Timepoof Your Business!

 6 MINUTE READ

The world of business is now evidently having one heck of a time maintaining the momentum and keep things sound. That includes modern companies as well.

Clocks Image/Photo by Rawpixel

It's Monday morning in Wellington, New Zealand and as usual, it's raining, after somehow managing to grab a half-burnt toast Henry, rushes towards the nearest bus station to catch the bus at 8:10 to his bank. Henry is 34 years old banker, always perfectly groomed up, physically well-built, obsessed with fitness...of course, suits. But Henry wasn't always like this all his life, in fact as a teen, he was rather an introvert, his soul lived inside a thin body with a significantly weakened immune system, always kept a slicker by his side and we all are pretty much well acquainted with what happens when you have a weak immune system, right. 

While with all the medications underway, he soon realized, there was something else which was to be done soon, so, ... no... he neither hit the gym right away nor did he fill his gut with loads of protein powder, but he did do something which would compensate enough for all of that and help him overcome all those hurdles for the very long upcoming time rather for a lifetime. He decided to develop a regime that would allow him to be resilient or here, in our case timeproof. 

He had begun this journey at the age of 21 by making a few minute changes to his very routine and lifestyle, firstly, he had learned to express himself and get connected with different people, which obviously earned him a lot of company; secondly, he would treat his mind and heart with a generous dose of dopamine through the act of helping others to activate that positive humane emotion, and finally, to fill that frame with some more flesh, he deeply cultivated the idea of eating healthy relying mostly on oil-less and sugarfree food and maintained a doable fitness regimen, basically body-weight training... yeah that. And planted firmly the notion in his heart, mind, and soul that no matter what happens or wherever he is, he would stick to those 3 rules with obviously some cheat days. And he did, although, he never fails to carry his slicker everywhere. Present-day: He is now physically and emotionally quite fit actually which makes him look more like 25, and married with a beautiful chubby wife for over 2 years. And now, irrespective of where he is at, whatever the weather is and no matter how severe emotional setback he has to go through, he turns his setback into a comeback, now he is stronger than ever and well equipped with the inner development of that insatiable hunger of constant learning and improving himself from time.    

So, what's your takeaway from the narrative?  

And we will try to take you through few related stories, so, sit back, relax and allow us to save your time and spare the guesswork as timeproof will begin to make sense as we take you through this journey.

Corporate Illustration by Rawpixel

We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give - Winston Churchill

The Human Element: Most often ignored, neglected and overlooked by many reputed new-generation firms till today as they fail to realize that it is their employees that is holding them in the upright position and not their modern equipment or that state of the art infrastructure. Yet many many employees around the globe aren't happy and are inevitably having a miserable experience, they have a family, there is house loan, car loan and they can't think of leaving the current job or even sometimes apprehensive to switch, putting it rather simply they are trapped. Now here, along with the employees, the companies also inadvertently equally suffer. Lack of positive emotions (like motivation, happiness, support etc) for the company, favouritism, no or less room for hearing for their grievances, and lack of mental and physical counselling, which leads to a very blurred vision of the company's goals with the employees leaving them clueless hampering the overall performance of the company as a whole. 

Ensure these humane elements in your work culture today: security: job security, safe, supportive yet energetic environment with no unrealistic targets (get rid of that psychopath from your company); enough pay (you can't expect to travel 1000 km with 2 litres of fuel); can't pay your employees enough? Reduce working hours; implement constant learning/training to eliminate boredom, provide dignity, appreciation, and no irrational long working hours, please! Unfortunately, some firms are unapologetic and utterly ridiculous about it till today. 

Business is not only about filling your pockets and profits it also involves the pressing duty to also fulfil social responsibility, to care, to empathize 

He Who Does Not Learn From History Is Doomed To Repeat It

As said by the very popular late Spanish-American philosopher, poet, and humanist, George Santayana which stands true to its meaning even today. So, it's the early 2000s, the era which witnessed the phenomenal growth of mobile devices precisely called the feature phones or the basic keypad phones with a screen (significantly smaller than what we see today). And if you were to buy one, it had to be most probably a Nokia (or a Blackberry if you are a businessperson). By the end of 2007, the same year Apple launched its revolutionary first-ever metal body all-screen iPhone, reigning this industry with a whopping market share of  49.4%, but this was shortlived like a bubble, with its declining quality with every passing year and its unwillingness to take risks. Gradually people start to switch from the reliable old Nokia to other new innovative brands such as Apple, Samsung. Nokia's failure to adapt to changing times, with no proper vision, irrational arrogance and outdated management led to its eventual downfall by 2013 even Microsoft's intervention couldn't save it. Nokia (now run by HMD Global) failed to realize that brand loyalty had slowly been fading away with now easy access to information through the widespread internet connection, customers have now the unprecedented power to choose and switch. However, with its range of new Android devices in place, it is still having a quite hard time gaining attention and making an impactful market presence today. 

