READ ON PHILHSC.COM | READ TIME: 4 MINUTES | 10 SEPTEMBER, 2025

Welcome to Partnership Wednesday #111 featuring ideas you can use to create partnerships faster, with less guesswork, and confidently close 6-figure deals.

Know someone who could use this edition? Share it with them here.

Have a burning partnership question? Reply to this email!

A LESSON TO BUILD ON

In 2017, IKEA designers joined NASA at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah to experience life in a simulated space habitat. The goal was to learn how humans thrive in extreme, resource-scarce environments. The result was the RUMTID collection (launched in 2018), a line of lightweight, modular furniture and air-purifying systems inspired by space living but designed for cramped city apartments.

The leadership lesson? Innovation often comes from the edges. By studying astronauts’ challenges (limited space, need for flexibility, and the psychology of isolation) IKEA uncovered solutions relevant to millions of urban dwellers. The real breakthroughs emerge when you expose teams to extreme contexts and force them to rethink assumptions.

​

AN ANSWER TO HELP YOU MOVE FASTER

How do I price partnerships that make it worth my business’s time? I was asked this question from the crowd this week. Here’s my answer:

This is one of my favourite topics, and while every partnership is different, a first principles approach helps.

Let’s begin with one reality: Most partnerships aren’t underpriced. They’re under-calculated.​
​
I see this problem most weeks: Partnerships get priced on hope.
​
“We’ll get exposure.”
“We’ll gain credibility.”
“We’ll save costs.”
​
But without math, these are just guesses.
​
And guesses don’t survive boardrooms, pivots, or leadership changes.
​
That’s why every partnership I help close runs through the same discipline: Two measurable benefits per partner. Four calculations per deal.​
​
Why two? Because one benefit is never enough.
​
Priorities shift.
Leaders leave.
Markets change.
​
If a deal only has a single benefit, momentum collapses the moment that benefit weakens.
​
Two benefits create resilience. One engine fails, the plane still flies.
​
And here’s the kicker: Adoption is the true currency of partnerships.​
​
Logos don’t pay the bills. Consumption does.
​
Run the four calculations with a consumption lens:
​
→ Revenue = sign-ups × activation × retention × spend
→ Access = market share × active users
→ Cost savings = efficiencies actually adopted
→ Risk reduction = failures actually avoided
​
...and you stop debating opinions and start aligning on facts.
​
​The lesson: Leaders closing partnerships rarely lose because they overpaid. They lose because value wasn’t calculated in the first place.

​Here’s an infographic that might help you navigate this topic further.​

​

THIS WEEK'S MOMENT (Insight for your commute)

What if the next trillion-dollar company isn’t in AI... but in waste?

In this 11 minute episode, discover how infrastructure partnerships are:

1. Turning waste, emissions, and power strain into revenue streams
2. Pre-locking supply and compliance advantages through collaboration
3. Reframing “unsexy” sectors as strategic growth engines

Get every episode of the Partnership Playbook on your next commute or workout. Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Youtube!

KNOW PEOPLE WHO FEEL STUCK?

Share this issue via text, social media, or email by copying and pasting this link:

​https://philhsc.com/partnership/10-september-2025​

See you next Wednesday,

Phil Hayes-St Clair, Business Partnerships Expert & Coach

​Find me on LinkedIn or Book a 1:1 Call​

​