A business is a unique legal entity and is regarded as being distinctively separate from its owners by law. A business partnership takes the same form but more or less becomes even as legal binding as a marriage for the partners involved. I'm a business-man, some might call me a serial entrepreneur since I'm always thinking up new ideas and turning them into projects or on-going business concerns. Now most folks that haven't ventured into the field of entrepreneurship may think starting and building a business into one that is highly profitable is rocket-science. Well it isn't exactly so; however for a fresh start-up entrepreneur in modern day Nigeria with limited access to finance and an even more restricted social capital (a professional high-end network of key decision makers in organisations) or a deficiency of the technical know-how hence demanding the necessity of someone with the required intellectual capital; soon it becomes imperative to gain access to any one or a combination of the aforementioned type of capital- social, intellectual or financial.
In choosing the right partner while it is important to have one who shares the same passions and ambitions as you do concerning the business venture being proposed; it is even more important that the partner has much more than just passion, he/she must be able to supplement and make up your deficiencies or lack thereof. Hence if a creative director of an advertising agency desires to break out of the 9-5 rat race and start up his own agency but soon realises that he obviously requires the services of a art director but can't afford to pay for one with his limited start-off capital, he's better off partnering with someone that fits the profile with high proficiency in graphics design. Likewise if a lady with a flair for haute couture desires to open her fashion label but has limited experience in tailoring; she's better off partnering with a proven skilled tailor and drawing designs while the tailor actually does the sewing and stitching. Likewise a person starting a NGO for children with disabilities and has good rapport and experience with these kids might consider partnering with another individual with limited knowledge of autism and other child related disabilities but does possess a vast professional network in order to solicit for support and sponsorship on the marketing front.
A partnership especially one within the context of the service-based industry allows both partners to work in the best interest for the company at all times. An ideal partner would usually work for longer hours with lower pay initially and with far more dedication than a paid employee for the simple reason that he has more at stake and higher profits for the organisation translates to a higher rewards for him. Generally an ideal partner is also more loyal than a paid employee and would resist the urge to jump ship at the slightest whim due to the lure of a higher salary someplace elsewhere.
The same qualities that one finds desirable in a life partner is similar to that of an ideal business partner. Dedication towards making the (marriage) partnership work. Sincerity of the partner is key for trust and loyalty to be built. To achieve this from the onset issues regarding to finance should be agreed upfront i.e retained earnings, percentage for partners, salary and job roles. Dependability is equally a major point- you must be able to rest in confidence that your partner is able to deliver on his job and constantly learn to improve and hone his/her skills. Flexibility to change and adapt to mitigating circumstances that might arise in the course of building a global brand.
While I do realize that not everyone is opportune to be born with a silver-spoon, and even for those that were fortunate at some point somewhere along life's journey some have lost the spoon- think Donald Trump. However the case maybe, all hope is not lost because I've discovered that while poor people focus on money, rich people focus on ideas and adding value. The goal therefore for an small entrepreneur is to come up with an idea that is so huge and bold that it demands the assistance of a partner to contribute value either through social, intellectual or financial capital towards bringing the goal to reality. Money comes and goes. The dollar may rise and fall but ideas would forever remain the next big thing. Modern day billionaires such as the co-owners of Apple- Steve Jobs, Microsoft- Bill Gates, Facebook-Mark Zuckerberg and several other co-founders of Fortune 500 companies understand the concept behind having a brilliant idea and finding the right partner to work with towards achieving it. So don't allow your dreams and ideas die in 2011 for lack of financial, social or intellectual capital- write a mini business plan, reach out to interested individuals and exchange and collaborate after all two heads are better than one!
Good Luck and have a productive New Year!
