The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Anniversaries, Awards and Second Line

It is always a good feeling to complete another year. Congratulations to Team Business Goa for another year in operation, another year to look forward too. We too completed another year, not from the day we were incorporated but from the day we sold the first product. I believe any establishment worth its salt can only be acknowledged if it is meeting a customers need.

So every Company should focus on customers if it wants to stay in there and be relevant. There are different ways or theories that companies will use, customer satisfaction surveys, customer feedback or as in the case of Apple, deciding what the customer needs and being right about it. I would like to look at another aspect of being there to serve the customer and that is building a “Second Line”.

Today, more than ever we have all types of awards for Corporate excellence. To my mind awards come in the following ways, 1) Analytical: CII Exim bank or Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award. 2) Perception: Corporate awards which recognise excellence to promote brand attributes or positioning.

Business Goa or GERA Big FM awards etc. 3) Paid: Yes paid. This is where you get a letter saying you have been selected and to be eligible you have to become a member.

We have had our share of the first two and we have had offers for the last category they are not worth talking about. It is the analytical category which is the type which needs more visibility. Actually I would be happy if this visibility helped more of my readers to apply for this award. Yes, this type needs to be applied for. There are huge benefits in just applying, the bonus would be if you also win.

Being associated with CII, which handles the CII Exim Bank award, I got to see first hand the advantages of how these awards encourage organisations to strengthen their management systems, practices and capabilities to enhance and sustain their competitiveness to become world class. This award is based on the famous Malcolm Baldridge National quality award of the US and other similar awards. I decided to take a baby step and applied for the Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award of the Bureau of Indian Standards.

The investment is lower but the process is similar. The awards committee reviews every applicant on the following points, Leadership, Human Relations Management, Process, Customer Focused Results, Impact on Environment and Society and finally Business Results.

After preliminary study of the documents the company submits, some are shortlisted for a site visit. Post the visit irrespective of the results, the team gives advice to the company under review to improve. It is like hiring a consultant.

In our case while we scored well on all aspects we had a low score on leadership. I was taken aback, I fancied myself (kidding). The team leader explained their logic. They felt if I as head of organistion was removed from the leadership, the organisation would have difficulty to survive as there was no second line visible. That hit me.

We did take note of this observation and made the necessary improvements. Today we have that second line in place, thanks to the third angle view we got a dozen years ago. I can let you in on a secret, if the owner manager has a good second line he can take a holiday. Go ahead pick some awards, it can surely do your organisation a lot of good and see you through many more anniversaries.