A better business ethos?
What if we shifted the mindset from getting and attaining to giving and serving in our businesses? Would it be a better business ethos, and result in a better business overall? I think it would.
What do I mean by “shifting the mindset from getting and attaining to giving and serving?”
I mean a shift from metrics to genuinely caring about every customer/user.
Instead of focusing on “user acquisition”, focus on “what can we do to serve users better?”
Instead of asking, “How can we get more signups or get more users to click this button?”, ask, “How can we give so much value to users that they can’t help but want to give us their money, sign up, or click that button?”
Perhaps this sounds naive, but explore this with me for a moment.
Yes, at least in part, many businesses already do serve. The purpose of a business is to serve the customer by providing value in exchange for money. Without serving the customer/user, you don’t have a business. What I’m suggesting, though, is taking this idea of serving further.
It’s not a novel concept, but shifting the mindset from getting and attaining to giving and serving in business doesn’t seem to be the norm. Why?
Well, I have a possibility.
It is easiest to adopt and maintain this ethos as either an indie developer or a very small company.
It is far more difficult to maintain when the company is too large to have direct-to-user communication. It also requires being so careful about the business decisions that are made to ensure that money or efficiency aren’t the only driving factors. A larger company is naturally going to have more management levels (and thus, is further removed from the user) and has more temptation to focus on KPIs and acquiring that one million and first user.
So, what do you think? Does this mindset work better in practice?
Please note that this isn’t me claiming to know anything or everything about business.These are just my musings and theories based on my limited experiences and reading. Take it with a grain of salt, and if you feel I’m unreasonable, feel free to contact me.