What does your company sell? If you reached for your mouse to open a spreadsheet, I want to stop you right there. Yes, you sell products. You sell services. You sell the items on your spreadsheet. However, that’s only one way to look at the value your business provides to both current and potential customers.
Products and services don’t comprise the total of what your business brings to the table — or, at least, they shouldn’t. You have expertise. You have support to offer. You have the ability to add momentum to the entire regional economy.
In my last two columns, I discussed the first two pillars of the Vision 2030 Strategic Transformation Plan at Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) — “Activate People and Potential” and “Align Path and Purpose” — and how their principles can help add momentum to your business. This month, I want to finish the trilogy by focusing on the third pillar: “Amplify Community Impact.”
Amplifying your community impact is, at its core, all about breaking down silos. It is about finding ways to leverage your company’s expertise, brand and other assets to build powerful partnerships that benefit your company, your partner company and the communities you serve.
At Tri-C, there are many ways we do this. We seek strategic partnerships that can amplify our resources as Northeast Ohio’s largest community college, impacting our current students, prospective and future students, alumni and all others who come to us seeking a path to improve their lives. As an example, we are excited about a partnership we recently launched with the Cleveland Guardians and EL1 Sports to create the first Guardians Training Center, a year-round athlete development facility that will occupy the renovated Western Campus fieldhouse in Parma. We’ve also established a partnership with Hudec Dental to place students in their clinics, providing a pathway to employment for our graduates and skilled talent for a thriving local company.
These are just two examples of many at Tri-C. But they illustrate the importance of finding fruitful partnerships that add momentum to the entire community. What should you remember about amplifying your organization’s community impact? Here are some things to consider:
What does my business excel at? This goes beyond sales. Think about your strengths in terms of thought leadership, community presence and industry expertise. What will you bring to the table in a productive partnership?
Where are my potential partners? Scan the landscape of your communities and your industries. Where can you find synergies? Where can you and another organization complement each other? In Tri-C’s case, we know that many businesses need trained and upskilled talent. We work with them to produce graduates that find thriving-wage employment at their businesses.
How can we grow together? Your organization has goals. Your partners have goals. The best type of partnership is one that is mutually beneficial now and in the future. Discuss future plans with your partners and find ways to work together to reach your goals and theirs.
Don’t just sell a product or service. Sell everything your business does well by finding other organizations that want to do the same thing. By looking outward, you amplify your community impact and become a force for good throughout the region. ●
Michael A. Baston is President of Cuyahoga Community College
