Hitchhike through Corporate Galaxy and experiencing the positive Impacts of Karmic Management

I was recently talking to an old friend that met a CEO colleague at the airport… the CEO trying to survive the next 36 month period, facing EBIT, EBITDA, shareholder and stock market pressure from all sides.

And he confirmed corporate pressure is making it down to the technician at the machine. Thank you so much says the technician, not having a clue of what is going on. 

We´ve seen it all, cost reduction programs being implemented, new supplier evaluation forms with even worse non-conformance penalties and HR programs that don´t work out facing the fact that the war of talent has just begun. Sales teams are just measured by one simple fact, sales and sales again. 

So, we asked each other on the phone, aren´t we getting tired of this type of hitchhike through the corporate galaxy? 

I think we are facing interesting news and at the same time, boring news as 20 years of business still reveal that nothing dramatically seems to have changed. 

The corporate entity faces a business challenge today, in 95% of the cases we are still trying to apply what has its origin a quarter of a century back and sometimes, the old-time books, excel & power point´s just seem to wear a new cover.

We suggest a provocative call

We refuse to accept that the upcoming new generation of talented young man and women should stick to a business view or business model that has just proven to bring us up to where are today. 

Statistics have shown, that whenever and individual or business partners made significant progress in one of the key fields of business, they advanced the most using or applying an approach from a different angle of business or completely different business side, interesting, right?

OK, now you say, well, that seems to be a very educated guess, the fact is, that in most cases it turns out to be exactly that what happens. That´s the heavy weighted number of stats behind. 

Where is the point?

The point is the question, "what are the odds that "generation 2020" is going to be successful sticking to the old boned structure?"

Most likely rather low, and what I would like to get across here is, if we want to move away from playing the odds of "might or might not work out" to understanding of how to get things done successfully, we need to shift our mind and focus on a slightly more "karmic playground" of trust and enablement. 

And if the 25 years old economics model does not help us to say "Yes, I know, it´s going to work" and instead it facilitates us to say "well the odds are that to 75% it will work", well, then Houston, here is the problem, and that problem is not related to beautiful Houston, but exclusively to our conditioned mindset and way of approaching a business challenge. 

Here is a simple statement from my beloved dad turning 84 soon and I think a very simple and also appreciated statement:

"Well, son, in business life, I hear people talking to each other and they say, if you do that for me that I believe you´re not sure will work out, then I will return that favor to you which I am equally unsure it will work out either. "

Thank you, Dad, and let's explore it a bit.

What if we change our view from "P&L top-down" to "4 Levels in"?

"4 levels in" is looking at business from a Karmic perspective involving customers, colleagues, suppliers and the outside world having the goal as a company of making them all successful. Not more, not less. At the same time, this is nothing new as well, however, it´s a concept that has proven to work out much better in the long run, it is much less stressful and you end up with successful people around you.

When I first walked with this concept into a friend's company in 2016, it turned out that yes, applying this approach, in the long run, provides better outcomes than just looking at the P&L and trying to lower cost and increasing prices, margins and profit. 

Truth is, that making the supplier become really successful means that at first sight you need to understand that pressuring him down to ground level may provide short benefits for you, then later on being left alone with e.g. hotels that would never ever work with you in a remote island and you facing the fearless challenge of explaining to your rich clients that a tent would also offer a nice experience. 

Making your responsible inside sales staff experience the benefits of a very helicopter- remote luxury hotel when spending their weekend inside that place does cost a significant effort and will still make you benefit from it when they are back and start firing up their clients to book the same experience. 

Imagine, your hardest competitor runs out of vehicles in a summer jeep trail experience and you sent in your team & fleet to make sure that he meets his client's expectations, how much guts from your side does that cost? 

Once you have done it, the gratitude will empower you so much and you will get the return. That´s Karmic Management to start with. 

So, here it is, don´t run the same race faster, run a different race and give it a chance to be put into practice to make sure that you can move away from playing the odds to getting valuable results that encourage you, your customers and employees.

Sometimes we just have to be brave enough to go for it. It´s the old monkeys´ bar game, leave one bar behind to make the next move forward.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Klaus