Re-Acquisition of Self-destiny

It was a combination of spending a lot of time last week speaking with business leadership combined with having my house broken into where I finally said, “okay its time for a drink.”

It was when I was sipping on that margarita that I was hit by the high-tide wave of change… and not one of those churned by Hurricane Irene.

It’s the Trend Wave posted on the BRANDVenture website that highlights how individuals, businesses, brands, social groups and cultural groups are giving up reliance on others, other organizations and other elements of the market-at-large.

Simply said… they are fed up.

Fed up with an economy, political promises, trade association support and industry leadership guidelines.

Over the course of the last six weeks I have spoken to more than 80 business owners, CEOs and CFOs.

The study was for a bank.

I’m glad that BRANDVenture is not client dependent on banks.

Business leadership literally hates banks. As one CEO put it, “they are evil, but an evil I have sleep with.”

Top management’s business and economic expectations over the next 12-18 months are not positive.

And for my fellow Atlantans, their expectation of Georgia and Atlanta is even lower than Washington and the US.

But here is what is surprising.

They too have reached a level of a re-awakening… they too have been hit by the Trend Wave…they too are finally declaring…

I HAVE HAD ENOUGH AND I AM GOING TO TAKE CHARGE!

My bank client has already communicated that they want to reach beyond entrepreneurs; they want to expand their reach of mid-size businesses.

As they say, entrepreneurs are too risky.

I remember the book that came out a few years about “unleashing the child within us.”

Regardless of how large the company, the connection level with “the entrepreneurial drive” is the MBA version of unleashing the child within us.

Now I have taught Entrepreneurship at the university level and also have worked with departments of economic development in designing entrepreneur workshops.

The focus of those courses and sessions is how to take the passion of an idea and use that passion, marry it with the market need/desire for the idea and use it to drive the organization and bring-to-market strategy.

The business leadership I spoke with is taking control of their destiny. They are rethinking and reorganizing their business approach. They are re-engineering their service mix and how they process business leads.

However, most importantly, they are refocusing on their customers. They are taking them out to lunch or grabbing a morning coffee with them.

They are asking investing in what drives the customer and what they can do to fuel that drive.

Business leadership is fed up with the automation of banks.

And we are not talking about the ATM or online account management.

And they are smart enough to know that the automation of business relationships doesn’t work in lifting business out of the hole.

The re-acquisition of self-destiny is a Trend Wave because it is something that is impacting a wide scope of our marketplace and society at-large.

Smart marketers, driven by a re-acquisition of self and the entrepreneurial spirit will revive both their brands and the economy at large.

Automated, systematized, mass marketers will fade from the scene.