‘Us’ or ‘Them’ – how to tell the customer they are irrelevant on your website

This great little cartoon/graphic says it all and although looking at the subject of Universities, there is much that we can all learn

 

Here’s the Graphic.  If your website spends all its time talking about you, and no time talking about the customer, how do you think your customers (and prospective customers) feel?  I guess the question that might need to be asked is ‘what is the purpose of the website?’ which is a good question.  If your website (like many) exists for the core purpose of attracting possible customers, then surely THEY are the area to focus on?  If you say it is about promoting ‘Us’ then okay and what sort of ‘brand’ image does just talking about ‘you’ create?  When it comes to Universities few consider the end user’s needs, instead treating the website as an internal ego stroking mechanism.  One must of course wonder what type of organisation so desperately needs to always be stroking its own ego.  A great cartoon with the original weblink to it (and other cartoons) available here

BBC Article on the Future of work and the likely skills needed

Oct 14, 2018

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Inverting the City/Country Dynamic

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At a recent session with the Gen Y group working on the ‘Future Melbourne’ project for the City of Melbourne I suggested that the group consider what the result might be if they could ‘invert’ the way the State of Victoria operates. What would you be likely to see if more of the functions of…

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May 19, 2018

McKinsey’s interview with Richard Thaler on ‘debiasing the corporation’ is a really good one. I’ve spent the best part of two decades trying to help organisations unpack their biases through the use of foresight. I recommend this article to you   Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler offers some great insights as to how to make more…

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Disaster Ahead for the People of Ipswich

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Using Foresight Thinking to Enhance the Productivity of Nations

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As Nations look to develop their understanding of Productivity and more effective planning, National Productivity Councils are often the first point of call for Governments looking for ideas. The Asia Productivity Organisation has been running since 1961 helping its member countries develop more effective approaches. I’ve just spent a week in Tokyo helping a group…

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Saving the Polar Ice Caps

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Okay I admit that on the first take this idea might sound a little crazy. I reminded myself however of that saying that ‘all great ideas must at first sound crazy to the existing paradigm…’ or some such thing. You might know who said it (please send me an email if you do). So I…

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To Manage Your Expectations, First You Need to Know What They Are

Jan 27, 2017

We all use words that tell us about the results that were achieved and whether our expectations were met, missed or exceeded. Surprised? Disappointed? Delighted? The only way you can experience these emotions and others like them, is to have an expectation in mind. And the ONLY way you can teach your organisation to learn…

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There’s No such Thing as a Normal Future

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The last couple of months have been hectic to say the least, with a myriad of client engagements across an array of industry sectors. And as you can see from the list below one thing is clear: EVERYONE wants to understand what is shaping their future and how they might be able to influence that…

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I’m nominating 2016 as The International Year for Consumer Fightback

Nov 19, 2016

Those of you that have been tracking this website for a while will know that towards the end of each year, I nominate the following year’s area of focus. For instance I declared that 2015 would be the International Year of Battery Technology, and as the news stories, product research and renewables push shows, it…

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Planning Tips for Local Government Agencies

Sep 21, 2016

I’ll be helping to kick off the Local Government Corporate Planners Conference in a couple of weeks, offering some thoughts about emerging issues for Councils and an approach to planning that should alleviate some issues for them. You can find details in   this link to the conference program which is being held at Citadines…

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