Biyani learnt it the hard way. You, can follow these 7 steps

By Ashna Ambre

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Mumbai, where Kishore Biyani, CEO of Future Group, was invited as a mentor to share his experiences and thinking principles with other entrepreneurs.

Here are some footnotes that I believe will help an aspiring entrepreneur.

1. Nothing is permanent: When he ventured into business, he wanted to explore every option available to grow. He wanted to diversify in various fields and bring numerous products and services under the umbrella. However, he had never imagined and seen a slowdown; and never knew of the dynamics it had on the business until 2008. The slowdown has affected his business majorly.

[caption id=“attachment_555722” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Here’s a list of things Biyani has learnt about doing business.[/caption]

On the other hand, his elder daughter, Ashni Biyani, launched herself into entrepreneurship. During the slowdown she has seen only downturns but anticipates to taste success in the future.

2. Remain relevant in business: Only a business that keeps pace with changing times can ensure sustainability for itself. To be in sync with the needs of a customer, it is vital to observe popular trends and practices.

The objective being tracking the mindset and interest levels of people. This could involve observing brands that people shop, television soaps they watch videos with maximum hits on social networking sites and many more. The idea is to understand and tap unexplored options or revise existing models.

3. Top line growth in not the only relevant priority: This concept has appealed to him very recently after reading the book Small Giants by Bo Burlingham where he read about a lot of businesses that wanted to sustain a particular level of growth in absolute values.

Further growth for such organisations came from improving already existing systems and narrowing down efficiencies for every field of the enterprise. His younger daughter, Avni Biyani, is being trained by him on the same concept, where the magnitude of growth is not large but doing small tasks with finesse and precision is improvised.

4. No place for emotions in business: Business is driven only with passion and to do business an entrepreneur has to be rational at all times, good or bad. It is difficult to find and identify flaws in things that seem dear but tend to create a major hindrance in the growth process. The same principle applies to business as well.

Emotions potentially deter an entrepreneur from taking harsh decisions which are in the best interest of the firm.

5. Don’t lose sight of stakeholders and employees: Stakeholders are the only ones that are equally affected by the business an entrepreneur runs. Not considering them as part of the same family could have damaging effects in the long run, especially when the business is going through turmoil.

6. LSD: With respect to employees, he has an interesting abbreviation for keeping them happy called LSD (Lakshmi, Saraswati, Durga). Pay your employees more than what they deserve; it creates an urge for them to justify their work. Empower them with the skills and knowledge so that they are assets for your firm and help in the decision and execution process. Give them the adequate degree of control and power. With power comes accountability and responsibility. These three factors help breed loyalty and create an organizational culture.

7. Be positive, laugh at your mistakes and accept criticism: Three very difficult things to follow but inevitable traits for an entrepreneur. Positivity helps overcome the most depriving circumstances. It is the only binding force that can keep the business and the people associated with it to stick around. Laughing at mistakes makes failures look like temporary setbacks hence it is easier to get over the blunders made and at the same time creates a learning lesson. Criticism, if not taken correctly, could potentially make an entrepreneur make a mistake he was warned about.

Why learn the hard way when an easier option is available?

Story first published in entrepreneurindia.in