We started our business in Car Wash. We started our business in dealerships. We offer aftermarket solutions and proper delivery solutions to dealerships.
But we did change the direction of the business. Any change that happens, Organizational change is not the only thing that needs to be changed. I have seen many big businessmen who have lost their money. They have depression.
This deal will never go wrong. If a deal goes wrong, if a property or business goes wrong, He was depressed because of his purpose. I was a student in India and he used to tell me that he was going to finish his MBA and he was done.
This is a way to expand your business. I have a question for you. If any tape is successful, what is it that you... So, first of all, I would like to say that this is an emergency podcast. When we were talking, you knew that this was going to be a podcast.
No, I had no idea. I'm sorry to all the listeners. First, I want to tell you that you are from Melbourne, and you came here in 2005. We will introduce you to us.
But, what are your thoughts on starting a podcast? How did you successfully run your business at the annual level? I think people can do it, but you are thinking about the community, not projects. The profit you are bringing is not of the same quality as everyone else. So we will talk about that as well as your business.
You came as a student, we will talk about your struggle as well. You can explain a little about yourself and what you are doing at this stage. Okay, first I will make a correction that I am a shepherd.
Which is about 2 hours or 200 km from Melbourne. And the second thing is success depends on how you measure success. Some people measure success by their name.
In our community, in Australia, everyone is human, it's just the color of the skin that makes a difference. And they say, my name is big, people know me. They might consider that as success. Some people think that they are getting into a big job. They think that they are getting into a job politically or even in a job.
For my father, he was the only successful person who could become IAS or IPS. It doesn't matter. Otherwise, he was a billionaire or whatever. For him, IAS or IPS was the elite of success. The third or fourth thing is success.
I don't know what success is. Because I say success is not running after you. I mean success is not my aim. I think those who do everything right, or try to do everything right, Success is a consequence of a certain type of product. It just happens.
Your ultimate goal is not success. Your goal is to correct the small steps along the journey. Your long journey, your stakeholders, I will explain the impact of a stakeholder. Many people know about shareholders. They have direct profit and loss.
Stakeholders can have any impact. It can be the community, the environment, or even your family. Any person who is directly or indirectly involved, whether it's a person or a thing, can have a direct impact on the stakeholder.
And along the journey, you and your stakeholders can Don't make them suffer. Or try to avoid them from going to the market. Rather, they should benefit from it.
I think I will consider that thing successful. If you do business, you don't ruin your supplier. I am talking about a different topic. No problem.
I am a client of mine. I have worked in the automotive industry for a long time. I have been in contact with car dealers. The direct ones we talked to were the dealer principal or the service manager. One of them was a young boy.
He was a multi-franchise dealer. His way of dealing with success was that he could leave his suppliers to him. If someone gave me a product for $15, how much would I take from him?
After that, when he saved $2, he thought he could give it to him today. He thought he managed it right. Similarly, if someone in the automotive industry, who you yourself say that you have been in the automotive industry for 3 years and you have not paid your price.
Now is the time, there will be a lot of inflation, things have increased. Make sure you raise by 20%. They get high happiness. They also get satisfaction. So we saw big businessmen.
You will also see in life that those who have a lot of money in their account, depression has happened, right? This deal will never be wrong. If any trade is wrong, some property is cut, or some business is cut, even if it is a billion dollars, there is no limit. But if that transaction is wrong, they will have depression after that, they will be shot.
Because their purpose was profit only. The purpose of this is to help every stakeholder in the wider world. Along the way, ultimately, I will also be successful.
This is my hobby. Recently, I couldn't keep up with it. But I will keep on doing what I am successful at. I used to love studying case studies.
Now I'm a bit lazy. But many successful leaders of the society have passed away. There is a book by Richard Branson, I will recommend it.
I am not endorsing Richard Branson because no one is perfect. But I am going to read that book. There is a quote by him, that profits are a byproduct of doing everything right. I don't think I am successful. We are doing reasonably well.
We are not in a state of gratitude or frustration. We are living a life of gratitude. We are trying to avoid any losses in our future.
Basically, good faith means if you are doing the right thing, then you will be successful. One thing you said was very good. You were saying that sometimes we leave others for the profit. And this is a common thing that many people are happy that I sit below others. This is also a common thing.
And mostly when we look at our business, the people who are successful, you see in their business, everything is open. So if you stop there, I will start my own center, I will do it here. What does it mean? You must have seen people who take a 1 dollar ride to get to the next village.
When you think about it, you can't be financially successful. When I was studying business in my undergrad years, there was a course on leadership. There was a chapter on the difference between a leader and a manager. There was a difference between the two.
