Perhaps the most asked question I’ve answered was secrets to our sustainability as a young, privately held and self-funded company since our inception and during these challenging times. The truth though, there isn’t any secret to that formula. It’s following the basic principles of simplicity and listening to your inner voice. If that tiny voice is speaking to you, there is a very good reason.

Simplicity: Solutions do not lie in more complexity, it’s in simplicity. Keeping culture, people, process, technology – core of your business – simple is the key to sustenance. Avoid using jargon and buzz words that create more confusion than provide a solution. Sometimes they may be good for creating awareness of a brand and are most often used by marketing and public relations department. But, when running a business, provide substance and use language understood by your team, clients, prospects. Keep it simple.

Flexibility: Change is a natural process of life as it is in business. Whether you are an entrepreneur or an employee changing with business need is essential. During recession flexibility is perhaps the biggest asset of an organization, small or large. Adapting to change and being agile are qualities sought after by employer and clients alike.

Alliance: Your client, business partners, board of directors and advisors, and team members are your best alliances. Forming alliances is crucial in the growth of your business. Existing relationships must be nurtured and valued. Be the advocate for your alliances and the return will be many fold. Your alliance are your ambassador. (Forming right alliance is beyond the scope of this write-up but will detail that in another post). During recession your alliances are your most reliable source of expansion and growth. They know you and will vouch for you. Do not neglect your early well wishers while expanding your alliance base though. They are your proven asset.

Shared Vision: In order to remain sustainable, shared vision among key players – team members, partners, alliance – is vital. It’s virtually impossible to provide cutting edge solutions and technologies – or whatever business you may be in – if visions are not shared by core members. Those visions do not have to be aligned 100% but they must be above 85% – my personal magic number is 90%.

Transparency: Whether profiting or hurting in downtime, be transparent about your company’s plans and policies. If change is needed – cutting cost, layoffs – be upfront. Your team and your clients deserve the truth. Your transparency will drive morale, loyalty and repeat clients.

To remain sustainable we keep it simple, transparent, flat and yet elegant.

Tags: alliance, Business, Sustainability, transparency, vision
Posted in Business, Sustainability |

Forming alliances and partners are natural process for growth of a business. Knowing and identifying those alliances will perhaps make or break your company. A few basic pointers I’ve learned – at times the hard way – in identifying my alliances and ambassadors were sometimes not so easy.

Trust – Do you trust the person enough to share the inner most trade secrets of your company without an iota of doubt? Mistakes are often made between being “friends” and trusting a person. Does the person trust you enough to allow you into the inner workings of their business? Are you included in their space as openly as you include them? Do not confuse “friendliness” with trust. If the latter is missing, know you have not found an alliance or a partner. You must be able to trust each other with your life as partners.

Appreciation – Often times appreciation is overlooked. It is important to thank someone for sharing ideas or inspiration that may have taken you to greater heights in your business. In a healthy relationship that appreciation flows naturally. But, when your ideas or inspirations are taken for granted or used for one’s personal gain without acknowledging your contribution, you have not found an alliance or a partner. I believe in sharing ideas and inspiring people. But, when those ideas are quoted as someone else’s, I know I’ve not formed an alliance. Be generous with your ideas, but also be smart whom you share them with.

Respect - Right after graduation, I approached a number of my then class mates to partner with me. A couple of classmates faded quickly from the scene because of lack of shared vision. Partnering with a third person seemed very promising. I had the technology, business and marketing skills while she was THE coder, a wizard in JAVA, JavaScript. Vaguely we discussed going into partnership, I initiating the conversations. One evening, it was again I who called for further discussion. She was running late for an appointment and could not talk then. She asked me to call her back. I never did. If the person you are going to partner with does not have the time or respect to return your call, you cannot be partners. Partnership is equal responsibility and respect for one another. Do not confuse “friendliness” with respect. It is easy to be cordial, but respect is proven in actions.

Inclusiveness - I’ve a knack for recognizing a person’s skill sets within very short time of working with or knowing someone. It has been both a blessing and a curse. The latter because often times others do not read a person’s skills correctly and fail to place people in position that best suits their skills, thus leading to disaster, while I watch from afar. As I sometimes do, I approached a couple of people whom I knew would be a good fit to join our team. More as a partner or an executive team member. However, it didn’t take long for me to notice that while I shared every aspect of our business, I was not included in theirs. Are you included in their lives as you include them in yours? Can you pick up the phone and call each other at 3 in the morning if needed? Can you turn to each other without hesitation when emergencies arise? If not, know you have not found a partner or an alliance. Remember though, partnership is more closer than an alliance. With partners, inclusiveness is vital.

There are other pointers but these are basics that I use as guidelines to identify alliances and possible partners.

Tags: alliance, appreciation, inclusiveness, partner, respect, simply web, trust
Posted in Business |