“What is a crisis?” is the first question that Naji Bejjani asks in his expert talk ‘Turning Crisis into Business Opportunities’ delivered at Berytech Technology Pole on Thursday 18 February to a group of enthusiastic entrepreneurs. “A crisis is often the result of a voluntary paradigm, a particular perception, resulting often in a loss of motivation and of panic behavior”, added Naji Bejjani, a senior consultant, senior coach & senior trainer & co-founder of NBTSI training firm, with more than 25 years of experience in training and consulting in various business areas.
In other words, a crisis depends on one’s outlook and mindset towards any problem. A crisis depends on how you decide to solve your problem. Jack Welch defines crisis as when the rate of change outside the company exceeds the rate of change inside the company.
On the other hand, Naji also defines a business opportunity as a decision to make money now or a decision that leads to making money later. With every crisis come a few business opportunities, you need to be always on the lookout for loopholes in what seems to be a crisis for innovative business solutions.
“When you’re lost, the first thing to do is to think of the customer first.”
Here are a few specific actions that Naji recommends when you are dealing with a crisis:
- Start by changing the company’s orientation to a real customer oriented company.
- Work with the end in mind and the end is a customer satisfaction.
- Be obsessed with differentiation.
- Constantly monitor existing competitors’ actions.
- Constantly estimate future market trends and future opportunities
- Deliver more value to the customer faster.
- Unleash creativity in the company and reward it.
- Reengineer information gathering by making it more efficient and focused.
- Build better control systems to check the validity of the information.
- Improve the systems used to analyze the information.
About Naji Bejjani:
Dr. Bejjani is an associate professor of Management, chairman of an MBA program, and an international management trainer, lecturer and consultant. He pursued doctoral studies in Econometrics in Sorbonne University in Paris, France. He also holds a double “maitrise” in Econometrics & International Economic Relations from the university of Paris-Dauphine, and a Master degree from one of the top business schools in Europe, I.E.S.E. in Barcelona, Spain, where he was also granted an M.B.A. from HARVARD External program. Dr. Naji Bejjani founded NBTS is 1999 as a training and consulting firm aiming to be a reference in Lebanon and in the Arab world in self-development and in management and leadership optimization.
More on NBTSI can be found on http://nbtsi.com/ & https://www.facebook.com/NBTSI