For comparison, the leader always sees the bigger picture and long term vision. The manager is always short term and micromanage. He doesn't trust people, he doesn't do business, he micromanages. Because of that, relationships are not established.
Relationships are only for today, if I make the right decision, I will see tomorrow. I don't think anyone learns from them. I don't think any employee has the confidence to say that they can do it. Yes, exactly. So, the employees, the subordinates, not necessarily the employees, because it could be a business organization, it could be a committee for example.
But it is very important to empower your subordinates. Ultimately, everything is a team. It is very important to have a good team. If you are in peace, your team will be good. You said a very good thing.
We will go into more depth on this. But first, I would like to hear your background and story. How did you reach this point? How did you reach this knowledge? Look, our knowledge...
Let's go back first. I was born in Amritsar. Our village is called Pind Bamb, Taseel Dera Baba Nanak.
It's in the Gurdaspur area. It's in Tejavila, Anpur. It's a very small village.
People don't know how small it is. Now they will know. It's a very small village.
I spent my childhood in the outskirts of Amritsar. But our village was very big. We used to climb up to Amritsar. I have been working here and there, and I feel that my foundation is well established.
And after that, I spoke about information and learning. I am a proud son of Adya Apak. My mother was also a government Adya Apak. My father also started working at Adya Apak.
He became a professor at Khalsa college in Mahalpur. He retired as a principal and became a senator at Chandigarh University. Our atmosphere was like a Pandalikhan.
My parents were like that. My father used to read all the newspapers in the house. He used to read all the newspapers. That's why I felt the need for current affairs.
I was the youngest in my family. My eldest sister was also in Australia. She was the CEO of a multinational company.
She has a PhD in the UK. She is very intelligent. She has inspired me a lot.
My brother, who is older than me, He did his B.Tech in India and he did his Masters in the US. He worked in many IT companies in Silicon Valley and now in Austin. He is a senior team leader in Dell.
He used to write a little bit but he was very good at studies. He was very good at studies in India. He used to disown me and ask me where I came from. Now what do you say? Now what do you say?
I am very proud of him. I have studied at a good school till 6th grade. Shri Guru Harkishen Public School.
Do we have time? Yes, we have time. I want to pause here.
My daughter goes to school. I have a concern about her education. I don't care about the fact that he is educated and his school is elite. I care about his general values.
I realize that my mother had to take a step to get me to Amritsar. She taught me at Shri Guru Harkishen Public School. I studied there till my sixth grade. I am even more grateful to my mother for this decision. Pee.
He taught us a lot of different schools. He taught us about the 34th Jabari Sahib. Which branch? Basant Avenue. Basant Avenue.
Yes. Anyway, so... After that, in 6th grade, they took me to a government school to watch my performance.
Yes. They said, you're a standard teacher here. Yes. I went to government school in 9th grade.
I actually skipped 7th and 8th grade. I went to 9th grade and they made me a monitor first. The foundation was good, the class was good.
They made me a monitor. I was very smart. Where did the kid come from? And then when I got exposed, I learned English.
It was even worse than us. And then I didn't get any special treatment there. I stayed in the rest of the school.
I did 9th and 10th grade there. I also got a red nail for 11th grade. I went to school in Dera, and I was admitted to a non-medical school in my house.
I was a little bit of a homebody. I was a subject in physics, chemistry and math in non-medical. I didn't have a lecturer in that school. I was in 11th or 12th grade. I passed 12th grade in my department.
I passed 12th grade while doing my homework. You were doing your homework. I was doing my homework until I got into my department. I think so.
I had lost a lot of schooling. Baaaaa! My mother was concerned about my father's future. She was worried about my father's future. She was worried about my father's future.
I will add something to this. His intentions were always better. Anyway, I came to Australia and kept my record.
Tell us about that. I did accounting here for the first two years. I got PR for the accounting I had to do. I failed in the core subjects. I failed.
I didn't know anything about it. I didn't study anything in 11th or 12th grade. I have observed that I have passed the management, marketing, leadership, communication subjects.
I have passed the management, marketing, leadership, communication subjects. I had a natural interest in it. I entered Kukuri after two years of accounting. My parents knew that I lied to my father.
I tried to tell my father. I said I want to do something today. Because I don't know anything about accounting. My dad got very angry at me. That I can't tell you in the interview.
That I got angry. I think I understood. So you can understand that my dad is a fan of my mother. And he doesn't like the paint bomb. The paint is very dangerous.
Yes. He had a close friend from Amritsar. He was with the bomb. He had a lot of personality. I admire my dad a lot.
