What to do next?

Hi,

My friend, who runs his own consulting firm, told me that the challenge in his job is to walk in others' moccasins.

"Decision making and doing things happen to put those decisions in action is what businesses are all about. Ironically, a majority of job created in the world are to render a process-driven approach to decision making. It took Sam Walton many bad decisions (not ensuring a water-tight lease agreement the very first time), to create a "Walmart". It is these bad decisions and the resilience required to bounce back that has helped people build big businesses."

I am of the opinion that a process-driven appraoch plus an intuit based appraoch are like the left and right brain combo. One cannot exist without the other. Have your ever experienced anything that is purely logical in nature, without emotions? I have. The experience had been disastrous. Even the most proficient operator, without the basic elements like sense of humor, empathy, et al, is likely to be discarded. I view the process-laden approach to be purely logical. It contributes immensely to move towards a decision. But businesses are people-driven. Hence, a process-laden approach plus a personal approach to it (including things like the history of the business entity, the "gut feel" of the entrepreneur, among others) also matter most.

Going forward, I would not surprised if people start businesses to tell people what they should do next. I happened to read the biography of the Godrej empire. It has an impressive line that goes as "From locks to safes, it was a logical shift" (Have I reproduced it verbatim? I doubt it). But after which the group ventured into soaps and scissors. Are these logical shifts? But, the thought processes that endorsed such moves shall be the crux of these new age businesses. It calls for understanding (a full 360 degrees) of the business and the people running it, to offer these services. I would call such consulting services as "psychographing the business".

Thanks

Vijay