Is Customer God?

Irrespective of the industry we work in, customers are an integral part of any business.Customer is God, Customer is always correct are some phrases which you will find embossed in any corporate bible.Most of you may agree and I am sure a lot more of you will disagree.

When we say “Customer is God”, does it literally mean a customer is God? No.The reason why this phrase might have come into picture is to emphasize the relevance of the customer.Irrespective of the work we do, there has to be a customer who will make use of our service, our product. Customers are the basic foundation of any business. It is these customers who use our product or service and provide means to generate revenue. Customer satisfaction has always been a key focal point. Right from an IT company to simple grocery store, from a Mobile service provider to an Airline company customer satisfaction hold the key to a successful business.

Let me take the example of Kingfisher Airlines. I attribute the success of this airline to the excellent customer satisfaction which the airline showcases. The chairman Mr. Vijay Mallya is called the “King of Good times” and he has believes every Kingfisher customers deserves a good time. From the time you book your tickets to the time you walk out of the Airplane, you experience what is called excellent quality of service. The smartly dressed Airhostesses in designer uniforms, the in-flight Audio-Video entertainment through personalized video screens, a special selection of food on-board and a moving map to tell you where you are exactly you are flying are a part of this flying experience. Now you get all these at the same cost or cheaper than that of any other Indian Airliner carrier. Customer satisfaction does not stop here. Kingfisher Airlines is looking at having live television on-board and to facilitate ticket booking at the ATM’s. Currently Kingfisher Airlines has about 8 to 9% of market share. Their market share is surely going to sore looking at the passion and dedication which Kingfisher Airlines is showcasing.

You will often find me referring to Starbucks in my blogs. Starbucks has etched its quality of service deep in my mind.Irrespective of the place I have sipped my Starbucks coffee; I get the same taste, the same experience.
Let me take an example which most of you are familiar with .Pizza Hut.I have been to Pizza Hut across the globe and believe me; I felt at home even if I visited Pizza Hut in Shenzhen, China or Belleville, Canada. The menu looks familiar, the ambiance looks familiar and so does the food taste familiar. They have a unique way to attract customers. In one of the Pizza Huts in Bangalore you have a huge horn placed at the exit. And when you are leaving Pizza hut the child inside you forces you to sound the horn and “Thank you” comes a prompt reply from the people from Pizza Hut employees. I just love that. In another Pizza hut outlet in Bangalore they have a huge bell placed at the exit and the moment you ring the bell on your way out “Thank you” comes a prompt reply. Pizza Hut serves more than 1.7 million pizzas every day, to approximately 4 million customers worldwide. Now that is what I call customer focus.

As my last example let me take an industry we all are familiar with, the IT industry.Most of the IT companies annually take up a Customer Satisfaction Survey. These surveys are used as accurate barometers to predict the success of a company.If a dip is seen in the customer satisfaction survey, it is sure that dooms day is closing in for that company. Many IT companies have weathered the hard times just because of the loyalty shown by their customers. And this loyalty is surely the fruits borne because of excellent customer satisfaction.

Now don’t you think the phrase “Customer is God” makes sense.

You can make a difference

“Good Morning Mr.Sudhir. This is Rachana calling from ABC bank. Based on your excellent bank record, you have been approved a personal loan of 3 lakh.Would you be interested in going for this one time offer?” I am sure most of us have received these tele marketing calls.
Now tell me frankly how many of us have just rudely hung up the phone or just said “no” even before the tele marketing person has spoken about the product.

I do agree that if you receive a tele marketing call when you are in an important meeting it is a real nuisance.But then ,I believe that one should not take any personal calls when in a meeting. The mobile needs to be switched off or in the silence mode when in a meeting.

I made it a habit to at least listen to what the tele marketing person says and if I am not interested, I politely say “I would not be interested in this offer right now”.
It hardly takes 30 to 40 seconds for the whole transaction. I am sure that at the end of this discussion even if the tele marketing person could not crack a deal, he/she will not feel offended by my response. At some point of our life we too would have made a similar cold call. And imagine while you are making a cold call the other person just hangs up the phone. I am sure you will not appreciate that behavior.

