Is It Easy to Do Business with Your Company? Really?
Companies experiencing rapid growth—no matter how complex—usually share the same problem: They are so focused on coping with fulfilling sales and streamlining processes, they lose sight of the customer and become difficult to do business with. Does this sound like your company? Use the comments below to tell us what’s going on in your market.
Technology has smoothed many a rocky playing field. Whether powering marketing, external delivery systems or internal processes, we all turn to technology to make it easier. But as we layer system over system, we have to stop and ask, have we made it harder to do our business and for our customers to do business with us? Listen to an excerpt from our recent conversation with Oracle VP Mark Johnson who diagnoses the problem for us.
You might think it odd that a site devoted to the mid-sized growth company would turn to one of the technology giants for some insight. What does a technology giant have to tell us beyond a sales pitch? GrowingBusinessLink readers know that our launch has been sponsored by Oracle; not because of some CPM ad buy but because people like Oracle VP Mark Johnson have been grappling with the infrastructure questions we all face and they can reflect the experiences of companies they’re working with to help us.
Until it was acquired by Oracle three years ago, Mark’s own business was a high-growth mid-market firm. He says you’ve got to identify what phase of growth you’re in and how quickly you can anticipate the challenge of the next phase.
Learn more listening to the full interview we did with Mark – We’ve titled it Sustaining Profitable Growth and you can download it today from the Resource Center.
Singapore is the most business-friendly country in the world, according to the World Bank’s “Doing Business 2008” report published on Wednesday September 26th. The bank ranks 178 countries using measures including labour-market flexibility, the complexity of trading across borders and access to credit. One indicator of red tape is how long it takes to open a business. In Congo an entrepeneur would have to wait 155 days and spend five times the annual income per head. Countries that simplify regulations see results. Saudi Arabia reduced the time from 39 days to 15, resulting in an 81% increase in new businesses. Egypt, Georgia and Croatia are among the most enthusiastic reformers.
