How to Build a Wildly Successful Business?

Let's first define what a wildly successful business is. Here are some of the parameters by which I measure the success of a business:

1. Profitability increases year on year. Feeling elated at increasing sales without focussing on profitability is insanity. I would rather have a USD 100 million business with 20% profit than a USD 1 Billion business with 1% profit.

2. Customers queue outside the door to purchase our products and services; rather than the business chasing customers to convince them to buy.

3. Best-in-class professionals queue outside our door to work for our business and those who are working with us never want to leave.

Here's the input that is needed for the above output that we are seeking to create:
1. The Leader at the helm of the Business is deeply connected with his purpose of life and is crystal clear how his purpose of life is being lived through the work he is doing. This is the foundational step towards building a purposeful organization; where the Vision of the organization is not just some posters on the wall.

2. The Leader at the helm of the Business has clearly articulated Values; which to him define who he is as a human being, which give him a way to connect with each Being in his space, which give him a way to fulfil on his purpose of life and lead his organization to fulfil on its Vision. It is the Leader's Values that breathe life in the organization's values. The best way to know if values have any meaning for the Leader is to check if there are family mission and family values that he uses at home to parent, lead and coach his kids to be the greatest version of themselves. Otherwise, its mere rhetoric - both his belief and the Values that the organization claims to live by.

3.  The CEO and the Senior Leadership team experience compassionate love, gratitude and reverence for themselves and for each other; leading the way for employees to feel the same way.

4. The CEOs and the Senior Leadership team start and finish meetings on time. They honour their word to each other, to employees, to customers and to all other stakeholders. If there is a broken word, they take responsibility and restore their word. 

5. The CEOs and the Senior Leadership team play the game of mastery. They play to be the world's best in what they do as a business and play for personal mastery to have it all - successful business, loving relationships at work and at home, happy responsible kids, nourishing me-time while being at the source of transformation in the world.

6. Succession planning is a way of life, where the successor of the role is set-up by the predecessor to be more successful than him.

7. If disaster happens, Leaders take responsibility. If huge success gets created, Leaders give away the credit to everyone else.

8. Employee Business Model Innovation is a way of life:
a. How are we making a difference to our employees?
b. How can we make an even bigger difference?
c. How do we use innovation and creativity to support our employees to realize their greatest dreams in deepest communion with their highest self through the work they do in the organization and have it all - deeply fulfilling, successful, abundance creating career; loving, harmonious relationships at work and at home; happy responsible kids with their genius joyfully expressed, nourishing me-time while making a difference in the world.

9. Customer Business Model Innovation is an ongoing exercise, with continuous inquiry of and powerful effective actions inside of it:
a. Which customer communities are we making a difference to?
b. How can we make an even bigger difference?
c. How do we use innovation and creativity to create products and services to solve real customer problems at a price that they can pay?

10. The CEO and the Leadership Team switch off from work on a daily basis to nourish themselves by being with their family - physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually; creating a space for their employees to do the same. This supports stress levels to dramatically come down, give space to employees to rejuvenate and refresh themselves; resulting in creativity and innovation in each individual to exponentially increase, directly benefitting the bottom-line of the Business.

I know it is easy to build a good business, than to lead it to greatness. It is easy to have a good life, than to create a great life. Yes, it is Good that is the enemy of Great. Unfortunately, the Good is not sustainable. Another word for Good is Mediocrity; which only leads to a certain death not too far away in the future - emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. The path leading to Greatness is about transforming what it means to be an organization, what it means to be a Leader and ultimately, what it means to be a Human Being. Taking it on?

​Love, Jyoti.