Collaboration: The Way-Forward For SMBs For Growth And Branding

Having worked as, with and for SMBs (Small and Medium Businesses), has been an amazing experience over the years. Can’t remember two similar days on the journey where we just came to office, filed in our documents and logged off at 6:00 pm. Every day has been different with new challenges (a.k.a opportunities), new problems (a.k.a. brain teasers) and roadblocks (a.k.a. day to day business). LOL … am sure all entrepreneurs, startup founders and SMB owners relate with these situations, right?

To top it up – technology has and is moving ahead so fast that managing today and tomorrow at the same time is a business leader’s prime challenge (or opportunity as you may see it). How many of you have felt like:

• You are learning and appearing for the exam at the same time OR
• Being pushed into water without knowing how to swim and made to make it out of water safely OR
• Just when you have cracked an issue, something has disrupted or changed the game completely? OR
• Profit is becoming a mirage? The more you look for it, costs pile up for innovation, technology and skilled resources.

All of us will have felt like this some time or the other during our SMB journey till date. And there seems no respite as we move forward. The challenges will get tougher, problems will become complex and solutions will need not just skills but vision and patience to stay in the game.

Lets face it. SMBs don’t have deep pockets to play the waiting game. (Is there a waiting game anyway?). Corporate are struggling to innovate and stay ahead of the curve too.

Enough of complaining and whining, come to the point man…
Ok. I understand, I stretched it a bit. Been there, done that. Hence, got a bit carried away.

The answer is COLLABORATION.

Collaboration can be beautifully used to synergize and build powerful solutions to problems or jointly tackle issues arising out of complex business requirements or processes. While collaboration should not be mixed or misunderstood as teamwork, the underlying principles remain the same – working as complementary units to solve a puzzle/problem.

In the video below, I have shared some examples of real life collaboration by our team with other partners and companies to complete successful projects or create winning solutions for our customers and ourselves. Do watch it and share your views, stories as well.

In subsequent articles and videos, I will share a lot of examples and real life cases where collaboration has proven to be THE only solution when tackling issues and situations. Do stay tuned…