Business Partner blueprint

  I want to welcome you back to our 10-part series on core business processes. So far, we've covered customer strategy and relationships. We've covered employee development and satisfaction; quality process improvement and change management; financial analysis; reporting and capital management. This blog is on core business process number five: management responsibility. I want you to think through what we're going after here. What we are talking about is under the category of “why are these important”? Why do you need to be core competent in these things -- at least in seven, if not all of them. Why is it critical to the success of your business and the success of how you interact with large companies? I'm going to spend a little bit more time on this one because this one not only sets you up for success with big companies, it sets you up for success in general. Let's talk about management responsibility. And in this case, really and truly, we're talking a