What is the difference between having a transaction vs. relationship? Transaction suggests a once off event between two parties:-), while relationship suggests marriage:-) in good and bad times...
The differentiation between these two words is crucial if we want to create a community for our brand which can be ourselves, the private/ public organizations we work for or build.
Since both actions require an exchange of ideas, experiences or goods, it is very easy to confuse one for the other and be in 'transaction' mode, while we need to be in a 'relationship' mode...
Simply told, transaction is just a once-off activity between two people towards an end, e.g., purchasing a plane ticket from a travel agent, programming the washing machine to wash the cotton in 60 degrees. For a transaction to happen, we need a transactor and a transactee...in the washing example, I would be the transactor, while the washing machine is the transactee, suggesting that transaction can occur with non-humans....
On the other hand, relationship requires minimum two humans (living creatures) to be involved with each other:-) Contrary to transaction, relationship takes place in a 'time' continuum. A relationship has a past and a possible future. Hence the time and strict involvement of living being, dimensions are the main differentiating factors. Nevertheless why did we need to invent the word relationship in the first place? Just to make this differentiation??? What is the use of the word 'relationship' to humanity, at all???
Very crucial indeed! Without this word, we could not have survived....not only us, but the animals could not have survived....so crucial that this word needs to be strictly analysed, if we were to build harmoniuos and enduring communities and societies...
The main value add of the word 'relationship' is to encourage two human beings to go beyond transaction stage and accept each other as they are...to "accommodate" each other, in case things do not go as planned....this is the call of action for "tolerance"....For instance, this would mean, if a plane is cancelled, the customers would be understanding of the fact that the airline does not have a local technician and are willing to wait for another day to fly to their destination. In reciprocity, this would also mean that the passenger who has just missed her flight with few seconds, is granted an upgrade for the next flight, if she waited for one day due to the breakdown of the previous plane.
Relationship suggests each party tolerates one other based on their common , rewarding past and on the premise that they will be collaborating in the future again....Transaction suggests that we need to adhere to the rules...and strict rules govern us....no deviation, no tolerance....very binary decision and actions...leading to an automated society, instead of the one that tolerates each others' weaknesses and tries to accommodate the other based on mutual reciprocity....
Longing to live in a relationship society, where people relate to each other, rather than trans-act with one other....
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Different-itation
"Differentiate or die" - thanks to Al Ries, we are scared to death, in case we are the same as others...
The previous weekend, I was spending some time on Broadway before Mamma Mia starts. As i was walking down the overly enthusiastic and crowded streets, my urge to get a chocolate was triggered, thanks to the HUUUGE M&M World Screen, displaying loads and loads of chocolate. I spent almost half an hour in the store, without touching any chocolate packs...everything was in the store...i could find M&M pjymas, slippers, coffee mugs, all the things that i do not need at all...after a while being frustrated, i left the shop...and stopped by at a hotel with a lounge overlooking Broadway...
I wanted to spend some 'high quality' time in this lobby, before i go to the show. Coincidentally, the lounge was over-looking Broadway and especially to the M&M World that frustrated me, with their real lack of chocolate offer...Being hypnosised by the colors of the M&M mega, man eater screen, my eyes met the competitor brand, Hershey's...yes, they do have a shop next door...Definitely there is a chocolate makers' economic cluster on Broadway:-) Hershey's motto read 'Hershey...Chocolate Factory' exactly this is where I should have been...They are all about chocolate...how about M&M??? What were they about? At least i thought that they were about chocolate...having thought a bit...i had an 'A-HA' moment...(as good as it gets, being jet-lagged)
Why are the people still going into M&M, if Hershey's - "the real chocolate factory" was next door...."Obviously":
Hershey's is about chocolate...M&M is about the M&M World....the whole experience around eating and more than that, sharing the chocolate with friends:-) M&M is fullfilling a social need, while Hershey's is fullfiling a sugar need:-)
Long live "Differentiation"!...in the end, both brands survived to this day, thanks to their ability to position very differently for the consumers...the consumer does not need to think, but choose amongst two distinct value suggestions...
