In our seventh issue of Five, we explore topics ranging from managing a crisis to the growing talent wars brewing in the energy industry. As you read through the articles, there is a common theme of connectivity and how what you may do in one part of an organisation, or the world, has broader implications.
Organisations today need to produce profits and benefits for their varied stakeholders, but also to manage their affairs in such a way that, at the very least, they are not detrimental to society or the organisation.
This manifests itself in many ways but I am reminded of a particular instance of unintended consequence at the Offshore Technology Conference this year in Houston (no names will be mentioned to protect the innocent). A company that we have not had the benefit of working with yet knew they had to generate quality business leads on the back of the show. After much brainstorming, they decided to do a hefty sponsorship and giveaway. While the initial goal was to develop a list of maybe a hundred or so prospects that their three sales guys could then develop relationships with and move through the sales cycle, the challenge came when the campaign generated so much interest that they are now inundated with requests for information and demos that their sales team cannot keep up with.
The contest was so broad, they must now spend time qualifying folks and determining if they are the right kind of leads. While potentially creating a fair amount of visibility and recognition – which could have had tremendous positive impact on their business – they now have to tell these leads it is going to take a while to follow up due to the overwhelming response at OTC. One could argue their well-intentioned efforts are now leading to a poor brand experience and the sales opportunities may not exist once the sales team is able to catch up.
We love great ideas at Fifth Ring and have been known to have a few ourselves. We are often brought in to help clients think through intended and unintended brand experiences. So as you read through this issue of FIVE and go about your daily work, make sure you are looking at all facets of your efforts and try to understand both the positive and negative impact your efforts and ideas may have on your brand.
