COVID-19: Collaboration is necessary in the New Normal!

COVID-19: COLLABORATION IS NECESSARY IN THE “NEW NORMAL”

The global disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has forced to the fore the need for new skills and competencies businesses need to navigating the economic times and market conditions. The application of skills will empower businesses and professionals to survive and continue to thrive in spite of the economic downturn. The “New Normal’ environment is characterized by; near term uncertainty, collapsed supply chains and financial strain and a general shift to online thinking. These conditions call for new tools and indeed new talents to effectively engage in the new market dynamics. One of the emerging tools for survival is “collaboration”.

When the word collaboration is mentioned, teamwork comes to mind. While this is an aspect of collaboration. The new normal demands that business leaders think beyond building functional and efficient teams in their organizations. There is now need to establish and structure “collaborations” further afield that will ensure business survival and long-term success. Collaboration is much more than teamwork. Collaboration, in the new normal, is not just an intra-organizational competence, but an extra-organization ability to form profitable alliances that will yield benefits for all parties concerned. Collaborations need to be structured at four levels; suppliers, networks, partnerships and competitors.

Broken supply chains have forced people to look at ways to re-supply their businesses with goods and services. It has made business rethink the wisdom of single sourcing or maintaining “favorite” or preferred suppliers. Supply chain dynamics have been opened up to democratic space where buyers investigate who else can deliver the same quality at a better (lower) cost. This means that brand names are under pressure to prove they are worth the high (quality) prices they charge for their products. At the same time, it has given opportunity to new players and companies with “no brand name” to deliver professional services to previously inaccessible buyers. Johnny-come-lately is as likely to be considered alongside bids presented by the Big boys in the industry. Businesses will now find it prudent to collaborate with several “suppliers” to ensure their own business continuity.

Networks are important databases to keep for quick insider information and “knowing how to get what is needed” in a market. These invaluable structures help a business navigate strained supply and demand conditions in a market. Marketers use networks and build networks to develop market share, but in the new normal this a skill that is essential for business collaboration with people, organizations and institutions that influence economic and market trends. For example, players in the education sector will find it beneficial to collaborate with government bodies that determine national policy on training and youth development.

Partnerships is an old word in business. Consultants use this approach when bidding for large jobs. Consultants come together through partnerships for a season and form a vehicle that will effectively deliver client services. However, the collaboration under discussion here is required with institutions upstream and down stream in a business process model. It also urges collaborating across industries serving the same or similar markets. For example, a bank may collaborate with a baker to supply confectioneries at an entertainment event run by a radio company. Yes, these collaborations have existed before, but the New Normal has highlighted them as an emerging competitive survival strategy. Which brings me to the aspect of “competition”.

Car manufacturers have long known that they can collaborate with competitors to incorporate the technological advances made by other car makers into their own products. One car maker will collaborate with a competitor to provide the “engine” for use in a new design. However, this has not been a general business practice. Shop front competitors hardly take advantage of such collaboration and indeed may out-rightly abhor the practice. But the practice has very sound profit margin economics attached to it. For example, two hardware stores operating side by side on a single street, obtain goods from the same supplier. Both make regular trips to the supplier to buy their “own” goods. However, if they collaborated on sourcing their goods, they could take turns at collecting goods from the supplier by “carpooling”. Both could literally cut the cost of transport their resupply costs by half! However, collaboration in the New Normal requires the will, courage and skill to step out of your comfortable secluded operations to reach out and negotiate a better deal for yourself and others in the market.

Allan Bukusi, May 2020