If Julius Ceasar would live in our century, his most popularly quoted saying would have been 'Branding, branding and branding:-)'
The previous weekend, I was spending some time on Broadway before Mamma Mia starts. As i was walking down the overly enthusiastic and crowded streets, my urge to get a chocolate was triggered, thanks to the HUUUGE M&M World Screen, displaying loads and loads of chocolate. I spent almost half an hour in the store, without touching any chocolate packs...everything was in the store...i could find M&M pjymas, slippers, coffee mugs, all the things that i do not need at all...after a while being frustrated, i left the shop...and stopped by at a hotel with a lounge overlooking Broadway...
I wanted to spend some 'high quality' time in this lobby, before i go to the show. Coincidentally, the lounge was over-looking Broadway and especially to the M&M World that frustrated me, with their real lack of chocolate offer...Being hypnosised by the colors of the M&M mega, man eater screen, my eyes met the competitor brand, Hershey's...yes, they do have a shop next door...Definitely there is a chocolate makers' economic cluster on Broadway:-) Hershey's motto read 'Hershey...Chocolate Factory' exactly this is where I should have been...They are all about chocolate...how about M&M??? What were they about? At least i thought that they were about chocolate...having thought a bit...i had an 'A-HA' moment...(as good as it gets, being jet-lagged)
Why are the people still going into M&M, if Hershey's - "the real chocolate factory" was next door...."Obviously":
Hershey's is about chocolate...M&M is about the M&M World....the whole experience around eating and more than that, sharing the chocolate with friends:-) M&M is fullfilling a social need, while Hershey's is fullfiling a sugar need:-)
Long live "Differentiation"!...in the end, both brands survived to this day, thanks to their ability to position very differently for the consumers...the consumer does not need to think, but choose amongst two distinct value suggestions...
If Julius Ceasar would live in our century, his most popularly quoted saying would have been 'Branding, branding and branding:-)'
Monday, July 13, 2009
Dance, dance, dance!
The music...the universal language that connects us, all human beings!
Shake your body, step to the right, step to the left, stretch your hands, jump up, circle the belly...MTV is making money...by making all of us happieee....
What is behind music and dancing??? What is so exciting and addictive about them?
Why do we want to move???
Tatttabaa...taattabaa...ttaatabaa..
I discovered i had a passion for dancing from an early age, yet i never knew, why i liked it this much...so many years of exposure...i came to the conclusion that dance (accompanying the music helping to create a context to move our body in synch) is an expression of humankind's love to eachother and to life in general....We dance to connect with the life energy, we cannot touch, yet feel...connecting all of us...which is common amongst humans.
When we dance, we somehow momentarily demolish the borders, we created for ourselves, manners and ideas. All we seek is connection...and feel that we all exist together...we are part of one big community...
This is what the music industry got wrong....when they stood against file sharing between individuals on the grounds of piracy...They thought they are in the business of producing and selling songs...As a life force, human connection is critical for us to survive...like water, and kofte (minced beef meatballs). The music industry is in 'connection' business...the question for them (if they are to rise from their ashes) is to find ways to create connections by leveraging music....not by restricting access to music:-)
Shake your body, step to the right, step to the left, stretch your hands, jump up, circle the belly...MTV is making money...by making all of us happieee....
What is behind music and dancing??? What is so exciting and addictive about them?
Why do we want to move???
Tatttabaa...taattabaa...ttaatabaa..
I discovered i had a passion for dancing from an early age, yet i never knew, why i liked it this much...so many years of exposure...i came to the conclusion that dance (accompanying the music helping to create a context to move our body in synch) is an expression of humankind's love to eachother and to life in general....We dance to connect with the life energy, we cannot touch, yet feel...connecting all of us...which is common amongst humans.
When we dance, we somehow momentarily demolish the borders, we created for ourselves, manners and ideas. All we seek is connection...and feel that we all exist together...we are part of one big community...
This is what the music industry got wrong....when they stood against file sharing between individuals on the grounds of piracy...They thought they are in the business of producing and selling songs...As a life force, human connection is critical for us to survive...like water, and kofte (minced beef meatballs). The music industry is in 'connection' business...the question for them (if they are to rise from their ashes) is to find ways to create connections by leveraging music....not by restricting access to music:-)
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