An entrepreneur, Mr Olurotimi Aborisade, on Wednesday called for collaboration to develop the right temperament for growth of Small and Medium Enterprises.
Aborisade, the Chief Executive Officer of Fontera Consulting, made the call at the maiden Youth-Focussed Workshop and Training on Skill Upgrade in Lagos.
The theme was: “Refocussing Mindset for Wealth Creation.”
Aborisade spoke on the topic: “Developing the Right Temperament for Small and Medium Enterprises Growth.”
According to him, to develop the right temperament for SMEs growth, there are ingredients required.
“They are embracing the digit, failure/perseverance, understanding numbers, networking and collaboration.
“To run an SME successfully, one needs to understand their market by indentifying opportunities, understanding competition and pricing.
“In today’s world, digital is the thing now; and so, an SME needs to have a digital presence for their marketing, sales, payment and even customer feedback.
“It is noted that a significant percentage of SMEs close up within one to two years, so they should understand their numbers by having the estimate of capital requirements, management of cash, financial controls and others.
“There is need to embrace failure positively, develop in clusters be disciplined and have a business to business engagement,” he said.
Also, an Information Technology Consultant, Mr Bamikole Ojo, while discussing on “Team-building for Management Success” said that teamwork was essential for SMEs growth.
According to him, there is need for owner of the business to empower people around him to work whenever he is not around, so that the business will not close shop.
“For teamwork to work for an SME, there should be open communication to avoid conflict, effective coordination to avoid confusion, set goals and high level of interdependence to maintain trust, risk-taking and performance.
“There should be interpersonal relationships and group thinking should be avoided through an introduction of an external facilitator and consciously creating time for critical reasoning,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Fidel Otuya, Chief Executive Officer, Hayzee Networks Communication and convener of the workshop, said that the teeming youths in the country lacked the power of knowledge.
According to him, knowledge is ideas that easily translate to assets if properly harnessed, and this can lead to generating wealth.
“The power of knowledge is a challenge to our teeming youths, and so they need to channel their attention to the right things, get the required training on skills for the future,” he said.
Otuya pointed that this maiden effort was to join the national conversation to expand the scope of youths’ inclusion to the national productivity and wealth creation.
He added that Nigeria was rich in resources, but a poor nation and lags behind in world development index as the industrial infrastructure was weak, unproductive and exacerbated by poor public power supply.
Otuya noted that currently, what rules the world was digitisation in whatever one does.
