Froth
July 25th, 2003
Dear Friends
GhGhGhGhGhGhGh
The sound of a coffee machine?
A friend and I had an hour or so to wait in Glasgow the other day. We decided to have a drink and resolve all of the worlds problems – as one does! The young waitress passed over hot drinks, in cups too light for our thirst. 20% liquid, 80% froth! ‘Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up Lord’ were the words that came to mind. Like the ‘woman at the well’ we were searching for thirst quenching satisfaction.
The experience got me thinking. How much of my service is froth? There are days that go by where I seem to be just producing GhGh……. When I sit down and look for the substance of my service – there seems to be little that delivers satisfaction.
I am currently working my way through a book called Bananas, Business and the death of Marketing by Mark Earls. His thesis was inspired by the sight of a ludicrously packaged banana being sold as a fresh snack. He notes that most of us are exposed to 3,000 brand symbols a day, we have a choice of 30,000 different products in the average supermarket. He laments that most marketing effort is wasted and ineffective. After much invective against his own trade he notes that the Creative Age will be characterised by What organisations do – rather than what they say and whether or not they make meaningful interventions in the flow of peoples lives.
There you have it. People are looking for ‘thirst quenching meaning’; they are tired of being sold froth. May the great creator give you the creativity to make meaningful interventions from the ‘well that never shall run dry’.
Thank you for your service. It is appreciated.
Yours truly,
Victor Pilmoor
Treasurer