Ebuka Anichebe is the Managing Director of Jean-Paul and Associates Consultancy. He has an uncommon approach to marketing media consulting, business development and customer experience evaluation. He’ll like to hear your views on this article and more, write to him at ebuka@jeanpaulconsult.com or call 07040448749
Showing posts with label partnership. Show all posts
Showing posts with label partnership. Show all posts
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
COLLABORATION VS COMPETITION
Allow me to indulge you a little in a part of my life that I’ve mused endlessly about. I’ve argued it, debated it, so now I’m going to write about it so you too may see what part you belong to. Meet my two neighbors- Michael and Emeka (both fictional names).
Michael is in mid 30’s and quite successful and feels very confident of winning a “Mr. Swagger Man” award, whenever an organisation decides to start that. But he lives permanently in a hurried state just like a neighbor you too may know. He’s always hurrying to do stuff. Right from the moment the alarm clock starts buzzing in the morning. He is suddenly reminded of the need to do a million things within only 19 hours! Coz he sleeps by 2a.m and has to be up by 7a.m daily. So he jumps up from bed, says a hurried prayer (rarely) and is about to achieve what Hussein Bolt the Olympic gold medalist would be envious of, he’s in and out of the bathroom in less than 6 minutes. Has a shirt ironed and shoe polished and ready to go in less than ten minutes and is on the road for an 8 km drive to the office. Along the way, he calls the office to ask his secretary who’s in the office just before she had the time to say good-morning. He just wants to be sure, Emeka doesn’t get there before him this Monday morning especially as staff evaluation and promotion is around the corner at the end of the month. So he’s always 30 minutes earlier than Emeka each morning but still is paranoid that Emeka may do a turnaround and decide to become an early bird.
So he tries to make an 8km drive with four busy intersections and eight traffic stops in less than 11 minutes, enough to make even Michael Schumacher green with envy. He never succeeds but then he never stops trying even though the 11 minute benchmark was previously achieved during a bank holiday (which he didn’t hear of) with almost no traffic.
So he curses and swears at all the green cab drivers and he scrapes and dodges near accidents and by the time he is in the office, he is in quite a state and not in the mood to greet anyone “good-morning” with as much as a smile.
Now enters Emeka, a gentleman you’ll love to be with, more inclined towards living a comfortable than one of luxury. He doesn’t wake up in the morning with an alarm because he gets in to bed by 10:30p.m daily and is up by 5a.m and has adequate time to meditate before taking the kids on a 20 minute ride to school before making his way to the office. He volunteered to pick up his boss kids too so he’s never really queried when he comes in 5 or 10 minutes late.
In the office he coaches his team members on the need for collaboration and within them the reward system for remuneration based on commission is shared by all not just by the person who landed the job. This has made it possible for everyone to share contacts and delegate responsibilities based purely on perceived individuals strengths and skills. So naturally, the team is always ahead in regional sales year after year much to the consternation of Michael!
Michael on the other hand is what economists love to describe as a “hard-core capitalist”, so he drives his team like everyday is a race against time. He pitches them against each other and makes them compete directly amongst themselves for the big client or the highest sales weekly and he has a policy he calls, “The Winner Takes it All”. Something I suspect he learnt from a track from the 80’s music band ABBA. Needless to say, his team is constantly in a pensive mood and turnover is highest. However a member of his team is always sure to come out with topmost individual sales record and all others struggle with worst sales performance. It has become quite the norm these days.
Fast-forward to next month, evaluations have been done and recommendations have been made. Michael is called into the President’s office, and his boss says in a deep but friendly voice,
“Hey Michael, you gave us quite a tough choice with deciding who would be the Vice-President, we went for the best option, do accept our decision”. Michael walks out dazed and wondering if this is a practical joke and how was he going to explain to his wife the new BMW X6 he just leased in anticipation of a new raise? Could Emeka become his new boss?
The President picks up the phone and calls Emeka on the intercom, requesting him to come into the office and shaking his hands, he says heartily, “Congratulations, my old friend you deserve it” They shake hands and Emeka walks out and five minutes later his team begins cheering and a bottles of champagne can be heard popping off like a gunshot by Michael in the next office.
