Returning to Work

Although breaking from work for a significant time period can make you feel refreshed, it is daunting to join back with the same motivation and excitement. It is a common notion that a break helps put things into perspective, but it is far from reality. The longer the duration of staying away from work, the more difficult it gets to resume. The worst part is that the pending assignments that need immediate attention are pushed into further delay. It gets even worse when one is looking for a new job.

The reasons for taking a sabbatical from work could be many, like wanting time to recover from an illness, taking a break after having worked for a number of years, changing jobs, maternity leave, contemplating a change in the industry, getting married or settling down, or simply taking a break from work for the sake of it. Once you decide to work again, you will be asked a number of questions during the interviews: Why did you decide to take a break from work? What took you so long to decide to join back? What did you do while on a sabbatical? Are you sure you will be able to deliver and take on the pressures involved in the job work?

If you join back the company you were working for before deciding to take a break, things will be as difficult. You will have lost touch with the right people in the company. You may not realise it, but with a little bit of exploring, you can ease out the nervous anticipation and start like you had never left. Take up a part-time option before taking up a full-fledged job. It does not necessarily have to involve going from one place to another. You can work sitting indoors, by exploring an opportunity to work online. If you are a fresher with some experience, you have options like marketing, business and content development, HR, teaching, marketing communication, etc.

You should keep in mind that all of this may not guarantee recruitment, let alone starting a level lower than where you had left. The employers would always want to hire people who have on-job experience than the ones who don’t. These days many people are taking the franchise route too. It is a good option considering the initial hand-holding the franchisors provide, aside from lowering the risk involved owing to successful business models. The only dampener could be the initial investment that one is required to make. So, weigh these options carefully before taking on the mantle of starting work after an extended break. All the best!

How-To Series: Managing Strategy (2)

2/2 (contd…)

Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a technique undertaken by various organisations to help solve organisational or other operational issues, or to help encourage creative thinking, or to generate any idea. There are three stages to brainstorming: preparation, the session and the evaluation. Starting from the preparation stage, entrepreneur-managers should first select the problem or the opportunity to be discussed about or brainstormed. The next step should be to define in your mind the structure it would have, like what exactly you are looking for the participants to answer, other than the discussion’s aims and objectives. Choosing the facilitator comes next. You will have to choose someone who everyone can openly address to, someone who is open about his thought and knows how to engage a group of participants. He will have to keep it interesting.

Then, it is the location! Where you will discuss is another very important factor one should consider before initiating a brainstorming session. The session stage of brainstorming focuses on the actual topic or subject that needs to be talked about. The evaluation is the last stage and it entails the scrutinising bit and picking up a person with most votes. Other than that, it will also help you see whether or not the solution zeroed in on is feasible. Discourage dominant individuals do most of the talking and appreciate the quiet ones to come forward so an equal flow of opinions and ideas can come to the table.

Choosing a Growth Strategy

The growth path can take you places and is limited only by your imagination. As the most important person behind your organisation, you need to start by understanding the major growth strategy options. Growth is not limited to going national or international, but in its strength to be dynamic and adapting to the changing market scenarios. You need to start by building your brand. It is not only size that will make you dynamic, but a right mix of quality, reputation, prestige and profit margins. You also need to figure if you want to focus on the one thing that your brand is known for or diversify into providing various other products or services.

Whatever the decision, the technological developments of the market need to be taken into account when growing, other than selecting a growth strategy. When choosing a growth strategy, understand that change is inevitable and your business will have to adapt to the changing market scenarios. Nurture your business and know if you need innovation or use of new technology in promotions and customer relationships. Pay attention to communication, teamwork, your office culture and most importantly, funding that you will need to power your growth.

Getting Investment.

The investment route to acquiring funds is a challenging route for a start-up. As investments are against equity rather than on collateral, the investors would be sharing the risk. Hence, the investor would be as interested in you as an entrepreneur, your vision and your commitment to the enterprise as he would in the assets you have created.

If you have a sufficiently innovative idea, you may approach angel investors who would help you at the starting stage. A commendable business plan too can help you arrange alliances and therefore obtain financing from them. Like bootstrapping and getting a bank loan, obtaining funds via investors has its share of challenges. In this day and age, having high-profile investors can give you new business credibility and contacts, which can help make your business a success. Though success cannot be guaranteed, it can provide you with a source of financing that can easily help make a more rapid growth.

You usually have to give up a large percentage of equity ownership in exchange of venture capital funding. This gives them a huge say in your business, which could put you under great scrutiny in your duties and earnings. When accepting this way of funding, you also have to agree to certain restrictions with the investors on things such as how you will pay yourself, how involved you will be in other operations and how much equity you will have to give up to your investors.

