The EY conference taking place at the Westin Dragonara Resort today is an excellent platform for think-tank ideas to be shared, analysed and discussed to find ways how Malta can tap into new investment opportunities. The line-up of international speakers and local experts is sure to generate a synergy of business ideas that can only further continue to strengthen Malta’s position in the global economy.
One of the key objectives behind this year’s edition is to ‘look sharply at business opportunities no one has yet seen, synergies no one has yet contemplated and a future whose potential Malta will be the first to see’. While we all hope that this objective will be met, we might be running before having learnt how to walk steadily and securely.
When we speak about foreign investment, new markets and the likes what we are intrinsically speaking about are our customers, some with whom we already have a working relationship as well as others who carry the potential to becoming customers in the future.
With the rapid pace at which change in the economic world is moving, we cannot simply rely on a strategy which is continually on the lookout for new markets, new technologies and new products, although it is needed.
Every other country targeting business investment can replicate if not outdo another nation using these approaches.
What Malta needs to scout for are those elements which, in the future, will give us both an edge and also distinguish us from our competition.
Rajeev Suri, a top corporate executive, is quoted as having said: “Technology is outdated faster than ever before and competitors can replicate everything except our attitude, and our service-focused actions. A superior service culture is what will distinguish us from the competition.”
Our service culture is one key aspect which, as a country, we seriously need to address at all levels of the Maltese market.
Unfortunately, here in Malta we suffer from the outdated view that offering a service is all about being subservient, subordinate or servile. This narrow mentality and attitude are making us vulnerable to our competitors.
The time is ripe for us to start this process and carry out a deep and holistic analysis of the mediocre service culture we currently accept and live with
With our size to our advantage, we have the potential to develop into a nation where service and customer experience excellence become our flagship and in itself drives business and economic growth. Superior service and its overflowing effect on customer experience is all about creating more and more value for the customer, be it when we deal with business to business relations or business to customer relationships.
Although the road ahead may be long and challenging, the ‘outstanding’ service culture we need to develop should not be aimed solely at specific industries such as tourism or retail, but across all sectors and at every level of the workforce, starting from the top.
Additionally, we must re-evaluate whether our educational system is doing anything to help with this.
No one can and must be excluded from building a service culture.
While our first and natural approach might be to come up with fast thoughts and quick win solutions to this issue – we might find ourselves shooting the wrong target. Albert Einstein once said that if he had one hour to save the world he would spend 59 minutes analysing the problem and 1 minute coming up with a solution. As a nation, the time is ripe for us to start this process and carry out a deep and holistic analysis of the mediocre service culture we currently accept and live with. Only then can we prioritise the key issues and establish fundamental principles, effective processes, actionable models and frameworks that will guide us successfully along the way.
If we are to be successfully open for business we need to ensure that ‘long after people forget what you say or did, they will remember how you made them feel’. This is a golden opportunity.