Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on June 17, 2021 - June 23, 2021

“Blessed are those who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing.” — Camille Pisarro, (1830 -1903) Danish-French Impressionist painter

What? Another armchair analyst talking about the ongoing pandemic again? Has everything not been written about Covid-19 and its effects on the nation’s psyche yet? My thoughts exactly too, you know.

Bombarded by news from all sources (social media especially), we have all reached the point of exhaustion, of news fatigue, reading about this global bane and its impact on the social, political and economic well-being of the entire planet.

But through all these challenges, we have seen glimmers of triumphs, of resilience, of fightbacks in many areas of society, especially in the local economy, that has given hope to those who refused to yield. We have seen the birth of new warriors in these trying times, and it is encouraging. Let us call these new warriors the New Alphas.

Carlos Castaneda, in his book Tales of Power, wrote “… the basic difference between an ordinary man and a warrior is that the warrior takes everything as a challenge, while an ordinary man takes everything either as a blessing or a curse”.

I am as guilty of being an ordinary man as the next guy, but on occasions, I humbly believe that I too have ascended to the warrior state when God saw fit to bless me with the power.

Like you and many others, the Covid-19 years had me experience near financial and business disasters, and some sweet victories too. The journey to here has been challenging, exhilarating, frustrating and enlightening, and after all is said and done, a real and raw handful for anyone. Especially for a guy my age with a penchant for going to the wall without concern for the damage I do to my physical well-being. Warrior mindset indeed!

Many of my business friends and colleagues have undergone similar experiences too. Some have prevailed, and some, unfortunately, succumbed to the uncertainties of the times. Clients and customers that were once the bedrock of their businesses dissipated like dust in the wind. Sad.

The problem with most of these failing businesses, I think, is not that their owners do not know enough about finance, marketing, management and operations — and if they don’t, those things are easy enough to learn — but that they spend their time and energy defending what they think they know. It may not be the right thing, but many of those whom I have met are determined to get it right, no matter what the cost. Ego extracts a heavy price.

The more successful among them are extraordinarily grounded business people — they are compulsive about detail, pragmatic and very down to earth. They understand that a business does not miss the mark by failing to achieve greatness in some lofty, principled way, but in the stuff that goes on in every nook and cranny of their business — on the telephone, between customer and salesman, and at the cash register.

The successful ones seem to possess an intuitive understanding that the only way to reach some higher level is to focus their attention on the multitude of seemingly insignificant, unimportant and boring things that make up a business.

Allow me to introduce a New Alpha to you: she is a dear friend who has been importing all things Indian from the sub-continent since 2010. She saw her business dry up two years ago when her clients reset their priorities. Demand from her mostly expatriate clientele was no longer there for colourful bangles, embroidered kurtas and sequined saris. She had to look elsewhere to survive. Painful as it was, she thought hard, planned well, and she did not only that, but thrived.

Her love for baking became a saviour of sorts when she decided to open up a delivery-only pie enterprise. She named it Pie King and entered the fiercely competitive F&B business.

Her approach was simple — she wanted a business that would survive into the future while excelling at exploiting the present. She wanted a business that constantly reinvented itself before it became obsolete. She wanted a business that excelled at innovation and execution, that lived in harmony under the same roof. Work-life balance mattered to this mother of four.

She began by sourcing for the freshest meat cuts from known butchers that were superior to her competitors. She understands that people will pay for taste and quality. She uses the best butter and flour for her flaky crusts and the most innovative recipes for her fillings. Moroccan Ras Al Hanout mutton, anyone?

She uses biodegradable cardboard boxes that retain oven-warm pies for longer and, finally, puts her products into biodegradable plastic bags to reduce waste. She appealed to her clients by narrowing on their concerns. Needless to say, her gamey British Ox tongues and American Hickory-fired brisket sets are crowd-pleasers.

She continues to reinvent her menu and keeps an eye on disruptive competitors. I learnt a new word from this enterprising young lady when I asked how she plans to stay ahead of the competition. She gave me this answer, “I de-risk every possible element in my business model.” De-risk ... must be a new buzzword.

“No company is invincible”, she continues, “but those that come close are the ones that constantly reinvent themselves in the face of disruption. I intend for mine to do just that.” She is hard at work doing that now and is looking to set up a delivery-only grocer shop that stocks mundane and exotic spices from all over the world (yes, India too) to complement her bakery. Hers is an exquisitely personalised business model, but one that focuses on excellence.

Those mundane and tedious little things that when done exactly right, with the right kind of attention and intention, form in their aggregate, a distinctive essence, an evanescent quality that distinguishes every great business you have ever done business with from its more mediocre counterparts whose owners are satisfied to simply go through the day.

I wish my friend well. Yes, the simple truth about the best business people I have known is that they have a genuine fascination for the truly astonishing impact little things done exactly right can have on the world.


Zakie Shariff is executive chairman of Kiarafics Sdn Bhd, a strategy consulting group. He is also adjunct professor at the Faculty of Industrial Management, Universiti Malaysia Pahang.

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