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Success is a Team Game
BY Sujit Mundul
While competitors are keeping you on your toes, it is important to keep in mind that your rivals are also your peers.
In an organisation that has thousands of employees and is located in hundreds of places, it does not take much time for bureaucracy to creep in. Ideas and thoughts can get lost in a maze of official channels. Employees tend to lose faith in their abilities of making a difference, and the result will be organisational fatigue.
These challenges are often compounded by the fact that large organisations, especially in the service sector, can easily fall prey to "isolationist syndrome". Large companies often tend to become their own mini-nations, their "citizens" bound together by special sign languages, governance and, of course, unique cultures.
When faced with the problems of "thinking big", one of the most effective tactics, I believe, is to remind yourself constantly, diligently and vigilantly that your success did not happen in a vacuum.
This has been a proven fact in many parts of the world over the past few decades that any successful business always needs a lot of people, both inside and outside the firm, to make it a winner. In the service sector, one has to deal with a large number of associates, customers, shareholders and regulators.
If you analyse it carefully, it is evident that everyone plays a role in making a "brand" a success.
The world has undergone a substantial change over the last century, both in terms of material aspiration and in the mode of delivery to the ultimate consumer. The concept of creating a value chain for the services provided and the perceived benefits accruing to a consumer play a very critical role in the modern world - very conspicuous in the service sector which plays a key role to the growth of the many emerging market economies.
Hence it is of critical importance that one has to work in harmony with all the associates/stakeholders and recognise them appropriately so as to have the smooth flow of success and creating wealth for the organisation.
While competitors are keeping you on your toes, it is important to keep in mind that your rivals are also your peers. The old saying rings true: "What goes around, comes around." If one is able to hold above one's competition, he risks isolating himself and losing out on sources of help when he needs them the most. Last but not the least, amongst our partners in our success are the thousands of customers who use our services. We certainly would not exist without the people who choose to use our products and services. They have plenty of alternatives and we know it! Like our competitors, our customers keep us hoping. Part of what gets us out of bed in the morning is the search for new ways to keep them happy, earn their loyalty and win more customers.
I believe that the success of service innovations grows out of two most important corporate values: attention to details and good listening skills. These cornerstones of great corporate culture plus thousands of loyal customers provide ample inspiration for innovation to a successful company.
The bottom line on partners in success - Never take them for granted!
(Mundul is the CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Nepal Ltd.)
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