie Koenig - Jan 11, 2006 7:21 am (#3 Total: 20)
President, Going International


Hello Dilip and thank you for posing your question. Although it may seem (and in some cases be) easier to find potential partners via a consultant or donor agencies, it is certainly not the only way. In many ways identifying international partners uses similar skills and tools to the networking you do at a local level, and working outwards from there. These are some ideas: As you further identify and articulate why you are looking for a partner, you may find that those within your current network have contacts that may lead you to potential new partners. Or depending on what your organization does there may be an international network that you can join at minimal cost. For example, many local papers operated by the homeless (although very small, low budget operations) belong to the International Network of Street Papers. Do others have partner identification examples/suggestions to share?

cisalefhaiti - Jan 11, 2006 8:52 am (#4 Total: 20)

Hi,

Can you tell me what I suppose to do to participante

Thank you so much for the answer

Guerda BENJAMIN

Women Network

Haiti

 

 

Eve Sullivan - Jan 11, 2006 10:28 am (#5 Total: 20)


My thoughts for others are these: read as much as possible about people in other localities who are doing work similar to one's own and meet them in person, if you can travel or if they are in your area. Whenever possible, also, send them encouraging words or, if it seems appropriate, ask for their help. As Bonnie suggests, find and, if possible, join associations of agencies doing similar work to yours.

Through all of this, keep a balance in one's personal life! It is altogether too easy, because of the rewards we get from the work we do, for those good works to take too much time and thereby undermine our personal health and family life.

I truly value the sense of accomplishment I have from PARENTS FORUM, but above that is the reward of seeing my children, who are all young adults, successful in their own lives.

I invite other discussants to visit our website www.parentsforum.org. I also recommend looking for The Drum Beat, a publication of the Communications Initiative, as well as HCMN: Health Communications Media Network out of Johns Hopkins University. CIVICUS.org is another fantastic resource for international collaboration. I appreciate your taking on this topic, Bonnie, and providing us guidance.

Eve Sullivan, Founder, PARENTS FORUM, Cambridge, Mass. USA

Innocent Adjenughure - Jan 11, 2006 11:43 am (#6 Total: 20)

Hi,

I have been seeking opportunities to develop and establish international partnership in the area of small arms control but it has not been fruitful. How do I go about building this international partnership. Do you know of any that can be willing to partner with our organisation

Bonnie Koenig - Jan 11, 2006 11:51 am (#7 Total: 20)
President, Going International


Thank you, Eve, for your suggestions and sharing your experiences.

Innocent, can you explain more about what you have experienced with seeking opportunities for partnerships but "it has not been fruitful"? What have you done thus far? What obstacles have you encountered? This might help us to better respond. Thank you.

pa tom - Jan 12, 2006 4:22 am (#8 Total: 20)

 

Bonnie Koenig - Jan 12, 2006 7:32 am (#9 Total: 20)
President, Going International


Successful partnerships are nurtured, sometimes taking a number of years to develop. Although someone can point an organization in the direction of a potential partner, like any other sustainable relationship, the actual building of the relationships must be done by the partners themselves. As Eve indicated, for her group PARENTS FORUM, she has spent many hours meeting new people (locally and internationally) and getting to know them, their organizations, and their interests. Some of these contacts will result in potential partnerships, and some may not, but will enrich you in other ways.

Here are some resources to look at to begin this process: To research other organizations: Idealist http://www.idealist.org and the Union of International Associations (UIA) http://www.uia.org/civilsoc/links.php To find out about financial resources and potential partners the Resource Alliance, http://www.resource-alliance.org/, and the Foundation Center at http://www.fdncenter.org Additional links can be found at Going International at http://www.goinginternational.com/resource.htm And do not forget any local contacts you have that may lead you to their international contacts – despite the advances in electronic communications there is still no substitute for person to person contact.

Perhaps others following this discussion will have additional resources to share as well – if so, please do share them with us!

Rhonda - Jan 12, 2006 8:46 am (#10 Total: 20)
Co-Founder of a Childrens Educational Foundation


Dear Bonnie:

We commend you on your nine identifiers for a successful international relationship.

We have been working in Angola for three years and now we are in Porto Alegre, Brazil.  Understanding the culture and most importantly respecting the people you are trying to help is key.

Plus patience and more patience. The deadlines of the west are hard to implement in a culture that has so many hardships that definite time deadlines are difficult to meet.

We have been successful but lots of lessons have been learned.If we can be of help to anyone please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you again for bringing this discussion to the table. In friendship; Rhonda Staudt Founding Chair www.sasef.org,rstaudt@sasef.org

Bonnie Koenig - Jan 13, 2006 7:15 am (#11 Total: 20)
President, Going International


Thank you Rhonda for sharing some of your observations on partnering and your positive approach that “International Partnerships Can Work”! I also appreciate your bringing up the question of timeframes. As you’ve mentioned, this is something that can vary significantly from culture to culture and can be a source of great frustration if not understood, and expectations adjusted. For cultures that are used to doing things quickly, waiting can seem endless (or pointless). And for cultures that are used to taking the time to build relationships as a necessary foundation for collaborations (although they may not say so explicitly), moving ahead quickly can seem counterproductive and equally frustrating.

