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There is no magic pill for growing a business. It requires sharp analysis and a forward-looking Business Strategic Plan, conducted by knowledgeable and experienced business experts, who understand the client and the client’s market. And it requires business discipline and hard work.

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Thursday, October 26, 2006

 

Profits Begin and End with the Customer: Are you focused on Product and Services, or on People?

By Lewis Green, Managing Principal, L&G Business Solutions

 

My clients receive proven, tested and innovative recommendations that flow out of my basic philosophy: Keep it fresh, simple, budget-friendly and designed to make everyone--customers, clients, strategic partners, and employees--as happy as possible. Because at the end of the day, our value to the customer and client and to ourselves is not measured at the bottom line or in ROI. It is measured based on what I call The Happiness Quotient™: The experience that we create for the people our business touches.

Instead, it is about first understanding what motivates and inspires people to become loyal to a brand, and then using that information to build an internal and external culture of brand advocates who believe in and strive to always exceed human expectations.

At the end of the day, it is always about the "who" not the "what." It is about people, not revenues. When it is, the revenues will come.

I often wonder why American businesses don’t spend more time strategizing around happiness. It is true, naturally, that many companies are customer-focused and invest lots of energy meeting customers’ needs. Responding to those needs results in happiness.

Happiness is the driving force behind everything Americans do. It is the key to determining their wants, needs and desires. It is the essence of the American Dream and as important as the air you breathe. For gosh sakes, our Declaration of Independence calls for the “pursuit of happiness.”

And yet a study by the Pew Research Center that the press reported on in February 2006 found that only 34 percent of us are “very happy” while 50 percent are “pretty happy.” Fifteen percent are “not too happy.”

Don’t jump to conclusions, however. I do not advise firing your CFO, your accountant or your financial adviser. The argument made here does not pit happiness against financial responsibility and margins.

Instead, I argue for strong fiscal responsibility and creating budgets that create better-than-hoped-for margins, using The Happiness Quotient to grow success and the bottom line, but never falsely. Everything you do must be authentic to a culture built on values. And business leaders are responsible for the makeup of that culture, The Happiness Quotient and the bottom line.

At minimum, the market looking for more happiness represents at least 65 percent of all Americans. They want great business experiences that will make them happier.  And, of course, even the “very happy” folks can be moved to a higher happiness level, translating into 99 percent of all Americans seeking products and services that create great experiences—ones they want, need and desire—to give their pursuit of happiness a gentle shove forward and upward.

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