In the late 1980s, Sky had the vision to bring satellite TV to millions of households across the UK, but the technology was expensive and out of reach for most consumers.
Amstrad (owned by Alan Sugar) stepped in, designing affordable dishes and set-top boxes that gave Sky the scale it needed. Together they reshaped broadcasting and football in the UK.
Sugar, Chairman of Tottenham at the time, carried their shared vision into football. When the Premier League was formed in 1992, he told the other chairmen that Sky would pay a lot more for the TV rights than ITV.
They basically laughed him out of the room.
But, the deal went ahead, and the Sky and Premier League partnership transformed English football into a global powerhouse.
Good partnerships are built on complementary strengths and shared vision. Alone, neither Sky nor Amstrad could have changed the face of TV and football forever. Together, they created something far greater than the sum of their parts.
Partnerships can take many forms such as sales, implementation, co-innovation, customer success, suppliers or consultants. Each type plays a different role, but the qualities of a good partner are remarkably consistent across them all.
Shared goals
Roger Fisher and William Ury’s negotiation classic Getting to Yes introduced the idea of win–win outcomes. Strong partnerships follow the same principle. Both sides must be clear on what success looks like and committed to achieving it together. If you aren’t aligned on your growth trajectory, there is only so far a partnership can go.
Trust and transparency
Stephen Covey describes trust as a performance accelerator in The Speed of Trust. High trust reduces friction, lowers costs, and makes everything move faster. Good partners share information openly, admit challenges honestly, and act with transparency.
Complementary strengths
Economist David Ricardo’s theory of comparative advantage shows that cooperation works best when each side focuses on what they do best. This means bringing distinctive strengths rather than duplicating each other. Customers benefit from a combined offer that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Clear communication and simplicity
The Shannon–Weaver model of communication highlights how noise distorts messages. In partnerships, noise looks like jargon, missed expectations, and unclear roles. Good partners remove the noise by communicating clearly, setting expectations early, and making complex topics easy to understand.
What this looks like in practice
- Celebrate each other’s wins, not just your own
- Share risks and solve problems together instead of pointing fingers
- Make information flow easy, not guarded
- Show up reliably and follow through on commitments
- Keep asking “How does this help the customer”
EnergySys is built on partnerships and we see first hand that the best results always come from the above.
