Value Co-Creation in Industrial Buyer-Seller Partnerships ... - Doria

Buyer had had problems to pay its invoices in time etc. Generally there was a certain air ofsuspiciousness and a general lack of trust and respect between the companies. It was notclear to everybody on all levels of the organizations why it would be beneficial orworthwhile to continue working within the frames of the cooperation agreement.The partnership seminar, which was facilitated by an external consultant, lasted for twodays. During the two days people from both organizations worked together in solving jointproblems and in envisaging the future. The outcome of the seminar was an extensive list ofaction items, a formulated vision for the partnership, and an agreement that there would be afollow-up seminar in May the same year.6.8.1 Gifts and needsPart of the program at the seminar was an exercise where the two organizations were toformulate five distinct needs that they have of each other and five gifts that they would liketo give the other company. This exercise proved to be both fun and productive. Theatmosphere at the seminar and the spirit of solving problems together improvedconsiderably after this exercise. The idea of giving and receiving was very odd in such abusiness context, but fit very well into the basic idea of the partnership.The Seller’ s gifts to the Buyer were to organize a technical seminar for riding crew, tosend team to the Buyer in order to understand their business and vision, to review MMSreports together with the Buyer, to provide systems review for new buildings before contractwith the shipyard, and to provide a technical hot-line for the riding crew. The needs that theSeller had from the Buyer were that the Buyer would commit to the cooperation agreement,that the Buyer would define communication partners for the Seller within the riding crew,that the Buyer would pay their invoices on time, that the Buyer would tell the Seller wheninformation is not trusted, and finally that the Buyer would send a core team to the Seller inorder to understand its way of working.The Buyer’ s gifts to the Seller were to provide an organization chart and aresponsibility matrix to explain who is in charge of what, to commit to the agreementregarding spare parts and outside work, to provide one contact for the Seller in mattersrelated to purchasing, to provide a clear definition of the Buyer maintenance team purposeand business philosophy, and finally to promise that the technical information that Wärtsläshares to the Buyer will be used properly.The Buyer’ s needs from the Seller were that the Seller would understand the Buyer’ svision and their responsibilities for the guests, that the Seller would provide immediate andall encompassing technical information, that the Seller would ensure that there will becompetent technical support for the Seller XX-type engine even after its manufacturing124