You are a great Symphony !

You are a "note" in that Orchestra which makes this symphony perfect. You are at times in the chorus singing melodious tunes and some other times at the core of the drums creating beats or simply playing the prelude on the violin....and it is truly your performance that makes it beautiful... you reflect dedication thru your closed eyes..... you enjoy its every moment.. and you smile while creating that magic divine.

And just like in an Orchestra, in real life too, its not your age, experience, color or sex that matters. What matters are the "notes", you contribute, on that specific issue, which helps the solution...thru the ideas you share and the dedication you bring in the team.  Similar to an orchestra, your team needs your sincerity, practice and strength for the final outcome of the team's performance.

Keep playing, keep singing and keep infecting the team with your extra-ordinary "note" that completes this magical symphony!
Pic source-Nikon Fotofest

Imperfections are welcome !

He would demand for all the great services at the lowest price,  you would attempt to deliver the best at the Value Price.  He'll be disappointed,  you'll be frustrated... expectations imperfect.

source-shanepennington

You would try to build all the muscles on the weekends,  your diet chart still has a mediocre results,  your investment is not keeping you happy most of the time,  the lane you chose in traffic is again the slowest,  the book you bought last month is still waiting for you,  authorized dealer was following frantically for due paid service but still you would walk out without a smile,  security cameras are unable to give you a hint of your lost stuff..... that's the real world and a world of imperfections.  As long as you believe and accepts that the most around, including you, are not giving their 100%,  you would grow... grow daily.

Fail fast... get rich slow... & keep welcoming all the imperfections in between !

Last attempt... once more.

Yes,  there is always a space for one more smile and win you can make for your customer today.   One more attempt to simplify the sales experience for him.   One more attempt to ask your customers to support you in rough times.   One more km in your last mile run.   One more genuine clap for your team's achievement.   One more doubt that this crack in the relationship is irreparable.   One more attempt this Saturday morning to meditate and un-clutter your mind and desk.    

Truly there is talisman in... one more!!

Is it your Peak?

Can you work harder?
Can you love your customers and colleagues more?
Can you be less passionate but more sincere and disciplined?

Meet more people,  talk to more customers,  get involved in customers pain and pleasures, see and show the large pictures,  get into the details,  trim the unimportant,  clap for them and yourself... and move on!! 

Be a Hero to yourself... your peak is waiting for you!!!

Customer Service- tail piece of supply chain or your Report Card rewritten?

Organizations fail to see him standing in a long queue, or waiting for the shipping documents while container is reaching his port, or hassled with the complex invoices with legal terms and conditions, or may be talking to an executive understanding the warranty clause... moreover failing to see that he is planning to avoid you as a supplier next time.

Great products becomes great only with good services... and this is over-discussed topic in many board-room/review meetings while popping roasted cashew nuts.  So the result is SAP or ERP or CRM implementation of some kind which has helped some part of the supply chain but largely made service rep confused and confined to his 20 points flowery English answer sheet for a service failure.

So while a customer is left with a bad experience, the services office continues to prepare the daily log report stating the time spent justified on the issue based on the order size, the customer segment etc.  The problem redressed well within time- Sir, you can check the feedback form as well !!!

Relationship... no happy hours !!

Believe me or not, even today,  irrespective of the continent,  economy,  culture,  demographics etc you belong to... the single most influential factor which drives the business is Relationship.   You may be a part of a fortune 500 organization or a start up,  relationship has not lost even a dime in its value in past several decades.  In front of the customer, you are still the most powerful person (he believes so) to define and describe the value of your organization and if you live up to his belief day after day, you have already started building a strong bridge between your two organizations.

Its a craft,  a fine art,  a promise,  a gradual progress,  a conscious competence and having similar number of ladders and snakes !!!

Expensive Integrity.. never stop starting!!

Integrity getting expensive? or is it hard to earn & maintain the trust? May be.. as the exposures, competitions,  survival challenges... are getting complex, so as the business and human behaviour.  However, the good news is... the power of choice is still with you and the simple decisions you make everyday still decides your integrity & trust around you.  You may resist short term greed long enough to make something sustainable or decide otherwise... its all personal choices,  but in medium to long run it (integrity) pays back, double!!

Should I rephrase now... is it expensive or precious?

You understand what I mean?

Communication in corporations (and in life as well) is getting complex every passing day and with fast technology and cross culture progress its so amazing to see that how many more hours are spent each day to explain the simple things again & again.

