Essentials for Developing and Building Sustainable Successful Organizations

Business Rudiments for Sustaining Business Excellence

New Metrics for a New Reality: Rethinking the Source of Resiliency, Innovation, and Growth The way business is done has undergone a dramatic change. As global markets become increasingly more competitive and financial turmoil worldwide continues to put pressure on nearly every type of businesses. Organizations worldwide are trying to find ways to be more competitive and successful in today's economy forcing them to rethink their business models. Quality and Excellence have become bywords for survival. Never before people were compelled to do things more efficiently with greater sense of focus, purpose and accountability

Rudiments for Sustaining Business Excellence strongly advocates that the core elements of the business should run incredibly well so that customers absolutely love doing business and are eager to tell their friends, family and colleagues about the offerings.

Organizations that can find grow and keep top talent and then engage that talent to go out and take fantastic care of their customers will be the winners in the future.

Investing in organization culture is a conscious, deliberate, long-term strategy that can be the key to sustainable differentiation and success for companies in the 21st century. Companies that forge ahead on a genuine journey of governance, culture, and leadership will be the ones who will be around for sure.

Organization should build the foundation for sustainable success on a system of governance, culture, and leadership based on fundamental values, which nurtures trust both inside and outside the organization.

The Pillars for Building Sustainable Successful Business

1. Talent 2. Organization Culture 3. Customers 4. Key Deliverables - Moments of truth 5. Word of Mouth

TALENT Organizations are entering an era where there is very little opportunity to create sustainable competitive advantage. Competitor can copy products, they can spend heavily on marketing, they can even drop their price, and they can as matters of fact do lot many different things to try to win in the marketplace.

Superior talented workforce i.e. people in your team can figure out how to win against the competition. So the two of the only sustainable competitive advantages left to most businesses are:

1. The Quality of the people (TALENT) that you can Get, Grow and Keep in your Team

2. The Relationships your people (TALENT) create with your customers

Businesses need the brightest, most talented, values-based people in their teams. “Success of any business organization directly depends on quality of people they GET, GROW and KEEP.

Talent thus becomes a major strategic imperative for any sustainable successful business, as future of the company depends on the ability to

1. GET the Talent (Talent Acquisition) 2. GROW the Talent (Talent Development) and 3. KEEP the Talent (Talent Retention)

Organizations should build the deep EDGE for people they have in their team. Organizations have to turn their Businesses into talent Magnets and must develop capabilities to attract talented people across the industries. To attract the best of the talent organizations must learn to take good care of people. Organizations must ensure that enough opportunities exist for the people to learn, explore and grow allowing them to do meaningful things that matters to them and to the organization – SHARED GOALS

Research conducted for more than 10,000 high potential employees working for top organization across the world revealed to find answer to the question “Why do you work, where you work?” and the high potential employees’ preference were as follows:

1. Senses of Accomplishment – Employees find work which they were doing challenging and meaningful.

2. Sense of Belongingness – Employees like their team mates and felt honoured to be the part of A+ team.

3. Sense of Personal & Professional growth – Employees felt that they were given enough opportunity for personal and professional growth by way of training, coaching and mentoring - Winning Culture.

4. Leadership – Employees loved to work for the leaders they admire and respect the most. Employees reported 110% commitment and engagement when they respect and trust their BOSS; they go out of their way to assist their superiors they admire. 88% employees DO NOT quit their JOBS; rather they quit their IDIOT BOSS (Leader, Manager etc.). Employees felt that they are being cheated and manipulated.

"It's all about people, people, people. It's always about the quality of people in the team." Once the business accomplishes the minimum standard of producing a product or service that is competitive and of a high quality that pleases the customers then the single most important factor that decides the future success of any business is primarily governed by the quality of employees.

Always remember - Mediocre people equally mediocre and failing business… Great people lead to the opportunity to build a truly great and highly successful business.

ORGANIZATION CULTURE

If the success of any business is truly tied to the quality of the talent that it can attract... then culture becomes the key because highly talented people want to work with other great people, doing cool and meaningful work at a company that treats them with respect. One cannot have a winning company without a winning culture.

High potential Employees – Top Talent can only be attracted by having bias for WINNING ORGANIZATION CULTURE.

The number one factor in increasing the level of highly satisfied and engaged CUSTOMERS in a business is… directly proportional to the level of highly satisfied and engaged EMPLOYEES in the business.

