Teamwork

As the World Cup season comes to an end many countries go back home to develop new strategies to take to Brazil in 2014 in the hope of winning the prestigious trophy in yet another encounter.

Beyond individual effort and talent, the one characteristic of a winning strategy that has never failed any successful nation, is good teamwork.

Teamwork has proved itself as the winning formula in all team sports and is also applicable to governance, national development, building an economy, and running a successful company.

The United States employed team work to develop a federation of various states such that during the Second World War it emerged as the world’s first super power. China pooled its industrial capacity over the last four decades to become the world’s most efficient producer of finished goods thereby growing into the largest exporter on the planet. The European Union attracted the majority of European countries to come together to team up in economic development. The Latin economies of South America have recently regrouped to build capacity together to develop the sub continent. In Africa, several initiatives have emerged through ECOWAS, SADC, COMESA, SACU, EAC and others, to form economic and political blocks that should work together to achieve common goals.

On the domestic front, there has not been very active teamwork within the private sector to engage with government and other parties to achieve economic growth.

The private sector has many sector specific business organizations that pursue sector specific goals with very little dialogue across the various sectors.

Not much discussion and debate has gone towards developing common positions and agendas on cross cutting issues that impact on every sector of economic activity.

Typical examples are; the impact of the COMESA Customs Union on Zambia’s business environment, the value and use of statutory government agencies in economic development, the challenges faced by the private sector in securing quality banking and financial services, the opportunities available to Zambian businesses emerging from State visits to other countries, the opportunities presented to Zambia through visiting business delegations, to name but a few.

As the world becomes less complex to navigate and the competition becomes more challenging, the private sector is compelled to exhibit more teamwork in order to develop the necessary muscle to persuade government on policy development, and to engage with the outside world more formidably.

Forums for developing teamwork should be set up immediately such that all independent thinking on the various development issues can be brought to the table and discussed in an effort to arrive at a meaningful decision on the way forward.

To this end, a COMESA Customs Union Forum should be launched to bring all the stakeholders in the country together in true teamwork spirit. The dialogue will not only inform government on the finer points challenging the nation, but will also assist the private sector to prepare themselves to engage with the rest of the region in business activity. The Customs Union is currently Zambia’s imminent challenge and therefore deserves to be top of the agenda.

The launch of a single start up Forum will no doubt raise enough issues for other forums to be launched, with a net result of broad consultation and wide input into most decision making processes that affect private sector development and regional integration initiatives.

The teamwork approach is the most inclusive and consistent manner of tackling the many problems and challenges that face most developing economies. Governments employ this mechanism in the Budget Building process and other multi-Ministry initiatives. The private sector should be in the forefront of championing this process far beyond current practices, if Zambia is to move forward aggressively with the agenda of building and broadening the economy.

The 2010 World Cup in many ways describes the attributes of teamwork. During the World Cup, Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and other giants of the Premier League, all team up together to form England. This is the same for all other nations in the tournament where individual clubs elevate their status to that of national representation.

As Zambia prepares to engage with Brazil in the aftermath of the state visit to Zambia of Brazil President Lula, the private sector must be better organized to extract the benefits of the numerous agreements signed. This is the time to research Brazil extensively and select the options that Zambia would like to follow up with a view to finally developing an engagement plan.

During each year several business delegations travel to different parts of the world in search of business opportunities for Zambian companies. Much more effort must be put in to ensure that the delegations do not end their initiatives with a refreshing holiday, but that each delegation brings home options and opportunities for many Zambians to build the country through improved production of goods and services.

The teamwork spirit must be rekindled. The blueprints for teamwork are already in our systems through the Chambers of Commerce and other similar institutions. The opportunities are open to Zambia if strategies are devised to encompass the majority of private sector players.

It is ironic that a country such as Zambia which is endowed with vast resources, fantastic weather conditions, a pleasant disposition of people, and yet registers as one of the poor nations of the planet.

Published 13 July 2010