I lied to my dad. I was very guilty. I told him I was not going to change.
I did change and I was sure to do something. I went to India and did B.Com. Time passed and I was interested in reading and I was a journalist.
A girl bought books from the government and the old ones from the MBA. I bought all of them. I got all the books for $70-80.
I had a car wash business. I was doing car wash as a student. I was involved in 9 car washes. Hands on and as a shareholder.
We learned that the office is better than the mental health center. When you are quiet, or when you are wearing a mask, you will be able to read books in the office. I studied MBA.
After studying, I found it interesting. I have studied without any interest. I have studied case studies, accounting, and management. There are two types of accounting. One is finance accounting and the other is management accounting.
I don't like finance accounting. I like to do external reporting. Public companies and shareholders have to do reporting. Management accounting is something that helps you in internal decision making.
Like costing your product or service. Or budgeting. That's what I liked about management accounting.
Anyways, I thought that I was guilty. I lied to my dad that I didn't even graduate and I got a PhD. I also realized that I could study for a week or two.
I was neither greedy to get a job nor to be a professional. I decided to study for my own school. I entered the Bachelor of Business in Management. That was a beautiful journey. I have now completed my doctorate degree.
After 9 years, I still feel that I learned everything from my undergrad, my bachelor's degree. I learned everything from there. Then I went to do my bachelor's degree in management. I got a little effort, but the results were very good. Again, I'm not doing this for success.
I didn't aim to get a job. I just wanted to learn. Every time I come out of campus, I'm an improved person.
And I completed my bachelor with good grades. Your success means that you can say that you'll get better tomorrow. Every day. I can say that. We have a lot of Sikhs in our community.
Guru Sahib said that Sikhs are the same. Sikhs are the same. If you don't mind, at what age did you start studying?
I came here when I was 18 years old. I wanted to finish my bachelor's degree. I was 29 years old when I finished my studies.
I knew that I had a Facebook status. It was written that I was 29 years old. I have done my Bachelor's and graduated. It took me 4 years to complete my studies. Did your father tell you the truth?
No, I told my father later. After finishing my Bachelor's, I felt good. I was awarded by the University of Toronto.
Academic excellence Even now they have proposed me to take a photo in the hall of fame I did not do it today Then I said I have to do something else before I go to RMIT Then I came to do an executive MBA When I entered MBA, they promoted me to do an executive MBA With Mr. Arvind He was also very beautiful I did an executive MBA I regret that my dad passed away before I finished my MBA. I wish my dad was alive today. You feel sorry for your life. Yes, I feel proud of my dad. I did my doctorate.
I was happy with my master's degree. But I really liked it. I have been to almost three countries. I am planning to go to Sainthi by the end of this year. I am booking a tiktok account.
People only plan, whether it is complete or not, it is in the hands of God. What will happen tomorrow? I have also brought a semester in the student exchange program in Vith. There I met a professor.
He studies in Vith, in a US city. I met him in an Australian city. The US city was in Thailand.
I was a student in Dubai. I thought that life was good. I wanted to travel and travel again.
I wanted to live there and experience the country as a resident. I wanted to live there for a year or two. I wanted to do a job.
I thought what can I do in the world? I thought I should study for a doctorate. I can go anywhere in the world and say that this university is an old age. I still think that if it happens, because we don't have to talk about the future. But my dream is that I see my retirement here.
I went to Dubai, Thailand, Vietnam. I am more concerned about Asian countries because culturally it is different. If you come to Australia from Canada, it doesn't feel like there is a cultural difference.
So I am more concerned about staying in those countries for a year or two. Part-time or full-time. I have a question.
Do you want to go to Punjab to study? I do. I do. And I am a little disappointed when I see the university system.
I have a project called Suhavi Audiobooks. I wanted to learn about the two ways of making a living. One is to get a library to donate books to a Gurudwara Sahib.
I thought, what is the reach of this? How many people can reach the local residents? 10-15 people?
If we are digital, we can reach more people. I used to live in a place where you can go for a walk, I used to listen to audio books in English. I listened to a lot of audio books on Amazon.
I have heard a lot of books from Saingat Idrissab. I thought why not Piyab Bhi? If it is Piyab Bhi, then we will listen to it.
Then when you think about it, then you have to see other problems. Piyab Bhi's script is not two, one is Pakistan's art script, and the other is our art script. We call it Lippi. Now I can't read Pakistani books even if I want to.
I can't read it. They speak the same language, because it's written in Lippi. But if there's audio, it will break the barrier.
To listen. The other thing is, when I travel, I listen to books. There's another big barrier.
