How to Create the Ideal Joint Venture Team.

Flying over the Rockies at 41,000 feet, I read the following wisdom in the latest Fortune Magazine article about Jim Collins, author of Built to Last and Good to Great, who says, “First figure out your partners, then figure out what ideas to pursue. The most important thing isn’t the market you target, the product you develop, or the financing, but the founding team. Starting a company is like scaling an unclimbed face – you don’t know what the mountain will throw at you, so you must pick the right partners, who share your values, on whom you can depend, and who can adapt.”

We used to find a business opportunity and then build a team. That is history. As a Joint Venture Broker, your most important asset is your JV partners and business team. Just as you would very carefully select the brothers in arms who would go with you into enemy territory on a night raid, or the team that would accompany you on a dangerous mission of discovery in the Arctic, your JV partners can make or break you. They can be the wind beneath your wings or the stone in your shoe. They can be the deciding factor in either your brilliant success or your dismal failure. Choose them with great diligence and minute attention to detail.

Will they have your back when things go wrong? Will they get greedy when things are going well? Will pride erode their integrity? How will they respond to setbacks, threats, and danger? Will they easily lured be away by gilt-edged offers from your competition / enemy? Will they undermine you and become jealous or argumentative, or will they work with you to achieve your common goals? Mr. Collins uses the following analogy: “If you wake up in the security of base camp and a storm moves in, you’ll probably be fine. But if you find yourself at 27,000 feet on the side of Mount Everest, where the storms are faster moving and unpredictable, a storm might just kill you.” I looked out of the window at the snow-covered peaks of the majestic mountains far below me and agreed with him that one would want reliable, strong allies on your team in that situation.

We’ve all heard the old cliché, “Teamwork makes the dream work”. Mr. Collins teaches us that the quality to seek in potential partners is what he calls “Willful humility”. I believe that the most important criterion to seek in a Joint Venture partner is the ability to see the Big Picture. Visionaries, strategists, and pioneers are more likely to be able to endure temporary setbacks, detours, and attacks than reactive tacticians who will sell their birthright for a bowl of soup as they stagger around with a smelly cigarette, seeking immediate gratification and a quick buck, while making excuses for their lack of intestinal fortitude or just plain IQ. Battle-hardened warriors will stand firm when the going gets tough, while the weak-witted, morally deprived, and passive aggressive types will stab you in the back while stealing the milk out of your tea.

Select your squad vigilantly, arm and train them well, and get rid of them fast when you find you have a turkey wearing an eagle mask. I am fortunate indeed to have a very powerful team that is a focused, loyal, intelligent, committed, and ambitious family of DollarMakers.

Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com