Holistic – Business and Life for SME
At the onset I would love to quote a dialogue from the movie Golmaal, the original one, which is one of the legendary movies of Indian Cinema. Amol Palekar while getting the job secured lies to the company owner, Utpal Dutt, that he has no interest in sports or any such activities. Also says mere pitaji kaha karte the jawani kaam karne ke liye hai, khel kud ityadi ke liye poori zindagi padi hai! Honestly, even till date we see entrepreneurs selecting employees who are ready to work hard and put in the extra hours. Although we live in a world where companies are rated as the best work places to work at and employee centric initiatives are driven. But I firmly believe its the Pareto’s principle – 80/20. Only 20% organizations have such holistic approach.
The above companies and organizations are the mega giants of the world. However the entrepreneur segment, particularly the Small & Medium Entrepreneurs (SME) are the ones who primarily carry this mindset of hiring people who will work, work and work. Everyone talks about the corporate company cultures. But this segment of SME actually contributes to the 40% of the employment of India. In terms of number of units, it contributes to 95% of total industrial units. The current number of SME’s present in India are about 42.5 Million and giving employment to about 110 Million workforce.
This large segment seems to be running their life at a frantic pace and rarely seem to settle down. They start off as highly motivated and energetic individuals who want to earn a lot of money and make a difference to the society. However they soon get caught up in the cycle of generating leads, servicing clients and following up on payments that all they want is some breathing space. For which they hire teams who they think will replace them. These teams supposedly would make their life easy. However as many employees are hired, fired and churned the root cause, SME mindset doesn’t change.
The SME themselves need to first think of their life is not just uni-directional, business, business and business. They should start with a mindset of a holistic life which has 7 more arenas beyond business. The principle of life is also very simple, if one arena starts to work well it reflects in other arenas and vice versa. Now with SME’s, they get so obsessed with their business is that the other arenas are neglected. Which has a major impact on their performance, sales and overall business growth
So what needs to be done. The first step is identifying what 8 arenas do we have in life and currently where we are in each of the arena. Let me share the 8 Arenas
-
Business
-
Health
-
Lifestyle
-
Relationship
-
Finances
-
Personal development
-
Spirituality
-
Social contribution
So now we need to identify what parameters are we considering in each arena.
-
Business – What is the turnover, the profit, the employee strength, the company assets, the recovery and outstanding dues, accolades
-
Health – Personal fitness level in terms of body weight, waist line, sugar levels, capacity to endure activities like marathon, triathlon etc.
-
Lifestyle – This contributes to the materialistic components like the house you own, the cars you drive, the brands that you wear, the vacations you take, the quality of schooling to kids, the socializing activities
-
Relationship – This is the level of rapport with Parents, Spouse, Children, Friends, Extended Family, Neighbors, Social circles and networks
-
Finances – This is what you make for yourself, the salary you draw from business. It also reflects the personal investments and outstanding amounts. The passive income.
-
Personal development – The skills which you want to acquire like playing an instrument, growing business skills, learning new language and many more
-
Spirituality – This arena is what makes you complete. What gives you total bliss. Its understanding of self in connection to nature. What makes you truly happy
-
Social contribution – Giving back to society. Doing things for betterment of the environment or the planet. Doing things for the underprivileged and so on.
The SME needs to understand these arenas and set goals in each of these arenas. More the clarity on each goals, better will be the choices made by the SME. I strongly urge the readers to make Vision for themselves in all 8 Arenas and also ask your teams to build Vision for themselves in all these arenas. This will lead to them living a more holistic life and the happiness quotient of the enterprise will go up. Eventually the nation will be a happier and productive place. Always remember when one arena of life starts to work the other will too. However you should be open to getting growth in all arenas. If you don’t know what you want or have never thought then that arena will be inactive and it will affect the performance. So as a responsible business owner I urge you to think on all 8 arenas for holistic growth of life and business. Remember they are interconnected!
Kedar Bhole
Marketing Habits Expert