But more than the current assets, the investor would base the investment decision on the potentially inherent in your business to grow dramatically in the near future.

Growth Potential of your enterprise is measured in terms of your own commitment to your business, as you are the most important aspect of it. Investors will then determine the value of the concept, the potentiality of the market and your financial projections. The crucial aspects over which the final decision rests is the intangible value you have created in your business in terms of the brand, the goodwill with customers and the processes and systems put in place that deliver satisfaction to customers.

Your commitment to your enterprise will be viewed in terms of how much of your personal assets have been invested and whether you are dedicating all your professional time and attention to the business. The originality of the concept and the difficulty to replicate it will enhance investment prospects as it keeps you ahead of the competition. The size of the market is important to see if the growth plans would be supported by availability of targeted customers. These factors being default, investors will be keen to review the extent to which you have been able to build success in your business.

Write in to us for your views and opinions. Best of luck, Quitters!

Understanding a Restaurant.

As an ordinary customer the impression we have of the restaurant business is made up of a few scattered images based on our experience as customers. A successful restaurant is one that is consistent in all that it does. If we intend to start our own restaurant, we need to understand what makes a restaurant in greater detail, so we can design for consistency across all aspects of its operation. There are two aspects of a restaurant, these are food production and service; to this we should add a third aspect: the theme.

While the quality of the food and drink you present to your customer and the polite efficiency of your service must be superior by default, the differentiator in your restaurant is the theme around which you design both. It is the theme that will determine the overall experience and will eventually help customers rate your restaurant above your competition. Places that make your customers happier and more fulfilled are those that have the greatest positive impact.

Food and Beverage Production: Food and beverage production lies at the core of the restaurant business. Culinary excellence, thus, is the default function and has to be the top priority in restaurants. While all the three are interconnected, special attention should be paid to the freshness of the raw material used, hygiene and ultimately the taste of the food. Never use food supplies that are past their expiry. Ensure that all food served is freshly made and not stale. Washing hands before and after handling the food is another consideration, while food items as meat and poultry must be cooked to the correct internal temperature.

Food and Beverage Service: The level of service depends on the type of restaurant that you want to start. Having said that, there is a minimum standard of politeness and service that customers across all categories expect from the staff members. The service should be perfect! The basic elements of service are: speed, accuracy and politeness. Speed of service is default. An allied attribute to speed is accuracy, and regardless of the category of restaurant all customer dealing requires basic politeness.

Theme: As mentioned above, high quality in the production and service of food and beverage is the default need of the day. No restaurant venture will be successful without this. However, to build the differentiator that will ensure growth and brand building, special attention has to be made on creating a theme for your restaurant that will make a unique experience for your customer. The theme needs to match the type of restaurant you will be starting. While designing the theme, you need to keep in mind three elements: concept, uniqueness and consistency.

Here we are, in continuation of the previous post, on ways to tackle the problems faced by the country due to the abundant nature of the Indian economy, as explained in the previous two posts. The excerpt is from It Takes Two To Tango, written by serial entrepreneur, Gaurav Marya. We have divided the subject in three parts. This is the first of the three-part article.

I am an optimist but I don’t wear rose-tinted glasses. I am well aware that problems exist for us in India. The World Bank global “Doing Business Project” ranks India 132 among the 183 countries judged on the criteria of the “ease of doing business.” This is a rank lower than Gaza and the West Bank, but higher than Nigeria. Our neighbours score better; Bangladesh – 122, Nepal – 107, Pakistan – 105 and Sri Lanka – 89.

I share the concern expressed by Prof. Dipankar Gupta, an eminent scholar who started the Business Ethic and Integrity Services at KPMG, when he says: “If India is teaming ahead with a growth rate of roughly seven top nice per cent. . .why is India shining on some fronts and not on others?” (This is from the book The Caged Phoenix.) Prof. Gupta goes on to talk about the “structural impediments. . .[that] deny growth benefits to the majority of one billion plus Indians.”

He is not alone. The Anna Hazare movement has put corruption back on the popular agenda. Aamir Khan, through his television reality show, Satyamev Jayate, has tried to awaken the nation’s conscience on many horrifying facts that still hold true in the country. We still face the challenge of providing quality education to our youth and children. Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilenkani has said: “Technically we have free public schooling. Government schools exist for that. However, in reality, the government schools are dysfunctional.” In his book Imagining India, the quotes that of the 350,000 engineering students who graduate every year, only half can be considered to be employable.

