Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Business-Basic rule

Three incidents which occurred today evening prompted me to write this post. Being a MBA student( I can call myself that now!) i will get to know all the rules of the business world in the coming two years, but i have some basic knowledge which i would like to express through this post.

Business as everyone knows is for making profits, now ethics is also a very important issue but i will keep that topic for some other time. When you want to make profit be it in small scale or large scale business it is imperative that customer/client is the king. Main purpose is to satisfy the needs of our customer/client.( Nothing new right!)

So the basic rule is and always will be

"Customer is the king"

Now coming to the three incidents that happened today,let me try to write how three different people had different perspectives of running their business.

1] First one-Tailor

We had to collect our newly stitched clothes(My dad's) from our family tailor. It is a no brain work,all we had to do was give him money and take clothes. But while we are doing that the tailor talked to me

" The Kurta is looking good on you, you should stitch yourself two more" ( He was the one who had stitched the kurta i was wearing)

Now he has planted a thought in my head and if that thought turns into action then he is going to make money out of it. So he is a good businessman who is trying to maximize his profits. Its secondary what i do but he has made me think thats where he scores his points.

2] Petrol filling guy

Next we went to the petrol bunk which we usually visit, there a short tempered guy came on his two wheeler and stood right in front of the filling guy. This guy asked him to go the next pump ( less than 5 feet away) since this one had a queue. Angered by his rudeness he asked whether he wants to fill petrol or not, our guy din't answer and the angered person went in frustration.

If the guy talked to the customer politely and asked him to join the queue or go to the next pump i guess the angered person would have listened. Because of the guy's rudeness he lost his customer. You might say it would be very small loss but then if it becomes a habit then losses will multiple.

3] Book store manager

Then i went to a big book store to buy some books(Novels). The manager was standing in front of the counter and asked me which book i was looking for. I was looking for "connect the dots" by Rashmi bhansal. I got my copy and then i wanted to check out some management books and i asked him where the section was. To my surprise he asked me to come tomorrow! It was only 8:45pm! I wanted to buy more books and he blatantly asked me to come tomorrow! I am not even a regular customer there, it was my second visit.

He was denting his own profits! He has lost a customer in me. Even if he was sitting in the shop from morning 9am still it does not make sense to close the shop before time. Couldn't he had stayed for 15 minutes more?? It was he who was to gain after all!!

Tailor had more business sense than book store owner!! See business does not have class or caste divide! Thankfully!!

5 comments:

  1. I liked the examples that you have incorporated..... tailor, petrol filling guy & the book store manager.
    Good job! :):)

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Thank you! Really appreciate the comment.

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  4. That is the way you need to learn business.Real life scenarios/case studies(common in b schools) are the best tools that can help u learn and practice business in a more safer and better manner.Good work dude . See u in SCMS-Cochin
    Anand John anank54@hotmail.com

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  5. Thanks Anand john! Will surely meet in SCMS!

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