Is this really worth it?
Badri Narayanan V S .
Nurture Startups to grow from Idea to Raising Funds to Exponential Scaling to IPO & Beyond.
Very often, I find two-wheeler riders (autos & cars sometimes) go the wrong way in an one-way street just to save 100 metres at best. In the process, they create problems for the oncoming motorists and for themselves in addition to making it difficult for the pedestrians. There have been some accidents and some have turned to be fatal as well.
Is their urge to take a short cut really worth it?
You might be wondering why I'm writing about a traffic violation in a business forum like LinkedIn.
Most of us resort to the 'cut paste' or 'copy paste' route even when we are sending a proposal across to a customer. We think we are saving time by doing so but by doing so, we end up making it a mess.
Consider the possible ramifications of taking this shortcut:
- We may have made a mention of the person's or the organization's name in the original proposal in a few places. in the new version, it is quite possible that we may overlook atleast one if not more. Imagine receiving a proposal where your name is there initially and subsequently there is another name!! You may wonder what had happened to cause this confusion but rest assured that the vendor's proposal will never receive a serious consideration.
- We may have made a reference to a personal meeting at an event in the original proposal but may not have modified it in the latest one. It puts the receiver in a fix because he/she has never been to that event.
- Dates: We may have referred to a date either of a meeting or of validity in the original proposal and that would make no sense in the new context because that may have gone long past.
- A common glitch in forwarding emails is that the subject would show as "Fw: Proposal xxxxxx". No person would like to receive a left over because that diminishes the perception of importance in the sender's eyes.
I hope you have got a fair idea of where I am coming from. Regardless of whatever errors of commission or omission in the letter or email, the fact remains that the sender is seen as 'unprofessional' or 'not serious'. Nothing can jeopardize the mission as that.
So the next time you are contemplating a 'copy paste' or a forward in a professional communication, ask yourself "Is this really worth it?".
Sr. Solution Architect - SAP HCM - SF Employee central, EC Time Off - EC Payroll / AI ML Enthusiast
7 年Good post Badri. Great analysis and evaluation on the mindset of current generation. I believe SMART thinking should involve value based thinking without short cuts
Senior Leadership - Strategy, Management, Technology, Learning & Knowledge
7 年Good post, Badri! I consider our generation as a sandwich generation. Meaning sandwiched between old economy and new economy, traditional peaceful living and fast living towards fast dying. These short cuts are not just limited to proposals or response to RFPs. It is across. If we look at a little deeper. It is because of so much of changes that have happened around us through technological advancement, globalization, economic growth (in India) etc. coupled with steep deterioration in value system. End result is current generation is impatient and restless. It is becoming a culture. Sadly, those are sins or punishable acts of our generation considered as 'Smart' acts of current generation. Sometime I think this could be experienced by every generation. But I am not sure whether the gap experienced by our generation seems to be very wide compared that of experience of previous generation.