In sum, we need to evolve ways in which the retail investor, the micro customer and the small entrepreneur feel more empowered to design useful, profitable and desirable initiatives. So is the glass half-full or half-empty? Frankly speaking, I don’t have the time to debate that. I want to focus my energies on joining the entrepreneurs who are coming forward to fill the glass. And we are slowly yet steadily succeeding to do so.

My concern here is to move beyond the complacence that “feel good” thinking gives us when we hear growth stories. My urge is to shake off the despondency that is settled within when we think of all the things we still have to achieve as a nation. My urgent need is to share the conviction that ultimately we can only sustain our individual growth if we can create benefit for the whole nation. What encourages me is that I see this same spirit that moves the Indian entrepreneur.

Continued. . .

Dealing With Competitive Colleagues Made Easy.

If you ask a seasoned employee of a reputed organisation how competitiveness has changed over the years, you’d be surprised to hear the views. While it is good to know that the attitude’s changing, what is alarming is the overly competitive attitude among the colleagues, making it not only difficult to achieve individual targets but also creating a less conducive workplace that is not healthy for a fruitful output. But not all competition is without a reason! Some workplaces are more competitive than the others and therefore welcome cut-throat competition.

For instance, Sales and Marketing. Companies into Sales and Marketing of products and services would welcome co-workers that breed on daily performance challenges. There are two things one should keep in mind: one, be aware of your responsibilities and whether your job description entails being competitive and, two, whether the competition at your workplace is forced or is creating a difficulty in the smooth working. Once we know how to approach it, we will know how to deal with it too. Let us see how we can deal with it rationally and reasonably.

Be Friendly At All Times: Keep in mind that it is your civil and friendly (neutral) behaviour that’ll help you save the day. Do not try to negotiate with an overly critical person if being friendly can help save the situation. While giving it back to the person in question would invite more altercation, not offering any emotional reaction would result in to worse. Let the other person know that you have an open mind and welcome healthy criticism.

Form an Alliance: If you are facing a problem working against them (because usually you will see them being open about their ambitious attitude and competitive spirit), try working with them. Not only will the alliance help you use their ambition constructively while you are at a task, it will also flatter them and inflate their ego with successful completion of a certain task.

Curiousity Helps: Try and ask them how they reach any particular decision to finish the task. If your co-worker is smart and knows how to contribute toward reaching a common aim, be a good listener, learn the tact and improve your abilities.

Talk When Necessary: If your co-worker is hostile and negative towards you, minimise contact with him/her. Talk to them when required. It does not mean that you start avoiding them as that would encourage them to be a tad more negative, it simply means not interacting with them anything aside from work. Play fair, regularly back up your work and be alert when dealing with such individuals.

Avoid Being Lazy.

What’s the point of going to work every day when you pass your work-time reading random articles online or checking out your friend’s vacation pictures on the Facebook or other social networking sites? While being lazy is an unhealthy way to live life, it is fatal for your professional growth. A lot of times we get overwhelmed with the work load and make ourselves an excuse to not work at all. If you are facing a similar dilemma, try dividing your work in smaller, doable chunks. You will be surprised at your newly-found confidence to complete the tasks in time.

Overcoming laziness does not only entail sleeping well or completing the customary “8-hour-sleep”. A simple practice like being organised and keeping your work space uncluttered can help you avoid laziness at work. Lethargy by definition is physical or mental inertness and therefore can have physical or mental causes. Always pull your weight at work and try to resolve physical inertness by taking nutritious diets, exercising and sleeping well. On the other hand, get going with smaller tasks and trick your brain into being productive to take care of mental inertness. Let us read some basic techniques to fight laziness.

Are You Simply Tired? Find out if you are tired or if the cause lies in the way you think. If it is former, relax yourself. Give yourself some time and relax. If you are disturbed by anything around you, find out what it is and why it is making you uninspired and de-motivated. Work on it by working on your senses: sights (vacation), sounds (music), taste (food), etc.

Organising Self is Key: When your room, car, office space or even the office washroom is dirty, it can affect your thought process. Organise, mend and clean up the spaces you frequent and get the balance back.

Goal Up: Goal up your life, or, in other words, set some achievable targets and tasks and achieve them. Prioritise everything and utilise your skill-set and talent in achieving the goals that inspire you. Anything from rising up early, to exercising, to planning a vacation, to initiate the dreadful task at work. . .jot everything down in your journal and read it upon waking up every day.

Exercise, Dress Up, Get Started: Get your blood flowing by exercising every morning; wear that dress you always wanted to but never had the confidence to; feel lively and do some pep-up talk to self; eat healthy and take all the required nutrients; be practical and don’t think too much about what is to come; live in the moment, compliment and reward yourself at achieving your daily goals. Get started today!