The Secret Formula for Keeping Innovation Alive in Your Company
25 July، 2021
How Can You Benefit from Green Marketing in Your Business?
25 July، 2021
In the business world, projects are like houses of cards. Building a solid structure takes a lot of time and a great deal of
patience, focus, and precision. But one wrong move—or a stray breath of air—can bring it all crashing
الأرض مجددا.
Projects are much the same. You may have built the business of your dreams, your customers are happy with what you offer, and your revenue is good,
In short, everything is going well. Is it time to relax? No—a single misstep could send you back to
نقطة البداية.
In this article, we’ll look at ten mistakes that could cause your business to crash:
Unprofessional conduct
Treating your customers and employees like friends is a good way to undermine your business. Constantly cracking jokes in
business meetings, telling them about your personal life, what your wife made for lunch, how your son’s poor grades are wearing you down,
and how you can’t decide what color curtains to choose will cost you some of the respect and authority you have as a business owner.
Your customers won’t see you as a professional, and your employees will see you as someone they can easily manipulate.
No one is asking you to become a machine. A little fun at work now and then is fine, as long as you maintain a professional
Be professional, but remember that some behaviors are inappropriate in a business relationship.
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Treating customers like numbers
Your customers are people with feelings and are highly sensitive. If you offend them with even half a word, they may find a thousand ways to
interpret it and question your professionalism. Each customer is unique and has specific needs, so it’s very important to make them feel that you understand
what makes them unique and that you tailor your approach accordingly to retain them. The moment your customers become nothing more than numbered files in
your records, used to calculate your revenue, you put your business on a dangerous path that often leads to failure.
A serious mistake you could make is treating someone poorly because you think they’ll be of no benefit to you, forgetting that your experience
With this customer, you’ll influence others. A person who behaves rudely could bring potential customers your way,
by telling them how graciously you responded to their bad behavior—or, at the very least, if they didn’t come away with a negative impression, telling their friends about
your company when they need a product you offer. So don’t try to filter your customers by turning away the ones you don’t need. Treating
everyone well is an important way to attract people you never planned to target.
You can also cleverly turn customer provocations to your advantage. A few days ago, I noticed a sarcastic comment on the page of one of the leading
telecommunications companies in the Arab world. Someone was asking the company to send them on vacation to the Maldives.
With a touch of sarcasm, they simply replied with impressive finesse: “We’ll forward your request to the relevant team for review.” They lost nothing by responding this way.
The communications manager actually gained the audience’s appreciation, and everyone was talking about them. That’s how you can turn things around in your favor!
Of course, this only works if you have a communications manager who’s tactful and clever enough.
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Ignoring customer complaints
No matter how creative and practical your idea is, how well-funded your business is, or how competent your employees are, if your project can’t attract customers, it’s a
failure. That’s why you need to listen to complaints and take them seriously. For example, if customers find your website design off-putting… no matter how much
you love it, change it—it’s there for them. Ask for their opinions so you can handle complaints diplomatically, rather than having them raise them
to your future customers! And be careful not to delete comments from people who criticize you or undervalue your work. When someone wants to
buy a product, they usually like to read other customers’ testimonials. If they find that they are all positive,
they will question your credibility.
When you take what your customers say seriously, you not only give them what they want, but also show them that you genuinely care and take
the time to make sure your business meets their needs. This will earn their respect, and you will usually gain
loyal customers who continue doing business with you in the future.
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إهمال الوقت
Your time is your most valuable asset. In business, “time is money,” and what you get is only as valuable as the time you invest in it.
If you want your project to fall apart, make poor decisions about your priorities. Spend too much time on things that don’t matter, and don’t use any
lists or other time-management tools. And if you do write a list, never look at it again.
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Lack of kindness and letting emotions dictate your actions
You love your project, and everyone understands that. You’re not wrong to feel strongly about it, but letting those feelings
boil over and take control while you’re working is unacceptable.
Don’t take things too personally. If you let yourself fall apart and respond emotionally to everything
When you encounter a problem, you show both your clients and employees that you’re unstable and hard to rely on,
and excessive emotional reactions can also cost you the chance to think rationally and find a solution. Anger and rational thinking rarely
go together. So if you find yourself in a situation that makes you lose your temper, step away for a while until you calm down, or you can leave work
for the rest of the day. Losing one workday is better than losing the entire project because of a moment of recklessness. Even if you
are certain you’re right, say what you want politely and be considerate of others’ feelings. Everyone sees you as a project manager, so
كشخص عادي.
speaking of maintaining a courteous manner, I’m reminded of what Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said in
In his lecture to Princeton University graduates, he chose to talk about a funny experience rather than computer science and technology.
As a child, he was on a trip with his grandparents and was passionate about math. When he complained about his grandmother,
who smoked all day, he began counting her cigarettes and calculating the danger posed by each puff, eventually coming to a final conclusion that he announced
to her: “You’ve taken nine years off your life!” His grandmother began to cry, so his grandfather stopped the car and said to him:
“Jeff, one day you’ll understand that being kind is harder than being smart.”
