There is something riveting about a court-room drama. Lawyers are very good at putting on a show. The arguments that go back and forth, the multiple interpretations of a simple statement, gently guiding a witness to a carefully laid trap, all of it requires a great deal of skill.

My favorite part and the most important in my opinion, is the close. The final statements made by both, the prosecuting and defending attorney. The closing statement is always worth hearing. It’s witty, clever and passionate. It is with this statement that both lawyers hope to make their case.

This got me thinking about a business case. Granted, drafting a business case can never be as entertaining as watching an episode of Judging Amy. Still, I firmly believe that a business case should be witty, clever and passionate. Just like a lawyer’s closing statement. When I mentioned this to a couple of friends, I was surprised to find that a lot of them did not even know what a business case was!

A business case captures the reasoning for initiating a project or task. It can be a formal well structured document or it could be a verbal argument. For example you could justify a software-upgrade by saying that it would improve system performance, but the “business case” is that better performance would improve customer satisfaction.

Formal business cases are written to ensure;

•    That your investment has value and importance
•    That your project will be properly managed
•    That your firm will have the capability to deliver the benefits
•    That the firm’s dedicated resources are working on the highest value opportunities
•    That all projects with inter-dependencies are undertaken in the optimum sequence.

So take some time and evaluate. Make your case.

In every game there are two kinds of players. There are those who are there to put on a show. They may or may not have power. They do their part and make a lot of noise while doing it. Then there are the real players. They are the ones who are in the background, the ones who influence the outcome of the game.

Let’s take a club for example. These are the players involved, there is the manager; he has the keys to everything. He decides the work schedule and hires the entertainment. There is the bartender who handles all the booze. There is the bouncer who maintains the decorum and there is the janitor who cleans up after everyone.

You have a long weekend coming up. You decide to go clubbing with your friends. They won’t let you in. Which player do you approach?  The manager has the most power but he’s not going to do you any favors. Why would he? The bartender has nothing to do with the door. The janitor probably has the most important job, but he can’t help you either. The one to approach is the bouncer. After all, he’s the one who decides who goes in.

With every game you play, you need to first identify the key players, the real players, who will get the job done. In theory, the manager is the most powerful player. He is at the top of the heap. In practice, sometimes it’s the ones with the least power that can help you the most. They can give you that appointment that just opened up. They can ensure your file reaches the right hands.

When you are dealing with an organization, think of it as a game. To get to the big players, you first need to make it past the small ones. Always know who the real players are.

The term singer-songwriter has become a part of everyday vocabulary. It is a term that refers to musicians who write, compose and sing their own material including lyrics and melodies. We all remember Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, Cat Stevens, James Taylor, and Dolly Parton. These were the singer-songwriters of the 60’s and 70’s.

In the early 1990s Mariah Carey rose to fame and became one of the most successful and well known singer-songwriters of all time. Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Victoria Williams, Patty Griffin, Jewel and Lisa Loeb were all hugely successful in the music industry.

Then came the beginning of the end of ‘Great Music’, in the early 21st century, a massive frenzy of “bubble-gum pop stars” were created by record labels. With limited vocal abilities, these artists sold records to young fans via a marketed image.

The fans loved them. They enticed such frenzy wherever they went, that they were regarded as modern day royalty. Artists like Britney Spears, the Back Street Boys and Christina Aguilera rose to super stardom. These artists, who merely performed songs given to them, were given the status of living legends. They were blamed for the difficulty of achieving success, faced by singer-songwriters of the time.

Then artist such as Spears and Christina Aguilera began writing their own material and taking further control of their musical careers. They were no longer seen as the puppets of the dollar making record industry. Today, massive success and credit has been given to artist such as Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, Amy Winehouse and Taylor Swift who write almost all of their own material.

It has been proved that the image of a star can be used to sell records. People have a tendency to believe what they see. The same is true when it comes to business. So, have you checked to see, what is your corporate image?

I see myself as an ordinary human. I have two legs, two hands, average mental faculties and a pair of eyes. I see myself as an ordinary human capable of extraordinary things. I see myself walking into a grand tower that is the seat of my empire. I see myself holding document after document, which prove my success. I use simple logic to chart my future plans. I see all of this and more. I see so much with eyes that are closed.

I open my eyes. I am an ordinary human capable of extraordinary things. I believe that I will build myself a sprawling empire. I believe that I will build a piercing tower, to be the centre of all my work. I believe that I will have everything I saw, when my eyes were closed.

I am an ordinary human who has accomplished extraordinary things. With the help of trusted colleagues, friends and simple logic, I built my empire. Today I sit in my glass tower and think of all that I have done and all that is left to be done. More than anything else, I am here because of my hard work. I am and will always be an ordinary human, living the extraordinary.

Visualization is so much more than just a motivational tool. Only when you visualize your objective, can you hope to achieve it. If you are not working towards something, any accomplishment you achieve will be an achievement that life gave to you. If you drive down a road, you will eventually reach somewhere. If you plan on going somewhere, you won’t just be driving down a road; you will take the best route. Inspire yourself to find the best route. Visualize your objective. See, Believe, Become.

