PayDay Loans FAQ

The relationship then moves into the Perform stage. In this stage, creative energies surface, increase, and flow abundantly as partners generate synergy. Now people perform at highly creative, efficient, and productive levels. The partnership achieves goals that often exceed expectations at the outset.

Partnerships, like most things in life, are not cut and dried. People move back and forth between stages as the dynamics of the relationship change in response to outside forces and influences. For instance, let’s say a group of people representing different departments in the same organization have joined together in a partnership to address the issue of quality. Currently in the Norm stage of development, they’ve functioned well for months. Then suddenly, the vice president of one department informs the group that the team’s objectives have changed. Some members object that the vice president is manipulating the group to focus efforts on improvements for his department at the expense of others. As conflicts arise about the team’s former objective versus the new objective, the group reverts temporarily to the Storm stage. If the team as a whole can clarify and agree on new objectives, the group will return to the Norm stage. Because members of the group have already established a level of trust among themselves, they should be able to move forward. Ideally, they will feel confident addressing issues and resolving them in an open manner and with group consensus. Rebounding from Norm to Storm and back is inherently easier than the initial evolution from the Storm stage.

When a relationship is in the Form stage, the members of the group are generally polite to one another. Most are reserved and allow a group leader or dominant individual to control activities. Others may not reveal much about themselves or disclose their reasons for being involved in the group. They sit back and take a wait-and-see attitude.

But the Form stage is optimal for members’ investing time and energy toward clarifying issues, objectives, and dynamics of the relationship and expressing their needs. During this stage of development, they need to address questions about roles, rules, procedures, and the partnership agenda. “What are we doing?” is a question frequently heard in the Form stage, and during this period people need to ask themselves how much they want to invest in the relationship.

They need to decide whether they are in or out—and, if they are in, what the price of admission is. Consequently, the Form stage needs a strong leader to give direction and set the tone of the partnership until trust is established and situational leadership can emerge in a natural way.

These matters, if not addressed up front, will resurface later and can sabotage the development of trust. Some partners are so eager to “do the deal” that they forget they’re interacting with other people who have their own needs and wants. Impatience at the Form stage is a signal of a potential “one-night stand” relationship.

Many firms think that they understand a foreign market when they do not. There are a number of examples of British firms (Marks & Spencer and emap are two) going into the United States and getting it badly wrong. You need to understand how progress is made, how things are done and what the principal issues, including cultural ones, are. How will the organisation be perceived? Is everyone involved prepared for doing business in an environment that may be different? As discussed in previous posts cultural issues are particularly significant in cross-border mergers or acquisitions. One lesson from successful mergers is that it is often best to recognise cultural differences, show flexibility and compromise, and work hard at developing a unitary set of values. Common systems and integrated objectives can help achieve this.

The first priority is to be clear about what your international strategy can and cannot achieve. There should also be clearly defined success criteria: many firms stage the implementation of their international expansion, only committing additional resources when initial objectives have been achieved. A helpful question to ask might be: “What level of achievement would be acceptable to the business, regardless of how the market is perceived?” Other questions include the following:

• How does the international strategy help to achieve the overall aims of the organisation?
• What are the priorities (cross-selling or improving service for existing customers, attracting new clients, attacking current or potential competitors, reducing costs, gaining information and experience, or something else)?
• What are the options? For example, should the firm set up an overseas office or subsidiary, or would acquisition, a joint venture, franchising or licensing be better approaches?
• Where are the potential pitfalls and how will the risk be managed?
• Does the organisational structure need to be altered to take full advantage of the international operations? If so, how?

Some firms expand abroad because their market as a whole is an international one, as it is for such industries as entertainment, publishing, pharmaceuticals and telecoms. Or it may be because the domestic market is too small, as it is for such industries as aerospace, shipbuilding and automotive manufacturing.

However, decisions to expand internationally are probably driven by less rational factors or by conjecture. International expansion may result from a desire to exploit a much larger market, which can then be justified with spurious interpretations of data. There is prima facie evidence of this from two sources. The first is the dotcom explosion that occurred during the 1990s, when many entrepreneurs and their backers believed that a global market existed for whatever was being sold. The key was simply to get online, drive traffic to the site and gain market share. The internet came to be seen as a fast track to securing a strong global position. The second is the keenness of firms to expand into China during the 1980s and 1990s. Many saw China as the most promising market in the world, and many have so far been sorely disappointed.

Pursuing foreign markets is invariably much more complex than it may appear at first sight. It can also be largely untried.