Binge Thinking

If I Was A Banker

I hit the pile of mags on my desk today (whilst my computer was being upgraded so I had to tear myself away) and really loved the articles in Growing Business (www.growingbusiness.co.uk) . They have a new columnist Oli Barrett who writes a sort of extended blog on topics that take his interest.

He writes this month about a successful campaign – by a bank of all institutions – where the result of asking a really great question led to tangible business results.

Credit Mutuel asked its customers: ‘What would you do if you were a banker?’ It is a crowd-surfing tale from a book called Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.

Seems that ‘Si j’etais Banquier’ resulted in thousands of customers submitting their ideas, the highest rated of which are already being put into place. And as Oli says: “Smart thinking from a bank. And if a bank can have an online suggestion box, then why not a whole country? Where’s the suggestion box for Britain?” Where indeed.

I’m sure that Oli may drive this one forward as his biog reveals that he is the founder of Make Your Mark with a Tenner, the national competition in which 10,000 school pupils have to see what they can achieve with £10 in one month. Not too dissimilar with Andy Gilbert’s £65,000 giveaway where he is encouraging 1,000 people to ask for £65 each. The money has to be for something that will make a positive difference and help others to ‘Pay It Forward’. Post any requests on his blog at www.gomadthinking.blogspot.com