Today I had a rather
interesting activity to do while in the office - figure out how to draft a
business plan. It's very common to hear that you need a plan before starting
anything... "Fail to plan, plan to fail" they say, then again it's
hard to know what should go *in* the plan. Yet surprisingly as I went through I
realized it all fell into place. All that I observed from Cik Farid and MM, all
that I thought, felt and perceived could come out in the plan. Hopefully I
manage to express it all the way I intended it to.
On top of that, Cik Farid also gave me some hints
on what should go in the plan, such as PEST and SWOT, and also as an added
bonus a little rundown on what an entrepreneur needs to know to actually start
out. For many people I believe the idea or dream gets lost in translation
because they feel that they don't know how to take the first step. Even I
didn't till today. So I shall share this!
"Know your cost structure, and your revenue
plan. After that, be in the practice of adopting best practices from others,
and improve upon it. You do not necessarily have to try to reinvent the
wheel".
Business technicalities aside, I followed Cik
Farid as he dropped by yet another Micromart and his behaviour reinforced a
pattern I've actually observed for quite a while now. He has a sharp eye for
detail. Each time I followed him into a store, he needs only to glance around
and he can identify very quickly areas for improvement in the store and provide
the necessary instructions to the kasir to rectify the issue. All this in a few
seconds upon entering the store, I haven't even finished processing the layout
of the store in my head. However don't get me wrong, he highlights problems in
a straight-forward and blunt manner but it does not mean that he only spot-checks
to "find fault" as Singaporeans like to say. He actually takes the
time to in interact with them; find out about their day, whether they have any
problems. The biggest man in the corporation taking the time to get boots on
the ground and interact with every member of his corporation reflected a kind
of sincerity and dedication to the work he did. It might be intimidating to
them at first, but I don't doubt that they know it's because he cares.
This is actually reflected in the way he treats
his driver as well, Pak Min. Actually, I use the term "driver"
because he drives Cik Farid around but he seems to be more than that. Never
once did I feel that Pak Min was treated like a driver. When Cik Farid
mentioned driver my first impression was honestly that of a strongly
subservient relationship (I did say I watch too many movies, and even in
Singapore taxi drivers are full of complaints of customer behaviour). However
there was none of that to be seen, Pak Min can also be trusted to handle tasks
beyond driving that helps keep MM operations going. Most importantly, Cik Farid
actually treats his driver with respect, almost like an equal. Pak Farid has no
problem understanding valid reasons for his driver to be late, or walk a little
out of the way if it makes it easier to be picked up. They do chat and have
dinner, and his driver did lavish great praise to me about Cik Farid when I
visited his home. Its a very... harmonious work relationship which I can
certainly see that Pak Min was thankful to have. I suppose in his own way he
expresses that gratitude with sheer dedication.
Oh today was also the day I got a rare chance to
actually be given feedback on, and that was advice on how to smell opportunity,
to leverage on my environment, the people around me, and the situations I may
have the luxury of being in. Shall carefully ponder that, I am usually quite
passive in the way I interpret and make out events before me - I believe that
he was right in pinpointing that I need to translate what I see and know into
action as well.
Speaking of Semarang by the way, it didn't rain
for the whole of this month. Talk about a long hot weather!
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