BS 11000 Collaborative Business Relationships
BS 1100 was launched in October 2010 to help companies of all sizes develop mutually beneficial collaborative business relationships. Since 2017, BS 1100 has been superseded by ISO 44001.
Note: This post has been updated to include ISO 44001
Global Collaboration
The world has got smaller, more complicated and connected with people working in different locations providing various products and services. I myself utilise services provided by various companies in different countries and I have provided collaboration solutions and workshops to clients where we have never physically met.
Utilizing visual collaboration technology (telepresence/video conferencing) has become more frequent to communicate and to a degree collaborate globally with other people in different locations and time zones.
But technology is only a small part of the solution.
To collaborate means people working together to deliver an agreed outcome which creates added value. People are different – their cultures, customs and languages means communicating can be challenging but collaborating – that can be even more challenging again.
So how can you improve your collaboration and business relationships?
ISO 44001 – framework specification
The ISO 44001 framework has 3 phases with 8 stages
- Strategic Phase: Awareness; Knowledge and Internal assessment stages
- Engagement Phase: Partner selection; Working together and Value creation stages
- Management: Staying together and Exit strategy stages
Using this framework can help you to develop your collaboration strategy by identifying the people within your organisation who have the appropriate skills and competencies, potential partners, how you will work together create value for all stakeholders.
Managing the relationship by measuring, continually innovating, resolving issues, maintaining trust and performance ensures value is being created and the relationship is maintained. However, all good things eventually come to an end for many reasons and having a planned exit strategy is one item that most people never consider, never mind put in place.
All of this is contained within your corporate Relationship Management Plan (RMP) and specific project/partner RMP’s.
Getting started with ISO 44001
Most organisations will have established business processes and capabilities that support collaboration.
There will be various plans and strategies already in place such as business, sales, project management, communication but rarely collaboration. Developing a comprehensive collaboration strategy for your organisation will involve many aspects, part of which is creating collaborative business relationships.
Using ISO 44001 (BS 11000) as part of your overall collaboration strategic road-map is an effective and beneficial activity, which can be best started by conducting an initial Internal Assessment (Strategic Phase). This will help you discover your current capability and determine if utilizing ISO 44001 (BS 11000) will be of benefit.
ISO 44001 / BS 11000 Internal Assessment
By performing a gap analysis against ISO 44001 (BS 11000) and your current organisational capability, processes and systems you will be able to easily identify areas that you need to focus on.
To help you find out more why not book a call to discuss your business collaboration or just email using the link below?
Keep on collaborating,
Warmly,
Jason
