3) Rethinking the Future - Many Renowned Management Thinkers
4) Linchpin & Small is new Big - Seth Godin
5) Delivering Happiness - Tony Hsieh
6) Seven Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen Covey
7) Mavericks @ Work - Taylor & Labaree
8) The Referral Engine - John Jantsch
9) Seven Days Weekend - Ricardo Semler
10) The Goal - Dr Eliyahu Goldratt
11) Blue Ocean Strategy - Kim & Renne
12) The Starbucks Experience - Michelli
13) Working with Emotional Intelligence - Danial Goleman
14) Who moved my cheese - Spencer Johnson
15) The Professional & Go Kiss d world - Subroto Bagchi
& Of course
16) Indian Income Tax Act and Companies Act - For not pursing & practicing the same
(Everything need not end with round figure, influence is not in the given order & not included religious books - Readers are welcome to share their influencers - boook or people)
1) No clear (roles ,responsibility & business) definition
2) Not knowing clear strength of the partner
3) No idea of how team can produce results which individuals can not
4) Different (Goals & Values)
5) No (large heart & attitude of leg go)
6) Attitude, ego and I (don't need ne one / I alone can do it) mind set
7) Mixing personal problems with business issues
8) Joining hands (without due diligence or for limited selfish motives)
9) Unable to accept one as a leader
Ambanis, Bajajs, Goenkas, Birlas, Mafatlals, Microsoft Partners, Salim Javed, Thackreys are examples of many many many such broken partnerships in business, politics and families.
Mostly it destroys value, Its sad , its worthless & repenting in the long-run. Synergy is in joining hands & reverse of synergy is in separation.
I invite readers with many more such insights for the benefits of other readers.
1) Appoint Chief Customer Xperience Officer reporting to CEO. A MUST. (is there ne one in charge of end to end customer experience with yr brand ??? )
2) Critically evaluate all customer touch points. Whether they create memorability in some way for the end users?
3) Have online social media team (it cud be one man) in place to gather data on customer reviews of yr offerings. Spread awareness about yr brand and address complains & concerns of the customers. (At the speed of thought and not once a week)
4) Act on negative feedback to improve offerings and promote positive feedback. (Must be a part of all review meet)
5) Encourage happy customers to share their views online /offline.
6) During the year make sure to make feel your all customer very special at least once a year. Genuinely. Have events, special price, offer free tickets, alter their opinion about how far a company can go to please their customers.
7) If u r a public company, make it a point to include customer experience initiatives and customer speak out . part of yr annual report. Have measurability and measure it every year.
8) Proactive , proactive and proactive to know what customer feels and think about yr brand and offerings. Do whatever it takes to find out. Spend money as customers are going to be spoke person in the market when yr company does very good or very bad.
9) Everyone is the solution business. Therefore don't just limit your efforts plainly in what u offer. Try & solve customer problem which she wants to solve thru yr offerings.
10) Try and apply everything above from TODAY. Retained customer will attract new customers.
Whether yr customers are promoting yr brand?? If not, check out, you may be offering mediocre customer experience. No one wud like to tell others that they are consuming mediocre offerings but if they are enchanted they will go out and tell the whole world. Amitabh Bachchans, Sachin Tendlukars & Madhuri Dixits of the BRANDs have their FAN followings. Make yr brand one amongst them this YEAR.
Focus on Balance Sheet first to restructure d business
Entrepreneurs mainly focus on sales first and then profit. However it is the Balance Sheet and not P & L statement is the most important business document. P & L Statement only talks about how company has fared operationally during that particular year.
Its the Balance Sheet that reflects that whether company is receiving payment of sold goods, leverage is in order or its risky, whether company is paying their suppliers in time or no, how much have company earned all these years and what company has retained in the business, funds diverted or no, bank limits are overdrawn or otherwise, liquidity position etc etc.
Therefore review of balance sheet on an on going basis is a MUST to measure the company performance. Even if you want to restructure yr business start with Balance Sheet.
When was the last time Balance Sheet and implications were discussed with auditor or management consultant???
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.
Which industry attracts talented people!!! Any Guess???
Yes its Bollywood. Industry which celebrates success of their people publicly 5 to 6 times. a year. (We have so many film/TV awards annually).
Which other industry celebrates annually success or performance of their participants?? Suited booted corporate awards celebrates success of their owners not people.
Honor your people for what they are doing for your enterprise success publicly. Acknowledge their contribution not just at the bottom of directors report but on top of the annual report and at every annual /semi annual mega events.
How to glorify your business & industry - learn from Bollywood.
Yes, biggest difference people can make is by connecting two right people. People meeting people creates SYNERGY.
Face Book , Linkedin or for that matter every social media sites are doing it. Nokia has slogan Connecting People.
Every seminar and conferences are opportunity to connect with people. Knowing d with people can make huge difference. Be it professional of personal life.
Recollect WHO all were introduced to you by someone and now you have great relation with the ones who were introduced.
Many a times intermediaries are not valued at the value they deserve. Be it broker or you friend who introduces you to new people are doing great service to your life.
Value intermediaries , value d people who brings new contacts , new deals, new opportunities to your life. (they may have commercial angel to it, even though - as your benefit is far larger than what commercial interests intermediaries may have).
Change yr life by - Surround your self with people who brings new contacts of right people to you.
How REFERENCE can become good business sense for everyone? We refer many things to many people.
Why do we refer?? What makes any products and services referable? Most Referred businesses save a lot in marketing and selling cost. However they invest in making customer experience remarkable. This will lead to chain reaction of reference.
Get an insight of how many of your clients are from refereeing category!!! If not many then there is a cause(s) of worry but if there are many then are u using this referral marketing tool in a systematic way???
Think on WHAT will make U remarkable and more referrable??? Work on that and use the tool effectively. In the era of online world , referral spreads like a FIRE.
