It's time we got a little crazy again............

....and no I don't mean go nuts or mentally unstable (well not completely anyway).


I was reading, today, about corporate transparency and corporate reputations in the aftermath of the Home Depot CEO being fired (www.reputationxchange.blogspot.com/) and it occurred to me that in 2007 companies are going to have to come clean or go out of business. I'm not sure a lot of the big companies actually 'get this' but boy they better hurry up or the guys with the customer relationship that is built on honesty and good reputation will be biting their ankles and knees and pretty soon their torso's.

Corporate strategy needs to be revamped for 2007 and the blogging revolution era and I now see this as clearly a call for companies to clean up their acts and start thinking seriously about their reputations.

Lets call it the '34th Miracle Syndrome' - you've probably seen 'Miracle on 34th Street' this Christmas where a nice old chap believes he is Santa and gets his day in court to prove it. The big corporate message here, though, is at the beginning of the film as the character takes over at Macey's as the store santa and goes against the company ethos of promoting the high profit items or the overstocked toys and starts to honestly direct customers to other stores where the toy is cheaper or in-stock, that the child actually wants.

The screenplay writers probably never thought that decades later companies could be so bogged down in scandal, deceit and cover up and that their idea that this plot line of honesty in sending customers away to competitors would be, in turn, a most successful 'campaign' in and of itself.

The line from the mother is one to remember for the fortune 500 and big corporations everywhere it goes like this (from memory so don't flame me), '....I've always thought of your store as expensive and i don't often shop here, but after today Macey's will have my custom...' - (after being told that the other shop has what her son wants at a better price) she goes on but that, in essence, is what this is about - honesty and reputation not only in making and bringing a good product to your customers, but in the ethos and transparent nature of the corporation's business methods will be one of the most important over the coming years. Get it right and the customers will reward you with their loyalty. Customer loyalty to a brand is in one of the most important of intangible assets a customer has and as some have found out to their cost - you mess with your reputation you could easily lose that loyalty.

The film 'Crazy People' comes to mind too - that is also a good film for CEO's to watch - I'll not spoil it if you haven't seen it.....just to say this:

Volvo's - boxy, but good!

Happy Sunday.