I traded Fx consistently in the past and hope to still do it better in future. I am still a fan of the business of trading and investing in currencies but would in no wise rush into it without first internalising how best to get profitability. Profiting is the reason any man will want to venture into any form of trade. One good thing about the hobby is the required patience and persistence needed to excel. This is not an easy feat. My mentor Peter Bain advised severally that making the money in trickles is better than having a huge chunk of profit that would be lost in another risky move. How many of us believed that then. Oh yea, follow the masters or be ready to create your own path. So many traders had to learn in the school of hard knocks where taking some huge losses taught them how not to trade currencies. Really, it’s not bad to dare to be different but is it really worth it when you can follow the leading of others and then add something new you discovered while towing the existing golden lines of giants.
Similar situations exist now in the economy, every business seems to be complaining. From Financial to Manufacturing, customers are now more knowledgeable and would readily go to alternative sources. It used to be quality alone in the past; when well meaning individuals gun for supposedly superior goods but now things are more complicated with so many factors controlling the choice of buyers. Organizations now have more to think about than just creating the best product for their customers. Yes, the product must be good, but note that only quality will not deliver the big sales that will improve your company’s bottom line. I have seen that management are always in a hurry to sell or win customers. This should not be something that is done spontaneously without a prior strategic alignment to the driving policies and culture of such institutions. Total Quality management may be a better viewing of what is required. The components of TQM bring to mind the following essentialities:
· Put customers first
· Make Continuous Improvement
· Aim for zero defects
· Training and development
This ideology is also supported by the Kotler and Keller, 2008, they professed the four dimensions of “holistic marketing” to be:
· Internal Marketing
o Every member of the organisation must be involved
· Integrated Marketing
o Multiple means of creating, delivering and communicating value must be utilised
· Relationship Marketing
o Having multi-faceted relationship with customers, channel members and other marketing partners is important.
· Performance Marketing
o Understanding how the returns from marketing and other organizational activities contributes to business success
Achieving the holistic view of your business is not child’s play. The management team must drive this but not so much in a hurry. Otherwise, intermittent policy changes will be the end result. Rather than thinking in the short term, business decisions should be made with the strategic approach and in a way to carry every stakeholder along.
In the economy that we are seeing now, business owners need to study and follow the trend slowly but steadily to continue to stay in the business. Making rash decisions based on previous experiences alone without knowing the new developments that are now dictating the pace is a step at hurriedly winding up business activities.
Aderogba Adewusi (ASQ CMQ/OE)
