The time of momentum growth in India is over. Organisations now have to start thinking about gaining market share and building a sustainable business. A business which is sustainable in growth, profits and return on capital employed. This is only possible when organisations start thinking about their relevance in the marketplace, their clients/customers and society.

Many businesses fail when they think that manufacturing to their capacity is the way forward and forget to check the pulse with their clients/customers and society. Is your product relevant anymore to their clients/customers? Why does the client really buy your product/service? How do you contribute to society, the environment, etc? What is the real value delivered?

What is the meaning of the word relevant? The Oxford dictionary states "bearing on or having reference to the matter in hand". Interestingly the word that follows relevant is reliable. But let that be another story. Relevance is also linked to "relief", which is explained as "mitigate the tedium or monotony of" and/or "take a burden or duty away".

So what does this mean in business? It means an organisation that makes/defines the market or is important/relevant in the ecosystem takes away the burden of certain actions from the client.

Obviously all this has to be legal, environmentally friendly, within compliance and regulation (which can be different from being legal) and all the rest. The organisation is a critical piece of the client's ecosystem and that it lends some form of gratification, the client /customer is dependent on the organisation and will find it difficult to exist if the organisation stops servicing them.

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