valueAddition

the other day i was waiting for a bus to ahmedabad. after about 10 mins of the frustration of having to stand in the sun, a jeep-wallah stopped by and asked me where i was headed for. on confirming that i was destined to the same place where he was, he said(in a very sweet accent)

idhar beith jaoo dost

now generally i prefer to go by the bus bcoZ the jeep-wallas stuff in so many ppl that it becomes difficult to breathe. but the sun presuaded me to do otherwise. so i sat in teh front row, with half my ass hanging there in the open(bcoZ there were 4 other ppl in that seat). for the whole of the journey i was observing this guy(the jeep driver).

• he was extremely polite to everyone he talked to
• at every stop if a lady had to get back frm behind, he would personally step out open the back door to let them get out comfortably(otherwise u have to jump over that half door at the back of the jeep
• everytime, at every stop, when he asked someone where they were going and he wasnt going the same place, he would literally say sorry to each one of them
• in all of teh forty minutes i was in the jeep he cracked more than a couple of jokes that made all of us laugh

that got me thinking, given the choice and the availability of the option of going in a bus or a jeep, i would choose to go in a jeep and that too this one.. why?? bcoZ he was courteous, easy going and just nice. that was the value addition to his daily job that he was willingly/unwillingly, intentinally/unintentionally puttin in. otherwise all other jeep-wallas were traspoting u b/w the same 2 places at the same cost and with the same stuffiness. but valueAddition counts. this also reminds me of a Forbes 'Best Customer Service' list which consisted of an Indian pan-wallah who provided for stain removers to his customers. now isnt that real thoughtfull???
k, so whats the point now. well. if u consider every business, every domain area ur the best bcoZ either ur the first ones to enter that particular domain or bcoZ the valueAdditon u provide is unparalleled. so teh final question is what is valueAdditon int the software industry??? now, this is a tough nut ro crack for me bcoZ everything in a software is defined by its requirements, the effeciency, the user-friendliness, the extensibilty, teh cutomiZability, the integrability and everythin else. then what is left for valueAdditon? guess will have to give it more thought...