Great and Firm “Feet on Street”

Heard this analogy in a CXO meeting last week that resonated no end to what we do at OfBusiness.

Be it new age or traditional firms, having great “feet on street” has always meant the apostle of success. 

It has, traditionally, meant having a great sales force that are culture and revenue careers of the firm. A field force with passion, clarity, integrity and the gift of the gab can propel you no end. 

But today it means a lot more. “Feet on Street” is a philosophy, of being rooted in reality. The best in business stay close to market reality and learn from it. Akbar the Great used to roam on foot, in disguise, across his empire at night to gauge the mood of his subjects. The best not just know the street but walk on it too: they are hands-on even when at the top. You look at the top bosses of any insanely successful unit and you would see them focused first on execution and then on dreaming vision. Bill Gates coded late into Microsoft and Buffet always read and made his own and his companies’ financial statements. The friends never borrowed knowledge, they compiled their own by practicing it.

We, too, would love to be remembered as an organization that’s not just focused on building great “feet on street” but one that has firmly, its feet on street.