A Marriage Between Businesses

“If you want to go quick, you can go alone. But if you want to go further, you must go together.”

That’s what people have been saying, and it is true. A partnership is a way business achieves great results, not only in business but life generally.

For instance, marriage can be deemed as a form of partnership, although some can go wrong and end up with divorces, many succeeded and end up growing old together. Of course, one can go very far without being married, but to reproduce and sustain the human population, marriage is the way to go!

To collaborate in business is so much like getting married; you need to find the perfect partner and make sure you share the same goal and understand each other to make it work.

A Partnership Is A Way Business Achieve Great Results

Before embarking into this new journey of collaboration, one needs to consider these important elements; Passion, Empathy, and Respect. Sharing the same passion is the key to a successful collaboration.

Unity in setting the common goal drives the partnership further and forward to more accomplishments. Empathy, on the other hand, is essential to understand the people we work together and figuring out the differences. Respect is to hold others, despite the contradicting features and minds, in the aim to bring out the best through the collaboration.

With common goals and better understanding, businesses can collaborate and achieve great accomplishments.

How To Collaborate?

In Malaysia, there are enormous ways businesses can collaborate, whether you’re a newly growing one, or the big successful corporations, the opportunities to work together and collaborate are endless.

For instance, Malaysia Retailers Association (MRA) is a platform for business owners to meet and network with one another, locally and internationally through participation in international trade fairs and conventions.

Like the Tinder app for business collaboration, MRA is a platform that provides vast opportunities and endless support for business owners to grow together and achieve beyond their capabilities.

Why Collaborate?

The most amazing part of collaboration is not the growth and boosts in the earnings. But through successful collaborations, consumers can enjoy more options and better conveniences.

How is this possible?

Take it this way. Business owners offer different products and services, and actively competing with each other to provide the best for their customers. Through collaborations, business owners can provide better conveniences for the customers, for instance, making their products and services easily accessible.

One very famous example we can see is the collaboration of restaurant owners and delivery providers happening so quickly and successfully now in Malaysia, especially in the Klang Valley.

Food Panda, Grab Food, and Honest Bee are some example of food delivery providers that collaborate with restaurants and eateries to provide better conveniences and options to customers. Without leaving the comfort of your house, you can enjoy freshly cooked meals, delivered right to your doorstep.

In the end, restaurant owners get more customers, delivery providers get a commission from the trips, and the customers get to enjoy delicious food without leaving home.

Benefits Of A Collaboration

Another reason to collaborate is the benefits for businesses to embark on a new platform and enhance growth. A small company that finds the internet something alien might benefit from collaboration with a high tech company and embark into the online business platform.

As simple as that, both can benefit from one another and boosts their income. For instance, Shopee and Lazada provide opportunities to collaborate with small business owners, allowing them to embark into the online business platform.

This way, businesses can learn from one another, exchange ideas and solve problems together.

The Digital Platforms

Business collaborating with each other and utilizing the digital platform makes the best combination for great performance and maximize their capabilities.

Outlined in the Productivity Report 2017/2018 by Malaysia Productivity Corporation (MPC), the retail and F&B subsector shows a productivity growth of 6.5% in 2017 as compared to the previous year.

The performance of the retail and F&B subsector shows a skyrocketing improvement of 9.0% from RM95.1 billion in 2016 to RM103.8 billion in 2017.

The drivers to this significant improvement in the productivity and performance as per detailed in the 2017/2018 Productivity Report by MPS, are the collaborations between parties in the supply network, adhered with effective marketing channels and enhanced by the effort of the Malaysian Government to help these locals food businesses to penetrate the digital platform, including the introduction of Digital Free Trade Zone (DFTZ).

How To Split The Profit In Business Collaboration?

Well, technically it works pretty much like splitting them into two since there are no clear cut ways to split the profit.

Some collaboration has a clear cut of understanding, of which party gets to earn which part of the profit, like the Food Panda and restaurant owners’ case.  The restaurant owners get the income from selling food while Food Panda gets their commission from the delivery trips.

While in other types of collaboration, like producing a product together, might find the splitting of the profit a bit complicated. Hence it is important to understand how far each party collaborates and the portion they share.

It is also advisable to consult a lawyer and have a black and white agreement on how to split the profit so that everyone is happy and satisfied.

On the other hand, business owners shall not worry so much on the splitting of the profit, because the collaboration itself actually lowers the cost of operating the business.

Collaboration means sharing, and this means that the business owners share ideas, expenses, the groundwork as well as the marketing expenses. Can you imagine operating your business at a lower cost, but obtaining a bigger profit?

Conclusion

In a nutshell, business collaboration cuts out the unhealthy competition and allows business owners to go further beyond their capabilities in achieving bigger and better. A partnership is a way business achieves great results.

Not only it benefits the ones collaborating, but the customers enjoy better conveniences and improved service at high efficiency.