Customers are the true visionaries in the way to be successful

Manoj Chugh, President Group Public Affairs & Member, Group Executive Board- Mahindra & Mahindra 

“Coming out of the pandemic, many of us are pausing, wondering and thinking about what the world is going to be going forward in the future. And for many who have been incredibly successful entrepreneurs, what is it that we should be doing differently and how should we be looking at our own destiny and more importantly how we should be making sure that the future of our organizations and everyone continues to be incredibly successful.

I know these are challenging difficult times for many, as you look at your business models, literally getting transformed overnight, just because customer's needs are changing. I want to remind everyone, that if you were to reflect back and look at the years, when you started your business, you need to go back into that mindset, into that mind frame and ask yourself a question - what was the purpose for which you got into that business? And I think if we can answer that question on purpose, we are going to continue to be successful. To answer that question on purpose many of you would remember that what you did was sitting down and having an active dialogue with your customers of those times. And it is your customers who led you to your journey of success.

Many people turn around and say – I was a great strategist or a visionary. The reality of our life is our customers are our true visionaries as they are the ones who took us in that direction and helped us to become successful. So we need to go back to basics and back to our customers and ask them the fundamental question on what is changing in their business, their environment and how do they look at themselves going forward in the future because their direction is going to define your direction.

If you cannot answer that question, in terms of where your customers are going, you are not going to be successful in the future. So number one, go back to basics, go back to your customers, and relook at what the core purpose of your organization should be going forward in the future and you will find amazingly is that your customers are recognizing that their new generation of customers are dramatically different, as compared to the core customers that they have served thus far.

Therefore they need to change the way they are engaging and helping their customers succeed. We know that digital has been a very big catalyst of the transformation that we are seeing around here. In fact, COVID has been the biggest accelerator. The guy who really gets credit for making sure that transformation has happened in every complete fashion, fortunately, or unfortunately, has been the COVID pandemic. There is always a silver lining; the pandemic has taught us that less is more.” 

    Manoj Chugh, President Group Public Affairs & Member, Group Executive Board- Mahindra & Mahindra