The sad thing is that Nokia still trying to sell its products boasting about its sturdiness and its build quality, undeniably it is a necessity but a secondary one, but nobody talks about it that much anymore except for the nostalgic 3110 model (in the right pic. above). It seems Nokia is yet to recognize this fact and learn from its past mistakes. The Hardcore Nokia fans are still optimistic about a dramatic regain of the lost reign once Nokia proudly possessed and eagerly waiting for a mighty comeback. 

Don't Worry What Others Are Doing, Do You!  - Russell Simmons

Being Unique Illustration by Rawpixel

KFC sells its own stuff, McDonald's does its own, but both are good at what they do, they do not imitate each other yet they have a respective ample market share. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu changed the way we watched movies, without attempting to replace the theatres; Coursera, Udemy, edX changing the way of the modern education system, without offering the traditional school education, but focused on courses to skill up within a matter of few hours or days. Komal is barely 8 years old, spends most of her time playing a game which is ... umm ... made by her, it would have sounded strange had it been 5 years ago. Yeah, along with awesome dancing skills and she also honed some baking skills through YouTube, perhaps that's what most of us have been doing during our stay at home, gotcha! In addition to all of that, she also very recently acquired some brilliant coding skills during her stay at home this year, thanks to WhiteHat Jr (offers online coding classes for kids). So, coding is just not a thing for professionals anymore. Care for some early employment, kids?

    

WFH? Zoom, Microsoft Teams perhaps are the first names that pop up in your mind, sadly though Skype lost significantly during this pandemic to its counterparts which itself had been into this business before them. Want to make some friends (yeah... the virtual ones... some fake ones as well)? Head over to Facebook, Instagram (apart from the locked/private accounts, eh!), even with the already presence of such popular mediums MySpace and Orkut, Facebook made quite of a mark as Mark Zuckerberg did things a bit differently.

Mercedes' EQC, Audi's e-Tron, BMW's iX, Tesla's... well, all of their vehicles are EVs, expensive to buy, cheaper to own, giving way to clean breathable air, you couldn't be asking for more. Thinking of buying a vacuum cleaner... or even a phone... you don't have to step outside... just open eBay or Amazon.com and then after a few finger taps or clicks, it gets delivered at your doorstep by a delivery guy, if lucky by a drone (a contactless delivery in the true sense, huh?), that too through online payment gateways such as PayPal, Google Pay. Large roadside hoardings, big banners are gradually becoming the things of the past as Digital Marketing is rapidly emerging as the norm. 

The world is always starving and craving for new ideas, uniqueness, and leadership, things which defy expectations, practicality yet is always reluctant, uncomfortable, and doubtful when it comes to acceptance and adapt to the newness of the new inventions and it will always be like that as it deliberately drifts you out of your comfort zone and puts you in front of the unseen, unimagined, unexplored and unexpected. Doing things differently is risky and it sucks, undoubtedly, but it is worth putting the effort. Have the guts to fail. Failing isn't bad, not learning from it is. 

Stay Connected With Your Audience/Customers

You have already lost the battle if you have zero presence over social media platforms, as it is an indispensable tool for the businesses of today in order to survive and grow. Engaging directly with your customers is the key to sustainability. Oneplus, the Chinese smartphone brand regularly promotes its products, offers, and engages with its followers/customers through Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, not only it also registers their grievance or challenges faced by the customers. Spotify created clever ads displaying them tactically in public locations aided their visibility and presence. Dove, the brand focused on women empowerment, has been praised for its noteworthy campaigns on embracing the uniqueness of natural beauty defying all the existing biased definitions.

Social Media presence has now become inevitable and is absolutely necessary to get your audience engaged with your brand effectively. GoPro showcases its camera quality by posting pictures taken from their devices through Instagram and converses with their audience through Twitter.

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— GoPro (@GoPro) November 12, 2020

Think about what are you going to do to keep yourself healthy, wealthy, knowledgeable and skilful from time to time. You know what you will have to do, right? Of course, you would also need the internet and at least a smartphone, no wonder it has inevitably become an important part of our lives. As a large number of businesses are forced to shut down during this pandemic, some managed whereas, few failed to withstand this test of time and whilst many flourished. Treat the business as not only as a lifeless entity but as a living individual.

TAKEAWAYS: First have a Crisp Clear Concise vision of your business, then you might wanna give a thought over the following tips:  

1. Resistance to change has always been proven to be fatal not only for humans but also for commerce and markets. Adaptability is the key. Take Action!
2. History and mistakes always are the best of the teachers, so, just take a step back and pay some heed. Feedbacks also play a vital role in improving the quality of your products/services giving way to a better customer experience (sounds a bit like Starbucks, eh?)  and satisfaction.
3. Taking the unknown path is invariably nerve-wracking but often it leads to new treasures. It's not about what you do but it's about how you do. Bear in mind that in a bid to be unique, just don't end up being ridiculous!  

Delaying is not good but sometimes, it is, because then you have the time to break off a bit to think and fix, and please don't try to sell something which you wouldn't buy yourself. Lastly, take care of your employees and they will return the favour in full, well, most of them. Copying or imitating isn't that bad as it sounds, especially when you can pull it off and sell them like hotcakes... a bit of a clue there!😉. So, are you ready to be timeproof?

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door!"- Milton Berle