Our children, a lot of them, when they come from here, when they come from outside, from Diaspora, all over the world, they don't read, they just listen. They don't read. If they speak, their accent will be a problem.
They make a mistake in mixing male and female. I relate to this. I had a car. I had bought this car before.
It doesn't have a caster seat. It has a redway. I had to listen to English radio in 2005. I realized that when I used to listen to the radio for a year and a half, my English improved.
Your traffic university. I think that when you listen to this in 2025, you will listen to a better narration and pronunciation. Yes. Your accent will also improve. It will improve.
So it was a huge benefit. I forgot how to turn this. No, you were talking about the books you launched. Yes, we developed the Suhaavi audio book platform. And I forgot how to make the book.
Anyway, we built the studio. And we recorded about 350-400 books. And we made the book. Punjabi books are not for profit. I see that these are the shops of books.
The shops of books have people, they have a doctor, they have Bhai Veer Singh, they have Patar Sahib. Similarly, there are books in the market. Similarly, Sahawi Audio is a platform.
It is a digital platform of audio books. There are many categories of books in this category. It's a great tool.
We produced and recorded 350-400 books. 100 books were uploaded to our beta version. We will present them to the public after the internal testing. The author who told us that he is ready to pay for free, he is doing it for free.
If someone says that they need money, They are paying the royalty of the book at a low price. So they are working very transparently. But this has not happened before in Punjab BJ Mahan. I have talked a little about business. You can turn me around.
I am turning now. You owned 9 car washes at one time. And you have also built up many businesses.
So you have a lot of business. Many people try to start a business. We have seen it in the history of many people.
Some people start in 1-2 years. Some people start in 5-10 years. Some people start in a year and then they start building a team.
It starts without them. What is the lesson for you in business? How did you become successful in business?
Look, in business... combination factor. Along the journey, we have a business There is a term in management called blocks.
In business blocks, there are activities. You can call each activity as a block. Then you look at it as a machine.
Like a washing machine. If it is not working, then you step back and think what is the problem. Power is on, the wire is stuck, the pipe is connected, or something else. Businesses look at the machine and try to fix the parts. Then you see, okay, there was a problem here.
Yes. A little step back. Then you fix the problem. In this way, it's a combination of many activities. Right?
Plus, it's also about luck. Sometimes, external things happen that you don't even think about. For example, you have a business.
If someone wants to develop something there, they will be offered unreal money. If you establish that money, for example, you don't do anything to the external factors that were not under your control. We had a restaurant recently, we shut down it. It has started very successfully. But in the last 6 months, they struggled.
Why? Because we had to build a metro tunnel in front of us. Now, there are 4 roads closed. Google doesn't take you there because the roads are closed.
You can walk, but Google doesn't know where you are. They show you the way. Luckily, we got out of the positive video. But it was external.
We can't do anything. No matter how good or bad you are. External factors affect us. But we can only do what is our will. As I said, separate each activity and see where you can improve.
There is a feedback loop. After seeing feedback, you can analyze and implement it. This is one thing.
It is very important to evolve in business. With the time, you adapt the change. Any form of change, especially organizational change, is as bad as changing the system. People are very resistant to change. They don't want to change.
It's been going on for so long. But it's getting worse. It's getting worse because it's a mental block.
And as a leader, you have to always see which better change you have to implement. After that, you have to convince your team that we should try this out. Now, many people have made great business examples.
For example, we have a great energy example of Kodak. They didn't evolve, they made their role in chips. With Photo Kitchen, ultimately it failed. The time has changed.
And Kodak, which was the world's top company, collapsed. Nokia and Blackberry phones also collapsed. This is a big business.
Here in front of me, there is a bookstore. Big bookstores have their own store. Now they are closed. Digital books have come. Small stores are also closed.
So it is very important to evolve with time. We started working in car wash. We went to dealerships for car wash.
We offered aftermarket solutions and proper delivery solutions without going into technicality. But we did change the direction of the business. So with time, whether you want property or not. Another term used frequently in business is diversity.
Yes. Or they say that all eggs are in one basket. So we make a mistake in that too. If someone... If you want to buy a taxi, you should buy a taxi.
If you want to open a car wash, you should open a car wash. That's wrong. Because economic changes happen, you don't know. I learned about taxis, like Uber. They decentralized it.
Who thought of that? Stock marketers can say that if you buy from different shares, you're safe. Kind of. We can do a separate interview on the big chapter of the stock market.
In our community, particularly in our community, There is a lack of awareness, especially with regards to stocks. One is that the stock is confused with investment and trading. They think that trading is investment and investment is trading. Secondly, some people think that it is gambling, some think that it is share short. Or some people think that crypto is the stock.
