it’s over, let it go
I’m not much into nostalgia. The future always seems to be more exciting than the past about which there is nothing you can do.
However here’s a brief glance at ten events from 2010 that we can learn from before fast forwarding into 2011.
i) The problems with the Euro - specifically its probable demise. Look at Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Spain and ask yourself if rapid rushes for growth funded by debt ever made sense.
ii) No one is immune to demise. Ask the nearly-made-it-to-basket-case-Titans, BP and Toyota.
iii) Nature has a way of putting things into perspective. I loved that volcanic ash. How else would I have got to see Anglesey and have read the first Stieg Larssen in one sitting as I came back from Ireland by car, boat and train?
iv) And Haiti. Remember the earthquake. Well hallo….it’s got worse. And no the money we gave didn’t get through. And, yes, it’s off our radar now. Remember this is the age of short memories.
v) We take water for granted. Unless we live in Belfast where some 60,000 people have had no running water since Christmas. Take nothing for granted.
vi) The coalition is not a party. It’s a coalition. It’s a model for all of us…working together. Of course it disagrees and stumbles. At least it feels real as opposed to Old Tory and New Labour.
vii) “Yes you can.” Not necessarily Barack. No one doing a job or with political power will be loved or liked forever or, nowadays, for more than a month or so. Thicken your skin. This is not a popularity contest.
viii) Suddenly we’ve retained the Ashes, the Ryder Cup, are breeding convincing Olympiads and are still also-rans at football. Maybe FIFA were right.
ix) Is the mini-celebrity bubble going to burst? Strictly Being Fired and X Factory seem to belong to another age. Like Simon Cowell’s teeth. I don’t think I can bear another conversation about Matt Cardle.
x) And that one blinding moment of unalloyed joy and simple humanity. The Chilean Miners’ Rescue.
Be humble. Be authentic. Be resolute. Be prepared. Be frugal. Smell the flowers and be grateful.
Sunday 2 January 2011
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3 comments:
Well done praising the coalition, or at least the concept of learning from the coalition. I believe that many people secretly agree but can't quite bring themselves to say so.
One good thing that happened to me just before the close of the year. The signal on my iPhone had been getting worse and worse over several months, I had spent so long debating what might me wrong with Orange that it went out of warranty. In desperation I visited a 'Genius' at the Apple store. Within five minutes he had identified the problem and offered me a new one - for free. He said: "I can see it's out of warranty, but only by 16 days so don't worry about that". How refreshing is that?
Happy new year - Nick Fitzherbert
I am intrigued by the trend to “gestures of generosity” – people like my local garage doing stuff like coming out to sort a problem, doing it brilliantly and refusing payment. People in restaurants saying “sorry that took a bit long, I won’t charge you”. People just being nicer.
I think the training programmes have been working.
But there may be a more profound change in actual attitudes towards as opposed to just behaviour towards customers.
Richard
This business behaviour really hit my radar back in the early days of Amazon.com. I think there has been a trend towards mixing the marketing budget with customer service budget - perhaps organisational changes has driven this with the Marketing Director having responsibility for both functions? The analysis that drove this is undoubtedly 'lifetime value of the customer' - a marketing report that has become a key part of Customer Service teams operational religion. A more cruder analysis is that it is far cheaper and more targeted to market through service to retain customers than win new ones or indeed win them back after they've left.
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