Learn from military to manage biz: Experts

Nagpur: Entrepreneurs facing difficulties in leadership and marketing in their businesses turned to experts who gave pointers on achieving their goals. The Nagpur chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TIE) invited managing director of Skyland Facility Management and Consultants Srinivas Y and co-founder of Market Axis Consulting Suhasini Kirloskar at Chitnavis Center, on Thursday to talk on the subjects.

Srinivas gave examples of leadership, mainly from the Indian Armed Forces and explained how those tricks can be applied in a corporate environment. “In the military, the commanding officer needs to be decisive and must be able to make split second decisions. A wrong decision results in his soldiers losing their lives,” he said.

Fortunately, businesses do not have to deal with life or death situations, but the decisiveness of the persons in charge of the operations is important, said Srinivas. Although, team spirit is equally important to make better decisions, he said.

Kirloskar said, “It is crucial to understand what the core product or services your company is aiming to provide and concentrate on promoting those unique selling proposition. A company may sell peripheral products to complement its core service or vice versa.”

She also suggested that the person in charge of the business of selling a product/service must be the first to conduct door-to-door marketing. “Many young entrepreneurs tend to hire a sales team to achieve the company’s sales target. The flaw in this is that the hired persons have little knowledge about your business.”

“However, as the owner of the business, you are acutely aware and can later teach the sales team how to sell your products based on your experience,” said Kirloskar.

Kirloskar also suggested business persons to lay down a set of guidelines like a suitable sales pitch and target to keep the sales team in check.