Meeting the CEO's

On 15th I met a CEO of a software dev company, who is concerned about building the organisation to his philosophy and instilling the spirit of ownership among employees. He is in his mid thirties and has about a decade of experience in US behind him. His philosophy is simple: I add value to my customer, and claim my revenue from that value. He wants his employees to think that they own the business and run it with that responsibility and rewards. He had written down his ideas very clearly on one page and also put it up on the website. I wanted to know his story. He narrated it briefly. I could see that this young man had reinvented himself twice or thrice. I asked him if he faced any struggle every time he did that. His quick answer was that all the stress had affected him physically. So I suggested that in addition to sharing the cold conceptual stuff, could he share his hot stuff of struggles, defeats and victories with his employees? The tale of blood and sweat may strike their hearts while the conceptual stuff would from one ear to another.

Then I met another one who runs a big Spices business, turning out 45 tonnes of them per day. A young man in his late twenties, he had a peach like complexion from being a pure vegetarian. He took over reins of business when he knew nothing about it. He had to learn everything on the run. His grandfather, the pioneer, stood by him and gave him the moral support. From a small factory, they have gone on to a modern plant. They want to do new things taking a fresh look at their own growth. I am going to visit them and then take part in the discussions.

The third one is concerned with a High Tech Machine indigenously developed. He wants to build his sales team into a marketing team. So these people made presentations. They talked of the customer's organisation, their business growth, their strategies and their needs. We had asked them to talk less of the machine and the order and more about the way the customer was handling his business. The important point was how you are going to influence the customers' thinking. For that we need to know what his orientation is, issues and priorities. Our offering must remove his bother and trouble and add to his pleasure. That is strategic thinking. The third CEO in his 50's was more concerned about passing on his approach to his juniors.