Survey published by Mckensey Quarterly shows that if a company gets the right skill set in the room, has a transparent criteria for decisions, and considers the whole picture the outcome often exceeds expectations for revenue, profitability and speed of completion. These are more stats that show why clients who go through our strategy process typically exceed their goals. This article is a great read.
The research company GlobeScan annually surveys a thousand top thought leaders, as well as the general public, in a majority of countries around the world on some really pertinent issues. At the Sustainable Brand Conference in 2007, Rob Kerr, Executive VP of GlobeScan, discussed recent key findings. That research showed how rapidly the consumer’s sense of empowerment is increasing. Does the consumer believe they possess the power to influence a company’s behavior? Over the last few years there is strong and steady growth in mainstream activism in most countries.
It’s no surprise there is now a strong belief that a company should be rewarded for being socially and environmentally responsible, but there is an even stronger sense that a company should be punished for harming social and environmental health. In North America, 46% of leaders say they would reward a company for good behavior while 55% say they would punish a company for behavior that may damage social or environmental health. Now, that’s a sense of empowerment.
These statistics indicate there are a growing number of individuals around the world who feel they can apply pressure that will force companies to comply with their desires. And, of course, they are right. Companies desperately need those who will purchase their products or services. There is no business without someone to do business with.
It is interesting that the sixties helped us distrust authority, but it took until now sometime after the turn of the century—to really understand that the buyer, not the seller, has the power.
So now, we come full circle. We, as a culture, have begun to awaken and realize that without a reason for being, we will end up in a lost, pointless existence. Now, everything has shifted. We want more—more than just “stuff” for the sake of having it. We want more than the emotional high of associating our personal worth with the brands we choose. We want less jargon and more for our money. We want to save the trees, save the planet, save the children, and educate the poor, and we want a product that does what it claims it will do. Or we’re out.
This is an exciting time for those who prefer telling the truth. It’s encouraging that we are all demanding more from the products and offerings we spend our money on. It restores a little faith in human nature. But it will also increase the demands on the business owners to pay attention to their customers.
As a culture we used to evaluate a product based largely on the brand. We would overlook functionality and satisfaction. What could fill that huge gap in logic?
Emotion.
Our affluent culture offered us, as consumers, far too many decisions to make in a typical day. We were grateful for anything that could speed up any of those decisions, especially one that is emotionally changed.
It’s impossible to know all the reasons why our culture, at least for a time, fell prey to the egotistical message of the Brand. But I’m pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that we evolved to a place where we had the affluence and leisure time to move higher up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, without the discipline to do so.
Here’s what I mean by that statement: We, as a culture, had been working really hard—toiled through the infancy of the industrial revolution and a couple of world wars—and then the fabulous time-saving, pre-packaged goods rolled into our homes and made our lives a breeze.
That’s the point at which we became lost in the pleasure of our reprieve and quickly forgot why we had worked so hard. We wanted a well-deserved break, a little time to bathe in our newly won luxury. We lost touch with the bigger goals and meaning of life. Without a more noble pursuit that humans naturally long for, we were left with stuff, experiences, and purchases that we then used to make us feel alive and important. In that context, an exciting brand illusion appeared to be just the thing we needed. Good branding could offer us the timesaving, pre-packaged replacement to a meaningful life. Thankfully, this shallow solution was not going to last forever.
It has been said that we live in a culture of lies—white lies, exaggerations, misrepresentations and outright deceptions. In fact, Robert Fieldman has recently published a book that demonstrates that the most popular people are the ones who lie most often. Plus before people know each other they will tend to lie once every ten minutes. My question is: how will lying effect business success or failure?
I believe lying is one of the most destructive forces in business. One of the leading offenders is the way an organization engages in self-deception. As an organization we often collectively kid ourselves in the interest of moving forward. But what is the true cost?
Consider this senario: You are running a company. You are likely a strong personality or you wouldn’t have had a good deal of success already. You have a new idea, and because you are a good boss with a great staff, you ask for your employees input. They support the major thrust of whatever you describe, raising minor objections. You head back to your office to begin an implementation plan.
Now imagine the potential reality: Your employees have high mortgage payments, a kid or two and increasing credit card debt. They also have a belief that their next raise will be tied to being a popular “team player”; so, they withhold awkward but insightful criticism. Your business slowly fails because the truth will put your employees immediate future at risk.
Everyone in this story is trying to be the good guy. But in reality the good guy employee would risk their raise. The owner who’s a really good guy would demand truth and create a culture of honest—rewarding smart, respectful and comprehensive thinking.
On the other extreme, I’ve seen the opposite problem in a company who’s motto was “challenge the process”. It’s not bad as an idea, but in practice it created a culture of nay-sayers. If you were brave enough to agree with anything you risked not living up to the motto. It paralyzed the organization. Large projects could not get off the ground because company-wide support was impossible to achieve. They made a collective pact to sustain a different sort of self-deception.
Clearly, it takes humility, courage and, of course, honesty to find out how lying might be damaging your business.
