No company is an island in the world of business. Each company is locked into a complex network of relationships with its customers, suppliers and other counterparts. What happens in these relationships is critical to the success of any business. Managing a company's relationships and its position in the network is a central, but often misunderstood aspect of business. This new edition of Managing Business Relationships aims to help managers and students understand the reality of business networks and how to manage in them. It has been entirely rewritten to include the latest thinking and research from the IMP (Industrial Marketing and Purchasing) Group and includes new chapters on Intermediation in Business Networks, the Economics of Business Relationships and the Practice of Business Networking. Features: • Provides a structured way to understand business networks and their meaning for the practicing manager. • Offers a complete analysis of management in different relationships including those with customers, suppliers, distributors and development counterparts. • Presents a practical analysis of the problems and choices that managers face in developing and changing their relationships and a guide to the critical skills of business networking. The book is vital reading for students of business marketing, purchasing, business networks and relationship management. It is also a valuable resource for all managers operating in business networks, including those in marketing, purchasing, strategy, technical development and distribution.

Everyone knows that relationships are critical to business success, but no-one has provided a simple system to turn contacts and acquaintances into valuable assets -- until now. The first systematic program for advancing business relationships. In five easy-to-follow steps, the book shows how to transform any casual business relationship into a valuable source for revenue, leads, and advice. Ed Wallace combines memorable anecdotes with a clear theoretical framework that shows individuals how to leverage their hard business skills with the often-overlooked soft skills of rela-tionship building. Surveyed executives say they need this book. In a recent survey, 88 percent of executives indicated that the strength of their client, cus-tomer, and referral relationships was critical to achieving their goals each year. But only 25 percent of those same executives said they had a formal process for planning, managing, and growing business relation-ships and 73 percent of the group surveyed said they would be very interested in reading a book on this topic. This book delivers the process that so many people and organisations need.

No company can be an island in today's business world. Each one is locked into a complex network of relationships with suppliers, customers and other business partners. To be effective, managers within companies must constantly assess these relationships and the intentions, actions and reactions of their counterparts within them. Indeed, managing its relationships and its position in the business network has become the critical task on which a company's very existence stands or falls. This new edition of Managing Business Relationships aims to help managers and students understand the reality of business networks and how to manage in them. It has been entirely rewritten to include the latest thinking and research from the IMP (Industrial Marketing and Purchasing) Group. The book * provides a structured way to understand business networks and their effect on the practicing manager. * offers a complete analysis of management in different relationships including those with suppliers, customers, distributors and development partners. * includes a brand new and easy to understand model of managing in networks. This book is vital reading for students of business marketing, purchasing, business networks and relationship management at the MBA and final year undergraduate level. It will also be a valuable resource for all managers operating in business markets, including those in purchasing, marketing, technical development and distribution.

Selected as a finalist for the 2018 Leonard L. Berry Marketing Book Award! Why do crucial business partnerships and alliances fail so often and how can you keep it from happening to you? Partnering with the Frenemy answers these questions, helping you anticipate, prevent, and solve the problems that lead close business relationships to implode. Drawing on cutting-edge research, Sandy Jap illuminates the widespread “frenemy” phenomenon in organizational partnerships, where partners who start as non-competitive “friends” become “enemies” over time. She identifies key economical and structural causes of “frenemization,” in which success creates imbalances in power dynamics, leading partners to generate resentment, contempt, and often direct competition. She also illuminates crucial social causes for partnership failure, where seemingly innocuous acts of interpersonal opportunism and “sins of omission” gradually poison collaboration. To support her insights, she offers numerous case studies, both ongoing and historical, including Samsung/Google, Martha Stewart/Macy’s, Oracle/Sun Microsystems, Best Buy/Apple, Calvin Klein/Warnaco, and Nike/Footlocker. Most important, she offers specific recommendations for avoiding problems, revitalizing weakening partnerships, and recognizing when a partnership can’t be saved. IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT CONTRACTS AND MONEY Understand how to better manage emotions, suspicions, and expectations from Day 1 WHAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM OTHERS’ FAILING PARTNERSHIPS Anticipate, prevent, and mitigate the core causes of business relationship failure RECOGNIZE PARTNERING “OPPORTUNISM” BEFORE IT DESTROYS COLLABORATION Fix partnering problems while you still can IT’S NOT A MARRIAGE: HOW TO BECOME COMFORTABLE SAYING GOODBYE Know when to end a partnership, and how to part as “friends”

Business Relationship Management: Relationship Management is the solution for getting to know your customers and developing your business.

Business success is usually reliant on being able to get along with people. No matter what the role in an organization, the ability to influence, persuade, change, motivate and encourage others to act effectively is vital. Better Business Relationships brings together a wealth of knowledge and practical advice, from psychology to communications and sales, to provide insight and guidance to both new and more experienced workers alike, who may be dealing with both internal colleagues and external clients and suppliers. As technology advances and automates business processes across industries and roles, communication skills and the ability to form meaningful, beneficial professional relationships is at risk of becoming a dying art. In the midst of the rise of social media, automation and artificial intelligence, there is worldwide concern that, as technology advances, we risk losing the human factors that are needed for individual and organizational success. Kim Tasso provides practical and essential insight on: · Understanding yourself and other people; · Learning how to change; · The fundamentals of good communication and relationships; · Working with people internally; and · Working with people externally. Better Business Relationships is ideal for anyone who wants to improve their relationships at work and gain a greater understanding of critical social and communications skills required to succeed in any professional environment.

This book provides the first summary and critical appraisal of the thinking that currently informs the management of business relationships, from the perspectives of both the buyer and supplier. The authors argue that these approaches are one-dimensional and instead recommend a more holistic approach based on power, interaction and portfolio perspectives. The book provides evidence of how relationships can be aligned and misaligned in practice, using eighteen examples drawn from a variety of business cases and circumstances.