Mixed Business Arts
Why mixing matters and specializations won't get you anywhere
Ever since my post about Jonny Kim got some reads, some people reached out to me asking why the blog is named so. There is an intent behind it and it lies in my philosophy in business specifically and life in general.
To be effective in business, irrespective of what your product or service is, an effective leader must possess above average skillset in all the relevant business domains, e.g., Strategy, Finance, Marketing etc. and top notch skillset in any one of these. The reason behind it is that modern business environment presents itself with situations/problems that have to be dealt with a joint utilization of these skillsets. To use an old age maxim:
For a man with hammer, every problem is a nail
This idea first came to my mind as I was listening to the well known Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) coach Firas Zahabi (video) on his philosophy of fighting, training and life in general. He spoke at length about developing your skills in various disciplines like Karate, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu etc., and then using the best combination of these to defeat your opponent. What really stood out for me while listening to Coach Zahabi was his focus not only on the physical aspect but also on mental aspect e.g., value of mental toughness. This overlay on the question that I was working on at that moment : 'What makes a great businessman?'
Like in any other study, what I have is a viewpoint, an opinion. I am not contending to prove whether it is the right one or the wrong one. I am simply condensing my experiences and hoping that someone would gain something from reading this. For coherence , I would use term 'Businessman' but ofcourse it relates to everyone who is engaging in business.
Skills : Technical
A skilled businessperson in modern day environment has to be effective in variety of disciplines to deliver the real value to society. This pursuit of perfection in one discipline may lead to mastery in one domain but inorder to solve any complex problem at scale and in limited time would then result in over-reliance on other sources and if you don't have a clue about other disciplines, it is easy to be misled and being satisfied with sub-par results.
In my opinion, everyone dealing in business should have medium proficiency on the following topics:
Business Modelling
Marketing
Finance
Legal
Computer Programming
Operations & Logistics
This list is in no way exhaustive but serves as a guidepoint to get started. Most of the business problems that you will have to deal with cannot be classified into one particular bucket. dealing with issues professionally would require you to combine different skills that will help you navigate out of an issue.
For example:
Problem: Your clients are unhappy that they are receiving goods later than expected which also damages you due to payment of late-fee
Solution building: To an untrained eye, this may look like an Operations Issue but to deal with this effectively, one must combine different skillsets to reach best conclusion. There are questions that you need to ask to solve this problem:
Are the assumptions that I took still valid?
Are my customers aware of my offerings? Who are my top paying customers?
Do I have the required cash flow to finance late deliveries that are already in pipeline?
What are legal consequences if I keep doing this?
Can I quickly create a cockpit for my clients to track their goods?
How can I re-prioritize my supply chain to deliver to my critical clients first?
Once you have used these questions to think through this problem, solution will start becoming clear and you will gain better understanding of your options.
You will never know the best course of action until you have actually executed
That is why keep your options open, learn from mistakes and try not to repeat the same mistake twice.
Skills : Personal
Majority of business is conducted by on your 'Human Capital'. As former CEO of SAP Bill Mc Dermott put it:
Trust is the ultimate currency
Personal skills are often overlooked and more often than not, deciding factor on business transactions. I can count on one hand, number of times that a major business was conducted just because the product/service offered was great, it doesn't happen.
To be successful in business, you have to cultivate trust. Trust is the basic element that undercuts all aspects of business. Sometimes you have to earn trust and sometimes you have to inspire it but what you can be assured of is that in either case you need it to get business done.
Like any other aspect in business, you can learn it and then earn it. Working with people all around the world, I realized that building trust, earning it and growing it exponentially comes down to a simple statement:
Do what you say, say what you do
Tricks and shortcut may benefit you in the short run but an effective business person should never seek short term benefits that compromise you in the mid/long run because of one simple reason : Reputation
Reputation can make or break your business. You may have the fanciest excel sheets in all green telling you that this is the best thing since sliced bread but if you have a reputation of sly businessperson who does not deliver on your word, long term business is a far fetched idea.
To demonstrate this, I would take an example of Tata
TATA Sons, one of asia's leading industrial house has a reputation to deliver. When they commit to a promise, there are no questions asked. This created a positive momentum in the market where others trust TATA group with their businesses because of untarnished reputation of being trustworthy.
This should never be taken lightly. Trust takes long to build and can crumble like a pack of cards in matter of seconds.
Discipline
Discipline related to innate quality that every businessperson should possess in all the aspects that they are involved in. Depending on the job that you are trusted with and your position in the hierarchy, there is a combination on facets to discipline. Discipline may refer to:
Punctuality : Discipline of time
FinancialDiscipline : Spend only what you have /what you can
Information Discipline : Don't share information that your clients trust you with
Self discipline: Bring your home in order before pointing at mistakes of others
Although it took me a while to appreciate the value of discipline, I am thankful that it happened rather earlier than later. To really learn the value of discipline and appreciate how it adds value, cultivate discipline and wait for an adversity.
In event of adversity, your discipline will become the bedrock on which you will reconstruct your business. No only this, your discipline will help you face the adversity with confidence and rigor that will be beneficial not only to you but also for the ones around you.
Humility
Lifetime value of business can be quantified through ‘ Lifetime Value’ that means that one-hit wonders in business are of little to no value in creating stable businesses. Repeat business is the key and therefore it is necessary that you inspire and cultivate trust with the people that you work. Nobody wants to work with an arrogant ******** <insert your adjective here>
Although self-promotion is important and to some extent, also necessary; there is fine line between confidence and arrogance. Arrogance is a result of over confidence in skill and must strictly be limited to Hollywood movies and TV shows. In real business, arrogance and over confidence acts like a massive brake slowing down the momentum that you want to build with your business.
In my opinion, there are two ways of doing this:
Don’t assume you are above anybody else : treat the security guar with the same respect that you would treat the client CEO
Be forever new guy: Keep learning. The more you know, the more you realize that you don’t know and this keeps arrogance in check
Remember that people like working with others that they like and will go out of the way if you genuinely treat them with respect.
Physical Fitness
You can protect the weak only if you’re strong
This quote is valid not only for business but also for your own health. All the above stated ideas would be null if you’re not healthy because it will destroy the basic assumption that you are ‘able’ to do business.
Nobody expects you to be Mr. Olympia, infact if you think of it in long-term it is also not the best idea but there are three quick things that work for me and hope that it will add value to you too:
Sleep: Understand your sleep pattern and get your sleep. It’s time invested
Eat Well: A formula 1 car won’t be so quick if you put low grade diesel in it. Fuel matters
Move: Start with 10 minutes of walk to clear your mind. Set goals that you can achieve then increase them marginally.
Always remember not to take your health for granted. Graveyards around the world are grim reminders of ‘Untapped Potential’
In conclusion, idea is to enjoy what you are doing. Although it may seem contrary to the conventional wisdom, I believe that cultivation of skills in various aspects of life leads to higher motivation and consequentially better result. Rather than ‘Find your passion’ , I would recommend:
Let your passion find you. Put in the hours to make yourself visible to it.
This resonates with the book RANGE by David Eppstein where he writes about the generalists and what helps them to excel.