Celebrating Our Relationship with You
It isn’t often that I long for the good old days. I swore I’d never be one of those people — especially one of those old people — who longs for the past. If my Dad were still alive, he’d say the Beatles were responsible for the beginning of the end of civilized society. I think about 9/11 and the onset of the big platforms — Facebook, in particular — as my generation’s version. I’ve blogged about colleagues at an Outsell dinner regarding the post-WWII period to 9/11 as the anomaly. What if that period of relative calm and prosperity was the outlier, and periods of chaos and disruption are really the norm? One thing’s for sure: as my Mom used to say, the only constant in life is change.
And yet today, that feeling of nostalgia came up when speaking with our corporate counsel on items related to GDPR, CCPA, FTC requirements, and, of course, EU mandates about data protection, privacy, and data good practices. A litany of “acts” later, I wondered where the common sense has gone in our world and why big marketing and big platforms (Apple aside) ruined it for so many of us.
Standard data protection agreements are now de rigueur. Our counsel said she is negotiating at least 15 a week. They are becoming like NDAs — ubiquitous. Our clients talk about armies of lawyers — in house counsel or otherwise — now on staff to enable the sales process because procurement on the other side — in big enterprise — is making the compliance and practice requirements so big. Getting a sale through to agreement is arduous. What happened to handshakes and doing the right thing?
I guess they went out the window with Bernie Madoff, Theranos, and FTX. I’m glad they threw the book at Elizabeth and Sunny. I hope Sam is also held accountable. I am happy to run a small company with wonderful staff and colleagues that does great work for great clients.
I like that we know the first names of who we serve, and often their spouses or partners, and how their families are doing or how a new hobby is coming along. There is something about the R word — relationship — that still resonates for me and, by extension, our firm. In our world, there is nothing old-fashioned about that. Relationships matter, especially in business. When clients choose to leave us, it’s like a breakup. I told a client that the other day, and we had a good chuckle over it, but for us, it’s true.
People matter. It’s how business gets done. I refuse to believe this principle is part of a bygone era, especially at this time of year, as we stop to reflect about what has passed and what’s ahead, and as we spend time with family and friends celebrating what’s important.
I’ll write more about this in the coming year, but in the meanwhile, I’m signing off for 2022. We are taking a break from midday December 23 in our local time zones and will be back on January 3. This is Outsell’s annual gift of experience — a fully paid holiday for our team — for a year well done and a rest well earned.
We’ll see you in the new year and hope you get a break, too. My very best to you and yours in 2023. Here’s a toast to great relationships!