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So how did you get started?

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Okay, okay.

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Well, I started as a consultant.

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I'm a consultant, also a professor.

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Alongside consultancy, I also teach

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undergraduate or post-graduate level,

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occasionally here in London.

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And as a consultant, I started 30 years ago.

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Before being a consultant, I was working as an accountant,

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auditor, and also course analyst,

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and also, well, a specialist in merchant and acquisitions

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for a while.

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And before this, obviously, I was studying at university.

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But after being an accountant,

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I started advising companies on international trade.

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I have been advising company on import-export activity

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for nearly 30 years.

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Over the last few years, because I started searching

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for my book, The Art of Compassionate Business,

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on the non-traditional aspect of business,

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such as generosity, gratitude, forgiveness,

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kindness in the business environment,

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we started training companies on non-traditional topics.

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For example, how to become more playful

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in the work environment.

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Why playful is so important?

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Because according to research,

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playfulness brings about more creativity.

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When people are more relaxed,

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when they connect to one another in a much relaxed way,

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in a much more informal way,

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when they let their hair down,

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and the kind of social life they connect emotionally

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and mentally, according to research,

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people are more prone to have creative insights.

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So we started, over the last few years,

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we started training companies.

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And now what we do in practice is the two areas.

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International trade, we keep this as a traditional training

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and advisory and consultancy.

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And the second area, second business unit,

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is training companies on non-traditional topics,

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such as compassionate workplace,

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compassionate customer service.

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Many companies are horrible with the customer service

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approach, and this is probably a very interesting training

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because it's one of the best selling training

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because I see so many mistakes in business of companies,

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how they approach customer in the wrong way.

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And then instead of attracting this customer,

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they push other potential customer away.

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So I'm a bivocally international marketer.

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I have a master degree and a doctorate in international

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marketing, and so I like all this topic

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about also customer service,

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how to serve customer much more effectively and so on.

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Nice, nice.

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So you said you have a doctorate degree in marketing,

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and what was the other one?

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Management, management.

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Management focus on international marketing

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and the other, the master is in international trade,

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international trade, international marketing.

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Oh, okay.

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Yes, but I wanted to comment about now

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we are talking about marketing.

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I wanted to mention one example

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of how mistaking companies are.

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We advise the other day a company that was,

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it's very popular.

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I don't want to give the name because we have

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a confidentiality agreement, but very popular.

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And this company that is successful in practice

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have a very important mistake that we detected

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and probably they are likely to correct.

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That is a system of commissions,

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commission that try to motivate employees

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to get a percentage of their sales.

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And this is up to them, it's okay.

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Up to there, it's okay.

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Commissions are very common in the sales team,

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but what happened?

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What we observed, we observed some members

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of the sales team acting in practice.

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And what we observed that they tried to sell

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the most expensive product to customers,

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not the product that customer need

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in order to have a higher commission.

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This has a name, the technical name called hacktourism

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that is trying to focus on your own objective

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of salesperson instead of trying to serve customer

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more efficiently.

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When we highlighted this defect,

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defect, this mistake, the manager were a bit surprised

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because they took this for granted.

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This was the culture of the company.

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I'm not sure they will be able to change.

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But what is the approach that we suggest,

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an alternative approach.

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I told them, instead of selling product to customer,

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in trying to selling product to customer

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and trying to sell the most expensive one

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that might not need, try to change the approach.

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Try to adopt a serving attitude.

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Instead of a selling attitude, a serving attitude.

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Serving attitude is you focus on customers.

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You focus on their needs.

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First you discover their needs,

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you support this need with your expertise,

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your experience, your background.

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And then you try to see there is a match,

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a match for the customer.

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So this means that you try to make customer feel satisfied,

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delighted.

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And if so, you recommend the product.

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If you don't have any product,

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you recommend that this company should go

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to a competing company.

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This is okay.

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Because if you cannot serve this customer,

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effectively other company will do.

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But do not try to force this customer

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into buying a product they do not need

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because customer is prone to become resentful.

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Regretful because they feel deceived,

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they feel casual, they feel tantalized.

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And this customer not only will run off your company,

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run away from your company,

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but will push other potential customer away.

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Customer do not want to be manipulated.

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They understood this very clearly.

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As you see, there's very simple tips, but important.

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And hopefully they will change,

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but I feel also that they have a challenge

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because this has been ingrained in the company's culture

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for such a long time,

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that in some cases it's difficult

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to overcome these hindrances.

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But this is a good example of a company that is popular,

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but has a very important mistake

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that can push many, many customer away.

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And you know, that brings me back

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to that quality over quantity.

