Building a sincere business – 1

Tomorrow 22nd December is my birthday. My late dad, my late wife, one of my sons and one of my siblings were also born in December. My dad was actually born on Christmas day! Indeed, greatness is born in December! On that note, I wish every reader of this column a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in advance. Enjoy today’s piece.

“Do not have two differing weights in your bag—one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house—one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. For the Lord your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly. – Deuteronomy 25:13-16 (NIV).

“Again, you have heard that it was said …, ‘Do not break your oath, …” But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: … All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. – Matthew 5:33-37 (NIV).

“When anyone cheats, lies to you or betrays your trust, do not fret or feel hurt. Whoever does any of those things to you has only helped you to define the boundaries of your relationship with them” – Tope Popoola.

If you regularly patronize local markets, you would not be a stranger to the experience of being shortchanged by smart Alek traders who want to maximize profit by cutting back on the various measures for gauging food items. Government-approved plastic measuring bowls are immersed in hot water to make them shrink in size so that their contents don’t add up to the approved quantity. Unripe fruits are force-ripened with carbide or some other dangerous chemicals just to drive sales. False bottoms are created for containers or they are filled with cardboard to a level before the real commodity is loaded in them. The list goes on.

Today’s business world is driven by cutthroat, dog-eat-dog competition. Sales personnel are given unrealistic targets and obscene bottom-line expectations to assuage the overarching expectations of impatient investors and guarantee the opulence of overindulged executives, integrity and sincerity seem to get consistently pushed to the back burner in corporate operations, never mind the fact that these two words feature prominently in the written values code of almost every organization. Where actual performance does not measure up to expectations, books are sometimes doctored and bogus figures contrived in order to create a semblance of buoyancy.  Bombastic claims are made and attributed to brands even when the reality is a far cry from such claims.

Welcome to the world of “packaging”, a synonym for crooked brand presentation (or shall we say representation?).

The problem with this approach to business however, is that even though it may provide short-term advantage in the marketplace for as long as the gimmicks employed can drive positive market attention and perception, its long-term effect can be cataclysmic to the organization once the market wakes up and discovers that it had been the fool all along. In one fell swoop, every gain is reversed and the business may well be on its way to singing its “Nunc Dimitis”. A market that is privileged to have several options is highly unforgiving of a brand or business that is discovered to have played on its trusting intelligence.

As we turn the corner of a year and prepare to enter another, it is important that in your personal life and in your business conduct, you cultivate the culture of sincerity. Better to lose a sale than lose your moral fibre. When people know you to be sincere, even if they don’t like you for it initially or think you are too rigid, you would have earned their respect and when they get disappointed by the alternative they thought they had to you, guess whose door they are coming to knock on? Yours! When that happens, they come on your own terms!

Sincerity has to do with integrity of intent and conduct. The word sincere has its root in the Latin word “sincerus” which means “pure, candid, true, unadulterated, genuine, not falsified”. The word’s origin is linked to Renaissance folklore. Overworked sculptors who made mistakes or had cracks in their works would usually seal the cracks with wax (‘cera’) in order to hide the defects. They would then go ahead to exhibit or sell those works in the hope that nobody would find out. However, when exposed to sunlight (a.k.a scrutiny), the wax melted and the cracks showed! The word “sincere” was therefore said to have been coined from two words “sin” which means “without” and “cera” which means “wax”.

Business is built around seven critical factors. The first is a purposology that defines the WHY or the very essence or meaning around its being. After that comes the product which codifies the original intention defined by the WHY. If you call it the WHAT of the business, you would be right. It is the physical representation of the business in the marketplace. The product, contrary to what many think, is NOT the business. It is simply the face of the business or the code of offered value. The value is the business. The product or service only embodies it.

The third factor has to do with the principles or the values or code of ethics that act as the moral compass that guide the processes and conduct of the business. Next come the processes from ideation to market through which the product has to pass before we can talk about its success or failure. This is usually the area where the congruence or dissonance between the label and the actual content is achieved. Inputs at this level will ultimately determine market experience and perception. I would include packaging or the physical presentation of the product to the market in the factor of process.

Following on this are the people (the WHO) involved as stakeholders at all levels of the business viz; investors, leadership, staff, suppliers, customers and various relevant government agencies.

To be factored in is also a realistic pricing regime that is in tandem with the realities of the target market. One thing that many entrepreneurs fail to understand is that not every product appeals to every segment of the market. If you don’t have a target market in mind when fixing your prices, the vagaries of market realities will drive you up the wall in frustration. What one market embraces may be a commercial disaster in another. In some markets, if something is too cheap, they will not buy. The opposite is the case in some other markets. So, do your homework well before setting your prices.

The final factor in what constitute what you may call the business architecture or framework is the promotion or marketing strategy. The aim of this is to create a memorable impression in the customer through emotionally resonating images and words that communicate the product’s inherent value. This is in recognition of the fact that to connect with a customer’s pocket, you must first connect with his heart…  continued.

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

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