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Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. Alhamdulillahi Rabbil Alameen.
Wa salatu wa salamu ala ashrafil anbiya wal mursaleen Muhammadu Rasulullahi sallallahu alayhi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam.
Tasliman kathirun kathirun.
I am in this fabulous place called the Longmeadow Conservation Area,
which is literally a stone’s throw from where I live, about a 15-minute drive.
And it’s directly behind Bay Path University for locals who are listening to this one.
And I am here with my good friend Arshad, Arshad Abdullah.
Wa alaikum salam wa salam.
And we are looking at a family of swans which are here.
They have hidden themselves behind this, but inshallah, I think we’ll be able to get a picture of them.
There you go, the mother and the chicks are on that little bunch of land there.
The father, the cob, is in those bushes.
I think this is a kind of refuge for them.
And they were floating around all this.
Time.
And now they’ve come here.
And it’s a beautiful scene.
So you can see them grooming and very, very beautiful.
Absolutely peaceful scene all around here.
These are wetlands.
It’s a flooded land, which is…
They have also red-shorted blackbirds coming up and landing.
I want to talk to you about the last part of what I said the last time, which is adding value.
And let me give you a couple of examples.
I was in Singapore in 2020.
And I was…
I’ve been invited to teach a course at GE.
GE Asia.
And they…
So I landed in Singapore.
And the course was the next day.
So I landed in the afternoon.
And I thought I’d go out and, you know, see the town.
So I asked the concierge of the hotel to get me a cab.
Now, this is where the…
If you see the…
This is the…
Value addition.
How can it can be done?
So the concierge says to me,
Sir, I can get you a cab, of course.
But if you want to just walk down to the main road,
which is, you know, literally a couple of…
Maybe 30, 40 feet because, you know, you get to the hotel and…
He said, if you just stand on the curbside,
taxis will come.
He said, within two minutes,
or less, you will have a taxi.
And that will cost you nothing.
Because if he says, if I get you the cab,
then we will charge…
The hotel will charge you.
So I said, sure.
Thank you so much.
I went down to the…
To the sidewalk, to the footpath.
I stood on the curb.
And sure enough, less than two minutes,
the cab was there.
Now, this is where the story starts.
This cab driver,
he stops the cab.
He gets out, comes around,
opens my door, passenger door.
He says, Sir, please have a seat.
So I get in.
I sit down.
And he says to me,
Sir, this is…
There’s water here, if you want to drink water.
He says, these are magazines.
He has a business magazine and he has a…
Just an entertainment magazine.
He has also a…
Guide magazine for Singapore.
He shuts the door.
He goes and gets into the seat.
And he says, Sir, where can I take you?
So I said, nowhere.
I just want to sit in this cab and
enjoy this experience of riding with you.
Of being in your cab.
We had a laugh.
But this is 2020.
I’m recording this 2025.
25 years later, this experience is fresh in my mind.
That is adding value.
You take an ordinary,
which is driving a cab,
and you convert that into an unforgettable experience
for your customers.
Now, when the trip finished,
I paid him.
I tipped him.
I gave him something more.
He was happy to take that.
But, you know, that’s not why he did it.
He did it because of who he is.
And this is where we have to define ourselves
and say, how can I add value?
Second story.
A friend of mine wanted to buy a car.
And he wanted to buy a car, which was a small car.
It was like a Hyundai, a small Hyundai.
So he wanted to get funding for this from a bank.
So he called Citibank.
So the Citibank lady answers his phone and she says,
he says, can I, you know, I want to buy this car.
And can you guide me?
She says, sir, I am sorry.
We do not fund for that car.
We fund for Bhopal Astra,
which is a much more expensive, bigger car.
She says, but if you hold on a second,
I will get you the number of the bank
which funds the Hyundai, the Maruti car,
which you want to buy.
And my friend is astounded.
He says, this is a Citibank employee
sending me to a competitor.
So she comes back a couple of minutes later.
Sir, I’m sorry.
I’m sorry to make you, to put you on hold.
This is the number.
Please call them.
And I hope you get your funding.
Now that is value addition.
People ask me as a business consultant,
I want to go into business.
What shall I do?
