BSBTWK601 Student Guide

BSBTWK601 Develop and maintain strategic business networks | 3 Overview The Student Guide should be used in conjunction with the recommended reading and any further course notes or activities given by the trainer/assessor. Application of the unit This unit describes the skills and knowledge required to establish professional relationships and networks to support organisational objectives. The unit applies to individuals who hold significant accountability for the effective functioning and success of an organisation or work area. At this level, work will generally be carried out using complex and diverse methods and procedures requiring the exercise of considerable discretion and judgement, using a range of problem solving and decision-making strategies. No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication. Learning goals Learning goals include: • You are able to plan networking activities for the business. • You are able to undertake networking activities with business contacts • You are able to maintain strategic business networks.

BSBTWK601 Develop and maintain strategic business networks | 6 “Strategic networking is the ability to marshal information, support, and resources from one sector of a network to achieve results in another. ” (Ibarra and Hunter) Developing a strategic business network means: A strategic business network involves lateral and vertical ties to an organisation’s internal and external. Networking opportunities for an organisation must link the business development objectives to networking objectives to maximise the benefit. The strategy can outline the networking activities and show how it links back to the business objectives. For example: An organisational strategy may be to connect the business to online platforms and engage with prospective clients with the business objective to increase the client base. The networking activity may be to develop online client interest. A business development objective could be to expand the customer or client base or to form a strategic partnership. Business development activities linked to networking could include connecting with possible contacts or developing relationships with people they may want to do business with in the future, or building business relationships via social media to promote the business and increase the profile to new customers. building influence through business relationships forging meaningful and relevant professional relationships delivering dynamic opportunities facilitating connections providing networking opportunities having a competitive advantage sharing knowledge, information and expertise establishing connections focussing on the bigger picture Image by Ivan Samkov on Pexels

BSBTWK601 Develop and maintain strategic business networks | 9 Activity: Watch Watch the following videos on networking: Video 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfyOSxCHmTE (03:33) Video 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M7ahzk0dGU (03:31) Write down your key takeaways to reflect on what you have watched. How do you select appropriate contacts? You may have formed an extensive list of business contacts, but you need to be able to focus on the right ones! It is important to evaluate and select the contacts which you think will bring the most value to your strategic business network. To evaluate and select potential business contacts, you can: • conduct benchmarking to identify top business contacts • prioritise contacts that would be the most beneficial to meeting the networking objectives • determine which contacts you have built relationships with already • work out which contacts would be the easiest to reach • determine whether they have the qualities needed • establish what value they bring and what you can give them • consider short-, medium- and long-term future strategic relations and how the relationship will look in the future • determine if the contact will help to achieve identified goals • research their track record. The table explains different evaluation methods: Evaluation method Explanation Evaluation and decision matrices Evaluation and decision matrices and tables are common tools to perform evaluations. To use such a table or matric, you need: • a list of potential business contacts • a ranking system to rank their importance • a value assigned to each contact to the quantify the value they can bring. For example:

BSBTWK601 Develop and maintain strategic business networks | 12 Topic 2: Undertaking networking For this topic, we look at the practical application of networking. Image by Cytonn Imagegraphy on Unsplash How do I network? You have a list of potential business contacts, the reason for making a connection and the most appropriate method for making contact. The next step is to undertake networking activities so that you can establish contact. Initial contact can be through presenting a business card after a chat at an event, interacting in a social media post, posting a comment to a forum, making a telephone call, sending an email, or making an introduction at an event. Remember this can be either internal or external to your organisation. Whether the contact you establish is face to face or online, written or verbal, internal or external to your organisation, you need to be prepared. You already have the subject matter, but you must have a plan on how you will approach the contact and how you will pitch the reason. Developing an elevator pitch or script that you can deliver at any moment is a good way to prepare. An elevator pitch is a 30 second speech to sell your proposition. It should be short, create engagement, be persuasive, use effective communication skills and have a strategy that suits the occasion, audience, and situation. Just remember that the elevator pitch must sound natural!

