With equity partnerships becoming a more common form of ownership for people without the initial capital needed for sole ownership, the reliance on other people becomes an increasingly important issue. If the people that you become involved with aren’t compatible with yourself then problems will arise and the partnership may dissolve or become inefficient If at the beginning when choosing your partners you could all sit down and complete a test to show how compatible all the partners are going to be with each other, then the confidence that is gained going into the partnership will improve the relationship and efficiency within the group. By combining commonly asked questions from initial start-up and inserting a level of tolerance, then the level of compatibility can be established and compared with other members in the group. Although there are a number of experts within the field of Equity Partnership establishment, I have found no evidence of there being a system available to rank participants together.

The New Zealand Kellogg Rural Leaders Programme develops emerging agribusiness leaders to help shape the future of New Zealand agribusiness and rural affairs. Lincoln University has been involved with this leaders programme since 1979 when it was launched with a grant from the Kellogg Foundation, USA.