Of all the markets I have worked in throughout Central and Eastern Europe, there is no question in my mind that Romania was probably hit the hardest. Not just in terms of decreased sales and a shrinking market, but in the attitude and confidence of its business leaders.
De regula, din momentul in care afacerea se extinde si CEO-ul (ori antreprenorul) ajunge sa isi mute biroul la ultimul etaj al cladirii, mai devreme sau mai tarziu incepe sa piarda contactul cu angajatii si clientii.
Q: I recently became my own boss, joining forces with my brother, who has an established operation. I am very much enjoying this experience, but the challenges of finding ways to draw attention to our business and earn customers’ trust are extremely tough.
Q: How do you let go? I truly believe in empowering the right people, listening to them, and stepping aside to allow them to succeed. At what point in your amazing journey did you learn that you had to let go?
Jeff Hensley, United States
Q: We’ve been trying to find a way to improve communication with our customers, but neither our website nor our Facebook page is producing results. What would you suggest? – Billy Loaiza Rivera, Medellin, Colombia
I am incredibly lucky to be able to live in the British Virgin Islands, one of the most beautiful spots on the planet. My family’s home is on Necker Island, which is both our home and a luxury resort. Here, I’m much more likely to do my thinking in an office hammock rather than an office chair. This often sets my mind wandering as I contemplate the business of entrepreneurship.
For a long time, the terrible Space Shuttle Challenger disaster of 1986 appeared to have ended our dream of space flight’s ever expanding beyond the preserve of government-funded missions and a few highly trained explorers.
I visit Africa often, and it is apparent that a “yes, we can” attitude is spreading across the continent, as awareness of its business and investment opportunities reaches around the globe.
Restructuring is a difficult process, right? It can be. Even if you’ve done everything right, sometimes you have to take your company in a new direction because circumstances and opportunities have changed. Companies aren’t future-proof – no company lasts forever.
The United Nations climate change conference in Cancun in early December was met with negativity and apathy. As I took part in the meetings, it was clear that after the failure of the Copenhagen talks late last year, there would be no agreement on reducing emissions and tackling climate change. But there is too much at stake for us to give up and go home. It is now up to the business community to take the lead – and with a little help from government, we can succeed.
I recently led an innovation workshop in Bucharest for a mega-national company that hadn’t yet “crisis” evacuated. But they made it clear that without some innovative thinking, they could soon be gone.
Q: At every company where I have worked, sooner or later there are always discussions about the value of customer service: What is the return on investment? Do we spend too much money responding to complaints? How do we measure whether our investments in service affect our business?
Recognizing failure and recovering from mistakes are essential skills for any entrepreneur. When I recently received several excellent questions from readers of Entrepreneur magazine and American Express Open Forum, it prompted me to reflect on how I’ve dealt with missteps in my own career.
Q: In Australia there is often an overt bias against employing older workers. In a recent business magazine article, a recruitment consultant stated he doesn’t look at anybody over 35.
Every entrepreneur and business leader I meet is trying to uncover the same secret: What will help them grow their customer base and keep those clients loyal? At Virgin, we have had our fair share of success stories over the years, but also a few failures. I always look for patterns in both our achievements and our missteps, and try to learn from them.
Q: What do you do if you have a 50-50 business partnership with a friend, but after 10 years, it no longer works?
“Physician, Heal Thyself” – Luke 4:23
“Businessperson, Hire Thyself” – Oliver 9:2010
For the last year or two, Romania (and the world) has been living in a new economic reality (my preferred term for what others are calling the “crisis”). This new economic reality is much different from what Romania experienced between 1990 and 2008.
Q: If you were to list your top five rules for achieving success in business, what would they be and where would the “people factor” come in?
Nicki McKenzie, Malaga, Western Australia
Q: I’d like to ask a philosophical question: I have been trying to get my business off the ground, and I often feel that I have to get very aggressive with suppliers and service providers. I hate being aggressive, but I hate it more when my success (and survival) is hampered by others who don’t perform as they should.
Entrepreneurs are innately curious people, which must be why I receive mail from readers around the world asking all manner of questions about my career and my personal life, and not just looking for advice on starting up new businesses and managing mature ones. With my focus on fun at work, the boundary between work and life does tend to blur a little! So just recently, an interviewer asked me a great many short questions about both; many of our most interesting exchanges follow.
