In this context I would like to share an article by Damon Darlin in New York Times.

Jack Ma, the chief executive of Alibaba Group, stopped by to talk about his plans for Alibaba.com, the Chinese Web site for making business-to-business connections, and Taobao.com, the Chinese answer to eBay.

As a prominent businessman in China, Mr. Ma gets asked a lot about the declining state of the world economy. He said that he was eating at a restaurant recently when the owner recognized him and asked when the recession will be over.

“Next year,” Mr. Ma replied.

The restaurant owner was surprised, Mr. Ma said. “The recession will be over next year?” the man asked.

“No,” said Mr. Ma, “Next year, we’ll all get used to it.”

Mr. Ma thinks the recession is going to last three to five years. “If you don’t accept that, you are in trouble.”

Mr. Ma said he was in the United States looking for partnerships. He thinks that Alibaba could help out-of-work Americans looking to start a small business. A person goes to the site to find suppliers among the directory of about 4.2 million companies. A click of a button next to a listing generates an e-mail asking about prices or samples.

Someone with an idea for a new product could use Alibaba to find a contract manufacturer, said Mr. Ma. They could also use the service to get a prototype built.

At least, he hopes he can appeal to entrepreneurs. He worried that the American dream is dying here. “You don’t see the hope here,” said Mr. Ma. “This time they are waiting for the government.”

Some are afraid of failure, some are afraid of the pressures of success, and some just want to tell people about their ideas, just for the sake of doing so. Here is a general step-by-step guide to taking an idea and turning it into a business.

Once you get an Idea…

1. Talk – Share your idea with your friends. Don’t worry about someone stealing your idea. Feedback will triumph over excessive paranoia. Take all feedback objectively, but consider them all.

2. Write it down – Putting things down on paper gets a lot of things out of your head and onto an initial plan. Don’t worry about structure, all the analysis just yet. Put down everything that comes to your head first. Getting this out of the way paves a much easier path to sit down in the future and do up a proper business plan.

3. Assemble a team – Pick your people based on motivation, communication, and skills. The lack of any one of these attributes will result in a higher likelihood of your team not reaching its full potential and morale being affected adversely. Having an especially cohesive team is essential, as a start-up will take a much longer time to reach a point of big rewards.

4. Find a deadline – Make your own deadlines and set your own lofty targets. Break things down into small tasks each which its own deadline so that you at least make baby steps towards the final goal. Failure of this will likely result in procrastination and unnecessary slowdown of the project

5. Manage the team – Be decisive. Insist on reasonable commitments on team members, and don’t be afraid to seek out new blood if they don’t reach expected levels of commitment.

6. Rinse and repeat steps 4 and 5 until you get into business – Constantly seek out new goals to meet, and manage your team based on those goals on deadlines.

Simplistic as it sounds, these are practical steps that will move you in the right direction in a timely manner.

Source: Friedbeef’s Tech.

Harvard Business School Professor Rohit Deshpande discusses one airline that’s not just surviving the current downturn, but thriving: Singapore Airlines. Why is Singapore offering complimentary espresso on flights when others are charging for luggage and taking away in-flight movies? How has the company avoided the doom and gloom that so many other carriers face?

By staying out of what Deshpande says is a loser’s game of competing for customers on price, of treating them like commodities.

Singapore Airlines is a throwback, by design, to the days when flying was glamorous and customer service was king. They’ve created a luxury travel experience and retained the glamour of long-distance travel. It’s almost retro. Of course customers have to pay more for this experience, but most don’t mind. Flying has become so stressful, they’re willing to pay a little more for better experience.

Singapore Airlines brings its customer service focus to all cabins, even if it’s making its money off of the front of the plane. “They give more frills to economy than any airline,” he says. “They were the first in-seat TVs and offered more channels than any airline. They have, even in economy, more flight attendants per passenger.”

Singapore also goes against conventional wisdom by using the downturn as a time to make capital investments, not shun them. They buy airplanes at the downturn time as the supplier don’t have the buyer and they are willing to give it in discounted rate.

Singapore Airlines main strategy is to focus on customer satisfaction and not on price, they build customer loyalty and a solid business. They have always maintained the level of quality at all times and at areas. Where as other airlines they are focus on price and commodities and they fail at the time on downturn.

Singapore Airlines has evolved into one of the most respected travel brands around the world. They have one of the world’s youngest fleet in the air, a network spanning five continents, and the Singapore Girl as the symbol of quality customer care and service. Customers, investors, partners, and staff — everyone experience quality excellence. And so, in their lounges, their conferences, working relationships, and in the smallest details of flight, Singapore Airlines rise to each occasion and deliver the Singapore Airlines experience.

This proves that Customers buy solutions not the product. They buy the satisfaction and customer are loyal till you make them satisfied.

Listen to the IdeaCast for more from Professor Deshpande on Singapore Airlines’ winning strategy.

Source: Harvard Business Conversation Starter | Singapore Airlines
- Sakin