BSBTWK601 Develop and maintain strategic business networks | 15 Image by Anna Schvets on Pexels We are often distracted by our own thoughts, feelings and opinions and so tend to hear what we want to hear or expect to hear. Active listening requires us to suspend our internal thoughts and give your full attention to the speaker. If we are in a conversation with someone and we let our minds wander, we may miss an important piece of information which can be embarrassing later or even damaging for the business. Active listening should lead to a complete understanding of what another person has said. You can do this by feeding back to them, in your own words, your understanding of what they've said. An easy way to do this is to clarify, paraphrase or summarise. Clarification is also a useful tool when the other party seems to be asking for a lot of information. If their questions are poorly structured, too broad, or ambiguous, you might give away too much information by answering them straight away. It's often a good idea to clarify a question before you answer it. Asking questions can help the listener to concentrate. It's usually a good idea to check your understanding regularly during a conversation. You can do this by seeking and providing feedback to confirm understanding. Questioning is the key to gaining more information and without it, communication can fail. We all ask questions and are asked questions when engaged in conversation to obtain information, clarify a point, engage others, encourage discussion, express interest, and help maintain control. There are certain types of questions that you can ask: • Closed questions which invite a short-focused answer. Typical closed questions can require a yes or no answer. • Open questions: allow for much longer responses and therefore potentially more creativity and information.

BSBTWK601 Develop and maintain strategic business networks | 18 Topic 3: Maintaining network relationships In this final topic, we plan to maintain existing strategic business networks and evaluate opportunities for further collaboration with business contacts. How do I evaluate existing business relationships? Identify the business relationships that you already have and determine if they are strategically important. Each contact that you have a business relationship with should be evaluated for its effectiveness as well as the networking activities that may be associated with it. To do this: Questions you can ask to assess the importance could be: • Does the relationship bring joint value? • Are our objectives being fulfilled, if not, why not? • What relationships do I need to strengthen or abandon? • Which relationships do I need to maintain and why? • What current networking activities are working, are there any gaps, what needs changing and what needs to be disregarded? If you are developing strategic business networks, then you will no doubt be in a role or position where your time is very precious. Therefore, you need to make sure that the decisions you make will be the most beneficial and you are not wasting your time on building upon relationships that are going nowhere or not meeting the networking objectives. You should always be looking to the future and the development of the business, so must also keep assessing the strategic importance of existing relationships. Activity: Read Look at the following article from Forbes on ways successful leaders evaluate business relationships. Article: https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2015/11/09/6-ways-successful- leaders-evaluate-business-relationships/?sh=15c2595731bb Take any notes to summarise what you have read and keep for future reference. List each contact and the relationship. Evaluate if it is bringing the benefits expected. Identify what you need to do to either improve on it or maintain it.

BSBTWK601 Develop and maintain strategic business networks | 21 • How are we going to create value for the business? • Who can help us achieve this? Therefore, an organisation must not only consider what type of business relationships they are interested in, but also how this links to their own organisational strategy. For example, an organisational objective could be to enter a new market or to pool resources to work on a project. So you can ask the question, “who can we collaborate with to achieve our goal.?” The common opportunities associated with business collaboration include: • creating value such as increasing economies of sales, collaborative alliances, new knowledge and skill sets, partnerships • sharing information and knowledge • responding to new and emerging market trends • diversifying business • minimising competitive threat • reducing risks as the business environment changes • using strategic alliances and networks as vehicles of program strategy to build a sustainable business which would not be easily achieved by working alone. The collaboration should have a clear vision and understanding of what each party wants to achieve. Common opportunities include: • diversifying the business • a joint venture or partnership • a merger and/or acquisition • vertical or horizontal integration • building a consortia • a regional, national or global expansion. The collaboration must be the right fit for both parties and any opportunities must be clearly formulated and presented so that the business contact can also see the benefits of working together. To evaluate the opportunities, you will be looking at the long-term benefits, the availability or enthusiasm for the collaboration, and clear targets that need to be met. For example: Strategy Contact Opportunity Value To be an innovative leader in ice cream making. WadTech Innovative technology used in ice cream production. Interested in increasing brand awareness. To be an employer of choice HRM Industries Connects with future employees Promotes organisation within industry. Remember, that you need to be able to provide value to the business relationship. This must also therefore form part of your evaluation.

BSBTWK601 Develop and maintain strategic business networks | 22 Also keep in mind that there can be risks associated with business collaborations such as financial risk, changes in the environment, security of data and information, conflict or issues relating to the law, regulations and compliances not being met.