I am sure each of us can make a difference. In this hectic busy world being courteous to others is really appreciated.

Veins of Steel

Perseverance always pays.
After months of pursuing the Arcelor deal, LN Mittal has finally succeeded.

On January 27, LN Mittal made an unsolicited USD 22.7 billion bid for Arcelor, the biggest steel manufacturer in the world.But Arcelor rejected that bid on the pretext that the two companies did not share a strategic vision.

But Mittal was in no mood to give up. He formally launched a hostile takeover bid on May 18.And the very next day, he upped the offer by 34%; the new deal now valued at USD 32.90 billion.But once again Arcelor was not impressed or was not willing to be impressed.To keep Mittal at bay, Arcelor thought of SeverStal for a merger.

While everyone began to feel that LN Mittal was the last man standing up for this merger, the European Commission approved the Mittal-Arcelor merger on June 6.I guess that was the turning point for the whole episode.June 25th 2006 will be written in golden words in the history book of Arcelor and Mittal Steel.Now the merged entity Arcelor Mittal will be the worlds largest steel manufacturer

I guess Mittal family has steel running in their veins. LN Mittal’s son Aditya Mittal specializes in Strategic Management and Corporate Finance from Wharton School . Apparently the Arcelor Mittal merger was the brain child of Aditya Mittal.I am sure the Mittal family will be a guiding light for young entrepreneur who dream to be grow big, be successful.

Mergers and Acquisitions are the mantra of the days. The whole industry is moving towards consolidation, be it the Arcelor Mittal Merger or the Nokia- Siemens merger.

Timbits- The bite sized Treat

Timbits are bite-sized doughnut balls sold at the Canadian Tim Hortons restaurant chain. A Timbit is often thought to be made from the part of a full doughnut that is cut out to make the doughnut’s hole, but in fact they are made from separate balls of dough. The treat was introduced in April 1976, shortly after Tim Horton’s death in 1974, and is now available in a selection of varieties that differs from store to store. Some of the most popular flavours are chocolate, jelly-filled, honey dipped, and maple glazed.

Other doughnut chains in Canada and the United States sell virtually identical products, often called “doughnut holes”. However, due to Tim Hortons’ place in Canadian culture, Timbits is often used as the generic term for these in Canada, even when they are purchased from another chain.

In the U.S., these baked items are commonly called “Munchkins,” which is the brand Dunkin’ Donuts uses for the donut balls.Timbits, as well as most doughnuts from doughnut shops, are most likely made in hydrogenated vegetable oil, which contributes to their unhealthy levels of trans fat. Managers of doughnut shops will know the contents of their cooking oil.

Timbits also refers to participants in the Timbits Minor Sports Program, a community program sponsored by Tim Hortons for local sports teams involving children aged four to eight years.

Customers may find that the selection of donuts and Timbits vary slightly between Tim Hortons stores. This is because, while every store must carry some “required” varieties, they may also choose from many optional varieties to best meet the needs – and tastebuds – of their store’s customers.

Dissecting Floyd

Today when I was driving to the office in the wee hours of the morning I had Pink Floyd as my companion on the music system.
I was listening to the song “Mother “

“Mother do you think they’ll drop the bomb
Mother do you think they’ll like the song
Mother do you think they’ll try to break my balls
Ooooh aah, Mother should I build a wall
Mother should I run for president
Mother should I trust the government
Mother will they put me in the firing line
Ooooh aah, is it it just a waste of time *
Hush now baby don’t you cry
Mama’s gonna make all of your
Nightmares come true
Mama’s gonna put all of her fears into you
Mama’s gonna keep you right here
Under her wing
she won’t let you fly but she might let you sing
Mama will keep baby cosy and warm
Ooooh Babe Ooooh Babe Ooooh Babe
Of course Mama’s gonna help build the wall

Mother do think she’s good enough for me
Mother do think she’s dangerous to me
Mother will she tear your little boy apart
Oooh aah, mother will she break my heart
Hush now baby, baby don’t you cry
Mama’s gonna check out all your girl friends for you
Mama won’t let anyone dirty get through
Mama’s gonna wait up till you come in
Mama will always find out where
You’ve been
Mamma’s gonna keep baby healthy and clean
Ooooh Babe Ooooh Babe Ooooh Babe
You’ll always be a baby to me
Mother, did it need to be so high.”

