Why the term "partnerships" is so confusing in logistics

Partnerships in logistics is broken.

Depending on who you are, what role you have, and what company you work for, that sentences means something totally different.

And that is the problem — the term “partnership” has inconsistent meaning within the logistics industry.

When you’re like me and you carry the title “Partnerships Manager” it can be very challenging to work with logistics companies.

Here’s a list of what partnerships might mean:

Possible “Partnership” Definitions

• A customer (eg - inventory owner, brand, retailer, BCO)
• A vendor, services supplier, hardware supplier or their contractors
• An operating partner which doubles as a customer or vendor
• A reseller, wholesale, or distributor of another logistics services provider (LSP)
• A totally unrelated ecosystem partner (eg - A payments company)
• A equity partner or joint venture partner, which can be an operating partner too
• A digital platform integration partner — ME!

Are you thoroughly confused yet?

I’m Here to Make US Rich

As a Partnerships Manager, my job is very simple — I’m here refer my customers’ business to our partners, and get the same in exchange.

My goal is net new logos in the non-SMB/SME segment.

To make that work, we need to identify a clear value creation for our customers from our partnership — for most technology companies this means that our products, when joined forces, unlocks new powers for our shared customers.