"i completely did not see that coming" - society in the boardroom
A while ago, I spoke to a director who proudly told me: "Next week I'm going on a customer safari with my board of directors." The marketing department of this large organization had thought it would be a good idea for the board members to have a good conversation with an ordinary customer and organized a number of carefully orchestrated conversations at the homes of a few ‘normal people'.
Apart from a certain disdain for both the ‘common person’ and their own directors, this safari also expresses a degree of desperation. Because it is indeed true: many directors have little feeling for what is going on in the society of their end users. This results in a perceived gap between society and directors, where the 'common person’ feels unheard and the director feels misunderstood. For perspective: trust in politics has never been so low. Almost one in five Dutch people think that the government is functioning so poorly that the entire system should be overturned. The Dutch believe that companies in particular should solve climate change and pay the costs. The allowance affair, the Groningen gas, the face mask deal of Sywert van Lienden, the nitrogen crisis: all subjects that lead to great public incomprehension.
That is not limited to politics. Society increasingly has an opinion about the policy, remuneration, and management of organizations. More and more often, directors are confronted with this opinion completely unprepared. This is partly due to the bubble that each of us is in. More senior professionals are probably less likely to be found on TikTok. And that while one in four young people sees social media as their main source of news. University graduates are less inclined to have a daily coffee and share insights with construction workers or plumbers. People from a large city rarely encounter farmers from the countryside. As a 50-year-old resident of a wealthy neighborhood, it is less obvious to really feel the fact that 61% of all young people in the Netherlands are frustrated and angry about the housing market.
The influence that cousin Henry, uncle Karel, and aunt Janina have in the boardroom is growing by the day. If you want to use that influence to strengthen your strategy, you would do well to bring that outside world in a structured way and give it a place at the strategic table. Not with a customer safari, but with a structured and permanent approach and an extra chair at the round table.