So there is a lack of awareness. It is a big issue to analyze it. But diversity can cut your risk to a large extent.
Your question was about whether a business can be successful. You have to have a diverse portfolio and evolve with time. If you don't evolve, it doesn't mean that your business will progress. It's your self-learning. You should be able to do what you want to do.
You are more informed and better person. It will affect you from top to bottom. And it will reflect in your team.
If you implement a learning culture in the organization. You talked about diversity. I agree with your opinion. I feel that I have personal experience in many places. You have shared it with me.
Jeff Bezos started his business with books. You don't know how many products he sells. Now he's moving towards diversification. He's created many businesses. I see many businesses that have restaurants, colleges, taxis.
They come here and there. I don't know where this thought came from. The result is mediocre.
It's like a bunch of people. So, I feel that first, we should take a step forward. Then you can think about diversifying. Absolutely. You commented very well.
When I say diversification, I use a term I used to study it. I used to study it here in Business College. We use a term I used to study it here in Business College. I delivered short courses on stocks.
One term is called Diversification and the other one is called Divorce. So, in order to diversify, you should not make your concept more diverse. In fact, you don't know what's happening in your life.
Consolidation is very important. One thing is that you are asking for time. You can't do that 100% You mess with the other person You stay here or there My farmer friend in Shepton He told me He has a stone fruit orchard Stone fruit Apple etc Some of my friends buy vegetables. I asked the guy who came to the company, don't you buy vegetables? He said, vegetables are more profitable.
He said, you can buy vegetables or fruits. He said, you can do both. He said, we don't want to grow vegetables or fruits.
We don't want to grow anything. You don't want to grow anything. So you focus on one thing.
That's absolutely right. You can manage two or three things in the diversity application. Consolidation is very important.
Secondly, some things like the Suhaavi audiobooks, are non-profit. They are my soul's work. I am doing this for my next generation. I am doing this for my children.
If my child's accent improves, I am happy. So, diversification is not just about making money. Secondly, the most important thing is your team. Your team should be solid. Jeff Bezos, I will give you a big example.
Neither is Richard Branson the pilot, but he has an airline. Neither is Jeff Bezos the business owner, he has the biggest business in the cloud, AWS services. We call it Amazon Web Services. He has the biggest business in the Amazon delivery business. Neither does he code, but he has a team to manage.
Jeff Bezos says that at executive level, you have to take a lot of decisions. He says that you have to take very small decisions but quality decisions. Right.
So you have to take small decisions but quality decisions. Small people take more decisions and make more mistakes. And the impact of their mistakes is also small.
Big people don't take decisions, they take big ones. But if they make a mistake, the impact is also big. There are a lot of mistakes.
Yeah. you know So, therefore, it's very important for your team to be amazing. I'm blessed. Because it's my wisdom, or I'm very clever, very intelligent.
I was blessed, whether it was my parents or someone's ancestors, that I got a very strong team. Even now, I'm not talking to you, I don't take it personally. But I feel that I'm always high.
I always get a lot of feedback from people. So, you said that how can we expand the business? Expand, again, in a business, there is a term, one is vertical integration, one is horizontal integration.
I will explain it to you. You explain it to me. Vertical is also like my friend, Mr. Chanaamat, a farmer.
In a nutshell, I will quickly tell you that he complements the same business with other things. Suppose you buy a seedling, you buy it and then you sow it. You don't sow it. You have acquired an extension of your business.
This is vertical integration. If you ask for money from the truck, why should I ask you for money? I will save that money and the profit will go from my pocket. Logistics, transport, that too will be vertical integration. Then you say that I will not sell, I will not open a shop.
Further vertical integration will happen. The other thing is horizontal integration. It's less than you living.
They say I'm 100 or 150, but it's horizontal. You expand it. You expand it.
The other thing is to experiment in all different things. My partner Amit, he follows my decisions. He's good at both good and bad.
I thought that we didn't have the money to spend $2 lakhs. I have a mobile app called BetaVirgin under testing in New Zealand. I thought it would cost $2 lakhs. Can you explain a little bit about the app? We developed a mobile app called Little Big Shed.
I started with the idea. When I was doing post graduation, a university offered me a project. I had a friend in Kazakhstan, a very nice guy. He knew that he was a very close friend and he had a good experience in oil and gas.
He was a professor and he brought the project for government. He said that if you do this research project, you don't need to do the whole semester. He was happy and said yes.
We did research on recycling, particularly on plastics. He said that when he read the statistics, he saw the results and interviewed people. I have opened my eyes to the need of working for the environment.
