A lot of the companies I’ve trawled through have boasted of
their values – and a huge number of them include ‘innovative’ and
‘sustainable’. Come on guys, really? If you were all ‘innovative’ then you
wouldn’t all be ‘sustainable’. You would have transgressed sustainability and
evolved into something else. Sustainability is what everyone else is doing,
purely because if you’re not seen as being sustainable then you’re an evil
corporation that wants to exploit everything and everywhere. Sustainable is
everyone. Come on then, innovate.
We’ve got more instantly accessible information than we’ve
ever known, so being able to define who you are and what you do is now
paramount – for individuals as well as companies. We have a vast array of consumer
goodies to choose from and the greatest-ever need for satisfaction
(coincidence?). That other corporate yucky beast ‘branding’ is ever more
important, and having no, conflicting or woolly branding is just as much a
statement as sharp brands like M&S or Apple. Got a distinctive image now of
M&S and Apple? Good, me too.
If I want my garage converted, there are a dozen local
businesses that can do it for me. How do I make that choice? Well, obviously I
first go for the businesses that are ‘sustainable’ and ‘innovative’ because
those things are far more important to me than doing a good job on my garage.
Having weeded out the sustainable (they’re going to be ok without my custom)
and innovative (they’re going to convert my garage into a Harrier jump jet
take-off pad or a xenon-gas pumping station; I just wanted an office) I look
for the companies that are authoritative and user-friendly, have proof of
satisfied customers through testimonials (including recommendations by friends
and I’ll also search online for customer complaints) and are ‘like me’.
In short, I’ll trust them.
How did each company you work with earn your trust? And how
did you earn theirs?
I’ll bet being sustainable and innovative came way down
the list.
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