Alignment and Leverage

The Goodwill agencies are referred to as members and Goodwill also has relationships with numerous employers across the country to provide jobs for people with disabilities or disadvantages. That really is a lot of business relationships and partnerships. What is your philosophy around choosing strategic partners and building relationships?

I think in a complex organization, whether it's a federated model like Goodwill or NIB or just a larger organization, having some sense of shared principles is pretty important. They don't have to be word for word, but they’ve got to be directional. And then I think it's really a matter of going through the work of knowing the strength of the partner and the weakness of the partner or the strength of your organization and their weakness. And putting that puzzle together and see if they match and align that work on the front end will then allow the work of the partnership whatever you're striving to achieve through a partnership to find the most success. So alignment of principles and then leveraging capabilities.