Herein lies the difference between competition and collaboration, in competition, there’s a 24 hours-a-day-365-days-a-year desire to climb to the top even if it means stepping on toes and climbing on heads of everyone around you. On the other hand collaboration makes great teams win awards. Teams would aspire to make their coach or captain win more awards selflessly. Great teams help achieve aspirations. Bad teams help create more perspiration. It’s really that simple.
Competition may pay off in the short run and thus seem good at first for the overly-ambitious person, business or country. But there’s only so much you can take from people without giving back; at the end of the day, they’ll have nothing left to give and you’ll have nothing else to take. What happens then? You’ll be gloomy that you’re not receiving anything anymore and they’ll be mad at you for taking all they have. How long do you think it would take before you’ll begin losing sleep and losing friends faster than a dog with a bad case of fleas loses its hair?
Collaboration doesn’t mean the absence of competition; it is however the appreciation of another’s unique natural gifts and abilities then finding a way to combine these unique qualities and making it work for the mutual benefit of all involved. Collaboration necessitates that all parties put their best foot forward and share the rewards afterwards. A simple analogy to illustrate this argument would be saying Hussein Bolt, might be the fastest runner in a 200m dash. But in a 1200M relay race, if he decides to run alone against 2 average runners, they will undoubtedly outrun him.
I run a partnership because I and my partner previously were working independently, but we decided to work inter-dependently as our skills complemented each other’s! In the same vein I believe companies can work together and avoid closing up completely especially during a recession. A good example will be banks and airlines sharing resources by identifying what the other party does best and entering a non-compete agreement in exchange for information or customers. Same goes with countries and multinationals fighting for scarce resources when the truth is: there’s more than enough to go around. The good book assures us that God created the Earth and the fullness thereof. Fullness means abundance, abundance means sufficient. Only stupid children struggle over food in the kitchen when there is more than enough to go around.
Ebuka Anichebe is the Managing Partner of Jean-Paul and Associates Consultancy. He has an uncommon approach to marketing media consulting, business development and customer experience evaluation. He’ll like to hear your views on this article and more, write to him at ebuka@jeanpaulconsult.com or call 07040448749
Michael is in mid 30’s and quite successful and feels very confident of winning a “Mr. Swagger Man” award, whenever an organisation decides to start that. But he lives permanently in a hurried state just like a neighbor you too may know. He’s always hurrying to do stuff. Right from the moment the alarm clock starts buzzing in the morning. He is suddenly reminded of the need to do a million things within only 19 hours! Coz he sleeps by 2a.m and has to be up by 7a.m daily. So he jumps up from bed, says a hurried prayer (rarely) and is about to achieve what Hussein Bolt the Olympic gold medalist would be envious of, he’s in and out of the bathroom in less than 6 minutes. Has a shirt ironed and shoe polished and ready to go in less than ten minutes and is on the road for an 8 km drive to the office. Along the way, he calls the office to ask his secretary who’s in the office just before she had the time to say good-morning. He just wants to be sure, Emeka doesn’t get there before him this Monday morning especially as staff evaluation and promotion is around the corner at the end of the month. So he’s always 30 minutes earlier than Emeka each morning but still is paranoid that Emeka may do a turnaround and decide to become an early bird.
So he tries to make an 8km drive with four busy intersections and eight traffic stops in less than 11 minutes, enough to make even Michael Schumacher green with envy. He never succeeds but then he never stops trying even though the 11 minute benchmark was previously achieved during a bank holiday (which he didn’t hear of) with almost no traffic.
So he curses and swears at all the green cab drivers and he scrapes and dodges near accidents and by the time he is in the office, he is in quite a state and not in the mood to greet anyone “good-morning” with as much as a smile.
