THE EXPERT’S VIEW | COLUMN
Business in Perspective
Keeping
NADEEM RIZVI, MANAGING DIRECTOR, LASER MICROMACHINING LTD
When the Voyager 1 spacecraſt was in the farthest reaches of the Solar System and about to head off into interstellar space, NASA decided to use some of the craſt’s dwindling energy to do something that had litle scientific merit. Te craſt’s cameras were turned around so as to face the sun and to take one final parting shot of the solar system. Tis picture, later labelled the ‘Pale Blue Dot’, was done at the behest of Carl Sagan and contained the Earth as a barely-visible, sub-pixel dot. To Sagan the image was more symbolic than scientific, showing us both the marvellous achievements of Voyager but also puting the vastness of space, and our place in it, into true perspective.
In the modern business world where we are all continually online, the constant barrage of emails and messages can be all-consuming to the point where we can lose sight of what the business is really all about. Quite oſten we are so busy managing our Inbox that it is difficult to take stock of the outside world properly; in this regard it is becoming more and more important (both metaphorically and physically) to look up and outwards from our desks.
others saw it as a really valuable part of a bigger picture of networking and building relationships with others in the market. I firmly fall into the later category.
Things can often look quite different from afar.
Although the basics of business are the same for everyone, small companies can face particular problems due to their size: there are fewer people, resources are smaller, budgets are tighter, cash flow is a major issue and so on. So it can be even more crucial for smaller companies not to become too insular — it is only by geting out there and promoting yourself that the world will learn of your offering and this external engagement should be seen as a key part of the business operation, even if the marketing budget is tiny. Having just returned from having an exhibition stand at the Micro Nano MEMS 2014 show in Birmingham, this idea of geting out and meeting others is very topical. I heard different stories from people at the event about how effective the two days of the show were for them. Some were not convinced that the time, money and effort was worth it whereas
Perspective is an important factor in running a business – how does a business fit into the market, how is the offering seen by the market, where is the competition and what is it doing? Tese are all things which have to be seen in the correct perspective and one of the best ways of finding out about these things is to talk to other businesses and to customers. Tere really is no substitute for direct face-to-face meetings when it comes to promoting what you are doing or when you are trying to find out what is going on in the market (with suppliers, competitors and customers). So although the short-term cost of exhibiting and atending a show can be quite high in terms of money and staff time, the payback can be much higher when seen in the context of growing the business and forging new partnerships. It should be remembered that one new client is all it takes to cover the costs of the show and that client may never have found you without you having been out there promoting yourself.
New forms of marketing like email bursts, tweets, blogs and viral media events are all growing at astonishing rates and everyone can assess how/when they are right to be adopted by their businesses and to what extent. However, one thing that is not going to be replaced — especially in industries where new, complex micro technologies need to be explained and promoted — is the human interaction; talking to people should not be seen as a waste of time. Over and above this, leaving the office from time to time and taking stock of how things look from the outside world can also be a really valuable exercise in maintaining perspective. Tings can oſten look quite different from afar.
8 | commercial micro manufacturing international Vol 7 No.6
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