The history of success in business is also the history of collaboration. From the Wright brothers to Ben Cohen and Jerry and the Google founders, entrepreneurs came together to share skills and expertise and built great products and services.
Collaborations usually function in two levels — individual and enterprise. At the individual level, entrepreneurs join forces to chase their goals, while at an entrepreneurial level, companies embrace each other to share core competencies and pave the way for better services and products.
The solo trend
But not many were in favour of the C word in business. Many businessmen, including famous ones such as Andrew Carnegie or Henry Ford, wanted to go solo or, if they were in need for some extra skill or competency, they went ahead and built those in-house, making their enterprise branch out into unchartered territories.
In many cases, such moves didnt deliver the desired results. But for some, that strategy worked. Obviously, we dont get to hear about those that failed.
But things have changed, as Bob Dylan has put it. The arrival of the Covid-19 pandemic has forced business communities to sit back and introspect, in a historically unprecedented way.
Surely, one of the most important learnings from the pandemic is that this is the time one should stick to the core competency and go frugal on spends in order to weather the economic storm brought in by the coronavirus and find sustainable growth.
Indeed, the post-pandemic world, which Id like to call the Covid-continuous world, considering that the impact of the coronavirus are going to be lingering on for at least a decade from now, will be one where most entrepreneurs will desist from placing big bets.
The risk appetite will be much limited, by default and by design. Companies will be cutting corners to make up for the losses and will be introducing a number of measures to enhance productivity and workforce optimisation.
This scenario might not pose a gargantuan challenge to giant companies. But for medium and small sized enterprises and startups, the Covid-world is going to be a challenging one as they will be staring at cost and staff optimisation puzzles and scrambling for functional business solutions.
By default, most will trim portfolios and abandon expansion plans. Thats the Pavlovian approach during a crisis. But for ambitious companies and enterprises that brings a lot of pain, given that they know the impact of the pandemic can last longer than many expect.