I hope that others will take a few moments to share their observations or brief experiences with us (and we'd love to hear more from Rhonda as well if she has the time!) Thanks!

Liam Black - Jan 14, 2006 12:36 pm (#12 Total: 20)

Hi

It is some time since I posted on the Edge. The quality of the debate remains high and stimulating.

I run Fifteen, the social enterprise restaurant brand created by Jamie Oliver in 2002 (www.fifteenfoundation.org.uk) based in London. Our goal is to grow Fifteen into a global brand. We are doing this through franchising. I would be really delighted to hear from anyone who has franchised a social enterprise brand.

We currently have one franchise trading, in Amsterdam (www.fifteen.nl). Opened in 2004 it has had a great first year - restaurant profitable and well reviewed and the first cohort of young chefs graduated into work. This year we will open in Cornwall (SW England) and Melbourne.

Our learning so far is how importnat it is to spend time finding the right partners and to be as transparently clear as possible about what they can expect and what they should NOT expect. Having clear contracts underpinning the relationship which both parties have helped shape is vital.

Cultural differences too are so easy to not notice. As I say to our Dutch guys, you speak English but you dont think English! The neo-imperialist in my sub conscious believed that they should! One little example from Oz: in Amsterdam they used corrugated iron in their internal restaurant design. It looks very cool and urban. We suggested this to the aussies. They had a good laugh. In Oz corrugated iron doesn't say cool it says dunnie - a rural toilet!

The big challnge to us is how best to build sufficient control into the relationships so that the brand doesn't go all over the place at the same time as allowing our partners' creativity,local knowledge and entrepreneurial flair to flourish.

It is an emergent strategy - that's fancy management consultant's way of saying we're making it up as we go along! Is there any other way!?

Liam

Bonnie Koenig - Jan 15, 2006 9:48 am (#13 Total: 20)
President, Going International


Thank you for your contribution, Liam. I am not an expert on franchising, as I work mostly with NGOs which more often use chapter or affiliate arrangements, but like you I would be interested in hearing from others who may be more experienced with franchising.

That being said, I think that many of the principles behind developing and maintaining international partnerships, whether in the private, public or civil society (NGO) sector, are similar. As Liam and others have noted, clarifying expectations, verbally and then in writing (and with some type of contract depending on the type of partnerships) can help to ensure that each partner is saying and hearing the same thing - not always to be assumed, even if we are speaking some form of the same language (like English)!

For a more formal partnership, it’s important to determine what needs to be common, and what can be customized (and it some cases should be customized) to the local entity/environment. What needs to be common could be things like the name, logo, type of products (at least some of them - “signature dishes” for example), standards for those products, etc….Beyond what has to be common, the local entity can customize the rest of its operations and products.

In the civil society (NGO) sector, the Red Cross Federation might be an example. The logo is recognizable around the world (with modifications for culture/religion in the Middle East with the Red Crescent and the Red Mogen David). The core mission is the same – aiding with disaster relief, but how this is carried out and how decisions are made varies to each organization.

It might also be interesting to look at some of experiences of multinational corporations. I am not at all singing the praises of companies like McDonalds, but there may be useful lessons in terms of this process. If you go into a McDonalds anywhere in the world you know there will be certain things in common – signature food items, Western style bathrooms, etc….(Not everyone likes these things, of course, but you do know what to expect). But other aspects have been customized to local jurisdictions such as Asian food items in parts of Asia or architecture that fits into the local environment, with only a small golden arch, such as in some European capitals.

So to simplify this a bit for the sake of brevity here, by looking at successful examples in any sector we can define a process with steps that include: 1) Being clear about your own goals and core values; 2) Establishing partnerships (through a well thought out set of steps taking into consideration some of the items outlined in the introduction and that we have been discussing here); 3) Clarifying your expectations (and theirs) with your potential partners verbally and in writing. Then Liam’s “emergent strategy” or “making it up as we go along” is how you customize these steps to your own situation – what you have to do to make it unique to your organization, sustainable and thus successful.

