Everything is amazing, but nobody’s happy!
I returned home this evening from a good physical exercise – brisk walk along the boat club road in Chennai along with two friends from schooldays, one of whom I was meeting for the first time after 16 years. Thanks to social networking sites and facebook in particular that has worked well not just for me but to many more re-establish lost connections. Our trip down the memory lane was nostalgic reminiscences of funny incidents, our teachers and about the rest of the classmates. We then spoke about what we are and how we are today. Not surprisingly the “What” question was easier to answer compared to the “How” one!. That lead us to debate about the generation today - “OURS”.
The Primary concern in this highly competitive world is that an obsessed lot are constantly trying hard to achieve a goal in the future which they believe will make them happy. The joy of the PRESENT moment is lost and there is no “I am happy” feeling. If you belong to this lot, it’s certainly not too late to make a conscious choice now!
John Lennon said it best – “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”.
Secondly, flat world and fast response are the effects of globalization and technology. The “Tortoise and Hare ” fable with the moral “Slow and steady winning the race” is almost extinct and cannot be applied in today’s situation. Now it’s all about Speed: You can check in to your plane from home, you’ve got the blackberry to surf the net and respond to mails on the move and what not?.
Whether you are checking in at the airport, standing in queue to pay for your groceries at a supermarket or visiting a hospital to see a doctor – the words you don’t want to hear are “Please wait” for reasons whatsoever. Today’s generation have (or) have been tuned to live at such a pace that anything less is unacceptable, frustrating and the result – Self induced unwarranted stress!
I am an advocate of Speed and accuracy in customer service, they are not just business commitments but also key differentiators with the competition. Things go wrong in every business and if you happen to be the customer - first understand that technology is there to make life easy, not miserable for you.
Watch Louis CK talk about this on Conan O’Brien late night show about this: Click Play
Of course another common issue is the “me, myself” factor in everyone today and my reasoning is that people are living in an egoistic delusion and the fear of failure or being left behind in the race is driving all of them nuts.
I read an article written by a Volvo employee and this para below caught my attention:
The first time I was in Sweden , one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their cars to work). The first day, I didn’t say anything, neither the second nor the third. One morning I asked, “Do you have a fixed parking space? I’ve noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot.” To which he replied, “Since we’re here early we’ll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be in a hurry and need a place closer to the door. Don’t you think?”
Great attitude and great approach to life, I thought. No wonder, Sweden boasts of some of the world’s renowned companies like Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia and Volvo supplies the NASA.
John Lennon said it best – “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”.
Secondly, flat world and fast response are the effects of globalization and technology. The “Tortoise and Hare ” fable with the moral “Slow and steady winning the race” is almost extinct and cannot be applied in today’s situation. Now it’s all about Speed: You can check in to your plane from home, you’ve got the blackberry to surf the net and respond to mails on the move and what not?.
Whether you are checking in at the airport, standing in queue to pay for your groceries at a supermarket or visiting a hospital to see a doctor – the words you don’t want to hear are “Please wait” for reasons whatsoever. Today’s generation have (or) have been tuned to live at such a pace that anything less is unacceptable, frustrating and the result – Self induced unwarranted stress!
I am an advocate of Speed and accuracy in customer service, they are not just business commitments but also key differentiators with the competition. Things go wrong in every business and if you happen to be the customer - first understand that technology is there to make life easy, not miserable for you.
Watch Louis CK talk about this on Conan O’Brien late night show about this: Click Play
Of course another common issue is the “me, myself” factor in everyone today and my reasoning is that people are living in an egoistic delusion and the fear of failure or being left behind in the race is driving all of them nuts.
I read an article written by a Volvo employee and this para below caught my attention:
The first time I was in Sweden , one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their cars to work). The first day, I didn’t say anything, neither the second nor the third. One morning I asked, “Do you have a fixed parking space? I’ve noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot.” To which he replied, “Since we’re here early we’ll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be in a hurry and need a place closer to the door. Don’t you think?”
Great attitude and great approach to life, I thought. No wonder, Sweden boasts of some of the world’s renowned companies like Volvo, Escania, Ericsson, Electrolux, Nokia and Volvo supplies the NASA.
