Santa Claus is coming to class

Santa Claus is recognised around the world as perhaps the ultimate Christmas brand ambassador. But Santa is also a great business case study, offering a wealth of insights for corporate leaders. Here five professors from the National University of Singapore Business School — Tan Soo Jiuan, Thompson Teo, Marleen Dieleman, Fang Ruolian and Amit Jain — unwrap some business lessons from Santa.

Keep your delivery promises

Santa’s business proposition is built around one key promise: Ensuring Christmas stockings are filled every Christmas eve. Have you ever known Santa to fail to deliver on that promise? The very idea is unthinkable!

Santa keeps his place in our hearts because he always lives up to what he promises — it is a lesson that goes to the heart of successful business: If you promise to do something, make sure you do it. Santa lives up to his promises because he puts a premium on customer satisfaction. By keeping his customers happy, he maintains a stellar brand reputation that endures from generation to generation.

As children grow into adults and have their own children, Santa remains the go-to choice for all present requests. And it is all because Santa lives up to his business promise.

Build success through collaboration

Delivering presents to millions of children around the world in just one night means Santa’s delivery operation depends on precise timing and accuracy. But of course Santa does not just work one day of the year.

His operation is year-round — as soon as one Christmas is done, it is time to start preparing for the next. All of this depends on effective collaboration, both between and within every department in Santa’s Workshop.

For example, Santa’s marketing and customer relations department receives all the Christmas wishlists and needs to work closely with gift design and purchasing departments to ensure enough gifts are ready for delivery and to the correct specifications. Then, there is logistics management who must plan out the route for the sleigh, work with reindeer operations to ensure peak fitness of the fleet, and obtain clearance for the sleigh from air traffic control authorities around the world.

It is a remarkably slick operation that works without fail every year — something that businesses can learn on inter-department collaboration.

Strong teams are built on diversity

One of the key teams in Santa’s business operation is his herd of reindeer. They may only be used once a year, but their reliability is essential.

After all, it’s no use spending all year making millions of presents if you cannot get them delivered on time. But while you might think all reindeer are alike, the reason Santa’s team of sleigh-pullers work so well is because they are all quite different with different talents.

Rudolph, for example, is well known for his shiny red nose. It is so bright – you could even say it glows — that it is used to guide the sleigh through foggy winter weather. Less well-known is that Donner is an expert navigator — a very useful talent for running an efficient delivery operation. And Dasher is a turbo-charged reindeer — a great talent for giving the sleigh that extra push when battling strong headwinds.

We could go on, but some of the reindeer talents are closely-guarded corporate secrets. Suffice to say, employing teams with diverse talents is fundamental to Santa’s or any business’s continued success and dependability.

Love what you do

Can you imagine a better fit between personality and job than Santa Claus? It’s like he was born to do the job and obviously loves what he does. In fact, it is one of the keys to his success in business.

Santa’s enthusiasm is infectious and the reason why he has built such a loyal following over the years and across generations. He spends time getting to know his customers in his grotto, learning what they want for Christmas, and then goes the extra mile to see that their wishes are met, all the time accompanied by a jolly “ho, ho, ho!”.

By loving what he does, Santa has built a seamless integration between his personality, his brand and his business. Whether running your own business or working for an organisation, enjoying what you do makes the workplace fun and productive.

Keep ahead of a changing market

Delivering presents might sound like a way to win anyone’s heart. But Santa has not got to where he is today by rolling out the same trick every year.

In fact, he is a model innovator who keeps his brand on top by staying constantly ahead of the game. He knows that tastes change and that moving with the times is key to keeping his customers happy.

For example, once upon a time you had to send a letter to Santa or line up to visit him in his grotto at the local mall; now, you can email or even tweet him.

It is all part of continuous innovation that has made Santa such an enduring part of the Christmas period. Likewise, businesses have to reinvent themselves to stay relevant to their customers and ahead of competition.