Entry Barriers

When I was a MDP consultant at IBS Kochi, I had a chance to visit premises of more than 50 small, medium and large businesses. My job was to develop businesses for the intellectual capital of the faculty at IBS. My experiences during the visits to the prospective customers' premises made me feel that intellectual capital is the least wanted capital by them, but mostly needed. We found two situations in the customer’s premises: one is " business is doing well" and the other " business is not doing well". After visiting a score of prospects we found a pattern in their responses, mostly unfavourable ones.

Places where business is doing well the following behavior is found.....

 They....

·   Do not allow the new service providers to access the business leaders

·   Show ‘we-know-it-all’ attitude

·   are busy Expanding the organisation at a faster pace

·   Revenue growth and profit generation is equated with business growth

·   Give high priority to prestigious certifications and image building activities

·   Focus mostly on customers with high purchase power

·   Engage in creating entry barriers to the new comers / competitors

·   Look for business diversifications

·   Command and demand services from the vendors (supply chain)

 Places where business is not doing well the following behavior is found.....

 They....

·         engage in cost cutting measures

      ·         sell the products at thin margins

·         arrange programs to change the peoples’ behavior. The programs will be conducted by in house experts or by an outside agency that quotes the least.

·         take disconcerted marketing initiatives

·         spend more time in urgent and managerial issues

·         Search for certifications that will give them credibility in the market.

·         are hesitant to discontinue the unprofitable / failed product lines

contributed by Sasikanth Prabhu

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

The value of business sense

Every employee of a company agrees without fail that they work to bring results. Usually the results are equated with the completion of tasks assigned by the superior. The employee tend to feel that ' complete the assigned task and see to it that the boss is happy'. Completing the assigned tasks is the primary objctive of the job holders. In many organisations this feeling runs length and breadth of the hierarchy. This organisation is in danger: not because it is a bad organisation, but because it is disconnected from the business.

The sense of business must pervade the organisation, then only the organisation can sustain longer and reap benefits. The business sense is a readiness that revolves around customer satisfaction, profit / gain maximisation and innovation for value. Without these no organisation can last longer. Every employee must develop business sense and follow it in their daily activities, else it will end up as wasted efforts. Business sense affects all the activities carried out in the organisation.

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