Becoming your own caricature

It is very easy to become a caricature of yourself, but it is a symptom of corporate growing pains and a major warning sign that shouldn't be ignored.

I was recently introduced, via social media, to the Song of Ice and Fire book series by George RR Martin, starting with Game of Thrones. The first book was very good and I decided to get the rest of the series, as I do. Since the end of the first book, through thousands of pages and four new books, the action has hardly gone anywhere. Few of the characters have experienced a name day, but we've had glittering descriptions of characters filling chamber pots. Both issues are going to create a problem for the TV series - either the young child characters will be played by 25 year olds or by 15 different actors if they try to follow the books too closely!

The long, meandering action series with focus on minute details and hardly any big picture progress is becoming common in modern entertainment - see, for example, Lost! It seems that authors and writers are so focused on creating suspense, mystery and plot twists, they forget about telling the story. They are so concerned about establishing longevity for their series that they start crawling to their end-point - up until the moment when they suddenly have to dramatically leap to a poor end because the publishers/producers cancel the series.

The same happens in business. I recently jumped on a Virgin Australia flight, my favourite domestic airline in Australia. Part of Virgin's unique selling proposition has always been its people. The staff clearly enjoy working for Virgin, aren't afraid to have some fun at work and create an atmosphere of interaction with passengers. This used to include having some fun with the safety demonstration at the beginning of flights, until the Australian regulators cracked down on it.

This latest flight featured something different - the safety demonstration was led by a pre-recorded video. When part of your USP is interaction between people, surely you don't diminish that interaction by using video, especially right at the beginning of a flight when the atmosphere is created.

We've written about QANTAS before, but it is clear, as they try to establish new airlines in Asia, they have become a caricature of a national carrier, to the point where they are only trying to exploit national carrier status for sales and have abdicated all other notions of responsibility or reputation associated with that status.

The Shaver Shop is currently offering Boxing Day sales discounts with a difference - you pay the full in-store price for your shaver and then fill out a  form, cut out a bar code and send it to the manufacturer for $100 cash back (or take it to the post office in another case). The cash back is then sent by cheque, so that you have to go to the bank to make a deposit as well. It is pretty clear that the manufacturers have found a way of offering discounts that a) provides them with the opportunity to create a database and start sending customers advertising directly b) creates the possibility that some people won't be bothered claiming the discounts, through apathy, losing vital information, forgetting to send all of the right information or not being able to cash the cheque, and c) makes the customer work for the discount so they don't have to work for the customer. When I suggested they sell me the shaver for $100 less and claim the cash back from the manufacturer, the Shaver Shop salesperson was distinctly unimpressed. Needless to say, there was no sale!

One of the books on Steve Denning's Holiday reading list was listed on Amazon, but when I tried to buy it I couldn't - far be it for Harvard to practise what it preaches in modern management and focusing on the customer. Harvard do a great job of putting barriers in customers' paths so I couldn't buy the book from Amazon. At times, we haven't been able to read their blogs without constant pop-ups and blocks if you fail to register, or fail to register in precisely the right way.

You can see examples all around you (please feel free to give us your favourites). They interfere with your loyalty to a brand and with your customer experiences.

Don't forget to continually test your actions against your values, strategy and people, both customers and staff. It is generally good to avoid becoming a caricature of yourself if your aim is to create long-term sustainable success.