Incomplete Business Plans & Executions

Yes, How many business plans are discussing about the kind of experience they wish to create for their customers ?  

Business plans contain information on whole world of product differentiation and sales strategy ,  financial ratios and revenue models , market segmentation and team but I have not any seen business plan explaining in details about customer experience and kind of culture team wants to built. 

I read a comment in response to my earlier blog post , " don't spoil customers by offering finest experience. " But I would say some companies are spoiling their talent in order to retain them.  Once habituated to vibrant culture and decent pay , employees find themselves misfit and uncomfortable with other not so great culture. This is the way to retain them from moving away. 

Likewise spoil your customers to retain them. Give them unprecedented and unmatched experience and you get their lifetime loyalty. This requires thinking and creation of culture. This is a huge competitive advantage and MUST find its way into the business plans. 

Design and define customer experience in your business plan and that will set the ball rolling for the culture it will entail. 

Community Creation & Social Media

Blogging after few days. 

Well was busy with setting you new blog www.cforcapital.wordpress.com ( Focused on creating community of banking / finance professionals and capital seeking entrepreneurs )

2) One more in the offing www.wforwow.wordpress.com ( Focused on Community of Chief Customer /Experience Officers, though very rare in India but aim to grow this fraternity through this community )

3) White paper on Healthcare ( Health Dispensers ) Industry on How to create WOW!! Customer Experience for their Customers 

4) Creating content for my website at www.sunilgandhi.com

Lot of content creation planned for few few days. 

This blog will continue to have pieces on entrepreneurship, social media and personal experiences on life journey.

Cheers.

2 MUST priorities for every Business Owners !!!! Yes MUST.

Most of us either want to buy our own home or have taken debt to buy our own home. Most of us do not want to do job but with no other option and hence compelled to do job to survive. Its not our natural choice. Yes, this is not any survey result but learning from KBC participants. I think its a representative class of the masses across the globe. 

Manoj Kumar produced Roti Kapda aur Makaan in early 70s. However Maakan has still remained a major problem for most of the population on the earth. How Pity!!!! People spend their lifetime earning to buy one home or indulge in debt which they keep paying during their lifetime. 

I think this is directly related to another inner feeling of masses of not like to do job /dislike their jobs. Shareholder-ism over people-ism is the major cause of this grave situation. People spend their lifetime in doing what they don't like!!!! What a waste , not of time but lives. 

It is the responsibility of every entrepreneurs/corporation to make sure that they do two things:

1)  Make their people love their jobs (Doing whatever it takes).

2) Working for Financial Freedom of employees before they think about shareholder expectations (We have hefty reserves and surplus in company balance sheets but employees working for these are in debt and not happy).

All of us must work to increase gross happiness of people working for us. All other CSR initiatives are meaningless without achieving this first milestone.

We have corporations like Tony of zappos.com (Entrepreneur and author of book Delivering Happiness) or Ricardo Semler (Entrepreneur and author of book - Seven Days Weekend) who thinks on this line.

Ricardo Semler "Concentrate on building an organization that accomplishes the most difficult of all challenges:  to make people look forward to coming to work in the morning"

Yes making work/jobs interesting is MOST important and difficult responsibility of the business. 

Two takeaway - Making jobs interesting & employees reap benefits of success and shareholder should not earn at the cost of employees.

5 things MBAs MUST learn from Entrepreneurs

WOW!!! Met an entrepreneur Bharat Jagani, of BTC ( from 180 sq feet shop in 2006 to 15000 sq feet corporate house in 5 years - Focus - Just One Business )  , par excellence in his age of 40. Again ( DH Ambani , Bill Gates & the Likes ) ,  no formal graduation in college but his policies which can teach today's MBAs many things. I met him in Pune on Sunday last. We also had in our group one young girl pursuing her MBA. She was just astonished with the way this man is driving his decisions and business. We also had some interaction and discussions but to cut a long story short I cud list down some of the learning from our meeting with him. 

- Battle for Profit is won with great relationship ( suppliers, employees & customers ) and not by logical /rational analysis of left brain thinking alone.

- People ( Employees ) will work for U or Die for U , depends on yr HR Practices & How Top Man walk his talk.

- Taking Risk is indispensable, Managing it Successfully is the Art ( differentiators ) . ( Of-course not by all means, End should not justify Means ) 

- Technology is just Business Support , people are the business drivers.

- Gut Feel & Luck MUST be given due consideration in every decisions. 

Earlier I wrote that entrepreneurship = passion and patience ( http://aanekant.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-start-up-six-qualities-of-start-up.html ). I wud like to add a few more to the list : vision , daring & relationship.  

Cash Flow is Necessary but not Sufficient

Many a times Cash Flow is so comforting that entrepreneurs forget about Profit. Its your money that counts at the end of the day. Cash Flow is important and critical but not enough. Its not your money. It is money in the system. May be belongs to banks, creditors or private lenders.

Unless U have profit in the books and cash flow supporting the same, u r in for trouble (Big or small depends). At individual level we have seen the crisis in the US in  2008. Same can happen or is happening with many entrepreneurs who consider present cash flow is their own ownership.  

It is also not necessary that all entrepreneurs are finance savvy (even management savvy) to understand implications of these tricky situations. Earlier it is the better it is.