January 5, 2005
smarter conversations (cont.)
A comment from a recent post:
And that is that I think most companies themselves do not HAVE any such values, purpose, beliefs or integrity, as companies — so what happens when their brilliant ad agency puts together a series of ads saying they’re a company who values their customers (and by the same token THEIR EMPLOYEES), and what they believe in, and that they do so with integrity. Then the next day or two, bloggers and other folks who work for the company who’ve seen the new ad campaign start talking about what a bunch of shit that is and what the “company” REALLY thinks of it’s consumers and it’s employees…
I don’t know — maybe at the end of the day it would end up being the ultimate in accountability for a company, in a way forcing them to A) care about their customer, and B) care about their employees.
–Jon Lawrence
Yep, the smarter your market becomes, the more often you’re going to get the crap kicked out of you when you don’t practice what you preach.
Ergo:
Problem: Smarter Markets.
Solution: Smarter Conversations.
If anybody knows of a better solution, I’d love to hear it. Seriously.
[ALSO:] More thoughts on “Smarter Conversations” here.
“Practice what you preach” reminds me of a story:
My wife works for a health insurance company. This company, of course, wants other companies to join (that is, buy into) one of their health care plans. The better the plan, the better for the health insurance company — more money — and the better for the other companies — healthier workers and/or happier workers, in theory. So her company uses all their powers of persuasion to get other companies to sign up for the best, most comprehensive health care packages possible.
Recently, her company “downgraded” the health care plans it offers to its own workers. Instead of shooting for the top 10% in the industry, they’re shooting for the 50% mark. Why? Too expensive to offer really good benefits. (They also encouraged employees to drop out of their network and use a spouse’s insurance plan — again, saves them money.)
None of the insurance company’s employees were particularly happy about this.
What’s the first thing people say to someone when they find out they work for an insurance company? “Man, you must have awesome benefits.”
Seems kind of silly to inspire your employees to respond, “Not really. You’d be surprised.”
(I was going to publish this in my own blog, but I’d rather not risk word getting back to Corporate Masters.)
Smart conversation: speak for yourself
Hugh’s got me going with his Smarter Conversations riff. Another element of smart conversation is that people speak for themseleves. I have learnt to be wary of “second-hand” conversations, where person A tells me that person B thinks about me…
How smart are you getting?
I had a conversation with a colleague a couple of years ago who accused me of being smart.
A better solution is dumber markets.
Smarter conversations
Hugh Macleod’s work at gapingvoid is excellent. For example, smarter conversations (cont.) where Hugh writes,
Problem: Smarter Markets.
Solution: Smarter Conversations.
And do you know what ? Hugh follows his own advice — I’ve noticed hi…