I tell them very simple.
Look around you.
See what people need and fulfill that need.
And that’s how you make money.
Fulfill that need to the best of your ability.
With the intention of helping the people
do an absolutely number one quality job,
not for the money, but for the reputation,
for what you’re doing for yourself.
And that’s how you make money.
So three things I mentioned to you.
First one was the way to become
absolutely incredibly influential in society.
Three things.
Number one, help people.
Just help people.
Two, good for people.
Number two is solve people’s problems.
And third one is add value.
Do that.
Can’t go wrong.
And there’s this beautiful family of swans on this little mound.
And lots of red-shouldered blackbirds flying around.
It’s a beautiful scene.
So this is the beauty of this.
Finally, question of adding value and business opportunity.
I remember this organization which started in India, in Hyderabad.
Around 20, probably around 2018 or something like that.
I came across the organization in around 2019.
And at that time, it used to…
It had a funny name.
And funny in the sense of funny peculiar,
not funny amusing,
which indicated that the people,
the owners didn’t know English too well
because it was called Urban Clap.
Now, Clap is…
Of course, the sound of two hands coming together.
But Clap also has a nasty meaning,
which is Clap is what is the colloquial term,
slang for venereal disease.
Venereal disease.
So later on, somebody must have told them,
so they changed the name.
Now, what this organization does is really,
you know, the essence of adding value.
Think of yourself.
You are in an urban environment.
You’re living in a city.
Your drain gets clogged.
You need a plumber.
Who do you call?
You go and buy furniture from Ikea,
which a lot of us did when Ikea opened.
And then you need to put it together
because not everybody is a great handyman.
So what do you do?
You don’t know what to do
because you are not a handyman
and there’s no one to ask advice for.
Similarly, you want to hang a picture on your wall.
And you need exact measurements.
You need to make sure the picture goes into…
You can’t just knock a nail into the wall
because you probably knock out a whole,
you know, chunk of plaster.
So you want someone to drill a hole,
put a wooden plug in it,
and then put the nail or the screw into the wooden plug.
All such things, small jobs,
which are small, but they’re important,
and you don’t know how to do that,
what do you do?
Call urban club.
So you have a person come in uniform,
reference checked.
He will come.
He just comes to the appointment.
Very polite.
He does a great job,
cleans up after himself,
and leaves.
And you have already paid on the app,
so you don’t have to go hunting for cash.
You don’t have to pay them cash to pay them.
Very smooth.
What are they really doing?
They’re adding value.
They’re simply doing things for people
which are important,
but which are not routine.
So there is no…
It’s a sudden need.
It just turns up,
and you need something at that time,
and that’s what they do.
I am told that now it’s gone to the point
where if you…
Supposing you are at work,
and it’s early,
and you remember,
oh, I forgot this particular thing at home,
I need to get it.
We call them,
and they go to your house.
As long as you have somebody there
to hand it over to them,
they bring it and give it to you,
deliver.
Adding value.
Final one,
a big case study,
which is also a Howard Business School case study,
which is a higher level than Six Sigma quality,
which is the Bombay Dabba Walas.
The people who deliver lunch
to people,
all over Mumbai,
using the public train
and bus transport system.
Just look up the…
This is too long for me to say it here,
but go and look up on Google,
Bombay Dabba Walas,
D-A-B-B-A-W-A-L-L-A-S,
Bombay Dabba Walas.
They deliver lunch.
Lunch is prepared by…
Housewives, by women,
maybe the wives of people,
maybe people are doing that for,
you know,
also as a business.
So it’s simple,
good food,
homemade,
put into what we call in India,
tiffin carriers,
and hand it over to these people.
And these Bombay Dabba Walas,
using public transport,
which is not the most reliable in the world,
ensure that you get your lunch
at your desk,
in your office,
on time,
every single day.
And their level of quality is more than six sigma.
And six sigma is 3.4 mistakes per million.
Now that is quality.
And that is adding value.
And that is a multi-billion dollar business.
So, all power to you.
May Allah Subh’anaHu Wa Ta-A’la give you
the ability to add value
and become purely influential.
Assalamu Alaikum.
Warahmatullahi Wabarakatuh.
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