In India, we have also done recovery work. In our village, we had a lot of people who came to collect rubbish from the sorting facilities. We can't afford that. I came to Little Big Shed today and I was able to collect the rubbish. I bought a lawn mower.
I was unwrapping the lawn mower and I thought that the most polluted land is the packaging. The most polluted land in the world is the packaging. And I stopped online shopping because now everything is packed in 3 boxes. Anyway, I unwrapped it and thought that I will not be able to sleep.
I created a waste. I bought a $400 thing. I was very patient. I was able to get a 3m x 3m front yard. I was able to do it for 2 months.
If they say they want a Gawande, they can choose it. If you can sleep in a car for 5-10 years, how can you sleep in a car? It's an embarrassment.
We call Uber and Airbnb. I said, if anything happens, let's put a barrier of shame. And we won't waste things. We will start sharing. We will ask for the same in our village.
We will ask for the same. But there is one thing. What do you think?
I feel ashamed. Where a tractor is being put in an ego in every house. The land is theirs.
And one tractor is given its capacity for 100 kgs. And they put 40 tractors for 40 kgs. There is no difference.
Yeah. So, I... This idea was incubated and then we thought of a project called Little Big Shed. Everyone has their own little shed in their house, but when the collective gets together, it becomes bigger. So we called it Little Big Shed.
We don't use things for 2-3 years. For example, we use powder. I use powder once a year, but I use it in the garage.
I use it in the garage too, but I don't use it. So they can search for the number of neighbors they have listed and borrow it. This is legitimate because it depends on the user.
One is to connect people and bring community together. Another is to reduce waste. So when we put money in the pockets of the D Corporation, they put a dollar or two in the pockets of their neighbors.
So these were the three purposes. But as soon as I started talking, when this concept came to my mind, I told my partner, my business partner, Sukhdeep Mitha, I said, Mitha, tell me, I want to do this. And without even realizing it, when I talked to him, I told him to scale up, launch it, and we will get 1.5-2 lakhs. It could be a big disruption.
It could be a multi-billion dollar project. It could be a massive waste of time and money. But if you think about the money we have spent on the loan, we didn't have that. If we had more money, we wouldn't have had to suffer. I didn't have the experience to learn how to do a developer market.
I thought I would do a project that would be cheap and better. I have two GMs, Mithavi and Partner. I also talk about GMs. The mistakes that I made, I applied them to the second one.
I know that if I open a third one, I will pay 30% less. So you can set up better. You can prepare yourself. Yes, yes. What you need and what you don't need.
So this is the same in technology development. You can prepare yourself. And then you can improve it. Hmm.
Is it? I got a lot of ideas from you. The ideas that you are working on.
Yes. And God will help you to progress further. Thank you.
And the rest, Look, I have a lot of business ideas. But we are focusing on the team because the employees are of business. You know sales, marketing, systems, there are a lot of employees of business. But I will touch base a little bit. Earlier when we were talking about Richard Branson, he is not there even today.
You saw his company, right? And the reason for that is that the other employees have a lot of skill. And the biggest thing is hiring. Because you are... Hiring smart people is a skill.
This is the biggest problem. Many business owners discuss this. I have experienced this in my life too. The main thing is to grow the business. You were talking about the team.
How to hire? How to overcome barriers? Many people think that when I hire people, they eat me.
I will talk about this in two or three ways. Yes. I will talk about this in two or three ways. Mostly, in the automotive industry, I consider myself as a mentor.
Usually, people are very quick in filling in the vacant positions. They have a position, they can fill it as much as they want. Sometimes, they are not forced to fill it, but sometimes they are. But my lecturer says, you always have a chart in your organization.
If someone goes there, who is replacing them? I say, who? Internally, whatever you can do.
One is that you can take a decision very quickly and not let it go to waste. The other is that you are not prepared. If someone says that their duty and service will not be in place, even if it is temporary. I don't know if this is an example or not, but I used to take dogs for training.
My dog, who is 12 years old now, I have a Cesar on YouTube, he is an American dog whisperer. He teaches dogs how to train. He says that it may seem a little inappropriate to take dogs as an example, but you will understand that it is the same message.
He said that mostly dogs fail, trainers fail. He said that dogs don't fail, trainers fail in teaching them. So I observed in my work that sometimes your new person doesn't fail, you fail to teach them. You don't train them, you don't guide them. You expect them to do the same thing the first day.
You learn them magically. Then you say that they fail. We can be a mara trainer. So don't go with that conventional method. Richard Branson said that he had an example in his book.
He said that he met a girl on the railway and he didn't know what to do. Oh my love. No, maybe he had a job in the office, he was a low level cleaning clerk.