Arriekoelie - Jan 16, 2006 1:29 pm (#14 Total: 20)

Hey Bonnie

I am a South African Citizen studying in the United States. I have a friend in France and we think we have a business idea that will defenitely be succesful, although it is completely servcie oriented. It involves him getting in touch with the french clients, who has no access to the Americans, and me getting in touch with the French clients. But we are lost. We dont know where to start, how to register, even if Im allowed to do that. Could you maybe help me out? I think the business would have to be a french registered business but since Im not a french citizen and not a US citizen I think it makes matters complicated. ANY type of help would be appreciated, thank you so much

 

Bonnie Koenig - Jan 16, 2006 4:12 pm (#15 Total: 20)
President, Going International

Arriekoelie -

I am sorry but starting a business is not really the subject of this discussion and is not an area that I have much expertise in. You may want to do some more online research. Some of the big accounting and legal firms may have information on their sites that might help you. I did a quick search on Google typing in "Starting a business in France" and a number of sites came up. Good luck!

krisdev - Jan 17, 2006 9:25 pm (#16 Total: 20)


Bonnie,

Thanks for starting this topic. I am Kris Dev (Krishnan) from india. I am a management consultant with over 25 years experience in india and North America. I am a co-founder of Life Line to Business (LL2B), an ICT organization in India, specializing in implementing a paper less office communication and work flow tool, to introduce transparency and accountability in Governments, corporates and NGOs.

I am also the co-founder of the International transparency and Accountablity Network (TrAcNet). It members from various countries of Asia, Africa, Americas, etc. It is a loose knit consortium of social activists, coming together, not-for-profit, for creating a Community Centric Sustainable Development model, for transforming communities and society, using the TrAc principles.

I would like to be benefitted by our interactions, as to how to make this network, a vibrant one, to contribute to the growth of communities, particularly in the developing world and under privileged communities.

Kris Dev http://TrAcNet.blogspot.com http://ll2b.blogspot.com

Bonnie Koenig - Jan 18, 2006 9:59 am (#17 Total: 20)
President, Going International


Krishnan (Kris) and others interested in this topic of international networks –

Thank you for your post. If you are not familiar with them, you may want to look at the websites of some of the following successful networks. There may have some useful lessons for your work:

1) International Campaign to Ban Landmines – www.icbl.org started as a very informal network. With success came the need for more structure, while still hoping to retain advantages of the informal network. The page on the Campaign’s History is especially interesting. 2) Global Call to Action Against Poverty – www.whiteband.org - Started last year to focus attention on debt cancellation (originally focused on the G-8 Summit in Scotland) it has helped spur thousands of demonstrations (concerts, etc…) around the world and is looking at how to sustain its momentum going forward with a broader focus on reducing poverty.

More established networks: (1) CIVICUS – www.Civicus.org - World Alliance for Citizen Participation (2) Transparency International – www.transparency.org – Global Coalition Against Corruption (3) Third World Network - Twnside.org.sg

Sustaining partnerships (and here momentum if the common cause is an activist agenda) is an important challenge.

Kris (and others), are there lessons you have learned thus far about building and sustaining a network, that you can share with us?

Bonnie Koenig - Jan 23, 2006 3:40 pm (#18 Total: 20)
President, Going International


Thank you to everyone who participated in this discussion, either through actively posting, or just stopping by to read what others have posted.  I hope you have gained something from this discussion, as I know I have.  May all your internatational partnerships be rewarding!

isbume - Jan 24, 2006 3:34 am (#19 Total: 20)

isbume - Jan 24, 2006 3:54 am (#20 Total: 20)

Dear Bonnie,

I am excited about this page.  I am grateful for what you are doing.  I am a British-trained Nigerian professional with many years of experience in the private sector.  I am into a civil society organisation championing an explosion of small scale enterprises as a means of alleviating poverty in Ogun State, Nigeria.  The idea of building an international partnership has been of interest to us for some time now.

Our organisation, Institute of Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship (Centre for Integrated Rural Development Initiatives), is into development of small business incubation facilities on a yearly basis.  The objective here is to help vulnerable and poor potential entrepreneurs in society by empowering them to run trial businesses of their own during incubation.  After the period of one year they will go out to compete in the open market having being equipped with all that they need to run a successful small scale enterprise.  In fact this idea was based on a paper which I presented to the 4th Global Conference on Business and Economics which took place last year at Oxford University, Oxford, England.  The title of the paper is "The Dynamics of Small Business Incubation Facility in Fadama Areas of Ogun State, Nigeria: An Anti-Poverty Device".

We have already acquired a 6-acre of land in a fadama area.  We now need support and assistance to incubate 100 small scale entrepreneurs in the area of agro-industrial enterprises like fish farming/smoking, snailery, food processing and other agro-industrial related enterprises.  In order to incubate this number of entrepreneurs in the first year we need about ten thousand pounds sterlings.

We will be glad to to know of organisations and individuals that will be interested in providing us support and assistance.  In fact we have already sensitised over 300 potential entrepreneurs, and they are waiting and ready to join the incubation process.

With this project we hope to reduce poverty significantly in our land. 

Bonnie, we will be glad to hear from you and make a lasting friendship with you.

Remain blessed.

Sincerely,

 

Segun Benson