Lesson 2: Reorder your priorities
A core part of your thinking that must be addressed if you are to face turbulent times successfully and indeed take full advantage of the opportunities that they will create, is your pattern of business priorities. We are now able to address this productively having gone through Lesson 1, where we learned how to redefine our businesses and recognise the importance of the intangible aspects of our businesses.
The first thing to note is that your business is not about you. Unfortunately, this is the normative wayof thinking about business. People generally go into business with themselves in mind. You may raise your arms in protest at this assertion but on closer examination you will find it to be true. The focus of a lot of businesses is their own survival. In essence, the business exists to maintain its own existence and if possible, to increase its size in the process. This is folly- it is a redundant system that is self-centered and self-referential.
It is self-centered. Unfortunately, this self-centered mode of thinking is so deeply entrenched in our collective mind, that we have developed all sorts of schemes to keep it alive by masking it even from our own selves. We have “customer service” but we do not mean true service. Instead, we have come up with this scheme in realising that the customer is an important agent in our self-centered agenda. For many businesses the customer is a means to an end, a tool to be “used” to achieve our end of self-sustenance and self-promotion. Good “customer service” simply means that I “use”my customers in the best way possible in order to maximise my gain. If I do not have good customer service, I may not retain the use of these customers but if I have a good customer service, I will retain them for longer time and earn a greater profit.
It is self-referential. All you need to do is take a look at any notable company celebrating a significant milestoneand you will have to arrive at the [logical] conclusion that a great company is one that is large and profitable; one that has managed to makemore profit than its competitors. So, companies boast about their geographical reach, their rate of growth, their profitability and so on and so forth. Our rhetoric betrays our true motivations– motivations that will eventually permeate everything in the business. Of course, some of these things are not wrong in themselves and may even be desirable but they are not priority. Our priorities should be different.
Your business is about other people. This is not primarily a change in activities but a deep change in mindset. You are in business to serve.Not just to join the trend of “service” as a business buzzword but to truly serve another person. To care for them like you would like to be cared for, to seek their wellbeing and welfare. Your business does not exist to perpetuate its own existence – it exists to improve the welfare of someone else. Your customers do not exist to make you great; you exist to make them great. Your priority should be the customer (if we can call them that at this stage).
This is a major point. One that would require hours and even days of robust discourse to fully grasp- it must not be skimmed over in this short article. We are dealing with the root of your business which sits in your mind. Remember that your real business is NOT the goods you produce and/or supply. Your real business is delivering meaning to people and the meaning your business communicates to customers finds its origin in you. Even though it may be true that your organisation intermediates whatever you may be doing – so vendors, colleagues, processes etc. can contribute positively or negatively to execution of your intention – the point still remains that the essence of your business originates in your mind and has its effect in the mind of the customer.Your business mindset must change from prioritising self to prioritising others. You should not underestimate the transformative potential of this change in mindset. It lies at the root of everything.
How does this reordering of priorities affect my profit? Join me next week to find out more
QUESTIONS
1. Take a piece of paper and write down why you are in business. Clearly state out what the priorities of your business have been.
2. Would you still do this business if all the money/provision you (and your family) needed to live well was guaranteed for the rest of your life? If not, what would you do? What does your answer tell you about your motivation and business priorities (your answer to Question 1)?
3. Is there a discrepancy between your answers to Question 1 and Question 2 above? Why do you think that is?
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Toluwanimi Osinowo
Dr. Osinowo is a thinker and teacher: coaching high-potential leaders, advising organizations and originating breakthrough ideas. He is the founder of CANTAB Associates and the pioneer of SAPIENCE which is both a philosophy and methodology of thinking. He previously worked in the London office of the leading global strategy consulting firm Bain & Company. He studied Medicine at the University of Cambridge where he was a Cambridge Commonwealth Scholar. He can be reached for your questions and comments.
e-mail: info@cantab-associates.com
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