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Zach Aldwin Milkshake in the Boardroom

There has to be a better way to market to people. America and Europe are facing a shift there television marketing is no longer as effective as it was.

The leverage of mass production is no longer benefiting from the mass marketing that accompanied it.

The digital connection age has changed all that. Adverts are more specific and targeting niche groups.

Word of mouth and recommendations carry even more weight. I make coffee during television commercials and I’m pretty sure that many of you do the same.

There is a better way to tell our stories than flyers, billboards, and random text messages because we have such great stories to tell.

Mass marketing is impersonal, and in an age where “friendship” has been relegated to a button on Facebook people crave personal attention and real relationship.

There has to be a better way to treat other people. Treating them with respect and not like cattle should be second nature.

Have respect for their time. A health system that forces you to arrive at 8am for an appointment ‘sometime today’ and keeps you waiting till 2pm has no respect for your time and places no value on you as a client.

There has to be a better way to do public transport than kombis; one day someone will figure out that if people think you care more about their safety and comfort as opposed to filling your pockets with as many fares as possible they are more likely to use your service. When they do they will dominate the market.

There has to be a better way to lead our companies and employees. Not leading as the kingpin, lauding it over minions and expecting them to satisfy your every whim, but as the linchpin, the person who makes it happen, the doer of deeds.

Being a leader who values of the contributions of others, still holding them to a higher level of account, the vision caster who encourages others to share in his dream.

There is a way to be a leader who cares about those under him enough to empathise with their problems but also to discipline them in order to grow them.

There has to be a better way to do business because you care about making a difference in the lives of people.

Having passion and a love for what you do rather than following a trend because it may make you a quick buck.

How long does it take you to see past someone who hates their job? What if that someone was you?

There has to be a better way to work for others that involves taking the reins rather than being a passive recipient of instructions.

A member of my staff came up to me last week to inform me about an initiative she had taken to increase cash flow.

Passive

I was delighted, not so much because of the increase in turnover but because I had not asked her to do it; she had thought it up, acted on it and made it happen all on her own.

It took a huge chunk of drama out of my life. Passive recipients do not change the world for the better.

Personal, caring, from the heart; these are the attributes that will make a change in all these areas.

Running not just a client based service, but people based service. Seeing the people that walk through your door as clients has tended to make the interaction with them impersonal. Seeing your staff as minions to be ordered and forgetting that they are people is detrimental to their out- put.

Ignoring your own humanity turns you into a cold hearted monster. The world could do with a little more heart.

We are not talking about the mistaken soppy ideas of rainbow coloured unicorns prancing through fluffy clouds type of heart.

No, real heart that has the grit and determination to say “Let’s grow in this together, let’s fight for this to make it happen” and, acknowledging the deeper emotions of passion, joy, and heartache, sets out to change the world. There is a better way.

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