There are 2 versions of this song. The original one in the ablum “Wall” where Roger Waters sings the whole song and the second version is in Roger Water tour ablum” In the Flesh” where he sings the same song along with Katie Kissoon which is my favorite version of the song.

This song talks about a mothers protectiveness wonderfully woven by Floyd music.
The inquisitive child always is asking his mothers advice, till he gets older and wants to fly. But the mother is overprotective and won’t let him fly.

Floyd seems to be addressing how when a person is young, he has expectations put on him which chain him to society. Certain things that he has to do, like study, get a job, get married. The wall is symbolic of that oppression, which in a mad cycle traps him and before he know it, he end up forcing those same values on others.

Entrepreneurs: A Rare breed of people.

An entrepreneur (a loanword from French) is a person who undertakes and operates a new enterprise or venture, and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks.

Entrepreneur as a risk bearer:
Richard Cantillon, an Irish man living in France was the first to introduce the term entrepreneur and his unique risk bearing function in economics in the early 18th century. He defined an entrepreneur as an agent who buys factors of production at certain prices in order to combine them into a product with a view to selling it at uncertain prices in future. Uncertainty is defined as a risk, which cannot be insured against and is incalculable. There is a distinction between ordinary risk and uncertainty. A risk can be reduced through the insurance principle, where the distribution of the outcome in a group of instances is known. On the contrary, uncertainty is a risk, which cannot be calculated. The entrepreneur, according to Knight, is the economic functionary who undertakes such responsibility of uncertainty, which by its very nature cannot be insured, or capitalized or salaried too. Mark Casson has extended this notion to characterize entrepreneurs as decision makers who improvise solutions to problems which cannot be solved by routine alone.

Entrepreneur as an organizer:
Jean–Baptiste Say, an aristocratic industrialist, developed the concept of entrepreneur a little further. His definition associates entrepreneur with the functions of co-ordination, organization and supervision. According to him, an entrepreneur is one who combines the land of one, labor of another and the capital of yet another, and, thus, produces a product.
By selling the product in the market, he pays interest on capital, rent on land and wages to laborers and what remains is his or her profit.

Functional and indicative approach to entrepreneur definition:
Mark Casson divides the approach of defining entrepreneur into two parts! Functional approach states that an entrepreneur is what entrepreneur does. The indicative approach provides a description of the entrepreneur by which he may be recognized. The indicative approach maybe more concrete: it can describe entrepreneur in terms of legal status, relation with other parties, position in society, etc. An entrepreneur is an individual whose specialism and economic contribution refer to allocation of factors of production.

Entrepreneur as a person willing to engage uncertainty:
Frank Knight, in his seminal contribution to economics Risk, Uncertainty and Profit (1921), defines uncertainty as a primary attribute of his entrepreneurship theory. If there were no uncertainty no losses would be made. Risk is calculable, uncertainty is not. Entrepreneur is a person who is willing to put his career and capital on an uncertain venture.

Entrepreneur as a leader:
More recently, researchers such as R. B. Reich have argued that leadership, management ability, and team-building should be added to the definition of.

The above is an extract from Wikipedia.
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Entrepreneur is a word that fascinates me a lot. The very concept of being a risk taker, an organizer, a leader is enchanting.

In my knowledge there are 2 factors which are a must for every entrepreneur
1) Optimism and Passion for your work.
2) Faith in yourself and the ability to face failure with a smile.

