The visiting card is often a time spender in organizations, how should it look, what should it say, what should the designation be... are aspects of a lot of introspection and debate. Specially for a new company.

While rummaging through my collection of visiting cards, I am amazed at the sheer variety. One unfolds into an 8 sided reel; giving a list of companies the protagonist is a director of.  The other is plain and simple with just the name of the person and his residence address.

The other day I met a gentleman who shuffled among his many cards before selecting one to hand over to me. Someone once gave me a visiting card, which was a Compact Disc. The variety is unlimited, and just like a handwriting expert deciphers a lot from what's scribbled, the visiting card too could reveal a lot. Thought, therefore is warranted on how it is designed.

In businessgyan too we have experimented with visiting card designs. When we were new, our card was typical, the logo, the name, a catch line, the person's details and contact details. Since the businessgyan name was new, we faced some problems, people would see the card but not recall businessgyan, and then when the discussion progressed they would recall seeing the magazine somewhere. Now, that was a lot of time wasted getting introduced. So in the next set of cards we incorporated the picture of businessgyan Magazine. The recognition on seeing the visiting card shot up dramatically. Now we could jumpstart a conversation immediately on presenting the visiting card. Three years later businessgyan is immediately recognized and in the new cards the picture of the magazine is being relegated to the flip side of the card.

Visiting cards are the first things exchanged when meeting a prospective customer. So the card can build a lot of credibility. The aesthetics of the card apart, other things become very strategic. When one is representing a start up, how does one build credibility? Sporting well-known brands like IBM and Microsoft as alliance partners, certified partners etc. is one way. The other is to have quality certifications brandished on the card. When I ventured out on my own I sported my qualifications on the card "B-tech (IIT-M) PGDM (IIM-B)".

Some of my fellow entrepreneurs from the same institutes did not highlight their alma mater, taking the view that this might be pompous. But to me, a struggling entrepreneur, this was a great way to build credibility and recognition. And it did turn out to be great as a conversation opener. "Which year did you pass out?" "I know so and so from so and so batch," "By the way are you in touch with so and so?" What better way to start off a sales meeting?

 Another often-debated feature of the visiting card is the designation. Lot of multinational banks have a plethora of Vice Presidents. It makes a lot of sense, would the customer not like to talk to someone senior and responsible. I would make this as the main criteria for selecting designations to sport on visiting cards. For instance, for a sales person I would ask the question "Which designation opens the door for you?" use that.

I am skeptical of sales people having cards, which say "Business Development executive", this designation is very internal focused. After all which customer likes to meet a sales person? I would prefer more inclusive names like Relationship Manager, Customer Evangelist... I personally have printed "Chief Catalyst" on my card. This again is a great icebreaker, "Why?" People ask me "Sounds nice" say others. To me it represents both my role in the team as well as the role that we want businessgyan to play for businesses. Managing Director, Publisher etc. etc. are too intimidating and formal.

 In the Book ‘The Seven Day Weekend', Ricardo Semler the author and owner of SIMCO describes how in his company they allow people to select their own designations. Ricardo Semler himself does not carry a visiting card. To him designations are a method of control and unnecessary bureaucracy.

 Allowing people to select their own designations does have a funny side to it. In the book he narrates how in one of SIMCO's subsidiaries Cushman & Wakefield , Semco a new recruit sported the designation "President", when even the actual "President" did not have a designation on his card. There was a lot of confusion and mirth on this incident, but sticking to the company's philosophy no one from the management intervened. The only fall out was that the actual CEO also started putting the designation "President" on his visiting card, because the customers wanted to talk to the "President" and well the customer is right!!

 The author is the Chief Catalyst of Businessgyan, his areas of interest are business strategy and innovation.  For feedback & more information send mail to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

 Issue BG38 May04\n This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it "

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