Horizontal Collaboration

Activating a crucial lever to catalyze pan-African Development

The word horizontal connotes a state of uniformity or involving the same hierarchy level. It’s a movement on a plane that is practically similar at all levels. The word can be easily adapted to any field and would illustrate its meaning of uniformity. In a formal work environment, horizontal communication refers to exchanging information between people or teams at the same organizational level. If we head over to enterprise management, the word horizontal collaboration highlights a practice where companies operating at the same level of the supply chain work together to achieve a common goal. These companies whether competitors or non-competitors share responsibilities, resources, and information toward achieving a common objective

“A prerequisite for effective horizontal collaboration is a common purpose or a collective outlook”

Turning the table towards the target rather than the process sees us focus on pan-African development.
On a continent where development has yet to gain a broad penetration and where people are generally perceived to be voracious consumers rather than producers, I can’t help but say there’s a need for horizontal collaboration amongst the ingenious producers. In Africa, there’s a need for critical problem-solving, and kudos to all those innovative thinkers trying to solve problems irrespective of incomprehensive government laws, inconsistent local regulatory policies, and diverse socio-economic challenges, you’re the real MVP. I’m glad to say that, we have seen an eruption of problem-solving solutions but we must understand that some strongholds can only be broken by intentional horizontal collaborations. There’s a need for more purpose-driven B2B collaborations to tackle stubborn challenges, and there’s a need for intra-African alliance to solve pig-headed problems and improve the quality of human lives on the continent. Builders need to collaborate, startups need to share tools, and resources to tackle issues hedge-on. It’s greed and a lack of forward-thinking mentality to think only you or one body can solve the problems faced by Africans. Issues on the continent are unique and need unconventional methods to solve. Most problems on this blessed land take the form of an onion, you keep interfacing with a new layer as you try to solve the present one. When building a solution, you don’t just solve the particular problem, you assist or create a pathway to solving another. A good example of horizontal collaboration is the Alibaba group, one of the biggest companies in the world today which came as a result of a collaboration between 18 co-founders, who brought their respective solutions to the table to revolutionize their economy.
With Africa’s massive population and diverse ethical landscape, one solution fits all is hard to arrive by. There’s a need for less competition, less striving to achieve the best status, and more efforts to ensure optimum solutions are created to solve inherent problems. With horizontal collaboration a lot can be achieved, a broader target audience can be reached, more nefarious regulations and policies can be squashed, and indigenous development can be championed.

In summary, we can all agree that for a continent in dire need of solutions to solve persistent problems, a united approach saddled with an understanding of resource sharing and co-working rather than competing is essential in catalyzing a rapid array of indigenous solutions to solve problems and improve the living standards of its inhabitants.

UBUNTU 🤗🤗