A strategic partnership is a particular kind of partnership which is the result of business contracts, but which does not have the full force of a business partnership agreement behind it. In other words, a strategic partnership is a mutually beneficial relationship in which the two companies involved may help each other out in some fashion, but will remain separate and without a business partnership agreement that makes them liable to any extent towards some collective whole.
There are many forms of strategic partnerships which are relatively common in today's world. One such example of a strategic partnership is a partnership between one company which can supply a large amount of resources, including capital, marketing, and manufacturing, so that the second company can create some new product using those resources.
This strategic partnership would thus involve the larger company with resources gaining the benefits of the smaller company's creative or specialized services, while the smaller company would gain access to the resources of the larger company.
A strategic partnership is not always the safest route for a given company or corporation to use in a relationship with another company or corporation. Without a business partnership agreement, the rules concerning the strategic partnership are much less clear.
One member of the strategic partnership might claim credit for a product which the other believes it deserves credit for, for example, or the members of the strategic partnership might actually hinder each other in some fashion such as hiring the other's employees. Without a business partnership agreement, such practices are unrestrained.
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