‘If you fail to plan, you plan to fail’ so was the refrain of a high school teacher each time I handed in an assignment late, or asked for an extension on an essay. I used to think this statement was little more than a cliche until I started living in the real world and began to realise life can’t be lived if you are constantly behind the eight ball. It seems my wisened school teacher also may have passed on her words of wisdom to Santino, the chimpanzee researchers are claiming is exhibiting behaviours consistent with the concept of premeditation, suggesting primates are after all capable of forward planning.
Explore our historical blog articles for nuggets of wisdom (and random musings) from our crew.
In 1985 Coca Cola made a decision which almost sent the monolithic soda company down the drain. 1985 was the year the Coca Cola Company introduced ‘New Coke’ – a sweeter formulation of the popular Coke beverage. The company, having invested considerable resources in formulating and researching New Coke, were so assured of the impending success of the new cola product they pulled the original Coke soda from the market upon introducing new taste cola. This proved to be arguably the biggest mistake in the history of the company.
I had a fantastic customer service experience on the weekend, and being a huge fan of giving credit where credit is due, I thought I would share my experience. This particular service experience also got me thinking about how the global economic slowdown is affecting the manner in which consumers are shopping, and the implications of these changes on their associated expectations and feelings about the act of purchasing.
Whenever I am in the company of people who I have not met before, the conversation – as it tends to do in situations like these – comes around to what we all do for a living. When I explain my position at Jack in the box people invariably question “So, you do surveys and stuff?”
Unlike my colleagues here at Jack in the box my forays with technology are at best painful to watch and often accompanied by lots of agitated exclamations about just how stupid I think computers are (It couldn’t possibly be my mishandling of the machine that made it crash, could it?). Though I may not know computers, I do know the value of great customer service, and I definitely know a good idea when I see it. So when I heard about Telstra BigPond using the social networking/microblogging site Twitter to communicate with their customers I knew Telstra was on to a good thing.
I was quite rambunctious as a child, and as a result each time I left the house without being accompanied by a parent my mother would intone, “Aoife, please behave. You only get one chance to make a first impression”. Having matured (somewhat) since those days I no longer need my mother to remind me to watch my p’s and q’s, however the truth of just how quickly humans formulate first impressions has been a source of continuing fascination to me.
As the year draws to a close it is only natural for us to sit back and take stock of all we have experienced in the last twelve months. It is usually around this time of year that we start to formulate resolutions of one type or another to give us the best start in the new year. This year I am asking if perhaps you have room for a resolution for the environment alongside your personal promises.