Simple and plain communication was never a hard skill but now seems is "a must" if you want to thrive in the complex world of specialists.  Thus obsessively specialize "simple communication"

So the most successful person today won't be the great chemist or the finest accountant or even the best sales manager in your company but the guy among them who can translate the complex things into simple information, easy to absorb by teams sitting in different deptt. and countries.

You understand what I mean? 

Are you Cruising for Bruising?

There are wheels within wheels for your path to progress.  Some wheels are called aspirations, some called capabilities while few smaller ones are known as health and safety. While the movement of major wheels is your own contribution but these little wheels are so intrigue that they get impacted with the performance of your loved ones also.  And with that I mean the health and safety of your loved ones is no less important.

May be due to sheer love or affection, you dont want your kids or parents to have poor health but at the same time it won't be too selfish to expect them remain safe and healthy from your own progress point of view.  And with this I have already considered you as a true executive who believes that he is "as successful as his health".

I am sure you have access to many levels of information to maintain or improve your health and I consciously don't want to repeat any one of them, so here are few of my personal takes for your driving safety:

• All the fancy safety gadgets of your vehicle are less efficient than your own driving skills.
• You can avert 100% of road accidents by remain alert and slow (defensive driving)
• ABS (anti-lock braking system) increase the absolute stopping distance, but prevents the skidding.
• Never keep a cushion on your driving seat, this reduces your distance from the steering wheel and the airbag impact can be fatal, if opens.  
• Never go for oversize tyres, they not only increase the fuel consumption but also distorts the speedometer reading and steering stiffness. Chassis anatomy also compromised. 
• Never remove the head restraint, they are vital during airbag operations.  
• Use nitrogen in your tyres, its no more expensive. Nitrogen is healthy and safe for your summer driving. 
• Chose the lane that gives you the best view, best flow and the least risk.
• A car never loses control, the driver loses control.
• Split your phone in Voice and Data.  Which means keep 2 mobile phones, one for your data activity like emails/FB/Text/Whatsapp etc and the other one for plain voice.  So while the data phone remains in your bag,  the voice one in your pocket.  Any ultra-urgent incoming call... pull over in a safe zone, switch-on your blinkers and respond as short as possible.  Alternatively you can switch off the data service of your smart phone while driving.
• Leave sooner, drive slower, live longer.

Also, do read the following False Sense of Safety when you find time.. its interesting to know this piece with the increasing level of technology in our new generation vehicles.

Customer Segmentation.. missing goalpost.

Segmentation is the most talked about topic in many marketing or business plan.  Corporations spends numerous man hours to define and deliver the meaning of segmentation for their focus products.

Whether a customer or clusture of customers are Growth/optimizers/economizer, are they investing , how do they see their business, their competitive strength, financial strength, my business with them, my profitability etc etc are various metrics on which corporations develop a plan.  However, the struggle starts from the point when corporations wants to differentiate their offerings/services according to such plans... and eventually land up having the same harmonized price+services offerings to all the customers where large ones/global accounts get the best of the prices (based on volume) along with best of the services (terms) and some joint innovation opportunities.  While the aspiring ones, who are also investing, paying faster & higher, local in strength continues to remain on the other side of these benefits. 

Eventually the large accounts become larger and small becomes smaller and after few years corporations feel that they have too much in the same basket.  And the segmentation plan start over again..... cycle continues.        

Giant Corporations killing Innovation.

Either they are too matrixed or they are too slow to react, but somehow Giant corporations miss to manage a healthy culture of innovation.  They do lot of investments in Innovation workshops/innovation days but fail to recognize that innovation and ideation usually starts from randomness... and few hours of brainstorming off-site session in a room with an outcome of 20 points actually go no-where.  The acceptance of new idea coming from anywhere in the company is very low in most of these giant organisations.

water bottle solar light (ICP lab)

CIO is a busy man these days, he is not leading his team anymore in their core objectives which is innovation. He is busy with budgeting, innovation forecasts, visits of VIP in his proud R&D lab and quarterly reporting etc and he is not alone... some of his strong stalwart are also busy preparing him for such important tasks.

Infact, the giants have an edge of large pool of employees in different geographies and it would be a good idea to nurture this randomness in the company and create some sort of "method in madness" for Innovation speak, somewhat similar to "fundamental research" where a random chemical test may create a new monomer all together. This does not mean to announce " Innovation week" etc but a continuous open forum where random ideas are loved with RESPECT.