While focusing on my new venture – THE CONCRETE WORKS, my work profile has changed dramatically. Earlier I was always at my store Jain Ceramics to show products. But now I have to do site visits before, during and after completion.

One such day I was going with a very senior professional to visit a site. While we were driving, he got a call! To my surprise I saw that he was using a basic phone, and not a smart phone! The moment he hung up, I immediately asked, “Bhide sir, why this phone?” To which his immediate answer was – “As a businessman, if I use smart phone, my staff stops being smart! For everything they do on site, they just click a photo and send me on whatsapp to check. They have the expertise and hence they are on site. But they want me to approve everything on phone and they don’t want to use their intelligence and want to back off from taking any responsibility. Hence I decided to have a phone, which doesn’t have whatsapp or email.”

In short he meant that using a smartphone makes our employees and us an ass. One can argue that in today’s world we can’t do without a smartphone. Having a smart phone makes things quick and reduces the hassle of visiting that place hence saving time.

I buy both the views! When a boss or manager has a smartphone, the subordinates/ employees tend to push the responsibility of taking a decision onto us. They feel that they should not be a scapegoat if a mistake happens. For the simplest of things, they will call or whatsapp us, though they are well equipped to handle it themselves. It causes us irritation and hassle of handling their question while we might be in the middle of an important discussion.

At the same time, using a smartphone saves a lot of time. Lot of coordination can happen over the phone and a video call. With Covid, almost everyone has become comfortable using a smartphone and all its features. Unnecessary travel, expenses and time is being saved across the globe.

As a businessman or a professional, we have a responsibility to run the show seamlesslessly and earn profits/ incentives. I think we must have an amalgamation of the two. While we must use the smartphones, yet we should allow, rather encourage our employees/ subordinates to take decision on our behalf. They are usually scared that we might scold them or fire them and hence they keep asking us for approvals. If we give them freedom and allow them to make mistake (expecting them to grow in future), they will surprise us with what they can achieve. If we keep nagging them and don’t allow them freedom, their best will never come out.

I can say this with my personal experience. I had couple of people who joined as collection boy and accountant. They were groomed, trained and allowed to take decisions on my behalf. They became so good at their work that so many times I didn’t even have to interact with the clients. They would show the clients, close deals and get a positive review for our firm. When we moved, they joined somewhere else. Both were immediately taken as head of the showroom. The onus of running the show in the new place they joined was on them.

Smartphones are meant to make our life easier, and not make us dumb Asses. We must use smartphones to become efficient, rather than over relying on it for everything and every decision we need to take. We must use our intelligence and common sense, which God has bestowed on us.

If you are a dumb ass, so will your staff be! Be smart and make people working with you smart!

#Business #SmartPhone #Ass #Intelligence #Dependence