Dividends of listening and paying attention

It happened on April 23, 1985. Touted as a killer blow to their competitor Pepsi, Coca-Cola introduced “New Coke” based on a sweeter secret formula. Extensive research results generated from the “Project Kansas” market survey support for this new taste was, supposedly, overwhelming.

There was a small constituency of 10-12 per cent who felt angry and alienated by this new flavour and, according to Wikipedia, expressed their anger and declared that they would consider abandoning Coke as the drink of choice.

Imagining these to be fringe clients, the company forged on with a marketing campaign to publicise and popularise the new drink. Protest to the new formula mounted slowly and surely. The company countered opposing views with the market survey results, insisting that the new drink was superior to both Pepsi and their old formula.

Within a short while, it became clear that the customer response had graduated from being cold to outright antagonistic. A vocal minority of Coke consumers took on the management by writing letters and organising protests.

When it became clear to Coke that these protests were not a passing cloud, Coca-Cola yielded to the pressure, acknowledging that “to hear some tell it, April 23, 1985 was a day that will live in marketing infamy….spawning consumer angst, the likes of which no business has ever seen”. Coke, finally, learned to listen.

The sentiment underlying the protests had nothing to do with taste. It had everything to do with how protestors viewed Coke as part of their identity.

Coke was as American to them as apple pie; ‘interfering’ with the product was an affront to them as individuals and as citizens. Coke was never going to win that war.

In what may be a repeat of this fiasco, a telecommunications company recently introduced new tariffs to counter moves made by their competitors.

Initial reports indicate that these new products have not been well received by a number of clients. Protesting calls to the customer-care lines are routinely countered by the facts according to the representatives; that the new product is superior to the old and to competing offerings; that they should be grateful for what they are getting.

There are excellent examples of leaders who did not let matters get to these levels. The story is told that one day as President, Nelson Mandela was informed that a friend’s wife was dying of cancer.

Even though he was on the way to a UN meeting in New York, he ordered his motorcade to turn back and head towards his friend’s house where he spent several hours with them in private, they never forgot this gesture of a leader taking time out of an obviously busy schedule to listen to them.

Leaders of Family Business must invest most of their time in listening carefully to their constituents, those who they lead, those to whom they are related and to those who have an interest in the enterprise’s activities.

They should train themselves to hear the facts, listen for underlying feelings and to understand the meaning of what is said.
While this necessarily takes time, Leaders of Family Business should see it as one of the best investments they can make into their families and their business ventures.

The emotions

In every conversation, the Leader of Family Business should hear the facts, what, how, and when the issue at hand happened. Efforts should be made to get as much detail as possible in order to complete the context. If necessary, the leaders can keep going back with probing questions.

As the leader listens to the facts, they should also pay attention to the tone of the speaker. Leaders should listen out for emotions such as joy, anger, fear and other emotions.

Finally, the leader needs to carefully reflect on what is being articulated, the emotional state of the individual (s) as they express themselves and, most important, crystalise and understand the meaning of what is spoken or unspoken.

In this way, the leader identifies the core of the issues at hand and what needs to be done to avoid a vicious downward spiral or promote a spiral of improved, profitable relationships.

Mutua is a Humphrey Fellow and a leadership development consultant focused on family businesses. [email protected]