Not Being Sarkari

     

Truly, Zappos is selling their customer culture like, like, like, like (just thinking of word)...like porn.

Anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed a life away from hustle and bustle. Apart from exploring various aspects of village life, I did what I am good at - looking for running tracks and exploring standard of customer service. There are few things which left me in awe most of the time while staying with my extended family in village.   Relationship building - People working in farms do not know me but they were always ready to help me with anything. Ready to give things smilingly. Ready to go to any lengths to make me feel at home. I was demanding at times but nothing was big enough to make them frown. Everyone knew everyone. Everyone knew my grandfather and people preferred to address me as his grandson and not by my name. I think all MBA students should spend one semester in village so that they can learn some basics in relationship building which holds a prominent place in any business.

Resilience - Apart from doing physical hard-work, they are extremely resilient. Once my professor told me that an Indian farmer is probably the biggest risk taker in the world. He invests everything he has in his farming when he knows that the end result depends on a lot of other factors like monsoon, some crop disease etc which are beyond his control. But his spirits are never down. He is resilient enough to rise above all obstacles and still able to keep a smiling face. Simplicity - Everything they use, everything they do, every transaction they make has only one thing common - simplicity. If it is simple to use and fits into their need, it will be adopted without any effort. From ploughing fields to kitchen, from kids to oldies, simplicity is one common thread which binds them.   
 These points I just thought of and this is definitely not the comprehensive list. I am glad that I
started my decade in this kind of ecosystem. As this new decade has come, I hope to inculcate few things in my life style as well.

• Out-read the other guys. Tom Peters also suggests the same.
• Out-see the other guys. Ted is great place to watch some videos about future technologies, passion shaping businesses and ordinary people doing some amazing things.
• Out-blog the other guys. Gather information (first two steps will help you), analyze it and put it on social media (for me, blogging works best).

Sounds simple. Right?

 With some of my ordinary experiences with so called organized players, my faith is back in local businesses. My mindset is changing because with the advent of organized retail, local businesses have also pulled their socks and raised their standards (service, hygiene etc.) to decent levels. And organized retailers are unable to compete with these resurgent small businesses. For the next four weeks, every Friday I intend to cover one small business to which I am sold because they offer me great service.   First in line is a restaurant, Sip and Bite in Gurgaon which is run by an old Uncle and Aunty. Couple of months back, I developed an allergy to red chilly powder and doctor has asked me to avoid it. One evening, I went to this restaurant asking what all is available without red chilly. Steward suggested a couple of dishes, and I ordered as per that. True to his advice it was without any red chilly.  After a few days, I again went to this place. Steward came to me with a menu and asked me, "Sir, you want without red chilly?". I was floored because he remembered me and my choices. After that moment, I knew I was going to be a regular at this place. After all, you do not find such places very often where people remember you very often.  Place is clean and kitchen is open and is visible to everyone. This exudes confidence in the diner as he can see that everything is cooked in a place which is spic and span. It also shows that owners have full faith in their facility.
 I am sold to this place because of their thoughtfulness and openness.

Weekend was fruitful. It was busy, little hectic but full of meaningful conversations. Listened to one of India's most revered speaker, met some interesting people, got insights from some entrepreneurs and made some new friends. On Saturday, I got a chance to listen to Former President of India, Dr APJ Kalam. To me, He is an intelligent man who accomplished many great things without compromising on integrity and values (Dr Manmohan Singh is another such rare Indian). I always dreamt of listening to his speech and having some cool conversations with him. First half of the dream is fulfilled.  As usual speech was inspiring. It was full of stories and conversations which Dr Kalam had with great visionaries and personalities during his lifetime. From his speech it was evident that he has a great vision for our country. He passionately shares that vision with everyone, especially students. He ended his speech with a question which every Indian should ask from himself. How I wish to be remembered (in terms of one's contribution to growth of country)? I think this is a question which one should keep asking himself because if answers, followed by actions, are missing to this question than there is problem. Thanks Alma Mater for this opportunity. On Sunday, I had an opportunity of meeting some entrepreneurs. Couple of them have already made it big, some are small but doing good for themselves, some who has just jumped on this bandwagon and lot of aspiring entrepreneurs like me. Discussions were related to practical aspects of launching and doing 'the own thing'. There were no fairy tale stories or inspiring stuff from them but focus was on difficulties one face while trodding this less travelled road. Lot of insights, sharing, conversations and guidance.  An interesting point resonated by almost everyone, try to keep your customers happy and satisfied while your business is gaining momentum. Hey, opportunities for people like me. Cool!

Fortune named Steve Jobs as a CEO of decade. After all there are not many CEOs in the world who have transformed four industries in a decade - music, movies, mobile and computers.

This article was perfect fodder for any Apple fanboy's soul. And yours truly is no different.

A comment pertaining to air travel on a blog post.

