There are a few leaders in the
corporate world, who have provided a steady growth to their organization while
they were disrupting the industry at the same time. You see this phenomenon in
non-corporate worId also. I observed them to understand what is their secret
sauce; what is that they have done which enabled them to excel surmounting the
odds.
After a careful study, I observed
one common theme across all these people, their secret sauce. They believed in
one simple rule and implemented it rigorously in all aspect of business or any
non-business operations managed by them. They made it a point that everyone on
their team understands it and incorporates it in their part of work for the
organization. The rule typically is so simple that it is very easy to
understand and key for winning is its comprehensive implementation across all
aspects of business.
Let us take one well known
example of Steve Jobs; he believed in the simple rule of “Be Yardstick of Quality”. It is easy to understand; it means the
industry should look at apple products for what it is called as “best quality
product” and build their products to reach those standards. This is easier said
than done though. It means all aspects
of the product right from conceptualization, design, features, performance,
manufacturing, distribution, sales and finally service; all aspects, should
demonstrate this YARDSTICK QUALITY and being in commercial world, the product
also should be price competitive in the market. The apple team, has taken this
rule of “be yardstick of quality” and implemented it comprehensively in all
aspect of business and result is in front of us. It takes a significant effort
to incorporate the theme in all aspects of daily working when there are multiple
external and internal stakeholders / partners doing their part to get the
product in customer’s hand.
There are several examples like
this; " Put the Customer first, Invent and be Patient" by Jeff Bozos; “Be no 1 or 2 in the industry we operate” by Jack Welch took GE to new
heights. Similarly, “Non-Violence” by Mahatma Gandhi created a huge freedom
movement in India leading to its independence. There are several such rules
come to my mind like “Just Do It”, “Be Authentic”, “Do what you say”, etc.
One of the common theme we hear
from various people / organizations is around “Customer Centricity or Customer
Focus”. Different companies and their leaders provide their own spin of this
theme. When we observe these organizations, we can clearly see difference in
their performance, perception of their customers about them, their product
portfolio, their customer service based on level of depth they have gone to
implement the theme they proclaim. The organizations, which have primary focus
on customer benefits in preference to regular things like cost, profitability,
etc. are seen to be performing well on all fronts, including profitability.
This same thought process or
mantra could be extended to an individual who wants to excel. First step is to
identify a rule that resonates with you; it could be simple as “Respect Others”,
“Do as you say”, “Make others smile” or anything personal like “save 20% of my
salary for future safety” and Next step is to implement the same in all aspects
of your life and see the miracle. Start small, experiment with it and then
create your own niche.
Once again, the Mantra to excel –
“Believe
in Simple Rule and Implement it rigorously in all aspect of business / personal
life”
