Get Paid for Listening: The Power of Communication in Business- A Story

According to the same British Retail Consortium report, communication is central in handling a product recall. The step critical in ensuring a successful product recall process is  the setting up of an information management system. This system should be easily accessible even from remote locations. The information system should enable fast gathering of crucial information such as serial numbers, make, batch numbers and the distribution area of the defective product.

The response team during a product recall, should be furnished with proper channels of communication  to ensure smooth running of the process. A good information management system also enables the affected company to control the information accessible to the public. This allows the company room to minimize damage to its brand and other prevent the effects spilling over to unaffected products that they it could also be producing.

A good information management system enables tracing of products. Product tracing in a recall, starts with investigating the origin of the raw materials used in manufacturing the product through its distribution chain and ending at its consumption.

Toyota managed to emerge from this fall back as testified by their recently released financial results which showed a strong  run emanating into a profit of 2billion US dollars; an amount similar to what the recall process had cost the corporation whose home is in Detroit’s sister city in Japan- Toyota. On top of this, Toyota suffered a 16million US dollar fine for poor management of one aspect of communication. Despite its efforts, including its president Toyoda’s tearful defence of his company in front of a senate committee, Toyota still stood guilty for failing to suffice regulatory authorities with information of a possible break in its quality chain leading to deaths in America. Such, is the cost of mis-communication.

How is this helpful to a small business owner?

Product recalls have been used here as a marker for the range of draw backs that a company can suffer during operations. Entrepreneurs can pick this example and extrapolate its lessons whenever their company has to resolve a dispute with a customer, supplier and even regulatory body.

Online Business is the business of effectiveness in communication

In the words of the entrepreneur turned mogul, world icon, role model, philanthropist and self- confessed nerd turned “most popular kid in the playground”; the world’s most successful entrepreneur- Bill Gates:

“I think it’s fair to say that personal computers have become the most empowering tool we’ve ever created. They’re tools of communication, they’re tools of creativity, and they can be shaped by their user”………

“I’m a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they’re interested in.”

Online Content producers can utilize communication skills in increasing their audience and subsequently their revenue from traffic tied portals like google adsense and yahoo ads. Those attached to Online publishing portals (where freelancers, bloggers and Online writers find a home to write while earning money) like Triond, Bukisa, e- How articles, Helium and Obuolo should consider mastering communicating online as it at the heart of their trade. In similar fashion to the instances discussed earlier, their success in the cyberspace and resoluteness of their brand in the crowded blogosphere is dependent on how well the master communication.

SEO is communicating with search engines

It may surprise many that the much talked about Search Engine Optimization techniques are nothing more than ways in which Online publishers can communicate effectively with search engines.
The other popular technique employed in Online business to increase site traffic,  the sharing of articles on social networking platforms like Stumble Upon, Facebook and Digg; rely on quality communication between members of those social networks, Internet users and providers of Online goods and products.

Mao Tse-tung on listening and communicating

In wrapping up this rather lengthy subject it is worth musing on the words of the founding father

of modern China Mao Tse-tung

“We should never pretend to know what we don’t know, we should not feel ashamed to ask and learn from people below, and we should listen carefully to the views of the cadres at the lowest levels. Be a pupil before you become a teacher; learn from the cadres at the lower levels before you issue orders.”

 Mao Tse-tung

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