Spotlight on Stephanie Kee

Stephanie was the former chair of Women in Alliances in 2024, where she was a phenomenal driver in reshaping the organisation by bringing in new talent and rejuvenating our growth strategy. She remains a key member of the WIA organisational committee and a devoted advocate for all things partnerships.

How did you get into partnerships?

Having started my working career as a young woman helping to build companies from scratch, I have that entrepreneurial itch that needs to be satisfied and processing paperwork in a Sales role just didn’t do it for me!

Distancing myself from the monotony and thankless task of reporting to talentless Sales Directors, I embraced Partnerships and searched for a successful industry methodology to apply to my inherent understanding of what needed to be done to achieve success. This is where I ran into Alliance Best Practice, which gave me the ammunition to co-found Women in Alliances (WIA).

What do you think are the biggest challenges in Partnerships?

• Selling the value of the extended ecosystem to the C Suite (because they sometimes have trouble looking past what was taught at MBA school 20 years ago).

• Bridging the communication gap between the partner and host company. A good Partner Manager understands ‘WHAT’ the partner company needs to hear, and ‘HOW the partner company needs to receive information in order to achieve success.

What attributes make you good at your job in Partnerships?

• Being entrepreneurial

• Having a sense of what should work (knowing what ‘good’ looks like’)

• When things don’t work, then altering the course

• A massive network, enthusiasm, determination, organisation, prioritisation, follow through, and energy (a 360-degree arsenal)

How important is networking and face-to-face in your role?

I love this question and want to reiterate how critical networking is. Of course, face to face communication is very important, BUT if you are good at networking, you can do it through any medium. In fact, I’d say try out different approaches and understand what works well for you - just keep NETWORKING.

What advice would you give to someone wanting to shift from a different role into partnerships?

This question is important. I’m surprised sometimes when people tell me that they want to go into partnerships, and to me their personalities do not seem to be quite right for the job. Because strong partnership professionals make it look like the job is just a lot of fun, this external view can be misleading.

Saying that, there are different types of partnerships roles, such as:

1. You are mates with the Partnership Leader, and you just get given a job on his/her team

2. You run your territory by spreadsheet with what was in place before you

3. You manage, fix, and build your territory like your own business so everyone thrives; being a true business leader.

The necessary skills to deliver in these roles vary and are normally aligned with different personality types.

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