The first day of Global Partnership Week (www.p3.co) launched on March 7th and I had the pleasure to attend the opening event. It was great to hear from so many thought leaders on the subject of partnerships. It made me reflect on my own thoughts of subject: In the summer of 2013, during my MBA, I took an internship with TATA Consultancy Services ((TCS) in Chennai, India. Full transparency, it wasn’t my top choice. But it allowed me to be close to a girl that I was interested in. Little did I know that my decision to move to India would change my life forever. My assignment as an intern was to develop a strategy to leverage strategic alliances. The company felt that there was room for improvement when compared to its competitors, IBM and Accenture. I spent the majority of my time at TCS researching successful partnerships and interviewing account leaders to understand their thoughts and three common trends emerged: Collaborate with partners whose goals align with yours. Determine milestones and metric to measure success. Identify a ”Champion” to lead the partnership. The single most important attribute of any successful partnership is goal-alignment. If the goals of all partners do not align, a partnership should not be formed. This sounds logical, but it is often not the case. Thus, each party needs to understand their internal goals and those for the partnership. This provides the foundation for a successful partnership. After setting goals, it is important to determine metrics and milestones to evaluate the successfulness of the partnership. Setting flexible metrics allows for pivots in the partnership and the ability to nurture the relationship. Finally, it is important to identify and empower a “Champion” to lead the partnership from each respective party. These individuals will be held accountable for driving the partnership in achieving its goals. Three years after my internship, I sat in the audience of the Global Partnership Week conference as the Head of Products for Homestrings, listening to leaders from Google, Amazon, and the US Government emphasize the importance of successful partnerships. I know I made the right decision to move to India… not to mention, that girl I chased is now my wife and life partner. To learn more about homestrings, visit: www.homestrings.com