Infosys is a wonderful example which comes to my mind when I think about successful entrepreneurship.The dedication, the passion, the optimism with which the company started in the year 1981 stands strong today.It started with just seven people and today in 2006 they stand tall with 52k employees, with annual revenues of $2.15 billion.

If I were to select the best entrepreneur, I have 2 people on my mind.
One is our very own NRN and the second would be Howard Schultz, the man behind the success story called “Starbucks”. Few others significant name are Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Richard Branson , Sunil Mittal , Laxmi Mittal , Dr.T M A Pai and the list goes on…..

Infosys through their mission quotes “To achieve our objectives in an environment of fairness, honesty, and courtesy towards our clients, employees, vendors and society at large”.

Starbucks says “We establish the value of buying a product at Starbucks by our uncompromising quality and by building a personal relationship with each of our customers. Starbucks is rekindling America’s love affair with coffee, bringing romance and fresh flavor back to the brew”.

There is true passion, commitment and value in their mission.

Betty Bender said “When people go to work, they shouldn’t have to leave their hearts at home” and I am sure being an entrepreneur you never will leave your heart at home.

Rediscovering coffee

Coffee,more an experience than just a drink. My first coffee was probably the one which my mom prepared at home . A decade back Starbucks,Tim Hortons ,Coffee day, Barisata were unheard of…or i must say i never heard about them. As a kid coffee was just another morning ritual. Gulp down the glass of filter coffee which my dear mom would prepare and rush to school. I never pondered about the passion behind coffee making.Over the last few years i have rediscoverd the essence of coffee in my life. Be it from meeting my old friends or planning my career moves,be it from meeting my lifepartner or deciding on my financial moves, coffee has played a major role in my life.

The first time I had my Starbucks coffee was at HongKong. I fell in love with the coffee, the service and the ambiance of the place. It was not just plain coffee, it was a whole new experience.Right from the time i entered the store, to the barista making my cup of coffee,to the music,the ambiance, I could feel ever bit of it.My second experience with Starbucks was at Shenzhen.The service,the cofffee remained unchanged. In Shenzhen where people hardly speak english, at Starbucks I had people greeting me in english, talking to me in english and serving me a global brand.Try to lay your hands on a book “Pour Your Heart Into It : How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time “. You will realize the passion behind building this great global brand.

Last year i got an opportunity to visit Canada. Everywhere i could see another brand “Tim Hortons”. It is not fair to compare Tims with Starbucks. Both of them have their own mark. Tim Hortons was another cozy ,friendly coffee shop. I and Sumana must have spent most of our time at Tim Hortons. Right from the French Vanilla coffee to the timbits.All week we would wait to go to Tim Hortons and have our cup of coffee. I guess the cold climate of Canada adds up to the taste of the coffee. 6 months in canada with Tim Horotons was an all new experience.Even today both of us frequently talk about the good time we had at Tim Hortons.

We do not have Starbucks or Tim Hortons in Bangalore. But then we have Cafe Coffee day and Barista. Its not fair on my part to compare the global brands with what we have here,but then I do not have other options.I am not a great fan of Coffee day, but Barista to some extend.
Lately we came across another coffee shop called” Kala Mane”. The filter coffee they prepare tastes really good.

Check the 4 coffee shops which rock.
http://www.starbucks.com
http://www.timhortons.com
http://www.barista.co.in
http://www.cafecoffeeday.com

Time to go for my cup of coffee.

The wind of changes

The first thing a person has to adopt in his life is “change”.Change is inevitable. Let me start with the city I live in ,Bangalore. I moved into this garden city 7 years ago. Little did I know where the city would move and so would I. From Bangalore to Bengaluru, form a software trainee to an Account manager, things have changed and changed for good.

I moved to this city with no clear career path in mind… All i wanted then was a stable job, no risks.Slowly did I realize that risk and opportunity go hand in hand. And the more calculated risks I took ,the more opportunities came my path.Life has taught me many lessons in the last 7 years.

All I can think at this point is the famous song by Scorpions ” Wind of Change”
I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by
Listening to the wind of change ………..

Another wonderful day comes to an end