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Rachel Jim
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I observe SaaS companies focusing their capital on marketing and generating cash flow. The issue probably isn’t so much balancing growth or R&D. The smart companies such as Atlassian (who do not have a salesforce) are building value because every employee is accountable for a segment of the customer journey. The must collaborate to deliver shared outcomes. They must understand their customer’s pain points as a team, and they use their own product to develop solutions.
At Stone & Chalk, our organisation is also a matrix of functions and products. As a not for profit, our success is dependent on our ability to articulate value for each “market”: Corporate Partners, Government, Startups and Industry groups. With little capital, mutually beneficial relationships underpin our reputation.
Legacy companies with complex resource structures struggle to innovate, and rely heavily on partnerships to deliver solutions that would be difficult to execute internally. This is the trend we are discovering at Stone & Chalk.
We have all of the above because western society is currently experiencing a heuristic obesity problem. I’ve coined this term based upon a generalised augmentation of human behaviour. Instant gratification, and instinctive decision-making has been augmented by marketing junk that feeds western society like a sugar addiction.
Being rewarded and recognised has displaced the value of intrinsic motivation of altruism. Values and ethics are influence by our environment, and we’ve focused our attention on structure and regulation to organise irrational behaviour of humans, rather than designed triggers and mechanisms to drive the “right” outcomes.
With the rise of free markets such as uber, air bnb, task rabbit, hipages, and digital identity, wealth and employment growth is trending towards social enterprises. In time, memorable experiences will be valued more than material goods.
Most of these comments are on a macro level, but have you noticed that a single individual can either 1) Augment public opinion; or 2) their actions can erode a brand’s capital like a virus.
Recent examples: 1) Donald Trump or Brexit; 2) Unethical behaviour of Uber employees
So when we talk about influencing macro strategy, it’s the micro behaviour that nudges trends into the right direction.
I believe that people are the “product”, trust is our “currency”, and relationships are our “capital”.If we use an analogy which shifts towards the “uber-isation” of individuals, who are empowered with the option of their own data ownership, then we have immense opportunity to nudge trends with behavioural economics.
There is a movement which encourages consumers to create their own value exchange proposition by enabling them to utilise their own data, ID and preferences as assets when engaging with trusted brands.
I believe in transparency for the “right” reasons, and “smart” consumers will be eligible for benefits and rewards based on their influence capital. This micro-segment of society are fulfilled by co-creating delightful experiences with the products they choose to engage with.
As technology continues to automate tedious processes, people are learning the art of communication, by design. In order to grow sustainably, a humanised, digital experience builds brand capital, and growth with a meaningful and scalable, value exchange.
Dan Ariely’s Social enterprise, Lemonade is an insurance product (I love a good oxymoron!) and is capitalising on transparency and reciprocity. The company is collecting data and developing insight stories which validates behavioural economics.