Working in partnership: Bank of Ireland and The School of Life discover the secrets to success 

Bank of Ireland UK is known as  the ‘Partnership Bank’, but what does this actually mean? They have developed long-term partnerships with two of the most trusted UK brands –  the Post Office and the AA.

The Bank of Ireland car and asset finance business has also developed strong partnerships with market leading dealerships and franchises, and its successful mortgage business offers a mortgage product range to an extensive number of strategic mortgage intermediary partnerships.

The success of Bank of Ireland UK can be boiled down to its core strategy which is to build strong, mutually beneficial partnerships which are founded on a common purpose, ambition and culture.

For the second year in a row, Bank of Ireland UK has worked in exclusive collaboration with The School of Life, an organisation passionate about making philosophical learning relevant to everyday life, headed by best-selling author Alain de Botton.

Working together, Bank of Ireland UK and The School of Life have established six core ingredients that make partnerships successful: common purpose, solving problems, mutual respect, communication, complementary skills, and trust.

Using these ingredients, Bank of Ireland UK has looked at some exceptional, inspiring partnerships all over the world in a series of intriguing and thought-provoking videos.

Each film highlights a specific ingredient and while they are very unique, they all feature a strong and compelling partnership at their heart, showing how they are making a real difference to people’s lives.

Bank of Ireland CEO Des Crowley introduces the video series and explains why working in partnership leads to success

Inspiring common purpose

Bank of Ireland UK makes the case that companies who work together with a common purpose can grow into a successful partnership. One of the videos shows how a chance conversation over dinner, lead Heinz into collaboration with Ford – a partnership which was to help them work towards their shared purpose of reducing the impact they each have on the environment.

Heinz was on the search for a practical use for the waste from the more than 2 million tons of tomatoes they use annually in the production of Tomato Ketchup. Ford’s commitment to reducing, reusing and recycling meant that they were the natural partners in this project.

The team at Ford soon discovered that the dried-out tomato waste could be used as a reinforcing fibre for plastics and although this partnership is in its infancy, plastics are already being produced that may be used in Ford vehicles. As Deborah Mielewski of Ford Motor Company Research says, “One guy’s trash can be another guy’s treasure.”

Common Purpose – Heinz and Ford Motor Company

Solving problems

Sometimes, more than one organisation is required in order to solve a problem. Bank of Ireland believes that great problem solvers within a business are often best equipped to meet customers’ needs in innovative and creative ways that work in the real world. To highlight this, one of the videos tells the story of how Khushi Baby and entrepreneurs at Gavi initiated a project which developed a necklace which hides a computer chip that can transmit a child’s data and medical needs via the cloud to any medical team.

Solving the problem of keeping track of children’s vaccination history in rural areas, the development of the necklace mean that 1,500 children received the necklace, with medical teams accessing the data and going to the region with the exact medical supplies needed. This necklace could prove the end of children not having crucial vaccinations in the formative years of their lives.

Solving Problems – GAVI and Khushi baby

For more information and to see the complete series of Bank of Ireland #InspiringPartnerships videos, click HERE and follow on Twitter @BankofIrelandUK