All of us, at Dextrasys we are able to meaningfully work, talk, contribute, share ideas, argue, meet the needs of customers, be with colleagues, earn a salary and, do many things - because there is a platform called Dex.

The platform called Dex did not happen accidentally or appear magically out of the blue.

The platform called Dex happened because what initial startup team believed in certain fundamentals and values. The platform continues to exist because all of us still believe in these fundamentals.

These fundamentals were the sole reasons for our existence, we earning our salary, we having a possibility to use our time in a productive way for the benefit of customers, team, our families and ourselves. These fundamentals were the sole reasons for where we are today.

When we found Dex, in 2006 June, we said there will be a foundation on which we will build this company.

Unlike buildings, the foundation of Dex was not made of strong stones.

Instead it was made of few fundamental guiding principles which are stronger than stones and which can live longer than stones.

I would like to talk about these founding principles and fundamentals so that we all understand what made us come so far and what will help us go even further.

Fundamental 1 : Customer is GOD

One fundamental principle, which made sure we survived the initial hard years and see the light of the day as a startup, is our team’s firm belief that Customer is God.

Can customers drop from heaven and give us work? No. We need a team to create customers and deliver to customers what they need.

If the initial team members had thought, ‘I am important’ and or ‘I am more important than Customers’, then the whole platform called Dex would not have existed today. The platform came into existence because the initial team did not see anything else other than customer and their needs. We were fully lost and we did not realize we existed!

Start ups do succeed when the initial founders and initial team, forgets about themselves and everything else in life except seeing customer and their needs. Companies continue to grow (exponentially) when all of us continue to forget about ourselves and everything else in life except seeing customer and their needs.

Such an unwavering focus on customer is required if we want to create successful companies.

When I say forget about ourselves and everything else in life, it does not mean we forget to eat or breathe, or take care of our team or our families. We will do everything. But, what is the fundamental, that makes a company (=you + me + all of us) successful and the kind of focus and dedication that is called for to achieve things that are not achieved, is deep respect for customers, customer focus and service excellence.

Even person like Mahatma Gandhi, who did not run business, understood how customer is central to our life. He said

A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption of our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider of our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so.

When we say Customer is GOD, we are not putting ourselves down. In fact we are elevating ourselves. Being with God on a daily basis is pure elevation.

Please do not confuse this God with our regular Gods. While regular Gods are for life, customer is for business.

Fundamental 2 : There are external customers and internal customers. You can delight external customers by delighting internal customers

A customer gets created and a business comes into existence because of a demand-supply chain.

When someone is in need of a product or service and seeking assistance (demand side) meets us who have capabilities expertise or a product (supply side), then a relationship is born (called business).

The seeker is called Customer and the provider is called supplier or service provider.

This chain of some one having a need, meeting some one having capabilities or expertise, continues from outside to inside in an organization. And hence there are external customers and internal customers in any organization. This is true for all organizations – for profit and nonprofit organizations (called NGOs).

Internal customers are even more important. External customers get what they want when internal customers get what they are looking for. It is a chain. If a chain is broken, the final customer will not get what he is looking for. It is like passing the parcel in a birthday party game.

So if we want to delight external customers, we need to delight internal customers.

Fundamental 3 : Sales is the engine

How we managed to survive and take off from the ground zero in first few years was by having a focus on sales. ONLY on sales. Nothing else mattered in life. A racer sharp focus on sales, selling and getting customers.

There was no accounting, no HR, no other thing on the initial years…just sales, just focusing on customers and their needs.

On first year, accounting ended, when we dropped bills in a card board box (made like a thirupathi Undial / Undi). After the year end, we will open the Undi, file all bills in a box file (and one box file was more than sufficient and it still had space!) and take it to an auditor for accounting and preparation of financial statements.

Over the initial years, HR meant connecting at a deeper level with people, celebrating work, and visits to home of team members to have one2ones with every one including parents and spouses.

Other than these, it was sales. Every one was involved in some way to selling or connected to supporting sales.

As the company grows, it is but natural to have departments, segregation of work, divisions which makes our life productive. If we do not organize ourselves and focus on HR, Finance and Accounting, Infrastructure it will be dangerous and we will not grow.

Even more dangerous is losing our focus on sales - the engines that drives everything else in any organization including Dex.

Sales is external. All other activities (delivery , HR, operations) are mostly internal.

Internal means we are dealing with team members who will listen to you, you have an authority and power to regulate how things are organized.

Sales means we are dealing with external world and customers. External world is chaotic and unstructured.

Customers, usually do not listen to you (at least in the first or first few interactions). We have no authority to decide how they work or think. In a competitive market place there are often ten people for them to choose from for a given service (and many time at the same quality and price). Sales usually test our ego.

Internal activities are comparatively comfortable to do and to execute, where as external is not that comfortable.

When senior members in the organization and rest of the team (or most of the team), when we are comfortable dealing with Sales (=chaos, external world, uncertainties, testing ego constantly), then the organization grows even further.

Fundamental 4 : All customers are equal (from the point of how we treat them)

One of the founding principles that helped us to see the light of the day is to treat all customers with all respect and equal. Big or small, India or US, paying or not paying– we need to treat all customers equal and respect the opportunity they provide us to learn, serve and meet their needs.