Insightful post on Lateral Thinking blog

  

Your Inner Whining Artist (IWA) is the part of you that tells you you’re a genius waiting to be discovered. If only the big bad world would sit up and recognise your talent, the IWA tells you, all your problems would be over. Audiences and critics would bow at your feet, agents would queue up to represent you, and all the people who’d ever rejected your work would be gorging themselves on humble pie. You just need to get your break, to be discovered. It can only be a matter of time …

 This is so true about so many bloggers from India (may be worldwide) as well. Check out any blogging forum and you will notice all bloggers have a feeling that they have one of the best blog in their genre (yours truly is no different). Their content is far superior than every other blog present. Their blog content has everything which can translate into best-seller. Next blockbuster will be because of their blog.  Most bloggers are waiting for that right moment. Right time when a stroke of luck will change their blog into a money spinner instrument. Everybody is waiting to be discovered. Nobody wants to be left out.  With more than 9,00,000 blogs are getting added every 24 hours, this seems to be a wishful thinking. What say? Does anyone have a chance of making big? Yes.  Bloggers writing for themselves. Bloggers not writing to please audience who regularly or occasionally comments on their blog. Bloggers writing original and interesting stuff. Bloggers challenging status quo.  But then this is true for individuals as well. After all blogs derive personality from the individuals behind them.

 Some of the points which I feel relevant to many businesses are: Greet warmly - An eye contact. A hearty smile. A friendly hello. A sincere greeting. All these things help in initiating a relationship which can be cherished for long time to come. Opening lines matter - Do not open your conversation with a lame sentence like "mineral water or tap water?" More the interesting opening lines are, more the customer will be inclined to stay with you. After all you do want him to come again and again because of you.  Interrupting a conversation is a sin - Yes, you have some wonderful ideas and bombarding your customer with those ideas is the only logical thing occurring to you. But hold on. Let your customer speak first. Do not interrupt him. If customer is accompanied by a friend or spouse and they are discussing something, do not interrupt them as well. Be patient, you will have enough time to throw your ideas at them. Take feedback and fix things which are not right - After customers are done with their shopping, dinner or window/floor shopping, do take their feedback. And taking feedback will be the first step only and it would be an incomplete step if you do what needs to be corrected. Be consistent throughout your conversation - Charming at the beginning of conversation. Listless in the middle. Tired at the end of the conversation. Not done. Hardly an impact which you want to leave on customer.
This is only part one and I can't wait to read the second part as well. Will share with you all as soon it is updated.

 Today I attended a pasta cooking session. I love cooking and keep on trying new dishes regularly. So, this pasta session was a logical thing for me to attend. More than pasta, I was amazed the way chef conducted the session. Whole cooking session was made lively by the chef, who was not afraid of licking his fingers in front of the crowd. He was cool, informal, enthusiastic and knew his stuff thoroughly. Chef regularly involved in conversations while preparation was underway. There were hardly moments of awkward silence during the cooking session. He used his time effectively to build relationships with audience. Though, chef was representing a pasta company, he hardly spoke about his pasta. He concentrated only on the cooking techniques of pasta. Educating customers and building relationship was his priority. His spotlight was on audience and not on himself or his product. In a nutshell, he ensured that people enjoy the journey before reaching the destination. He made sure that people thoroughly enjoyed this journey. I guess this an important principle in customer service. Most of the time, we customer service professionals concentrate on resolutions. We hardly pay attention on making that journey smooth for the customer. We are so engrossed in our processes that we usually forget about the person standing in front of us, who actually pays our paycheck. I guess if we can spend sometime on making that journey smooth, customer might decide to stay back and do business with us after his problem is resolved. We usually put more stakes on reaching the destination than enjoying the journey. It is human nature.  

During a Diwali party, somebody asked me "how is my organization's business?".

I did not want to say much as it is difficult to accept a position where you have to be defensive. It would have been little arrogant which may not have gelled well with some of the audience.

By the time, I was ready to give a politically correct answer. Somebody said, "The urge to have more and more customers is like attaining nirvana. It is never-ending." I could not have answered better.
Planning has begun so that we have great Christmas and New Year. Let's hope dhamaka continues.

"Leadership is a constant learning" feels Carol Bartz, Chief Executive of Yahoo!, in an interview. I liked one story which she shared.

My favorite story is when we were on a farm in Wisconsin; I would have probably been 13. There was a snake up in the rafter of the machine shed. And we ran and said, "Grandma, there’s a snake." And she came out and she knocked it down with a shovel, chopped its head off and said, "You could have done that." And, you know, that’s the tone she set. Just get it done. Just do it. Pick yourself up. Move on. Laugh.

Shrug it off and just get it done is a mantra which is continuously agreed upon but not followed. It is something which usually is not seen in places where bureaucracy has seeped in. Customers will be a lot more happy to deal with you if your philosophy is also- just get it done.

After reading this interview, I am intrigued to know more about this lady.

 But then there are some which are trying to do few things which might improve things in the long run. There are two businesses whom I know personally, are doing things which are good for environment and trying make this world a better place to live. First one is EYEC (website not fully functional) is a startup company founded by one of my college mate. This company is doing very simple thing - asking customers to gift a tree. Gift a tree for any occasion - anniversary, birthdays, festivals etc. In case there is no occasion, make it an occasion by gifting a tree. Initially, I was not sure about the viability of this idea but it is gradually picking up. In its journey of five months, this company is presently gifting close to 40 tree in a day. I think number is not bad for someone who trying to make this world a better place to live. Second is RunningandLiving.com which inspires people to run. Again, a kind of first in India. They organize monthly runs in and around Delhi with Gurgaon runs being their flagship run. In last one year, this company has organized two runs in which runners get an opportunity to plant saplings enroute their 10 KM/15 KM running distance. Plants were sponsored and pits dug by State Government's Urban Development arm. Runners get to do some good by planting saplings in those pits. RunningandLiving.com was enabler in this whole process without which this might not have been possible. I feel lucky that I am associated as customer with at least two businesses which intend to do some repair patch work on this bruised environment.