Sambo was a good cook. One day there was a gathering in the neighborhood. The caterer was stuck due to bad weather. There was no food for the people. After some time, everyone started complaining. They wanted something to eat.

Sambo lived close by. He ran to his house and cooked a large pot of stew. Everyone fell in love with Sambo’s Stew. It started with the neighbors coming to Sambo’s house for a meal. When Sambo said, he had run out of supplies, the neighbors said they would be willing to pay for a bowl. Sambo started to deliver his delicious Stew. Money started to flow in.

The news of the Sambo’s Stew spread far and wide. People started coming from far away. Sambo had to set up a separate shed in his courtyard, for people to collect the Stew from. He spent days building the shed. People were complaining constantly. They wanted stew; they didn’t care about the shed.

Sometimes he would have to travel quite a distance to make a delivery. Sambo was not the greatest navigator and would often get lost. He could not leave the shed because carriages were always stopping by, to pick up his stew. He was having difficulty keeping track of the money owed to him. One day Sambo collapsed from the stress of trying to do it all.

Someone should have told Sambo to hire a waiter, a delivery boy, and an accountant. People who would be good at the jobs they were assigned. When it comes to work, Divided We Rule! Unfortunately it’s too late; no one will ever taste Sambo’s Stew. He has sworn never to make a pot again. He now does gardening. Don’t be like Sambo. Division of labor is the key to success.

Yesterday, I was thinking about ideologies and since then I haven’t been able to stop. I proposed that ‘We are what we think.’ What that means is that we make decisions based on our thoughts and opinions. Our decisions shape our lives. How we live our lives, defines who we are. Thus our thoughts and opinions eventually define our personalities.

Our thought process influences our decision making ability. Imagine you have a cat. One day on your way home from work, you find an abandoned puppy.  You believe that cats and dogs cannot live together. Even though you are capable of taking care of that puppy, even though you have the desire to take it home, you don’t. There is ample proof of the fact that felines and K9’s can co-exist; especially if they are introduced to one another at an early age. You know this. Your belief forces you to over ride common sense. This is the power of ideology.

Ideologies influence people in every part of their lives. From the decisions they make while dealing with friends, while shopping and at home. This got me thinking, how much do personal beliefs affect business decision making? More importantly, should personal beliefs influence decision making?

If you are involved in business activities, you need to have an objective mind. You need to be able to make the right decisions without hesitation. The problem is, that our ideologies are so deeply engrained that they influence us at a subconscious level. So, whenever you are making a business decision, disassociate yourself from the situation. Analyze it without any personal pre-existing inferences.  Ensure that your decision is based on the facts in front of you and not on the facts based in your thinking.

Business Strategy, Business Planning, Marketing Guidelines, KPI’s; the list of plans is endless. Every business and businessman spends a significant amount of time planning for the different aspects of his business. Most people fall short on the step that comes after planning i.e. implementation.

So you have your plans, how are you going to go about executing them? Ironically you need a plan, for how you are going to implement your plans. Some people would consider this to be trivial. They would be wrong. It is very important that every entrepreneur know, how he/she is going to put their carefully devised plans into action.
There is a belief that a well devised plan would implement itself. This is like saying that a well made pie would eat itself. You need to cut it into slivers, decide what china you are going to use, who will be served the first piece and when exactly it would be served.

All plans may be good, but in my opinion what makes a plan great, is if it can be successfully implemented. After all, plans will only be plans until someone uses them. One way of successfully implementing a plan is breaking it into pieces. You can implement one piece at a time until it is in place. This would put less stress on the organization and would involve a lot less hassle. Another advantage is that if any piece is underperforming, necessary changes can be made to the future pieces.

The most important thing I’d like to say is, GET STARTED. You may have the best plan or strategy in the world but it is of no use if you don’t use it. Fine tune the plan as much as you can within reason. Once that is done, execute it. To quote Rihana, “Baby you’ve got the keys. Now Shut Up and Drive.”

Most of us have never heard of Joseph Priestley, but we have all drank his invention. He was the man who invented Carbonated Water. Now, that I’m sure you’ve heard of. The words ‘soft drinks’ would make almost the entire world think of Coca Cola or Pepsi; two corporate giants whose products every man on earth has heard of, if not used. What is it about these two companies that make them so well recognized? It’s not the taste of the liquids they bottle, or their standard packaging. It’s the fact that they go out of their way to ensure that they are noticed and when a consumer wants a beverage they think of them, first. The secret behind the phenomenal success of Pepsi and Coca-Cola is their super fantastic marketing strategy. Now when I say marketing strategy, I don’t mean the fact that they feature living legends like Madonna in two minute commercials that don’t even get aired. I’m talking about so much more than just advertising. I’m talking about knowing what your customers want. It’s about making sure your product is something they need, or about making them think, they need.

The word marketing developed from the original meaning, which referred literally to going to the market. Today, marketing is a lot more than a visit to the local shop. Marketing is now considered by many as a science. It is absolutely vital that every business conducts marketing activities. Businesses cannot hope to be successful if they do not know exactly what their consumers need. That’s one of the questions marketing can answer. Once you have a product people would want, Marketing helps you decide how to make sure that people know about your product and buy it. So when was the last time you went to market, to market?