Trust could unlock 10% more value from infrastructure partnerships, says XTP founder

Highways and infrastructure partnerships could generate materially greater returns if trust were treated with the same seriousness as cost, scope and delivery, according to XTP founder Pieter Johnson.

In a discussion on Highways Voices, Mr Johnson argued that collaborative contracts alone do not guarantee better outcomes. He said the real gains come when organisations combine formal agreements with openness, shared purpose and leadership behaviour that encourages candour rather...

than caution. The white paper behind his argument, Trusted Partnerships: Unlocking the Value in Strategic Alliances, examines 48 strategic partnerships and suggests that many are meeting their basic contractual obligations without capturing their full potential.

The research points to a sizeable upside. More than three-quarters of those surveyed believed that stronger trust could increase value by at least 5%, while more than half thought the improvement could exceed 10%. Mr Johnson’s view is that this is not a marginal cultural issue but a practical performance question: partnerships work better when people feel able to speak frankly about pressures, risks and ideas before those issues harden into problems.

That message also extends to how partnerships are selected. Mr Johnson said clients and suppliers should judge more than technical competence, price and product fit once procurement begins. Behaviour before contract award matters too, including whether a potential partner communicates openly, demonstrates alignment on objectives and has a track record of building durable relationships with previous clients. In his view, trust should be considered from the outset rather than left to emerge, if it emerges at all, after signature.

The white paper makes a broader case that high-performing partnerships in public infrastructure, aerospace and technology depend on how well trust is built into the structure of the relationship. According to the paper, deliberately designed trust can support faster decision-making, stronger innovation and greater long-term value. That argument has particular resonance in sectors such as highways, where delivery depends on multiple organisations working across long timeframes, tight budgets and competing risks.

Mr Johnson also challenged the tendency to let price dominate procurement decisions. He told the programme that the industry already has the contracts and procurement routes needed to deliver work, but that the challenge is to extract more value from them. His wider point is that value is not created simply by buying cheaply; it depends on how responsibilities, risk and authority are shared once the work begins.

He also pointed to the reluctance many organisations show when it comes to being vulnerable with one another. Financial strain, early warning signs and untested ideas are often kept close because they may be used in negotiation or performance management later on. Yet, as his argument runs, that guardedness can prevent partnerships from solving problems early or innovating quickly enough.

The discussion touched on payment performance, the balance of power between clients and suppliers, and the role artificial intelligence may play in future procurement decisions. It also considered how international partnerships can introduce fresh technology and working practices into the UK market, provided the relationship is based on mutual confidence rather than transactional caution.

Mr Johnson’s conclusion was direct: procurement teams, government bodies and industry leaders should stop treating price as the main measure of value, should share power and risk more evenly, and should regard trust as a core asset rather than an abstract ideal. According to XTP, that shift could unlock meaningful extra value across the highways sector and beyond.

Source: Noah Wire Services