The Book, “Story Driven: You don’t need to compete when you know who you are — Bernadette Jiwa” starts with the following quote:
“Success is like a mountain that keeps growing ahead of you as you hike it… and there’s the very real danger that “Succeeding” will take up your whole life, while the big questions ago untended. — George Saunders”
This rings very true when you are learning about how to build yourself and the company you want to build. Over the past year, I have been working on building Xperian Guide, Recruitment and Staffing Product for the new age careers. We as a team have conducted countless experiments, created new systems, working on new search skills and more. But, with time progressed, it’s so easy to get absorbed into reality and it demands attention. This attention makes it harder for us to focus on the future. At this juncture, I had excellent help in seeing the future but my mentor mentioned something that kept ringing in my head,
“How do you imagine the future of Xperian Guide in the next decade or more?”
I blurted something that was based on the current realities. Honestly, blurted it out and i was prodded to think further. The whole brainstorming session went ahead but in the end, we could define Xperian Guide in a few lines, “Xperian guide connects the right talent with the right organisation.”
Aimed with all the clarity, I understand more than ever that any business should be purpose drive. They should be bigger than individuals, faster, better and smarter.
An Expression
Do you remember the first time you had a fantastic experience with a business? For the sake of all of us, I am going to take up the example of a Starbucks.
Coffee is something you have had it as cheap as Rs 10 per cup. In contrast you might have also spent upwards of Rs. 250 on a single cup of coffee. And you might have not flinched to spend much on this expensive cup of coffee.
All said and done, when you entered the Coffee Shop you were greeted by good aesthetics, good wifi, ambience, music and air conditioning. You have not been pestered by the establishment to order something. You had your time and ordered when time was right and got your coffee on time. You feel good and come back reguralry because of the wonderful experience you’ve had earlier. You tell your friends and the word goes around. More people walk in.
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This was my understanding of the book,“Story Driven: You don’t need to compete when you know who you are — Bernadette Jiwa”
This is a part of series of my learnings. Hoping to finish more and put them down for personal reflections.
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