Deviate from the rules

Is this real, or science fiction?

Our world is full of fantasy and fiction, and here’s something I wasn’t sure was real. But it is. Or, more accurately, it will be.

A 170km mirrored ribbon 500m tall and 200m wide cut through uninhabited and inhospitable desert. Inside, a ‘ground up’ 21st-century city for 9 million people. Every amenity within 5 minutes; 100% regenerative energy and water. Cost: $1 trillion.

This is part of the Saudi government’s audacious 2030 vision to free itself from fossil fuel dependence, along with social freedoms, loosening of economic strictures, and investing in industries like tourism. You could argue, “Of course they can dream this big - they’ve got a trillion dollars to throw at just this one initiative”.

But, that misses the point. Which is this: Someone had the boldness, the fortitude and the courage to propose something that others would consider impossible. Will it work? We don’t know. Could it work? Possibly. Are they employing the world’s best, to make it more likely than not? Yes, it appears so.

Question: What could you work towards that is considered (by some) to be impossible?

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Migrate towards automation

On my way back from New Zealand a couple of weeks ago, I went through passport control at Melbourne airport and I noticed something fascinating.

In Australia, we’ve crept towards full automation of customs and immigration for years, and nowadays, nearly everyone has a chip in their passport, enabling them to simply get scanned by a machine. There’s zero human involvement as you stagger off the plane towards that part of the airport that is still trapped in the 20th century: baggage handling.

But last week I noticed something interesting. They still have humans at passport desks. Just a couple of them. And, they were completely unoccupied. Just watching the lemmings queue at the machines, while they chatted amongst themselves. I walked straight up to one, and handed him my and my son’s passports.

“Someone’s got to give you guys something to do” I joked.

“Yes, we’ve got you all too well trained, haven’t we?” he joked back, signalling at the crowds of people before the machines.

Question: How effectively can you ‘train’ your customers to self-serve and automate services that are currently labour-intensive?

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Why can’t I be an exception?

Here’s a story about the TAB. The “Terrible Aussie Bank” that is.

This bank has pretty much all of our business: my wife's and my business banking, our personal accounts, and property mortgages. Recently, an automated mortgage payment on an investment property didn't go through and, two weeks later, I got a letter (on paper) and a text message notifying me. I immediately called and by the end of the day the payment had been made.

I then started receiving a series of letters demanding full payout of the mortgage owing to 'arrears' on payments. Then the bank's lawyer’s letters started, similarly demanding fully paying out the mortgage. With two weeks deadline to pay. Complaints to our 'relationship manager' about this heavy-handedness were met with "I didn't know about this". 

They've backed off, and apologised (verbally) but, as it happens, right now we're wanting to buy a further property and the Terrible Aussie Bank has said that we are a bad credit risk because of 'late payments'. They can’t reverse the blemish on our credit record, they say, so they won’t lend us money.

This is a case of automated policy acting against business success. We’ve now been flagged as a ‘false positive’ in their system and nobody appears to be empowered to reverse this.

Time to switch banks (again).

Question: How can you build a system that makes exceptions to policy that recognises customers who are good for your business overall but might mis-step occasionally?

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Do please click the ‘heart’ below to show you’ve enjoyed reading this week. I truly do appreciate it.

Have a good week, and please find a way to contribute to something impossible, while finding ways to deviate from the ‘rules’ in the interests of your customers.

See you next Friday,

Andrew