Business is a Journey
Life is a journey. Business is a journey. A heroic journey. Why are you shaking your head? Does that sound jejune? Does it somehow sound like a slogan for some brand that you can’t really recall? There’s a reason for that. Brands have become shallow promises of fabricated authenticity and boring consistency. But that doesn’t mean that we the people and the organizations we work for aren’t on a journey.
Personal journeys are personal business. You didn’t come here to hear about mine and I’m not going to presume to judge yours. That’s why personal journeys are called personal.
Organizational journeys are another matter. A journey is one of the most useful ways to think about and describe a firm’s interaction with its customers. The sales process is one part of the journey (if buying and/or selling can really be called a process). So is the act of using and receiving benefit from whatever it is the customer bought from you. So is the “dance of commitment”, the ritual courting that goes on through subsequent interactions whereby the customer elects to become an extended member of your tribe.
What’s appealing about the word “journey” in connection with customer interactions is the clear implication that we’re dealing with something dynamic and changeable, not static or predictably sequential. We’re living and working in an era of the enlightened, information-soaked, I want it just the way I want it when I want it, pick apart your value proposition customer. He and she know they’re on a journey. We on the other side of the relationship shouldn’t think otherwise.
A journey is also a useful way to think about the people that work for us. One group works for you because they need the money. Yeah, they like the company and the job and all that, but what’s driving them is making the money to buy the house, clothe the kids, or pay for the stuff they do when they’re not punching the clock for you. Ouch. Does that sound cynical? Can you say for sure that you have the kind of organization that makes that not true? If so, you get a karmic corporate hall pass.
There’s another group that works for work. I’ve certainly been accused of that, as have most of the people that I know well. My wife calls it the “sled dog mentality”. Whether it’s a sign of poor mental health or a genuine creative urge, these people can’t stand not pulling a sled. Work defines them and the journey is described and proscribed by the tasks that make up the work and the day and warp and woof of living.
There is another group of people that are awake to the fact that they’re on a journey, and questions like “what am I doing?”, “where am I going?”, “what is my purpose?” and so on have a real urgency. Maybe it’s the fortyish bunch that is suddenly aware of the fact that half-time is over. Maybe there’s no age correlation at all. Who can explain when, why, and how people suddenly become aware of the fact that they buy a day, and if they don’t like the day they bought, they need to do something about it because tomorrow will look just like it? Some never get this at all
In any case, it’s a journey and the people that work for you and the people that buy from you are on one. We that run organizations need to make sure our outfits are all tuned up to journey along with those people. That’s ultimately how we wind up with powered-up people, honest relationships, healthy tribes, and customers clamoring to be part of the fun.
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Copyright © 2002
Kevin Hoffberg
Last modified:
05/03/06