TD Canada Trust Found a Way to say Thanks

In the age of digital media it is easy to lose the emotional connection a brand needs with its customer. 

The 'TDthanksyou' program brought emotional connections into specific customer relationships. 

Now YouTube continues to leverage this program for all TD customers across their digital channels and applications.  

Have a quick look

McKinsey's Manyika Shows 4 Forces that Upend All We Knew

We live in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) time. While some may imagine the disruption to future outcomes, the evidence shows most of us have failed to understand how quickly these forces will impact our lives.

A compelling article crossed my LinkedIn account earlier this week. If you are looking to understand disruption and the impact it will have on the future, James Manyika, Director of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) has provided a well researched and well written article you must read. 

Manyika illuminates four forces:

• The first disruption is the shift of economic activity to emerging-market cities - Manyika suggests that by 2025, nearly half of the Fortune Global 500 companies will be based in emerging urban economies, with China home to more of them than the United States or Europe.
• The second disruption is the acceleration of technological change. While technology has always been transformative, Manyika shows the impact is now ubiquitous - It took more than 50 years after the telephone was invented for half of American homes to have one, but only 20 years for cellphones to spread from less than 3% of the world’s population to more than two-thirds.
• The third disruption is population dynamics (demographics) - Manyika suggests that for the first time population could plateau as population aging spreads to China and Latin America.
• The fourth disruption is the world’s interconnectedness - Manyika observes that goods, capital, people, and information flow ever more easily across borders. Capital flows among emerging economies have doubled in just ten years, and more than one billion people crossed borders in 2009, over five times the figure in 1980.

Wisdom literature speaks clearly about how useless 'looking backward' is to moving forward whether one is ploughing a field or trying to gain an understanding of the future.

"Today it's even more dangerous to make pronouncements about the future using intuition shaped by the past", says James Manyika, Director of McKinsey Global Institute (MGI).

James Manyika, MGI

What does this mean for you and your organization? Manyika's observations suggest being community centric, embracing technology, serving a changing demographic and being connected to others are all elements of the way forward. 

More significantly, I believe you will find value by imagining the world as it will be ten or twenty years out. If you are unable to imagine this future, I would suggest you obtain the services of someone you trust to challenge your thinking and help you build this view. From this new perspective look back to the present and test the forecasts, decisions and strategies you are considering to ensure they will position your organization correctly for the future you have imagined. 

While this exercise may not produce a plan that gets it all right, you will be better served than looking backwards as you future-proof your organization.






Read the article

Store Closings Dominate the Headlines Today

Reading headlines this morning provoked thoughts of a changing retail landscape. Here are five that caught my attention:

• Future Shop stores closed across Canada.
• Target moves to accelerate - Closing 80 stores by Easter weekend.
• Ricki's, Bootlegger and Cleo owner Comark to close stores and restructure.
• Smart Set stores set to vanish as Reitmans restructures.
• Jacob to close all 92 stores. 

I remember in the mid 80's being sent to visit an Iranian family in Vancouver that owned the Future Shop brand. They outlined a plan for a new kind of electronics store. As one of Canada's largest distributors of electronics, they asked us to supply them with truckloads of entertainment merchandise to support a move across Canada as the dominant retailer. Lining up transport trucks of product was heady stuff, but it put us in the center of controversy as they disrupted our existing distribution in each major urban center. One by one, independent retailers surrendered and even regional chains were acquired or sacrificed to progress. Eventually Future Shop surrendered to Best Buy (2001 - $580 million) and now thirty years after my meeting the Future Shop brand is being eliminated from the retail landscape.

Looking around, there are few examples of independent retailers who have survived the changes of the past six decades. However, Bay Bloor Radio, (my first stereo client) was started by Sol Mandlsohn in 1946 and is still serving clients today. That they have survived is a credit to the vision of Sol and his wife Peppie as well as the hard work and evolution brought about by their son Mark. Bay Bloor was the toughest customer I ever had but I learned much about supporting a retailer, negotiating balanced deals and adopting good business principles from this family. One of their employees, Don Archer became my mentor in the audio business and was largely responsible for helping me become a subject matter expert in the sound reinforcement industry. The Bay Bloor story should inspire independent retailers who have built a reputation around long standing client relationships and personal service. Bravo Mark!

Whether an independent retailer or a big box store embracing change and positioning a brand to be relevant for the future is the primary element of sustainability. Standing still is not an option.