rade
New member
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2012
- Member Type
- Interested in Language
- Native Language
- Serbo-Croatian
- Home Country
- Serbia
- Current Location
- Serbia
I would like to hear an explanation from a native English-speaking person with reference to this: what is the area of application of the term "business partner", that is, do you limit the meaning of this term only to people and organizations with whom you share profits and risks in the achievement of common business goal, or does the term include customers and suppliers as well?
The problem arose during the preparation of end-of-the-year greeting cards and resulted in heated fruitless discussion. My positions was that out of politeness I can call anyone "partner", but in the business settings I do not share interests with my customers or my suppliers. On the contrary, their interests usually totally differ with regard to mine and we do not share neither profits, nor risks. Therefore, bearing in mind that the basic term "partner" relates to some kind of equality of involved parties, I cannot refer to my customers or my suppliers as "business partners".
The problem arose during the preparation of end-of-the-year greeting cards and resulted in heated fruitless discussion. My positions was that out of politeness I can call anyone "partner", but in the business settings I do not share interests with my customers or my suppliers. On the contrary, their interests usually totally differ with regard to mine and we do not share neither profits, nor risks. Therefore, bearing in mind that the basic term "partner" relates to some kind of equality of involved parties, I cannot refer to my customers or my suppliers as "business partners".