The New World Order

FIFA World Cup Football is a spectacular event that captivates audiences from more countries than any other spectator does. Passion rides high and teams, supporters and the whole eco-system that makes this grand event a success prepares for months and years.

The 2018 event was no exception except for the fact that it kept throwing up more surprises as each game progressed. The high and mighty of the game as in individuals as well as teams were left behind, overshadowed by teams written off even before the games started. Eventually, all the favorites were filtered out by their performance and the crown was passed on to someone not exactly new to the game.

Like in football, the business world also keeps filtering out the old giants who looked invincible is humbled and newer, nimbler businesses that were born ‘just yesterday’. A case in point is the once almighty GE. An erstwhile bell weather co, GE has produced some of the finest managers of the western world. There was a time, if you polled the top CEOs of the western world, most of them would have had a stint in GE sometimes in their career.

GE in the past has been the center of attention for the leading market shares it had in the domains in which it chose to operate. Under Jack Welch, GE grew into a huge behemoth with its leading presence in power, healthcare, engineering and host of other industries. GE is also credited with inventing some of the management concepts like Six Sigma, that is even today, practiced by many companies across the world.

According to some, GE’s advantage lay in its system of professional management, epitomized by its investments in executive education and management development. Leading academics were part of the education process that managers at GE went through. Jeffry Immelt carried on the tradition of Jack Welch and had Eric Ries, author of the chart topper book ‘The Lean Start-up’, as a part of the advisory team that guided GE managers as they struggled to survive.

GE may not be a write off yet. It might make a comeback like IBM did under Lou Gerstner. Only time will tell us about GE’s future.

With a wealth of knowledge, experience and resources available with them, why is it that companies like GE, Nokia, Kodak, Motorola and many more leaders of the industry fall behind? Is it the ‘boiling frog’ syndrome, lack of vision, unwilling to acknowledge change, refusal to give-up power? Or is it a combination of all of these and more that ensures a rapid sinking to the bottom of the pile?

If you look at the list of richest people in the world today, you will find the top three – Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates & Mark Zuckerberg – all made their money in tech. But within the tech community itself you will find ample examples of companies that have followed the like of GE – Yahoo, My Space to name a couple.

It is therefore, not the changing industries and favorites of the moment, but the way we run our businesses that are responsible for the future fate of the organization. Finally, it is how we play the game!

Do You Have a Business Plan?

The argument for business plans goes both ways. Many an urban legend talks about entrepreneurs who have built billion-dollar businesses without having any idea about what a business plan is. On the other extreme there are those who have created equally successful businesses where every step of the way has been part of a structured plan. What therefore is the reality?

Let us start by assuming that you are of the belief that business plans are a whole bunch of crap created by suits from consulting organizations and eulogized in MBA programs. I am also assuming that you are one of those lucky ones who had a eureka moment and decided to act on it? Great! What next?

You start by developing the solution and think of ways to tell the whole world (your target audience) about the super-duper solution that you have for them that will make their life oh! So smooth. You need money which you may not have. So, you scrounge, beg or borrow till you have your business off the ground. And again, let’s assume that your product / solution flies off the shelves and you scramble to make more. You need more space more money and more arms and feet (and minds) to keep your new-found success from vanishing as quickly as it came. There you are – a successful entrepreneur.

Let’s look back and see what made you successful – an idea; your understanding that the idea could make money; your belief that some people would be willing to pay you for your solution; your decision to run with it; money; production; distribution; people and some balm to placate irate people when you goofed up. And congratulations, you have the mental ability and maybe some paper napkins to helped you on your journey. Tell you what - someday in the future, there will be too many zeros to take care off, too many people on either side to remember them by name, too many loose ends; too many products to be sent to too many destinations. And when you feel totally overwhelmed, you may reach out for that piece of paper, your laptop or the software that your friend spoke about to keep your head above the water.

