DEVELOPING VALUES ALIGNED, PURPOSE DRIVEN PARTNERSHIPS

Heidi Spurrell | 12th August 2021 | 4min read

 

Written by Nefelie Kalavrezou in collaboration with Fresh Accounting

The need to develop purpose driven partnerships is extremely important. Here at Food Made Good, we recognise the importance of this. Our membership has grown to over 300 business sites around Hong Kong who are all on their sustainability journey. Together, facilitated through our events, online community and other membership services, we are forging opportunities for businesses to collaborate, make changes and enhance their sustainability operations, all through the power of effective partnerships and shared value. In our relatively short existence, we have seen Members and partners share knowledge and expertise, as a result grow networks and partnerships more meaningfully.

This is the result of a commitment from businesses with a shared vision which enables trust amongst the partners, ultimately resulting in greater partnership value. We will explore why it is important to partner with businesses who share the same values and as a result, explore what positive impacts can come out of them.

 

Photo: Belu

Successful partnerships essentially become an extension of your business, allowing you to innovate quickly, collaborate more effectively and achieve your strategic goals. We want to explore this more with Fresh Accounting, who are a firm believer in the power of community partnerships to drive forward their business. As mentioned in a previous article, Fresh are a small independent accounting business with a range of services tailored to independent business owners, from cloud-based accounting (Xero) to digital transformation, business planning and CFO for Hire, amongst many others.An example of a successful Fresh partnership is with our very own Food Made Good Supplier Member, Belu – the water filtration business that puts people and the environment first. Belu found Fresh through the list of accredited Xero partners in Hong Kong but knowing that they are also working with Food Made Good gave them the extra reason to partner up. That, with Fresh’s values driven approach and excellent customer service meant it was the beginning of a successful partnership. Despite Belu being unable to come out to Hong Kong following their business launch in Hong Kong, they quickly built up trust within the community and saw the start of a fruitful partnership.

 

Photo: Wantedly
It’s not just business clients that Fresh are passionate about supporting, in fact the variety is quite extensive. In order to attract the best talent for the organisation, Fresh partnered with Japan based Wantedly, the socially-focussed recruitment platform that connects like-minded companies with individuals based on their passion and interest, rather than a focus on pay and benefits (stay tuned for more on this, coming soon!) In recognising our common values sets, Fresh made an introduction between Food Made Good and Wantedly and we have now recruited two successful candidates into the Food Made Good team.
Photo: Fresh Accounting
In the spirit of working with the like minded, earlier this year Fresh partnered with Food Made Good eager to explore how we could support Fresh to share more of their sustainability story. Six months down the line, Fresh are regulars at our events, definitely the most active question-askers throughout, and have seamlessly integrated into our community of like minded F&B businesses. As a local values-driven business, we are proud to partner with Fresh and contribute to each other’s goals.These shared value partnerships strengthen relationships across employees, clients and partners, who then feel more secure, better supported and feel truly valued. By staying true to the values of your company, your partners will be effective advocates and play an even more active role and feel more driven collectively to commit to your mission and goals. As we have seen, mutual beneficial relationships with aligned values and purpose add great value to your businesses success and long-term goals.

We know that businesses with a clear mission, vision and values set provide a strong foundation for long term survival. Social responsibility can go hand in hand with profitability but also provide resilience in uncertain times.

Read more about Fresh Accounting here.