Good evening.
It is indeed a pleasure for me to be here this evening to welcome you all to this very special event ? first of its kind in India ? first of its kind globally - first ever ? to recognize organizations for their Customer Responsive business practices.
I am especially happy to note that in its first year itself, we had such an overwhelming response from who-is-who of the Indian corporate world across all industries and from the customers of these companies from all walks of life. We had 132 companies participate and over 10,000 customers who provided inputs which I believe would be of great value to all in improving their business practices for higher level of customer responsiveness over time.
This very fact that the organizations are so keen to learn how well they are doing in responding to their customer needs and the fact that the customers are so keen to provide valuable inputs is a testimony in itself that how relevant Customer Responsiveness is in the minds of CEOs in India today.
In my book, all of you who have participated in this award program are winners. You have already demonstrated your commitment towards customers just by applying for this award. I want to congratulate you all for your commitment to customers. No doubt we will recognize some of the best among the best today.
Let me point you to one study done by IBM consulting Services. They interviewed over 400 CEOs around the world across the industries and asked them a question about their business priorities over the next 3 to 5 years. They learned that CEOs have three main priorities. 1) Growth 2) Customer Responsiveness and 3) Employee engagement. It is no surprise to me that just like these CEOs, our CEOs in India also have made Customer Responsiveness as a business priority.
You would agree that Customer Responsiveness is a journey. As leaders, we are constantly redesigning our business practices to achieve higher level of customer satisfaction. This is a never ending process. But, I have to ask you a few questions at this time. Are we happy with the level of customer responsiveness our organizations are able to deliver to our customers? Are we happy with the progress we are making? Are we setting new global benchmarks in Customer Responsiveness? Is there a way we can speed up this process? Can we learn from each other so we don't have to reinvent the wheel every time and possibly speed up the process? I believe we can do better. I believe we must do better. Time is of essence. Why do I say that? Let me explain.
I believe we are at a point in time where so many global factors have come together that it has generated new unprecedented opportunities for Indian businesses both in India and globally.
Innovations of microprocessors and personal computing in 80s and 90s that boosted personal productivity,
Innovations of internet browsers that brought information at finger tips for everyone,
Era of .com based on promise of ?digitize everything? connected the world with fiber optic cables and made Bangalore a suburb of Boston
And innovations in software protocols that made applications to talk to any other application on any other machine anywhere in the world that made collaboration between people world over possible as never before
All these innovations have made it possible for Indian businesses to participate in much large Indian economy and even larger global economy.
However, it is no longer an economy of command and control. It is no longer an economy surrounded by walls. It is an economy where companies which take advantage of collaborative tools that bring people closer to other people around the world, the companies which are agile, the companies which reach farther and faster and the companies who make their customers the king?are the only companies who will win.
And by the way the same is true for China ever since they have joined the WTO in 2001. They have the same opportunities that we do ? with one key difference. They are focusing on off-shoring and we are on out-sourcing. They are focusing on becoming world's factory ? we have the opportunity to apply our talent pool to become global Services hub. They speak the language of capital investments and cost control. We speak the language of Customer Responsiveness and multi-skilling.
It is therefore I request you to join hands and build a platform for all of us to learn from each other and achieve much higher level of customer responsiveness more quickly.
Once again, I congratulate you all for being the pioneers in this journey of Customer Responsiveness. It is a continuous process of improvements and I look forward to your continued participation in years to come. Your continued participation will not only provide you with better insights in your own efforts but will also enable us to sharpen the process used to assess the business practices and its effectiveness.
When I started this movement six years ago within my company Avaya GlobalConnect and externally three years ago through the CEO forum for Customer Responsiveness, I often got a question asked?how would you know you have arrived? I did not the answer to that question then but I do know it today. We would probably never arrive per say, but I would be extremely happy when I see board meetings put ?Customer data before financial data? and when I see CEO's internal meetings debate customer issues before the financial issues. I hope you will join me in carrying this message loud and clear within our organizations.
Once again, let me thank you for your participation. Let me congratulate all of you for your commitment to customers. Let me also congratulate in advance all the winners today.
In the end, I would like to narrate this African proverb which I found best describes our times today?
Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up
It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed
Every morning a lion wakes up.
It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.
It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.
When the sun comes up, you better start running.
Thank you and let the journey of Customer Responsiveness continue.