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Poor hiring decisions
If your business is growing enough—or on its way to growth—you’ll have to hire employees or freelancers, and the fastest
One way to bring your project down is to hire the wrong people.
Remember when we said at the beginning that projects are like houses of cards? Think of your employees as the cards. Your foundation is solid,
the window is tightly shut and no air can get in. You focus carefully and insist on placing each card in exactly the right spot. But imagine
that one card has bent edges or isn’t as strong as the others. The house will collapse, no matter what else you’ve done!
What first stands out about major companies is the caliber of their employees. When someone tells you they work at a particular company,
that’s evidence of their high potential, given the company’s rigorous standards. That’s why it’s important to take the time to choose
Your employees based on their skills above all else.
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عدم التجديد
Last year, you used a strategy that significantly increased your customer base and led to remarkable success for the project,
so you can simply do the same thing this year, right? Yes—if you want your project to stagnate before it collapses,
you can always repeat last year’s strategies, which copied the year before’s, and so on.
The business world is fast-moving—a high-speed train we always try to stay aboard, even if that means taking the very last
seat, which is better than missing it altogether. Keep up with courses and reading in your field, and make the most of lectures,
Make a point of exchanging insights with people in your field. The business landscape this year is different from last year, and customers
and their needs are different too. They’ll be different again a year from now.
Make sure you bring fresh energy to your business. Many global companies have achieved remarkable success after changing the ideas
they started with or developed. Twitter began as a podcast delivery service, and Facebook as a social network for Harvard students,
while Amazon started as a simple online bookstore!
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قيادة جيش آلات
Returning to the playing-card example, no matter how high-quality your cards are, they’re bound to wear out and bring down what you’ve built.
— fully, if you don’t give it the care it needs.
Your employees are people, not a soulless army of machines. It’s important to treat them with the same respect and appreciation you show
your customers. Reward them for excellent work, recognize their efforts, and offer bonuses and special perks, such as providing
free lunch every day of the year by partnering with the restaurant next to your company—a simple step for a startup
that can gradually lead to more significant initiatives as your revenue grows and your company expands. Most importantly,
listen to their concerns and always strive to give them room to be creative.
Learn from major companies: the most successful ones take great care of their employees and their needs, and maintain
very high employee satisfaction. For example, Facebook, one of the world’s most successful companies, is considered
the company with the highest employee satisfaction rate in the United States, at 97%. It offers its employees several
benefits: an average salary of $135,000, healthcare and on-site doctors, laundry and dry-cleaning services,
bicycles for getting around campus, and, most importantly, four months of paid parental leave for both parents to spend with
their newborn. Interestingly, the leave also applies in the case of adoption! All these benefits
Previously, Facebook was ranked as one of the best companies to work for of all time.
Don’t make it “my project and my employees”—make it “our project.” Make your employees feel they’re part of the project, and that every success it achieves
is a success for them. In that case, they’ll happily give it their all. They won’t work just for a paycheck, but
لأجل النجاح.
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Quantity over quality
Compromising on work quality may save time and bring in more customers, but it also means those customers won’t come back again.
Customers quickly notice any decline in the quality of the service or product they’re offered, and as a result,
they’ll gradually turn to a competitor that offers them what they want at a higher quality.
Focusing on quality may take longer and mean serving fewer customers, but those customers will keep
coming back, pay more, and help your business grow. Over time, you can hire new employees to meet
higher demand—but never at the expense of quality.
We’ve never heard of Chanel clothing and perfume products flooding the market, yet in just a few years, it has certainly achieved
what none of the Chinese companies whose products you see everywhere could hope to achieve over the course of their entire existence.
Quality comes first—unless you want your business to become one of those ventures that flood the market for a year and then never
No one hears about it after that, when everyone notices the poor quality of what it offers.
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Doing everything on your own
It can be hard to trust others. You’re the only one who sees the full picture and knows exactly what your
project should be. But the only way to handle all its responsibilities yourself is to keep it very small—far from
what you hope it will become one day. There’s no way to grow your project without entrusting some responsibilities to others.
Work with smart people you trust, tell them what you’re trying to achieve, and let them take charge of a few things. Ask for
services others can provide, such as design, programming, writing, and marketing. You’ll find plenty of people
Skilled people in their fields who can help you—this gives you time to focus on the more important things that only you can do.
Microservices can truly become the ideal solution for startup owners.
فلا تهملها.
Listen to freelancers’ opinions, too. You’re hiring smart people to help you with what needs to be done, not to dictate every step to them.
Of course, it’s your project, but you don’t know everything. There’s nothing wrong with discussing some ideas and even setting some aside in favor of better ones.
You’re the one who benefits from all of this.
