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Wall Street, David Blaine, and You
What do David Blaine and Wall Street have in common? They’re both great at creating illusions. Unfortunately, Wall Street believed the illusion it created (the value of subprime mortgages) was real. Companies do the same thing every day, convincing themselves that if they have more customers and higher revenues then everything will keep going up, even if they don’t spend the time understanding customers and providing great service.
We’re seeing now exactly what happens when greed and lack of accountability take hold within an industry. The safeguards weren’t in place to prevent Wall Street firms from going under. By building a relationship with customers, you can keep that from happening to you. It may not be subprime mortgages that cause the downfall, but if customers lose confidence the way investors have lost confidence, they’re just as likely to abandon you in droves.
Don’t buy into the illusion that customers will keep spending more and more money and everything will keep going up. Wall Street is learning how dangerous that can be. David Blaine may appear to have taken the same risks, but as a professional illusionist you can be sure he had safeguards in place in case anything went wrong. In the tough economic times to come, customers will look for service and value when they choose which companies to do business with. Now’s a good time to make sure they won’t vanish when you’re not paying attention.
I think it's very interesting that you compared David Blaine to Wall Street....they both seem to be under a bit of scrutiny these days!
Check out this post on David Blaine that I found this morning. Rather insightful!
http://www.petermanseye.com/anthologies/cowboys/337-magic-man
While you make an excellent point, the USA appears both to have created and perpetuated the current global economic meltdown. Folk will have to learn to trust the nation again.
Their trust in corporations, except banks, is probably undiminished.
Wall Street has learned that it can still take home 8 digit salaries and bonuses even when it screws up. That isn't true of most large corporates.
But you now have a major nation that is a laughing stock. Global reputation is shattered, the president is crying in the wilderness, and you are likely to get your first woman president when the one in place dies. Yes, even McCain is looking wise right now!
I'm not saying that the UK is a great deal better, mind you. But at least we don't have the Westboro Baptist Church telling us it's all God's reaction to gay people!
I suspect that there is a far bigger house to get in order than powerless corporations building relationships with their customers at this stage of the game.