Beerability and Coffeeness- Part III

I was in Delhi week before last. And as I walked into this book store in CP (book stores btw, are great places to unwind, I discover), my eyes were drawn to a book titled 'It happened in India' by Kishore Biyani, the founder of Pantaloon Retail, the Big Bazaar chain and now chairman of the Future Group. I tucked it in and have been hooked on to it ever since. KB, as Kishore is referred to as, says that his strength lies in understanding the Indian customer. He spends his time in malls and shopping complexes simply observing people and their actions. Occasionally he does walk up to a few and strikes up a conversation with them; all this just to keep in touch with the common man on the street.

This afternoon, I'm sitting with Jogi in the mess. The rotis are taking longer than usual to arrive from the kitchen. Out of the blue, I look at him and shoot - “If there was one thing in life that you could get good at, what would that be?” Jogi, being the thinker he his, takes his time and answers cautiously as if the answer carried 6 marks- “I think it would be at building relationships with people.”

And I think, at that very instant, he nailed it. Often times, we are caught up in a rut chasing money, fame or recognition. All of that is fine, but those things arise out of a more basic soil called human relations. HR practises and marketing classes teach people to be good with people and deal with them professionally. The hospitality industry runs on the simple idea of catering hospitality to people by providing a memorable experience. In every other walk of life, one bumps into people more often than machines, I must presume. Why then, do some people have their way with influencing hundreds of people while on the other hand few others find it hard to get by without being abused behind their backs.

The focus should always be on building relationships with any person that walks into our lives rather than just rattling off pleasantries and coming across as hospitable. Each person that you come across, however arrogant or naive she might be, is there at that instant in our lives for a reason. And that person is there either to give us something, take something from us or lead us on to more people and/or experiences that we can learn from. And it is this foresight that makes it vital for anybody to enhance their people skills, which is a lot more valued (as a personal equity base) than just taking up a 30 day course on learning to speak confidently and shake hands firmly.

Invest your time in people today. The ROI is near infinity, says my coffee mug right here.