Engaged and Satisfied Employees:

1. They give more discretionary effort. – VOLUNTEER People enjoy the work they do and the people they work with.

2. They consistently exceed expectations. – RESULT ORIENTED People take pride in the work they do and the company they work for.

3. They take more responsibility and initiative. – ACCOUNTABLE There is high accountability and a strong focus on delivering the desired results.

4. They receive better customer service ratings. - EMPATHETIC 5. They offer more ideas for improvement. - INNOVATIVE 6. They promote and model teamwork. – COLLABORATIVE

There is a culture of fairness, respect, trust, inclusiveness and teamwork 7. They volunteer more for extra assignments. – WILLINGNESS

There is a bias for action, employees have an ownership mentality and always strive to give their personal best.

8. They anticipate and adapt better to change. - FLEXIBLE 9. They persist at difficult work over time. – CHALLENGING 10.They speak well for the organization – EMPLOYEE ADVOCACY

Factors that helps in increasing Employee Engagement both at Job and Organizational levels can be listed as:

1. Caring, competent, and engaging leaders. 2. Effective communications that keep employees informed, aligned and

engaged. 3. Effective teamwork at ALL levels. 4. Job enrichment and professional growth. 5. Valuing employee contributions. 6. Concern for employee well being. 7. Display towering competence. 8. Follow through on all commitments. 9. Deliver required results superbly. 10.Ensures actions are consistent with their words.

11.Passionate about their work and those they serve. 12.Communicates and keeps everyone informed. 13.Voluntarily help others. 14.Shares ideas, information and credits 15.Holds themselves and others 100% accountable.

Winning Culture is all about catching people doing things right" and find a way to praise and celebrate their accomplishments very often.

Winning culture of highly engaged, satisfied and loyal employees are fanatical about delivering only the highest quality products and services and having only superior customer relationships and will tolerate nothing less.

Organization should have the culture of fairness, respect, trust, inclusiveness and teamwork with ample recognition and rewards for their efforts.

Organizations should focus in developing engaging smiling culture that promotes open and free dialogue.

Remember:

The number one factor in increasing the level of highly satisfied and engaged CUSTOMERS in a business is… directly proportional to the level of highly satisfied and engaged EMPLOYEES in the business.

Is it CUSTOMER first or EMPLOYEE first?

EMPLOYEE 1st (First)

Make it a focus to build Great Culture. Ask your employees, take their suggestions, and involve them. Build the Great Organization Culture, Shape the Culture, Support the Culture and Evolve & Nurture the Culture. Take all possible steps to ensure that your team has the right kind of people who are HAPPY, fully ENGAGED and COMMITTED to their job.

CUSTOMERS The most important set of Customers is your EMPLOYEES (Internal Customers). If we fail to listen and deeply understand them there very little chance that we could possibly develop right kind of GREAT ORGANIZATION CULTURE – Winning Culture. Organizations must encourage culture of listening to their employees, thereby understanding their concerns and accordingly addressing the same. The second most important is you’re Customers.

Products can be copied, Prices can be lowered, Technology can reverse engineered as a matter of fact everything can be copied but who all you have in your team and how they serve the customers can not be copied. Therefore, building a culture of extreme customer focus, where organization "owns the voice of the customer,” is one of the surest ways to control the marketplace. .

Organizations must learn to utilize every possible avenue in finding ways to talk to, listen and connect with their customers in order to position themselves as a trusted advisor and friend who is deeply focused on delivering great products and services and building the strongest possible relationships. Developing deep understanding about customers helps in building strong relationship with them.

As mentioned earlier the 2 sustainable competitive advantages left to most businesses:

1. The Quality of the people (TALENT) that organizations have. 2. The Relationships people (TALENT) build with their customers.

As the products can reverse engineered or copied, someone can beat you on prices or can spend more money on promotion. So the only differentiating factor that can give businesses a sustainable competitive advantage could possibly be the relationship that organizations build with their customers by listening to them and carefully understanding them.

Happy Employees = Happy Customer Interactions Loyal Employees = Loyal Customers Engaged Employees = Engaged Customers

KEY DELIVERABLES

Key Deliverables also sometimes referred to as Moments of truth is usually defined as an instance wherein the customer and the organization come into contact with one another in a manner that gives the customer an opportunity to either form or change an impression about the firm.

