Whether you’re an established business or a fresh startup, a crucial exercise is establishing a roadmap for your organization’s future. You’ll have detailed plans for the next business cycle and a more general structure for the long term that you’ll fill in as you move forward.

This roadmap will lay out your sales goals, cost objectives, strategies for market penetration, and other meaningful steps to get your organization closer to what it defines as success. However, companies will often ignore the potential for partnerships with suppliers or customers who could help shape and determine whether their plans come to fruition. As the saying goes, no person is an island! Businesses, like people, need to rely on the ecosystem in which they operate to survive.

While you’re going through your next planning cycle, try to ask yourself some questions surrounding your capabilities and if they serve your goals. If you’re
looking to pivot to a new market, for example, you may find that you need to partner with a new-to-you supplier who can help in your product development
and provide intelligence on your new target audience. These relationships often shape our goals in unexpected ways and help feed success for the partner
organizations going forward. Don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone!