Author - Makarand Vaidya

5-step algorithm for picking the quality leads

  As I started diving deep to find the bottlenecks in business with Raj, the first thing to focus on was Quality of leads. “Should we not fine tune our offering, based on the needs of the customer?” Raj had a genuine concern. “Every lead is a lead, if we don’t service, it will be a loss of business.” “Yes, it is,...

5 simple tips to scale your business

  It was fun meeting Raj after a few months. Raj was in charge of the sales function and was doing extremely well. He was excellent in making new friends and maintaining excellent relations. Raj was excited by the possibility of running own business and started one at the first opportunity. No doubt he was able to fetch a significant...

Organization growth-Things to consider

“My organisation is very nimble, and I have to keep changing things regularly in response to the customer requirements.” Amit was right in his argument. Any organization growth will change based on many external factors, customers are the most important ones. When the senior leadership keeps changing the path, the people at lower levels need to understand the reasons and...

Is Your Business Stuck?

“Makarand, we have been doing the same thing for the last few years. The business is stagnant. There is a total loss of motivation in the leadership team. I think we should drop what we are doing and do something else, that is completely different.” How often did you face similar situations in your business or your job? Changing a...

Working on Weekends?

“Makarand, from your last post it looks like you work during vacation days, isn’t it? Do you work on the weekends?”I get this question many times from my team members. Particularly when they see my emails sent over the weekend. Even though I may be sending mail over the weekend, I don’t expect responses back, before the week starts....

Have you utilized your strategic break productively?

“So Makarand, how was your strategic break last week? Did you get a chance for introspection?” I was anticipating this question from the teams I work with. “Yes, I did and soon you will see some difference in the way we work.” was my prompt answer. I thought about and evaluated my involvement in the activities of different teams, and categorized...

Making the most out of a forced holiday

I have come across two types of #holidays The first one I call vacation. #vacation is planned time away from work. This is time set aside for enjoyment with friends and family. During vacation I prefer to keep completely away from work, being available only for real emergencies, and I have never come across any real emergency while on vacation. Have you? The second...

Clarity for the Leadership

“I can see a gap between what formal education provides and what the industry really needs. I want to bridge that gap, so that more and more students can find their dream jobs easily.” I was talking to Pranav Brahme about the secret behind his success. I could read the passion in his voice. In a small organization, most of...

7 Important tips for buying or selling a business

The process of buying or selling a business is very close to any other selling process. However some of the factors that impact success are not so obvious. I was fortunate to be on both sides of the deals in different transactions. Here are some of my observations that can help - • Do not build your organization with a...

Preparing Your Business For Acquisition: The Leadership Mindset

I was contacted by many, after seeing my recent post about acquisition of CoreView Systems by SumaSoft. Immediately after the first common message “Congratulations…”; the curiosity kicked in.  “What was the most challenging part of the deal, Makarand?” I believe many were expecting to hear the valuation, or the selection process itself as an answer. Personally I found that the...