Now enters Emeka, a gentleman you’ll love to be with, more inclined towards living a comfortable than one of luxury. He doesn’t wake up in the morning with an alarm because he gets in to bed by 10:30p.m daily and is up by 5a.m and has adequate time to meditate before taking the kids on a 20 minute ride to school before making his way to the office. He volunteered to pick up his boss kids too so he’s never really queried when he comes in 5 or 10 minutes late.
In the office he coaches his team members on the need for collaboration and within them the reward system for remuneration based on commission is shared by all not just by the person who landed the job. This has made it possible for everyone to share contacts and delegate responsibilities based purely on perceived individuals strengths and skills. So naturally, the team is always ahead in regional sales year after year much to the consternation of Michael!
Michael on the other hand is what economists love to describe as a “hard-core capitalist”, so he drives his team like everyday is a race against time. He pitches them against each other and makes them compete directly amongst themselves for the big client or the highest sales weekly and he has a policy he calls, “The Winner Takes it All”. Something I suspect he learnt from a track from the 80’s music band ABBA. Needless to say, his team is constantly in a pensive mood and turnover is highest. However a member of his team is always sure to come out with topmost individual sales record and all others struggle with worst sales performance. It has become quite the norm these days.
Fast-forward to next month, evaluations have been done and recommendations have been made. Michael is called into the President’s office, and his boss says in a deep but friendly voice,
“Hey Michael, you gave us quite a tough choice with deciding who would be the Vice-President, we went for the best option, do accept our decision”. Michael walks out dazed and wondering if this is a practical joke and how was he going to explain to his wife the new BMW X6 he just leased in anticipation of a new raise? Could Emeka become his new boss?
The President picks up the phone and calls Emeka on the intercom, requesting him to come into the office and shaking his hands, he says heartily, “Congratulations, my old friend you deserve it” They shake hands and Emeka walks out and five minutes later his team begins cheering and a bottles of champagne can be heard popping off like a gunshot by Michael in the next office.
Herein lies the difference between competition and collaboration, in competition, there’s a 24 hours-a-day-365-days-a-year desire to climb to the top even if it means stepping on toes and climbing on heads of everyone around you. On the other hand collaboration makes great teams win awards. Teams would aspire to make their coach or captain win more awards selflessly. Great teams help achieve aspirations. Bad teams help create more perspiration. It’s really that simple.
Competition may pay off in the short run and thus seem good at first for the overly-ambitious person, business or country. But there’s only so much you can take from people without giving back; at the end of the day, they’ll have nothing left to give and you’ll have nothing else to take. What happens then? You’ll be gloomy that you’re not receiving anything anymore and they’ll be mad at you for taking all they have. How long do you think it would take before you’ll begin losing sleep and losing friends faster than a dog with a bad case of fleas loses its hair?
Collaboration doesn’t mean the absence of competition; it is however the appreciation of another’s unique natural gifts and abilities then finding a way to combine these unique qualities and making it work for the mutual benefit of all involved. Collaboration necessitates that all parties put their best foot forward and share the rewards afterwards. A simple analogy to illustrate this argument would be saying Hussein Bolt, might be the fastest runner in a 200m dash. But in a 1200M relay race, if he decides to run alone against 2 average runners, they will undoubtedly outrun him.
I run a partnership because I and my partner previously were working independently, but we decided to work inter-dependently as our skills complemented each other’s! In the same vein I believe companies can work together and avoid closing up completely especially during a recession. A good example will be banks and airlines sharing resources by identifying what the other party does best and entering a non-compete agreement in exchange for information or customers. Same goes with countries and multinationals fighting for scarce resources when the truth is: there’s more than enough to go around. The good book assures us that God created the Earth and the fullness thereof. Fullness means abundance, abundance means sufficient. Only stupid children struggle over food in the kitchen when there is more than enough to go around.
Ebuka Anichebe is the Managing Partner of Jean-Paul and Associates Consultancy. He has an uncommon approach to marketing media consulting, business development and customer experience evaluation. He’ll like to hear your views on this article and more, write to him at ebuka@jeanpaulconsult.com or call 07040448749
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