November 30, 2020

A while ago when our Core team at the Central Chapter was brainstorming and we were attempting to think how we could leverage Dimensions to give each of its members more for less. We had Adrian Goldwin come up with a brilliant idea where he requested all of us to list our pain points and suggested why not we start some specific Training programs by professionals and experts from amongst us to address these areas. Thus, was born the concept of Dimensions – Value Creation.

We had a couple of trainings for our members conducted by none other than our very own Vincent D’Silva an expert in training small and large organisations on various topics. We picked the topic of Communication Skills and members sponsored their staff to attend. The program was well accepted and appreciated by business owners and staff.

Similarly, as we all know our Government ordered a Lock-down to avoid transmission of COVID-19 towards the end of March 2020 and it was a shock for most people. This time Denver Annunciation showed us the way. He introduced us to Zoom Conference and it changed the way we conducted our meetings. However, the satisfaction was limited and we as a team wanted more to keep our morale high. The core team had recently had a discussion and had decided to focus on new member acquisitions and ensure that existing members get business to make Dimensions attractive. We also wanted to Market the Dimensions Brand. Putting all this together along with the lock-down in the background, the team decided why not experiment with having an Education Series of some basic Skills and Information that will be useful to members at large and also the resources within Dimensions would get a platform to share their skills.

To experiment this, we looked up to our absolute best, Vincent D’Silva, who readily agreed to do a session on Leadership Essentials on a pro-bono basis. To support him we had Martin D’Souza our Branding & Marketing Wizard, who put out a professional and attractive flyer. The information on the session was shared with members and guests. The response was magical as we observed that our members who were stressed under the burden of all negative thoughts, found a great outlet to relieve themselves. Catching up on a bunch of fellow businessmen, participating in a knowledge filled session and sharing their thoughts and views on the knowledge gained.

This session was followed by two more session by Vincent D’Silva on Customer Service Excellence and Cash is King-both master pieces and apt for the situation we all were in. These presentations just captivated the audience – our Dimensions members and our guests. The number of attendees started rising. And we soon realized that people had started asking for the session login details. Martin had also started posting on Face Book and other digital mediums. This helped us get a lot of momentum.

In April we had Transformatrix LLP, the firm born as a result of Dimensions, present. CA Arun Vaz and CA Agnel D’Souza spoke about Compliances in the wake of COVID-19. This got everyone thinking as to what they could do during to lock-down to ensure they had a better tomorrow on compliance. They shared on the critical matters that are often taken for granted and shared their valuable insights.

Coach Raymond D’Souza was next. He explained the context that most of us operate in and the mindsets we carry. He shared that if a business must grow exponentially it is essential to not only change the role of the Entrepreneur from a doer to a Manager, to a Guide and Investor who would eventually be an Enterprise Owner. The Business then not being dependent on the day to day efforts of the Enterprise Owner who would be more of a guide and a Vision provider to the Enterprise.

Following this Lloyd Rego, made a presentation on how an Individual or a Family could De-Risk themselves. Similarly, he shared how a Business be it Small, Medium or Large Enterprise must De-Risk. The focus was on Risk Transfer. He shared various thoughts on securing Health, Wealth and Future / Potential Wealth of a Family. He threw light on how Business owners must mitigate their Risks by seeking adequate protection through various types of Insurance such as Fire, Engineering, Marine & Liability covers. Finally, he emphasised on how one could secure their Trade Receivables in such uncertain times.

These Dimension Value Creation Series had created a rage and we were seeing participants rise from 35 to 70+. These programs had got addictive and we found members wanting to come and get maximum knowledge and exposure. So, to cut the monotony we decided to have one session to step back and evaluate past sessions. We wanted to check; whether it was going in the right direction, what are the aspects we need to change, where we could improve things etc. In this session too we got valuable feedback on managing the timing, preparing a registration form, collecting the data on guests and members, giving it an improved and professional touch.

Post this feedback we incorporated these changes and we realised that members were delighted to attend the presentation by Advocate Sanjay Rego who spoke on Legal Aspects during COVID-19. He shared how contracts are likely to be dishonoured sighting forced lockdown and he guided the audience with his views and interpretation of these sensitive and vital aspects, given his legal background and years of experience in the field.

This presentation was followed by Martin D’Souza who presented on Building a Strong and Memorable Brand. A very Colour full presentation with a live demonstration on how a Visiting Card could make a lasting impression. The punch line was “Jo Dikta Hai, Wo Bikta Hai” meaning always display and present yourself (your Brand) well. Because what is seen, is sold.

Steven Fernandes presented a particularly important topic that impacts all of us – Investing in the time of Covid -19. He shared the basics of how one should organise oneself, what type of Mutual Fund one must choose keeping the goals and purpose in mind. He demonstrated the all asset classes have their highs and lows and there is nothing such as one best asset class. He endorsed the best way to approach investments was to balance the portfolio across asset classes.

Ronnie Fernandes was next in turn. His topic was Lean Management Tools. Being a Management Consultant in Quality Systems, he shared how simple things could be used to reduce wastage and maximise profits for organisations. He shared case studies on how he used simple techniques without any further investment by an organisation to produce savings. He gave examples of both manufacturing and services industries and set the audience on to a thinking spree.

We had three sessions every week of April keeping all our members in high spirits. As the month was coming to an eventful end, we had Nilesh Menezes speak on Risk of Revenue Leakage and Frauds. This was quite a unique topic as to how an organisation can add value by plugging the holes in the systems and make them more efficient. He shared examples of how incentives to customers could be misused by staff. He brought to light how tools from his kitty could be used to compare various operation teams to identify unassuming slips in the system adding to the bottom line.

We hope all our Diamonds enjoyed the topics and the presentations from each of our experts. We thank them for their active participation and engagement of so many guests for these sessions. We hope to continue these for the near future and improve upon out past.

Lloyd Rego – Founder of LMN Financial Services

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