Creation, strengthening and governance of networks

According to the Oxford dictionary, networking is, metaphorically, “a set of people, organs or organizations working in connection towards a common goal”. Here at Raízes, we believe that, precisely because of the power to pursue this common goal, collective solutions are always more resilient than individual ones. Therefore, we work with the creation and governance of networks

Managing challenges together allows access to other angles and the ability to see richer and more creative alternatives. Working in groups or networks also has the benefit of task delegation, which in turn makes for a lighter load distribution and thus the possibility of achieving greater results. As the African proverb says, “if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together“.

Mutual support can help, for example, helping small entrepreneurs to go through adversity. Networking creates advantages such as making collective purchases, attracting joint customers, and integrated communication, among other things. This can be seen in the case of the collective “Casa do Frufru”, from Periquito, in the rural area of Minas Gerais, which we helped to create. It is made up of women who are Individual Micro Entrepreneurs (MEI) who come together to generate more competitiveness and reach the market as a unique brand.

Benefits of collaboration in tourism

Collaborating is a matter of survival today, and helps strengthen smaller players.

There are several possible ways to collaborate. It can be an associative, cooperative or collective format; an informal or trade network (in the case of tourism); an official governance body with State connections, among other possibilities.

For tourism, this is particularly important because cooperation is what will create competitiveness for the destination.

We always tell entrepreneurs that they are not competitors, even though they might be involved in the same business activity.

By cooperating, they strengthen their destinations, enabling them to better compete with others.

This understanding makes a huge difference in making a destination successful, competitive, able to attract more tourists as well as increasing their permanence.