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From the Desk:
This Article:
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Career Crown™
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© 2010 Career Crown™. All rights reserved. Illegal copying or distribution is liable for penal action.
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The statistics and research expressed in this article are gathered from secondary sources and do not represent the independent work of authors. |
Lessons for The International Business Community ..from the diary of Praveen Moolchandani (Int'l Management Consultant, Business Advisor & Corporate Trainer)
I’ve always been asked by top management of companies: where did we go wrong? what must we change? Although not specific enough, I put my point below:
We all stay in a world which is sensitive to the varied occurrences that happen each day, those by the people or those just unfolded by the natural universal forces. A politician loosing his presidential support after flashing stories of his secret sex scandal, a reduction of VAT on sugar in a particular city, devastation caused by the earthquakes, a country imposing laws restricting internet privacy; all have their positive and negative impacts on the quality and quantity of trade, finance and hence, our lives. Whether or not you believe in and learn from such occurrences is a mere personal choice; but the impacts of these occurrences don’t choose a particular special or a community; but shower upon all with or without giving an advanced warning.
In such a world where nothing is permanent; not the rules, not the people, not the universal forces; businesses must be more than ready and informed in order to sustain a long-term market position. Having said that, over the years, a number of companies have drowned themselves in an unreal and greedy ambition to be at the top of their competitors. Numbers have been the rule of the game and customer-centricness has somewhere been vanished. The end result has been devastating and witnessed by the world over and over again. Year 2008 was no different from 1997 or the era of 30s. May be the impact was variant, but not the result of poorly planned and executed business strategies. From a realistic perspective, we must accept that:
- No business is domestic. We live in a global economy that in interconnected, dependent and constantly changing. A sneeze at Wall Street is instantly reflected in dropping Bombay Stock Exchange indices. Hence, the next time you think that your business is unique or unmonitored by foreign competition or that the domestic market is your best bet to secure a competitive position, think again! The Indian telecommunications industry is a perfect example in front of us.
- Businesses are affected by natural causes, personal or individual speculations, and the people as intellectual assets within organizations. Hence, it is important that broad strategic plans be aligned with the aspects of human behavior, business-level tactics and even elements of natural risks. The still-in-development field of Organizational Behavior addresses the understanding of human psychology at work quite effectively and, is a useful knowledge base for top management of organizations. Quantifying for natural disasters can be tricky however; companies can use the example of the global consultancy Career Crown® that uses a variance of +/- 5% to quantify the effects of natural disaster on revenue.
- International trade provides us with a mix of opportunities which are always accompanied by challenges. Those who aim for glittering profits must first make efforts to curb the factors affecting long-term reputation and survival of organizations. The idea is to amend the strategies or blue prints upon which the organizations initially started functioning. Depending upon the probability and timing of change, top management must alter their strategies and tactics to overcome challenges. For instance, blue-chip companies have shorter product lifecycles and up to a great extent threatened by the introduction of substitute products. These companies are most active in sowing new ideas in their current strategic plans in order to stay ahead and informed.
- Consumer is the King: It is high time that businesses realize the importance of offering what the consumer needs, than what the consumer wants and, than what the consumer doesn’t want at all. In order to clarify the confusion, by consumer I mean the end-user of a product or service. Companies must keep the consumers in the driver’s seat and build strategies and products around them. Imagine a car where a consumer is on the driver’s seat and the four tires of the car represent the finance, sales, marketing and manufacturing units. If out of the four tires, any one fails, the car will crash and we will loose the consumer. Moreover, companies must study their consumers well. It is important to know how far companies can stretch the consumer offering from ‘basic needs’ to ‘want’ to ‘wants created. For example, a shampoo manufacturing company must study whether its present or future consumers may also ‘want’ different fragrances of shampoos for different hair structures or may be a post shampoo conditioner.
- On the final realistic consideration, let us all remember that the economy works in a bell shaped pattern. What goes up, comes down and vice-versa. So, neither boom nor recession will be constant. There is no way to work around this phenomenon however; there is always a tendency to reduce the hurt of falling too steep by being a little risk averse and designing strategies keeping a long-term perspective in mind.
By - Management Consultancy Division, Career Crown™ |
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