
Conducting business in a fundamentally truthful way means going beyond the essentials and adopting an honest, open, and customer-centric culture. As an entrepreneur, you will encounter challenges and situations as you build your business that may lead you off course, but you can stay truly truthful by following these three steps.
(1) Put your customers first
For most businesses, addressing customer needs is a top priority. In fact, almost every business that sees early traction starts by solving a customer’s problem. But the sad truth is that as time goes by, many organisations make customers’ success less of a priority. For some bosses, an honest assessment of their practices would show that their definition of customer “value” equates to maximising the return they can extract from customers. Others don’t see the need to stay on top of customer needs, and instead base their growth on their incumbency or brand recognition, or on offering contracts that bundle in services that aren’t truly useful to customers. These practices aren’t sustainable. At some point, either a competitor who can do a better job in meeting customers’ needs will take advantage of the open space, or customers themselves will decide that doing business with a company that doesn’t put them first isn’t worth the trouble.- Employees that take dishonest sickies: Don’t get caught
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(2) Pay attention to warning signs and correct your course when necessary
There will be times when you head down the wrong path, even when faced with clear indicators things aren’t quite right. While success requires a lot of courage and the willingness to push past one’s doubts, it also involves honestly considering warning signs, and being prepared to take a step back when needed. This can be difficult, especially when backtracking means going back to the drawing board after investing months or years in setting the direction an organisation is headed down, contradicting bold proclamations or even making difficult staffing decisions. The willingness to correct course when truly necessary will make your business stronger.(3) Be truthful with your stakeholders, and encourage them to be truthful with you
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