He Follows My Car

The most used dialogue in Hollywood movies during the chase scenes.

“Follow that Car !!!! “

Ha ha.. Then follows the adrenaline rush gushing through our nerves with tightened feet and fists, as we get sucked into frame after frame of that chase sequence…

But in real life it, stuck a different chord with me, when I noticed a guy following my car!!

Travelling in my car, in the posh locality of Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad, in search of an evening Chinese road side food joint, that serves delicious food (cash and carry), which is the talk of the town for many months. I managed to spot this roadside food outlet with a typical dragon picture and broken red patches of paint on his cart.

While I slowed down, on spotting this cart, almost 100 meters away, a typical rough looking and not so well dressed person spots me much before I set my eyes on him, making some hand gestures directing me to move much beyond his cart.

While my car slows down, he approaches in no time, with a courteous voice saying, “Can you please further bring your car to the edge of the road, so that we don’t end up blocking the other vehicles plying on the road.” In other words, for his business to run, he expects certain amount of “compliance to be in place ensuring it’s a win – win situation” (Management lesson – 1).

While he takes my order purely based on my personal choices, in a very friendly voice he recommends their signature dish, preferred by most, which was not a part of my personal choice, making me place that additional order. In other words, he got a fair share of my wallet by his “aggressive selling with his persuasive voice” (Management lesson – 2).

With an eye for more business that can happen only when I give way for other potential takers, he quickly checks my destination which gives only two options- either to travel further down the road or take a U-Turn and in my case its U-Turn. He softly advises me to start my vehicle and park on the other side of the road. While I agreed to his advice, I felt it’s a clear cut case of optimum utilization of his limited business hours for maximum billing. In other words, “increasing productivity with every passing hour.” (Management lesson – 3).

By the time I took a U-Turn, during those peak hours and parked my vehicle on the other side of the road, a completely different person surfaces with the food parcels repeating my order while placing the packets in my back seat. When I gave him a Rs.500/- note, he gives me the exact change rather than hopping to the other side of the road. Reminds me of “the precision and perfection when it comes to receivables without losing time.” (Management lesson – 4).

With every passing second which is a massive learning during my brief stop over at this cart, I was wondering about the guy who took the order initially. With a bit of effort, I have to zig zag my neck to spot this person, and there I get to see him ensuring compliance(ML-1) with every slowing car, doing repeated aggressive selling with his persuasive voice(ML-2) ensuring increased billing with every passing second(ML-3) and seamless transfer of responsibilities for receivables with precision(ML-4).

I left that place with my undocumented observations, on how small businesses are run so efficiently on Huge Management Principles which have always been hot topics in board rooms of many Corporate Majors.

May be its time to introspect “The Circle of 100 Meters” or May be it is the time to revise our business strategy and efficiency. For further information, please visit www.thecatalystcube.com