Every time I go out and meet present or future customers or business partners, I keep telling myself I need to do it a lot more. Somehow, the comfort of the office lulls us all into a false sense of confidence and makes us complacent. As senior management building out blue ocean businesses, it is we who have to go out with the sales team and lead the way in opening up new opportunities for them to close. In new verticals, it is a vision for the future and a passion of execution that potential customers need to see as they entrust part of their budgets to emerging players like us.I used to do it a lot when I was building IndiaWorld. At that time, we had to go explain the concept of the Internet and its immense potential. As I was presenting recently about mobiles and the promise of Invertising, a flash of memories from more than a decade ago came by. It is still as exciting to convince semi- or non-believers about a future that is unfolding in front of them but is as yet invisible to them. To borrow a phrase from GE, I have to bring good things to light.
I just have to do this OOO (out of office) thing a lot more. It also brings out the best in me, and gets the brain cells whirring away on new business ideas. Sitting in that corner cubicle, I atrophy. For the first three years of Abhishek’s life, I had promised Bhavana that I will be around for as much time as possible and travel as little as possible. That phase is now over. Abhishek is reasonably independent, and even though I’d love to spend every minute with him, I know the business needs me more as we have to build the next Big Company in the digital space. And to make that happen, we need lots of Customers. And that means lots of OOO for me.
