gift baskets
I had a teacher this semester in one of my business courses that really changed the way that I look at business. His influence on me was so strong that when I began my summer job as a salesman for a private student venture I used his advice from the beginning. He had this whole mentality that no matter how much business changes and how much faster technology becomes, there will never be a replacement for simple human contact. Even in the business world where people like things to be as automated as possible to increase productivity, without a human sensibility and voice at the call centers then there is nothing for the consumer to grasp when searching for what will make them happy.
His theories of business where really no different than nay of the other common methods that people use today. The big difference though that set him apart was the fact that he had not belief in the idea of a totally automated business world. He saw that commerce, business, and trade are all based upon the fact that people are trying to make themselves happier in some way. When you pull out the humanity within a company and simply try to make it a means to an end and not a means to guide people along in life, then you are missing the mark in terms of your customer service. He would always talk about how when he does his business trip he always takes along corporate gift baskets. He has found that over the years the idea of a corporate gift basket and the statistical relationship to a sale thereafter is enough for him. So he is not throwing the rule book out the window for the gift baskets but he is not simply a numbers and stats kind of guy.
I hope that I can develop the type of insight that he has gotten from his business experience. I think that it takes a certain type of person to look at the very established system of business and think that you know better. I think it takes and even more special person to be able to actually make those changes you want to see.