Mind Your Business

In the month of February 2011, we (my friend Yogesh and me) organised an evening program for the CEOs and The Business owners in Indore. The title of the program was " Mind Your Business - Mend Your business". The purpose was to connect / reconnect / reawaken the participants to their own business. We received a very good response from the market... of course with lots of effort from Yogesh. And the program went on with ardent participation with learning points and turning points.

..... but people ask me what is is connecting / reconnecting with business. My attempts to answer the question has been futile. I find it very difficult to put it across... because whatever be my explanation it has potential for argument. We are not here to argue and prove the point academically. What we are trying to transmit is not for talking too much, but to grasp it and do something about it. Some grasp our point with glitter in their eyes while some do not even agree on the relevance of the topic.

We certainly / strongly feel that there is place / scope for our efforts in this direction and also we feel that this as an essential service needed to the business owners.

The following story (adapted) might be useful in enlightening on the plight of the Businesses / SMEs. This is from a collection "The Islanders" by Idries Shah ( Sayed Idries el-Hashimi ).

The story goes.....

Due to dire conditions a tribe "Enterpee" were forced to leave their beloved homeland and find refuge in an island far off in the sea. They had excellent skill of swimming and shipbuilding that is their source of confidence. The Enterpees thought that once the conditions in their homeland improves they will go back their using their skills of swimming and ship building.

But over the years, they got adjusted to the circumstances of the new found island....and slowly the memory of their original home was dulled. The people began to question the need for learning archaic and apparently useless skills of swimming and ship building. The island was cozy and all the needs of the tribe were satisfied, though sometimes struggle was there.

There was a warning, somehow received, that the island might be destroyed in a tsunami or cyclone, before which they have to get evacuated to another land. There was a small select group of wise-men, known as 'Walas' who taught the arts of swimming and shipbuilding secretly to those who paid the required fees. Generally Enterpees did not patronized the walas, as they thought that swimming and shipbuilding has no practical use and also there are pseudo-experts who appear to be Walas.

In the dictionaries of Enterpees the Swimming is defined as ... unpleasant, mental abberation... supposedly a method of propelling the body through water without drowning. But swimming and shipbuilding is taught in the Island university as it was a required qualification for all the jobs in the island. Anybody who passes the written exam were qualified to receive the coveted certificate of Swimming.

In the island there lived a young man named Dav, who decided to learn swimming despite having the certificate of swimming from Island University. He set out in search of Instructor... but he is aware that there exists genuine as well as psuedo- teachers for swimming. The swimming teachers are known as " "

We keep on meeting To emphasise the condition underwhich

Passion is inevitable

In the last two weeks of February 2011, I met at least 50 new interesting people. Many of them are business owners and leaders. While interacting with them it is reconfirmed or rediscovered that "Passion" has a significant place in the success of a business.

It emerges that Passion is a pre-requisite for business. It is one of the primary investments of business owners . It is an invisible ingredient. It provides a compelling reason to stay on purpose and it ignites the desire to serve a greater cause than profit alone. Passion leads to care for something. If any person fails, it is because they are unable to care. The caring attitude stems from passion.

In an economic context it appears now that passion is important though it is intangible. A passion for business (making profits and gains) and passion for serving a higher purpose ( creating valuable results) is seen among most of the successful business owners.

Jack Kahl the erstwhile Owner of Manco Inc - a successful duct tape company in America (now known as Henkel Manco) used to go for lectures to colleges and other business gatherings. one of his favourite speech was titled as " Don't park your heart at the Curb", which indicates that a great work is accomplished by involving the heart (which is passion).

I have seen many universities mentioning about "passion' as requirement, but did not yet found it as a part of curriculum in any of the Business schools. In the real world of business and leading, passion plays an integral role. Hence it is important to ask the question. Can passion be taught? difficult to answer, but it is transferable and evokable. A business leader has to have passion and then transfer it to others or has to awaken in others for the cause. Great leaders do this.

When a group of people are passionate about a unified cause... social capital builds. Social capital is one of the prime capitals required for business success in the modern times.

How to do this may be saved for another blog... of if you have answers welcome... if you put it in your blog ... please send the link....

have passion... preserve it... nourish it....

contributed by : Sasikanth Prabhu