Like us, customers come from different backgrounds, different economic conditions and business situations. We need to be tolerant and accommodative to every one.

It is possible some customers are taking certain amount of energy of the organization, and not compensating us enough. Or some customers are very difficult to deal with. It is perfectly alright to say good bye to customers who may not add value, from earning or learning perspectives. But once we have them on board, we need to treat them with respect and equal.

When we treat all customers equal, it reflects in the organizational culture and outlook. It makes the organization more professional and matured. New customers, newer team members intrinsically prefer working for a professional and matured organization than one that is not.

To quote, a customer service expert Shep Hyken,

But, isn’t it human nature to treat the regular and more profitable customers a little better? If that is what you believe, there is a solution - If you haven’t already done so, create a minimal standard of customer service. This standard should be so good as to garner high praises regardless of how much – or how little – the customer spends. It’s that simple.

Hyken continues,

The way a customer is treated should have nothing to do with how much they spend or how often they buy. All customers should be treated with dignity, respect and the attention any human deserves. They should all be treated in a way that is consistent with your brand promise and the reputation you wish to be known for. Now, when it comes to the perks you might offer a loyal customer, you can differentiate. That’s different than the way you treat them.

Fundamental 5 : Run the business in an ethical and right way

When we started Dex in 2006, we told ourselves that we will run the business in an ethical and right way. If we have to succeed, we will succeed in the right way.

We told ourselves that when we hit the day and when we have to take shortcuts to survive or run the business, we will rather close the business than taking shortcuts. That was and is our founding principle and resolve at Dex.

Shortcuts can benefit in short term. But business is not about short term. It is about long term. Longevity is clearly a key indicator of success. The main success factor in a business is not how much profits we make or made but how long did the business survive or can survive.

In 2007, When someone in the service tax department said ‘we need to complete few formalities’ after taking the Service Tax Certificate (required to run the business), we politely gave the certificate back and walked out. They came running and gave back the certificate. We said completing ‘formalities’ is not ethical not our cup of tea.

A person openly demanded ‘contributions’ to enhance the power capacity from 6KW to 30KW. We made innumerable trips, sat there, spent valuable time, but finally got it done without taking shortcuts.

Running the business in an ethical way is not just with Government agencies alone. It is also with all entities we interact and do business with – be it customers or service providers.

With customers, we do not compromise on quality. We do not over bill. If a customer is not satisfied with quality or got impacted because of delay in delivery, we need to refund the money paid partly or fully and apologies. That is part of our ethics.

With Suppliers, we need to express our needs fully and completely so that there is no confusion in what is being delivered to us. After delivery or as per the agreement, we need to pay Suppliers in time. Treat them with all respect.

Fundamental 6 : If you have to choose between right and kind, choose kind

You read it right. If you have to choose between right and kind, choose kind. Why – since right is subjective. Kind is not subjective and is universal.

This message does not mean that we do not do right things or compromise on doing right things. It means putting kindness one step above doing right things.

The world of work is no different from the world that otherwise we deal with. It is full of people. Both customers (demand side) and we all, team (supply side) – all are people. People with emotions and people with feelings.

Making people and our colleagues feel good in our daily transactions is important.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

At Dex, every one is treated kindly. On day one, when people join they are treated kindly, introduced nicely to every one. Along the way, in our daily transactions we treat people kindly. During exit as well, we treat people with lot of care and kindness.

Being kind does not mean we should not be firm.

Jim Rohn, a philosopher rightly said, We need to be strong but not rude. Be kind but not weak, Be bold, but not bully. Be thoughtful but not lazy. Be humble, but not timid, Be proud, but not arrogant. Be humorous but without folly.

Fundamental 7 : Having a common code of conduct

When we travel on the road we have simple rules. We travel on left and the opposite side traffic comes on the right. We wait in red signals. We cross at zebra crossings. These rules are not to make life difficult for us but to make life easy for every one. Imagine if we start driving on both left and right sides! There would be immediate traffic jams!

Similarly as an organization we have few simple easy to follow common code of conduct. This is to help all of us stay productive and to avoid traffic jams.

These common code of conduct is usually documented (as Deploy policies), shared with every one and made aware at the time of joining. All team members understand and follow the common code of conduct.

Also these common codes evolves over a period of time and team members do and can actively participate in shaping these policies and code.

Some of the simple easy-to-follow common code of conduct include (1) laptop, internet and email usage polices (2) Mobile phone usage polices (3) Client confidentiality, data security and non-disclosure agreements (4) Gender sensitivity and gender harassment related topics (5) Availability and leave polices (6) keeping away non-work related topics (politics, religion etc) (7) notice period and exit related policies and few more.

All of the above fundamental principles are reasons for where we are today.

I can clearly see these fundamental principles will be the reasons for us to succeed even further.

These are universal fundamentals or arising out of universal fundamentals. When we are in sync and align with these fundamentals, it brings us peace, prosperity and happiness for all.

Come, let us create new paths and create newer ways of working together and doing business.

Wishing all of us all green lights!