Packaging Supplier - one or plus one

Whenever a unique idea or innovation needs to be implemented, packaging supplier perhaps may not be available. Thus to get the idea going, you may have to develop the packaging supplier or motivate an enthusiastic supplier to work upon delivering your concept. In the process you may end up having a single source of supply and perhaps you may need to continuously nurture the source and keep the motivation going.
There are situations, when you may need to work with a supplier , who is unique in the field and may be holding a Patent on the process or the design. Here you may get bounded by the terms and perhaps a have little scope of negotiation.
It is indeed a fact that no one would wish to be in such situation and definitely want a win- win case. How does one manage this, how do we make the supplier base 'one plus one' , these are some of the worries that the Packaging head always carries.
There are no clear solutions, but there is definitely a case for always starting the development with at least two sources and take it up to a stage before one of them is shortlisted. That way one has always an opportunity to get back back to the left out source, in case there are some issues and concerns with the current. The other area which one must study well, is the Patent or copyright issue, try not to work with the sources, where you could get too dependent upon one of them. Work out agreements, wherein the Packaging development process or the Design is a shared asset and are not unilateral.
The reality is that there is so much creativity involved in packaging that more often than not suppliers start working on the concept because of the immense satisfaction that they derive from the experience. They often take it up as a challenge upon themselves to get the design or the process right and it is not just for the monetary gains. We need to look upon such business associates with immense respect and nurture them with full support. It is these relationships on which challenging Packaging projects are built upon and one may never need more than one such source ever.