Its end April and the hot Indian summer has its arms tightly around us. Typically, during such times, one dreads visits especially by US/European customers. Just this last week we had one such team from KPMG visit us. We were pleasantly surprised as they took the relentless 42°C heat unflinchingly. It may not be an exaggeration if one said that they handled it better than us locals! In our case, their warm and fulsome appreciation of the team’s performance helped. However what truly made our day was their observation that every member of our team is a happy person!

A more conventional way in which companies are managed today, is to do with the ‘customer first’ philosophy. Top management puts the customer first in all that it thinks or does. It’s very difficult to dispute this. A regular business has one objective – to maximize profits. Revenue comes from customers. And profits can be maximized only if one has happy customers. The customer is king and has to be treated like one. Whatever we deliver to a customer has to be fit for a king. Great quality in good time. What do we have then – a happy customer? Perhaps. However, the top management, by putting the customer first, runs the risk of ignoring their key human resource. This then leads to boredom, ennui, disinterest, brownouts and even burnouts amongst the employees.

What if we bring about a twist in this philosophy? The customer remains the king. The organization remains fully committed to a quality and timely delivery. There is one difference though. The employee too becomes the king! That too without having to share the crown! How? For the top management, the employees come first. They put in a conscious and constant effort to ensure that the employees work in a stress free environment enjoying a high element of trust. The management fusses over the employees and in turn one has a diligent and happy set of people who make it their bounden duty to ensure that the customer remains the king. They hop, skip and jump with a song on their lips when they negotiate the ‘extra mile’ that was necessary to ensure quality on time for their customer. When you are happy you see ‘life’ in your ‘work’ and vice-versa too. Then work-life balance is never lost. That makes it redundant to put in an effort to bring about a work-life balance.

A paradigm where the employee is treated as a king by the management and the customer, without a special effort, gets treated as a king at the hands of the team working for them, becomes a big win-win for all. A happy employee makes a happy customer.

Thus customer and the employee both deserve to be and become kings!