He also cleaned the floor, but it was a designation. He said that the girl was skilled, she deserved to be in management. But why?
She didn't have the necessary qualifications. But she promoted him. It is a position that we deserve. Modern corporations eliminate owners because they don't want to study in a university. I attended a lecture in Chetha post-grad.
I delivered that slide to my team. It is one of my favorites. When AI has become a revolution, the biggest scale of this would be for hiring.
Companies are at the top and you are now an Executive MBA. What is the scale of the top level corporations? The first half of the first word was about interpersonal skills.
Interpersonal means to talk to someone. How much is he emotionally intelligent? How much is he empathetic? Not about the quality of the person. You can't replace AI with that.
Can you explain a little about interpersonal skills? Interpersonal is like... I will give you some examples.
Once I was going to introduce a client to my business. An existing client took me with him as a reference. He had a friend who was in networking. He talked to me and said, Every conversation is a sale. When I think about it, suppose we decide what to eat for lunch.
One person is convinced that he wants to eat Dal, pizza, or carrot and potato. The good salesman is not the one who has the most money. Because he has to convince them. Today, Peeja is selling.
Don't do this. So, This part of your thought or belief selling is also part of interpersonal. Then, the other person Sorry, I'm taking a lot of pauses here.
There's a highly recommended book by Dale Carnegie, How to Win Friends and Influence. It's a very good book. I rate that book. You don't need to study for MBA to read that book. That's right.
Okay? That book is about interpersonal skills. How to influence people. How to influence them and make them your friends. It's not about making them your friends, it's about making them your friends.
Again, that thing will make your success... If you are aiming for something, if you are not interested in it, then you should deal with a genuinely person. And what you want will come out naturally. But if you are selfish in your mind, you will think that I want to take this meaning. Human beings are like a plane, and the next thing they do is they get frequency.
So this is the interpersonal scale. The second thing is, in what mood is the person sitting? What is the problem with that? What will happen to my words? You have to understand that first.
Yes, yes. Emotional intelligence. That too is based on interpersonal skills.
Yes. Body language, everything. You explained it very well.
You also said something very well that maybe you are not a good trainer. If you are not building a good team. And one of the best advice I always get is, I asked a person for advice for hiring. He is a very successful business owner.
He says, you have to become a coach first. I mean, every thing, any coaching, I mean, kids have to train their team, follow the system. Sometimes, your personal life is going on.
You learn from that, coach them, share your experience, and teach them to communicate. So, there are many things. It is very important to become a coach, if you want to run a successful business. Yes, absolutely.
And in the hiring process, there are top performers. Like A1, who perform very well. But mostly, these people are already hired.
They don't get the job. How do we attract them to join us? Look, my client is...
I learned all this by observing the world. I admire a very intelligent client. He says that when I hire someone, I think about what I should give him. I will give him something else.
He says that the attitude of a person is not a learned character. Especially in adults. You will understand it only in small children.
He says that I first see the attitude of everyone. Then I get the words of interpersonal skills. Hiring is a process of attracting, training and retention.
Attracting and hiring talent, then training and retaining. I think the opposite. If we aim to get a trained person, Learning is easy, but unlearning is very difficult. It's better if you have a good attitude towards the new person.
They are like a blank canvas, you can paint them as you like. They don't need to unlearn. Otherwise, they will always go to the next level. Ali Baba's Jack Ma, the founder, does a lot of work. I hired a lot of people.
The best marketing manager, the best performer, his track record is recorded. I hired him, the best available in the market, by asking him for money. He said he brought me, he started work with new people.
He said he made a marketing budget and brought it. Marketing budget of V million. I said, do you know that the previous sale was only 5 million?
He said, Jack, I have never cut my life from 5 million. I didn't make it. I squeezed it for you. It could be that the numbers are not right.
I'm not quoting him exactly but in a nutshell, this is his message. Then I thought, no. This could be with the best person. But it's not with the right person. Don't hire the best.
Hire the right person. Jack Ma's advice. Everyone fits in different roles. That's true.
There are a lot of things happening in the business. We had a specific podcast about this. I would like to conclude that we talked about coaching. It's easy to learn a new person who just got hired.
But there are a lot of problems. Many people ask me how I will give them training. I have been learning for so many years.
This is a big problem. In that, it happens that you have to Any business, going back to very very basic, systems. Exactly. Develop the systems of the business. Once the system is developed, then you won't run the business, you won't run the systems.
Follow the system. I would also like to say to your staff subordinates, you are totally welcome to give us feedback. If your system has this flaw, then it can be better. Don't do it yourself, give feedback.
