Its been quite a while since I last did a blog on general life within business, don’t get me wrong, I have been thinking about doing a blog a lot, but other things always seem to take priority. I really enjoy writing, and I believe it is good for the mind, so I should really prioritise it more.
So much has changed since my last blog, which is probably a couple of years ago now.
Business is changing and moving so fast at the moment, it feels like it is a full time job just trying to keep up with everything. It is also very exciting!
For the first time, with all the recent changes and increases in efficiencies, it actually feels like a SME can compete on the same level as a large corporation. In fact, in some cases it is better to be an SME! We can be so much more agile, make decisions so much quicker, and give a much more personal human touch… which is so important in an age where we are all becoming a little more disconnected with each other.
We are embracing all the new technologies and the daily changes in AI and its capabilities, which is making us so much more efficient, and it is our aim to use the time savings to spend more time actually interacting with our customers on a much more personal level.
As I said above, it feels like a full time job just keeping up with the changes with AI. Not just that though, it needs careful thought on how to really integrate it into the business. It is my opinion that it should feel invisible to the customer… and it needs to make their life easier… as well as ours!
This brings me on to an important realisation I had just before the Christmas break… for a while I have been struggling with the true purpose of NaturePac. As I’m sure you are aware, we specialise in providing the most sustainable packaging options for our customers' circumstances. This has been the external purpose… which is correct, but I think I have needed more.
A lot of what you read says you need to have a strong purpose, mission, to become truly successful, and I always thought this meant one mission, but I have realised this is wrong.
I think we have three… sustainability is definitely one, and I like to think we do this honestly, without the greenwashing, but this should really be a given for a packaging company.
I also believe it should be perfectly acceptable to say, especially for an SME, that another purpose of the business is to provide for the people who own the business and work within the business. NaturePac needs to enable our people to improve the quality of their lives, whatever that means to them. For me, this has always been my driving force, especially when times were at their hardest.
The realisation I had just before Christmas was… why don’t we bring this feeling, this purpose to our customers… and what is the best way to do it. The majority of the people we deal with on a day-to-day basis are business owners and/or procurement specialists. I know, being a business owner, how difficult and stressful it is to run a business, and so, if we can make it easier for our customers, it must be a win-win.
I think I have finally found my true purpose… To Make Business As Easy As Possible For Our Customers…
…And what's very exciting is that we now have access to very affordable tools to enable us to truly deliver this purpose!
With the careful use of AI we can automate all the mundane tasks, be seamlessly proactive, design a personalised customer portal which is actually useful, and yet still personally talk directly to our customers.
As a bit of a software nerd, and a business nerd, this is very exciting!
However, with all this new technology, this leads to a very different way of working, where we are expecting to get more done in less time, on several different projects, all at once… for me, this needs careful navigation as there have been several occasions where I have come home extremely buzzy. I think this is because I have been excitedly working on several projects at once. The pros are, I feel I am getting a lot more done, but maybe focus is suffering.
I need to ensure that at least once a week, I step back from each project and look at the big picture and ensure it is still on the right path… easier said than done!
I think it would also be sensible to discover a way of working on something for the last half hour or so, before coming home, which actually has a calming effect so that I can be fully present when I get home. Each evening I only really get a couple hours (if I’m lucky) to spend with my boys before they go to bed. Food for thought…
Anyway, I think that is enough from a rambling business owner.
Just one last thing to say… at NaturePac, we make decisions with one thing in the forefront of our minds… does this make life easier for our customers, and ideally for us?
