Business Partnerships Survey

Public private partnerships are an increasingly significant part of the UK economy (HM Treasury reports ?46Bn already spent with ?26Bn more to be invested by 2010) but historically the management of these projects has been beset by stories of conflict and overrun. In December 2006, Ipsos carried out a survey on behalf of Socia to question Directors of organisations who are involved in these partnerships to find the lessons that must be learned from their experience.

Public private partnerships are an increasingly significant part of the UK economy (HM Treasury reports £46Bn already spent with £26Bn more to be invested by 2010) but historically the management of these projects has been beset by stories of conflict and overrun. In December 2006, Ipsos carried out a survey on behalf of Socia to question Directors of organisations who are involved in these partnerships to find the lessons that must be learned from their experience.

Despite the well publicised examples of difficult projects, nearly 90% of those questioned think that partnerships have the potential to transform our ability to meet economic and social goals and a similar proportion believe that the benefits of partnership outweigh the costs. There appears remarkably little cynicism, with only 1 in 5 viewing partnerships as a 'necessary evil'. This apparent confidence is significant because more than two-thirds of those questioned expect partnership activity to increase over the next five years.

But the survey also highlights some warning signs. Planning is crucial. Almost 9 out of 10 of those questioned say that more careful set-up and planning would have helped them avoid later operational problems. But you've got to plan in the right areas. Leaders acknowledge that their traditional focus on contracts/governance is not where the major gains are to be made. Over three times as many think that in future they should focus on Behaviours rather than Governance to realise additional value. However the issue is that many organisations lack the skills they need in this crucial area. Relationship Management and Collaborative Leadership came top of the list of capabilities that executives wanted more access to when setting up a partnership.

Technical details

Ipsos's Business Partnerships Survey was produced in January 2007 on behalf of Socia. Ipsos interviewed 92 director level UK executives across the public and private sector by telephone in November and December 2006. All respondents had been involved in establishing or managing long term collaborative business partnerships in their organisation.

Related news