Your feedback is most welcome. We will change that. Don't change the system. Nobody is above the system, not even me.
Exactly. As long as you are made of the system, you will be happy to a great extent. When I was in my car wash, I used to tell my staff, Mariana Ponna is in...
We have to make a system for our car wash. Because the principles of business are the same for the radio, and the same for the big 5 star hotels. The same things like location, price, product, promotion, those things are the same for the business.
They have to make their inventory cheaper in the evening, in the morning they have to sell it at an expensive price, they have to go to and fro, it's the same principle. It's the same formula. It's the same in 5 star hotels.
When I was going back 15 years ago, I thought that if I was there, the car would have been delivered in this quality. Because I can't be here all the time. I give an example of Cole's Woolworths.
Everything is documented. When you go to the checkout, they tell you how are you going, how is your day. Or have a good night.
Do you have flybys? He's not saying everything from his head. He just gives them a sentence. He doesn't say anything.
Whether it's Melbourne or Perth, it's the same. I give my car wash in a very very basic way. Small business or very basic business. I tell him, consider this, we don't have one, we have 15 cars, how will we survive?
Now it's fine to have one car but what if you have 15 cars? I cannot be here to check the car. Make a system. Every car has to go this far.
The person who is driving and parking the car will come and check the car. The person who will take the payment will say see you later or see you again. There is a small sentence there.
Indirectly, your implied message is that you are inviting them again. There are small things, but it's documented. I tell my staff to say it. Make sure you say it. Even during booking, if someone is leaving the car, at the end, say, please leave the keys in the car.
If you don't, then you will get caught. The car will block your way. But whether it is or not, sometimes it is overdue.
We went to America. I went to the US once, and then to the University. I studied there for a semester at Maryland University.
All the university students went out there. I didn't drink, so I told the company that it's important to mention non-alcoholic. The truth is, I asked for a non-alcoholic drink, Coke, and they said ID.
I said, what's Coke? They said ID. I told him that everyone has to get an ID.
Okay. You have to use your brain a little. Yes, I have to use my brain a little.
We have to overdo a lot of things in business. Like this, this is a matter of truth. In the case of empowerment, we empower the employee. In the car industry, everyone is a manager. Now it's a little bit different.
Your front of house manager is sitting at the reception. The first contact manager, front of house manager, back of house manager, all managers have checked you. Some kind of manager has come.
Yes, yes, yes. Some kind of manager is doing the work. But their designation is also manager. There is no staff. Everyone is manager.
Meaning, you overdo the power car. So now, all managers have the feeling that no one is doing the work. What did you think? I don't want to lead. So, yeah, balance is important, but systems are very important.
And implement the system as much as you can. Follow it. It will help you in scaling up.
Similarly, if you have multiple stores, then start with that mindset. If I'm 15, what should I do? If you have this mindset, things will happen.
Before we wrap up, I'd like to give a quick advice. We don't have two swords in one hand. Make sure you don't have two people in one designation. Sometimes we have two partners. One partner says something to his team in the morning, and the other one says something else.
It happens a lot. I used to see this in many car wash. I used to see this in my friends circle. Staff doesn't respect. Right.
People get confused. One says something, another says something, there is no delivery. Outcome and result is opposite. Then you fight here too. So, good decision.
You choose the position. Then you take care of the area. Then... We can accept that. I can also make a mistake.
Anyone can make a mistake. We have talked about Richard Branson a lot. The Virgin Australia has failed.
It's not owned by them. You know that they own the super fund. Because it was liquidated.
The CEO made a mistake. But it's okay. What happened next? It's still there.
He did it. It happens. You take a chance in business.
You hire a CEO, that's a CEO domain. So what? I'll definitely say this after wrapping up.
If we talk about systems, we should read E-Myth or Michael E. I didn't read it. Zaheer advised you. There are many books.
If there are systems, then focus on them. Okay. He gave an example of McDonald's where it started. McDonald's, Birji, is a good Netflix film.
The Founder. It's a very good film. One of my favorite books, I mean all the entrepreneurs, social leaders, all of them have read it. One of my favorite books is Good Strategy, Bad Strategy.
It's also good for those who like reading books. Good Strategy, Bad Strategy is a very good book. There are so many small studies. Both fail and successful strategies. You will enjoy it a lot.
I think we should give the podcast title, Masterclass of Business. Because you tell so many things in such a short time. We are talking all day. We will talk about many things but it is natural.
We don't introduce anything. So whatever came and went, I think it was a healthy conversation. We didn't have to go through all the things here.
Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.
Bye.