We have a unique business of serving clients' money needs, solving problems, and being a sounding board in their financial and life decisions. This industry is very people-centric and our biggest asset is our time and experience in interacting with clients. Further, our business should be either wholly or semi-automated depending on the business model, organization structure, and business size. Kaizen is a technique for ongoing improvement. One needs to improve existing services, or processes by implementing relatively smaller than significant changes. If we catch the problem and nip it in the bud, won't it help by not escalating the problem to a white elephant proportion and then becoming a challenge? It is crucial for us as individuals or a business to measure the work done and activities in the day. That becomes the starting point of creating processes that are unique to your requirements and business model. Ask questions to understand the problems and challenges people a...
Long ago, in my early employment career, my employer had hired an experienced consultant to improve the efficiency of the organization. I used to indirectly report to him. He was a retired professional who worked in top managements of India’s few big Auto OEMs. I was in my 20’s and he was in his 60’s. He was kind & generous enough to let me grow closer to him, so that I could learn few gems of wisdom. In one of our conversations, he illustrated an experience of his. He was head of operations reporting to the CEO. He reported to his boss about something great he did, mostly expecting that his boss would appreciate him. To his shock rather, boss said “Please don’t do the favour of running this organization. Please help putting in place the processes to run it.” It was a great learning for my boss as well as for me. Then there is one of my favourite stories. It goes like this: A family used to an annual ‘pooja’ ritual. They had a strange custom of tying a cat to the pillar at home ...