The sign on the counter said: ”If you’re not satisfied with your stay, let us know and we’ll make it right.” I’m sure plenty of similar signs litter hotels worldwide. It’s a reassuring sign. A promise to fix things. Pity it was rubbish. In the grand scheme of things, our problem was...
Talk about promises enough, and you’ll quickly find not only do people fail to consider them, but when they do, it’s like they’re handling a bomb — something slightly unstable, out of their control, that could go off at any time. So, I’m always looking for different ways to approach promises. People...
A barrage of recent activity stemming from Unilever chief Alan Jope’s article on ‘woke washing’ and an organisation’s responsibility to their purpose might seem like catnip for someone like me. However, it’s the downside of the so-called ‘purpose movement’ I’m more interested in, and the impact it can have on the brand...
Photos of people in North Face apparel posing in remote locations were uploaded to Wikipedia pages. If you visited the Wikipedia page for Guarita State Park in South America a few weeks ago, you would have seen a lovely photo of the location featuring North Face clothing. No, Wikipedia didn’t sell...
Beverly told her boss she was pregnant and was fired. She wasn’t the only one, and her employer Amazon is currently navigating a slew of lawsuits from people who met the same fate. A story of the retail giant treating an employee badly is hardly an isolated incident. In order to keep...
Several decades ago Patagonia landed on its mission statement. And ever since, uncompromising attention to the details of what it means has fuelled the steady growth and wider impact of its endeavours. So, as a long-time student of how they do things, I was somewhat shocked when I saw a ‘new’...
You are achieving your brand today. Right now. Whatever you’re doing is contributing in some way. And right there is the power and the danger. Because too often people act absent of any basis for what they do. And without thinking about how the short term impacts the long term. In...
At a recent talk at the CPHR conference in Vancouver Canada, Duncan Wardle (past life head of innovation and creativity for Disney) ran an experiment where he asked the audience to respond to a set of ideas he mentioned with ‘no because’. He then asked people to use the flip...
Every week brings new stories of businesses and unhappy customers. And so this is for all the customers out there. In other words, all of us, because we’re all customers of something. And every day sees yet another story of someone wronged. People are up in arms, wrath and recrimination spilling...
Thinking about buying a franchise? There’s no shortage of options. So even if garden care, baking or beauty aren’t your bag, one of the more than 1,100 different Australian franchise groups out there might be for you. Yet, for every story of franchise success and happiness, tales of woe and despair...