Such an interaction could occur through the product of the firm, its service offering or both. Various instances could constitute a moment of truth - such as greeting the customer, handling customer queries or complaints, promoting special offers or giving discounts and the closing of the interaction, which means every business in accordance with the nature of their business MUST identify these key deliverables and COMPULSORILY deliver to customers FLAWLESSLY every time.

In today’s increasingly hyper competitive markets and with the proliferation of multiple providers for every type of product or service, moments of truth have become an important fact of customer interaction that marketers need to take great care off. They are critical as they determine a customer’s perception of a brand. Moments of truth can make or break an organization’s relationship with its customers.

Every Business has maximum 4-5 key deliverables that needs to be delivered each time FLAWLESSLY. Businesses must find out those expected key deliverables and should NAIL them.

Businesses MUST own the Voice of their Customers, which means they should listen to their customers carefully and seriously as it helps in understanding your Moments of Truth - Key Deliverables.

Moments of Truth – Key Deliverables can be

1. Internal Moments of Truth - Employees 2. External Moments of Truth - Customers

Internal Moments of Truth i.e. the employees (Internal Customers) that are delivering the key deliverables to each other MUST/SHOULD very precisely and clearly understand External Moments of Truth that they have to deliver to (External Customers) FLAWLESSLY every time.

It makes no good whatsoever to hire great people, create an amazing culture, and do a superior job of listening to your customers – if you cannot instil a high level of disciplined execution therefore it is critical to create the systems and processes necessary to ensure that people clearly understand what their roles and responsibilities are, and specifically what they will be held accountable for.

Repeatable Success can only be achieved by having well defined and coordinated PROCESSES. Businesses to ensure repeatable success MUST heavily invest their time and energy in building – PROCESSES / SYSTEMS / PROTOCOLS / RULES / CHECKLISTS etc around their INTERNAL and EXTERNAL Moments of Truth, so that people responsible for delivering those Moments of Truth exactly know how to deliver them FLAWLESSLY every time.

So Organizations can choose to have either Moment of Misery OR Moments Glory

WORD OF MOUTH – GOING VIRAL

48-74% of all purchansing decisions of people are made by Word of Mouth or by Word of thumb. To drive the Word of Mouth about your business you need to participate and have a huge network. Businesses MUST invest heavily in buolding up that huge network comprising of people those who are interested and have contributed in your success. It serves two purpose mainly

1. If people in your network sees you as a genuine and appreciate your work and contribution – honesty and Integrity in terms of value that you add to the network, then participating network becomes your marketing department. People in your network starts referring you for your genuine work and value that you add.

2. If you have a huge network of professional colleagues, then this network helps you in finding solutions to your problems. So grow your network by adding 90% value and thereby when needed can ask for 10% help and assistance. You get assistance and help from your network of communities because most of the time you were adding value to your network, so just ADD ADD value to your network. With emergence of Socila Media neworks have tremendous compounding effect with inconcivable benefits. Businesses should build their networks that forces people in and around the network to talk about it.

Concluding Remarks

Businesses MUST understand the followings very clearly and should work on them to build a sustainable competitive advantage that help them in achieving Business Excellence.

1. Hire Talented people, please DO NOT compromise, else you end up paying very heavy price. By talented people I mean those with right attitude and fit for the job title irrrespective at the cost of not having some add on qualification. It is difficult to CHANGE the ATTITUDE.

2. Invest heavily in building great organization culture and always remember that:

Happy Employees = Happy Customer Interactions Loyal Employees = Loyal Customers Engaged Employees = Engaged Customers

3. Listen to your Customers carefully and purposefully both EXTERNAL and INTERNAL. Learn to own the voice of customer. Own the voice of your customer to own the marketplace

4. Define your business Expected Key Deliverables – Moments of truth. Understand and define your Internal and External Moments of truth using systems approach to deliver them FLAWLESSLY every time.

5. Build your business network to work as MAJOR Marketing tool. Word of Mouth and Neworks have tremendous compounding effect with inconcivable benefits. Invest time and Energy in building your business network and keep adding value to it that forces people in and around the network to talk about it.

In order to succeed businesses need a high-performance team that embraces a

strong culture of disciplined execution and accountability while being nimble,

agile and adaptable to changes in the marketplace.

Finding answer to the given question decides the future of businesses Where are we going + how will we behave on the way?

CA Vinod Kumar Sharma Director Jagran Institute of Management vinod.kr.sharma@gmail.com director.jim.kanpur@gmail.com director@jimkanpur.ac.in