1. ‘OSPF’ to Business Excellence
The essence of any business is to create better opportunities for it to sustain and grow in
a zero or stiff competition environment. Any organization today has its roots in a strong
product or service offering backed by a well researched business model. Financial
viability ensures commitment to investment before break-even that is necessary before it
becomes possible to establish with credible numbers of clients. Whereas a differentiating
factor vis a vis other businesses helps it to attract customer base.
The initial era is actually a ‘Stiff-Hands’ period that allows little scope to experiment, as
one needs to arrive at a secure position both in terms of industry recognition and financial
returns. This stage of consolidation requires a resolve and ability to withstand failures as
in due course they get included in the book of learning for the organization.
The biggest challenge lies in lifting this whole gamut of business from the gestation
period to the next milestone set. There is no set rule for this and every company achieves
this with different kinds of method implementations. There is what is called as Organic
and In-Organic growth that lets companies achieve their objectives in this growth period.
Business is always a balance of two Ts i.e. Talent and Timing. Some call it luck or
destiny. Things are to a certain extent beyond anyone’s capability to control but largely
provide space to execute with clinical precision leading to the accomplishment of
success.
Now the biggest question is whether one wants to go the Brick-n-Mortar way or the way
through Acquisitions. I suggest a model called ‘OSPF’ i.e. Open Shortest Path First, that
describes the quickest way to grow ones’ business exponentially. The OSPF model is a
confluence of several strategies and executions leading to one gain after the other. This
also carries big risks as the tendency is to push the safest methods on the last benches.
But given into careful planning and deep analysis process one can guard against
unforeseen shortcomings if any.
The OSPF subscribes to the idea of acquisition for areas which are traditionally not of the
company’s strongholds. It also depends heavily on the quality of the employees of the
company. Outsourcing is yet another tool to effectively categorize and control overheads
to the minimal extent possible. A partnership with specialists at the corporate and non-
corporate levels is another great way to reinforce business activities. Diversifications of
business activities into low-risk low-gains provinces ensure minimum deterrence towards
mistakes and errors in judgments. Dis-engagement is yet another valuable device in
keeping with safe levels.
The shortest path in this form of business structure is in not following any one of the
above methods but to implement then in a sequence such that returns outweigh the risks
taken.
Below is a diagrammatic representation of the OSPF model.
{1}
Outsourcing
{2}
Acquisition
{3}
Partnership
{4}
Diversificatio
n
{5}
Dis-Engagement

2. The OSPF concept begins with Outsourcing of activities like general administration,
systems administration and manufacturing. It is recommended that HR and
Sales/Marketing activities be restricted as in-house competencies always. The
outsourced company should be changed after a span of 1 year to introduce new thinking
and execution approaches.
Next comes the Acquisition part which is the most important of all as this directly affects
the long-term prospects of the organization. In here, care should be taken to absorb the
company that brings in more benefits than risks. Inevitable as they are, the drawbacks of
the acquired company drags the parent organization of all its past efforts and
achievements. Rather than an all out cash buyout it should be a majority stake model
based acquisition to safeguard against any possible miscalculation. This kind of operation
is successfully followed at Microsoft at the beginning stages of entering new domains.
Then follows the Partnership component where strengths complement each other. It also
enables to enter new areas of business without a low risk factor count. But a painstaking
effort is required to immediately bring better results to such a venture as otherwise it may
lead to a tendency of a long gestation period before meeting the set objectives. The
speed achieved could be tremendous if each side is able to visualize and perform to their
key strengths.
Later to follow is the Diversification part that gives the required financial thrust to fund
ideas and manage risks at intermittent levels. This can be in areas similar or different to
the core business of the organization.
Like for example GE Capital which is not linked to the engineering background of the
company.

3. Finally arrives the Dis-engagement component which instructs companies to pull-out after
a certain period on reaching the set objectives with acquired companies or products/
Services. This liquidation will infuse funds that can fuel additional infrastructure or
compensate for the poor performances of the parent group itself.
The best part of this business model is that permits the organization in exploring newer
avenues of doing the same business in newer styles or formats thus providing more
creative ways of working around challenges. And this can be adopted by any small to
medium company looking for better growth options. The human resource, which is the
only and best asset of any company, gets to pursue changes in an ordinary yet dynamic
environment thus nurturing the spirit of innovation and learning.
One of the chieftains of business models, this OSPF constitution creates one of the
unique ways of risk-mitigation in a high-risk climate.
This plan also incorporates an exit strategy in case the winds decide to blow in the
opposite directions and it goes completely beyond control.
In terms of bringing the nuances of the business to each and every productive employee
down the order, OSPF promotes what is called as the ‘SBM’ or simply a Small Business
Manager. This SBM title for every knowledge worker fosters an environment of ownership
amongst people and that enables them to execute things efficiently and in cohesion with
the organizational strategies. A strong reward plan should be put into practice to motivate
people to subscribe to this idea of business ownership.
SBM will always capture the voice-of-customer and translate it into productive results that
craft a loyalty nature within the customer base. OSPF goes further to create ‘Business
Partner’ relationships with the end customers. This concept relies on engaging potential
customers (people having good reach and knowledge in related industries) to become
part of the organizational activities that promote business. The remuneration package will
play a key role in encouraging customers to participate in this initiative which can yield
good results in short time span. This can in turn give rise to a franchisee model which can
also be explored by the organization. But with changing times this concept has got
merged with partners or VARs that bring in added support of end customer solution
management.
The OSPF business model will succeed in these times as the companies careful in
choosing who they do business with whether they are partners of customers. This model
is sure to enhance the profit margins by about 40% of the standard metrics.