Any company big or small is defined by its people. Make a wrong choice in selecting the candidate or nurturing the existing one and it reflects on the output of the work. Dale Partridge is an incredibly successful serial entrepreneur, founder of Sevenly and author of the book People Over Profit. He has been on both sides of the table working with and working as a cog in the machine. Except people are not like cogs he says, "When you get a company of people that feel like people instead of parts of your machine, they work harder." These are currently the practices in most big organisations. Google provides free food, nap hours and bicycle transport among other benefits so its employees feel cared for.

People are quite possibly the single most important asset of any company. Not the packaging plant, not the high end Macs: it's always people. I have had the privilege of working with great teams and leaders. The best ones focus on their colleagues. It's not about the sales charts, the deliverables or the countless other business jargon we casually throw about. Have we 'locked' the deal? Shall we 'sit' with the client? While these may temporarily make people sound productive, what they are really missing out on are the people that work for and with them.

People work better and with more dedication when you try to find out how they are working on a problem instead of if the problem itself is the priority item to be discussed. I once worked as a marketing executive for a German boss in Bangladesh who refused to acknowledge that Bangladeshi culture could play a little havoc with the classically strict, straightforward policies of his hometown. Part of our job was to collect data from media personalities but these people never responded well to direct orders. They needed to be cajoled. Their time had to be accommodated for the incessant traffic irregularities. My German boss would only focus on a timeline and a daily quota. If the quota was off by even a single digit, heads would roll. That business model failed because eventually all the hard working people left.

People love themselves. One of the most trending search items on Google by most individuals is their own name. If you find a group photo online or in a publication, you look for yourself first. It's an inherent characteristic of human beings to single themselves out for recognition. I've argued with management about not just focusing on taka symbols, integers and decimal places alone. Those figures won't materialise if the right employees don't feel they are valued. And that comes after having chosen the right ones. Hire the right people, motivate them, care for their needs and watch the business grow. The most important tool for any organisation isn't a tool, it's the people.

Coming weeks we will be delving further into real life practices and procesess that help turn any business into a formidable contender.

Writer is Editor of the career, tech and automobile publications of The Daily Star. He is also an entrepreneur of a baby clothing business and previously worked in advertising as a Senior Copywriter.