Industry experts have called on Micro, Small, And Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria to harness the power of partnerships and collaborations to enhance growth and sustainability.

During a webinar organized by Genius Hub on the theme “How can MSMEs leverage partnerships and collaboration for growth,” experts noted that fear of commitment to collaboration often stems from greed, as there have been instances where business partners have been outsmarted by others.
Chief learning officer and consulting lead of progress and paradigms consulting, Barr Ogaga Omo-Ovie urged business owners to be legally savvy when forming partnerships, emphasizing that collaboration is a crucial skill necessary for success.
“The first thing to note if you want to collaborate is to have the mindset that I can’t do it alone, I need people. The second thing is that you must define your purpose, what am I trying to achieve with this collaboration? Is it for a project? Don’t forget that project has a start time and an end time.
“So you must define your purpose, why am I collaborating? Is it for a project? Is it long time? Is it short time? The fact that you collaborated for a short term project will not make you a staff of Genius hub. The fact that you have to do a course for them as a volunteer or intern does not make you a staff of Genius hub, that is a short term project,” he said
He emphasized the importance of core values in business, stating that they guide how a business operates and influence decisions regarding who should be involved in partnerships.
“If you believe in promo services as a way to enter into the market and the person you are collaborating with believes that money should be collected outrightly, you are already singing two different songs, if you believes in integrity and he believe in cutting corners then you are already on two different pages so if you must get it right with collaboration then you need to come into the collaborative agreement with a strong core value.
“Your core values again are not mere statements, with your core values you hire, fire and you reward. With your core values you will hire people, with your core values you will bring in collaborators, don’t be afraid to stand alone when it comes to your core values. The great businesses you see today are very high on their core values,” he added.
Discussing strategies for securing effective partnerships, he advised that the first step is to embody the qualities you seek in a partner and be intentional about networking by actively participating in networking events.
Chief Innovation Officer (CIO) of Genius Hub, Isimeme Whyte, emphasized that collaboration is essential for growth, stating that businesses cannot grow rapidly without it.
She added that business owners must be deliberate about choosing the right people to network with, understanding the purpose of networking, and recognizing the benefits of collaboration.
Whyte mentioned that for effective partnerships, it’s important to apply the J5 principles: joint thinking, joint planning, joint implementation, joint monitoring, and joint reporting.
“You must consider J1 which is joint thinking, you must sit down to think, then the second one is Joint Planning, you must plan together, now that I have seen my area of strength as an organization, how can it be a win win for both of us, what can we do, you sit down and plan. Then Joint Implementation, meaning that you are going to implement together, all of these Js must be part of what forms your end use. So this third J that talks about Joint Implementation means you share roles and responsibilities.
“You take publicity, you handle the marketing and do technical aspect of the project or whatever it is that you are working on, that way there will be teamwork and collaboration, Joint monitoring and evaluation is where the partners both monitor and evaluate the work that has been done, the analysis of data collected, what worked and what didn’t work while the last J is Joint reporting where the partners jointly report their success and in the areas where you have not done well, you come together and consult each other because not all partnership actually lead to positive result but one important thing that it will do for you is to expose you to opportunities,” she said.