Whethe you are the genius with a huge capability to churn all the wheels in your mind or the simple joe, we all plan if we are serious about making our ideas work. Sometimes a paper napkin gives us the head start that we need but other times, it may be a worthwhile to give a structure to your thoughts. For lack of a better name, you may call it your ‘Business Plan’.

The Customer Service Pitfall

I have always had this grouse that most companies and individuals in companies stumble and have a great fall when it comes to customer service. I also believe that most companies, specially the ones with multiple national lineage have the processes and intent in place but goof-up happens at the frontline level where either the executive is either incapable of having a perspective or is limited by the company’s policies of not empowering them to take on the spot decisions.

I am very happy to have encountered an extremely pleasant and satisfying experience the other day and I have hopes that the some of the organisations are stepping up their game.

I had done my weekly shopping at the Hypercity outlet in Noida, a suburb of Delhi. On returning home, I realised that the cashier had kept aside one of the items at the time of billing and had forgotten to put it my shopping bag. After speaking to customer service, I was given a complaint reference number and asked to visit the store and contact the store’s customer service for complaint redressal.

I had some extensive international travel right after this incidence and so was unable to visit the store. It was only after approximately two and a half months that I could actually visit the store to replies some groceries that were running low. I went up-to the Customer Service desk and gave them the reference number and the invoice of my previous purchase and complain. I was informed that the ownership of the store had changed, and that the database of the existing store was merged with that of the new owners and the executive therefore had no access to the referenced complaint.

This is when the story takes a turn for the better. The CSE very politely said and I quote: “sir, I am sure your complaint is genuine, and I apologise for the inconvenience you have been put to. I cant not resolve this problem of yours but I will give you a merchandise worth the value of the missing item against your current purchase. Please complete your check out and collect the merchandise from me”.

The entire episode took less than two minutes to resolve. The customer (me) was happy; the store brand got a few positive ticks and the CSE did his job. What was the level of difficulty – very low. Why is then that the larger lot of service providers are unable to retrieve the situation and create positive moments of truths for their brand and company? Why is it that these companies do not empower the front lines, the people interacting with real consumers, to take decisions that cost little but give huge returns in terms of customer goodwill, positive WOM and may be also some brand loyalty?

My only regret in this incident was that I forgot to ask the gentleman’s name. Next time for sure.

The Internet has made location redundant. Has it really?

In 1997, the Book “Death of Distance” by Frances Cairncross popularized the concept that The Web made distance redundant. Twenty years is a long time for the internet to have established its dominance and made all of us servile to the web.

While there is no doubt that our lives have come to be dominated by it’s almost omnipresence, but if you peep into any shopping area or a bank or eatery, there seems to be overwhelmed by a rush of people to buy their products or services.

Business.com in a 2017 report claims that for e-commerce sales as percentage of total retail sales, China has the highest share at 15.9% followed by United States of America at 7.5%.

We also have witnessed a surge in retail real estate prices in most growing economies in the world.

So why is it that in spite of our growing addiction and dependence on the ubiquitous mobile phone and a plethora of other such gadgets, commerce is still dependent on the traditional methods of exchange and interaction?

The possible reasons for this could be many:

In a recently published essay “How Geography Shapes—and is Shaped By—the Internet,” written by Chris Forman, Avi Goldfarb, and Shane Greenstein, the authors attempt to answer the question, “What consequences did the spread of the internet have for geographical location of economic activity?”

In an interview with Sean Silverthorne of Harvard Business School, Shane Greenstein states that “though internet technology ostensibly diffused everywhere, it did not get experienced as the same technology in each location”.

Moving away from the business side, many of us would rather hear a living human voice no matter how human & intelligent ‘Alex’ may sound. The Voice Assistant Market is right now on fire but could be a novelty factor or a fad driving it. Human beings need appropriate responses from other human beings to perpetuate their own self-worth. Machines are years away, if at, in providing us that same sense of wellbeing.