Frankly, a lot of the business world, in the last 18 months, has looked like a custard pie fight, a lot of mess but nowhere near as much fun. Those people that think we are out of the woods yet, really are only seeing the trees! I’m concerned about the people that have lost their jobs and/or homes, but what scares me more is that we may not have learnt a damn sensible thing, especially in the finance industry. But hey ho what did we expect?
The little, tiny light at the end of the tunnel (or is that the train coming the other way?) is that the customer will demand a new way of doing things, at least some will. Most of us will go back to ‘customer as normal’ and ‘business as normal’ and ignore the inevitability. Disguised as our mythical view of an inability to change things.
Others, though, will create merry hell! They will demand integrity and transparency and that will change how brands are judged and how they are led by their managers/owners. Whilst business attempts to gain true customer loyalty, something it has bought in the past, they will have to, first, be loyal to their customers. A complete, fundamental shift in thinking. I think of how BT, Nat West and the utilities are going to do this? I also think of small business too!
