I hope New Year brings new hopes, solid plans and inspirational actions in our professional lives!

I was thinking what should be our next topic to discuss and there flashes news from Mark Zuckerberg's new year resolution, for which he approached FB users. He has finally decided to have "People First" as his New Year resolution.

It's easier said than done.

Let's try to discuss top three critical aspects for a truly people centric organization.

1. Consumers and Customers First

We have been hearing that consumers and customers pay our salaries. Great thought! So what does it mean? We need to know well our consumers and customers- about their likes and stronger dislikes.

What kind of products and services they are looking for? What problems are they facing? How can we provide a solution to them? How can we continuously innovate and renovate our offerings?

What are the industry trends?

As shared in my earlier articles, we have seen many organizations vanished when they miserably failed to walk in sync with consumers and customers. Hindustan Motors in India could not innovate and became an extinct player in one of the largest car market of world. Many consulting companies got targeted by hostile takeovers when they failed to offer new solutions or a consolidated offering.

Many times companies were offering "old wine in new bottle". The offering was nicely repackaged and given to clients. Let's agree that consumers and customers are smarter.In today's well networked world, consumers are making well informed and in many cases well researched choices.

So, understand these people very well and continue to deliver value to them.

2. Business Partners First

So, we have a great product and amazing service offerings! Excellent!

Is that enough for us to excel in Market place. May be or may be not?

I have been seeing many companies who almost exploit their business partners’ viz. suppliers, distributors, other service providers. These partners work with the company till the time they don't have another alternative.

A partner who handles them with respect, offer decent money, is value based, give timely payments etc. For some of us who are running our businesses; we prefer to do business with a value based company rather the one who gives more dollars but is very difficult to handle. Dollars versus difficultly, choice is ours!

Companies who build solid partnerships across the value chain are more successful. They innovate across the chain and deliver sustainable value year after year. While others in spite of good offerings struggle. Sometimes, their suppliers fail, a distributor goof ups, advertising agency delivers a horrible campaign, placement consultant fails to find a good candidate, logistics service provider doesn't provide trucks in peak season. Indeed a long list.

So, we are as successful as our business partners. If we take a short term win here, we end up failing in long term. Let's set our partners for success and; they will walk that extra mile for making us more successful.

3. Employees First

Last but not the least; our employees build our company and culture. Their enormous camaraderie helps us to sail through difficult times and excel in good times. And every employee whether junior or senior is important to deliver. Neglect one level, aha! Your other level will fail miserably.

We need to engage, develop, and inspire our employees. We need to provide them with purposeful and value adding jobs, compensate well, respect them and build their careers. They will never ever disappoint us. I have been seeing many cases where some managers mismanaged people and very soon, they had many empty desks in their departments, whereas those who lead people very well could make their departments "best places to work".

So, if we take our employees with us any business battle seems easy to conquer.

Summing up, Connectwith Consumers, Support Suppliers and Engage Employees for building and excelling a people centric organization.

It's a good thought, let us get it implemented and transform the way we do our businesses!

By Amit Kaushal