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Yes.

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There should be a balance.

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A balance because most companies focus on quantity.

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What can be counted?

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Sale, market share, productivity, and so on.

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There is a famous thinker that observed,

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not everything that counts can be counted,

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and everything that can be counted counts.

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That's absolutely right.

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This means that in some cases,

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things that can be counted are not so important,

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and things that cannot be measured precisely,

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for example, camaraderie, compassion, commitment, loyalty,

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these are very important

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because these are the basis of relationship.

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We have to understand that the building brick

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of any business project, any business endeavor,

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is the human being.

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If you do not care for this human being,

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you are in big trouble.

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Yes.

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Caring for the human being doesn't mean,

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I want to add one point that is important,

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doesn't mean only meeting their economic needs.

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Because this is also another mistake

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that we observe in practice.

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Most companies say, okay, I'm paying this employee

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a good salary, that's it.

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I'm done with this.

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This is, I have this everything resolved,

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but this is not enough because all the stakeholders,

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including employees and customers,

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are multi-dimensional beings.

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This means that they have different type of needs.

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They have economic needs, for example,

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an employee, an economic need will be,

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need to have a good salary for their livelihood.

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But they have emotional needs too.

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They need to be recognized.

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They need to be appreciated.

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They need to be supported.

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They need to be supported so that they can enhance

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and apply their skill, for example, through mentoring,

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through coaching, training on the job,

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but also they need to be appreciated for their jobs

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and their work.

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For example, a thank you note, handwritten thank you note.

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But also they have mental needs.

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This means that they need to have a stimulating workplaces

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where they can see new projects, learn new things,

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develop new abilities, and also they have social needs.

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I see some cases, workplaces where employees

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are so isolated, they're on their own,

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they cannot connect to others even during the break

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so that they get bored, they get demotivated.

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Instead other companies try to develop most of their project

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in a collective way.

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In some cases they develop brainstorming meetings

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where everyone can give their opinion,

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they can develop a new project jointly.

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So we have to understand that there are many types of needs,

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emotional needs, mental needs, economic needs,

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social needs, among others.

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So most companies tend to focus only on the economic needs.

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Yes, yes.

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And you're right.

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And it's also empowering the employees

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to be able to say that they don't feel

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like they're needed there.

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It's that common statement that everyone is disposable,

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but no one wants to feel disposable.

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So since we are close to our 20 minutes,

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and I'm not just debating the time or anything,

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but I do want to know, I know you

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work with the bigger companies.

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And with our audience, I'm sure there's

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a ton of employees that are listening to this.

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What tips do you have for employees regarding

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to the option?

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Yes.

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The tips are very actionable.

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So first of all, very simple to apply.

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Don't wait for others to change.

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The change has started with you.

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Doesn't matter your role, your position,

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you can always generate positive change.

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Try to ask yourself this self-reflection question

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on a daily basis.

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How can I be more generous with my colleagues

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and with other stakeholders?

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How can I be more supportive and kinder

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with different stakeholders?

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Why is so important?

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Because according to research, generosity

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brings about more generosity in the workplace

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and brings about more trust and brings about more cooperation.

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Some might say, oh, but I don't have so many resources.

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I cannot be generous with, for example, if I am the manager,

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I cannot be generous with my subordinates

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because I cannot give a bonus.

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Generosity implies giving.

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Tensible things when you can, but also giving

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intangible things.

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Generosity could be that you give an ear

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to listen to their problems, or you give some coaching.

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These are intangible things.

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Or you give some support, or you give some technical information.

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Why is so important?

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Because there is a principle in social psychology

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of reciprocity.

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When you are behaving in a generous way,

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others are likely to behave alike in a similar way.

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When you behave in a self-centered way,

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you think about only your own objectives.

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For example, these salespeople that

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were thinking about their commission, other people

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react also in a self-centered way.

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So this question is very easy to apply.

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How can I be more generous?

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How can I be more compassionate?

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How can I be much kinder and grateful

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with different stakeholders?

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And you will see that you can apply to colleagues,

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but also you can apply to customers.

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Can I be more generous with this customer?

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Can I provide with free information, free training,

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so that they can, for example, I can support them

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after they bought the product.

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They can call me 24-7 so they have any doubt,

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any clarification.

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Generosity, beget generosity, because when

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you're generous with people, people feel indebted,

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and they feel compelled to reciprocate.

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Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.

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I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions

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as these episodes continue to move forward.

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This is going to get more and more fun.

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We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show.

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And thank you for giving us your time and attention.

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Have an excellent time building out your vision

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and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.