COACHING
2022 : The Year Of Global Change
By Thrity Engineer-Mbuthia
The world is said to be experiencing VUCA : Volatility , Uncertainty , Complexity and Ambiguous scenarios . If 2022 is anything to go by , world events seem to be occurring on a daily basis . One thing seems to be certain . There is change and this change probably means the world will never go back to what it was just a few years ago .
There are some happenings that have made me wonder about the concept of the external environment . In every marketer ’ s training , we are taught of the PESTEL acronym that allows us to assess the external environment . The external environment has some characteristics , which include the marketer not being able to control these external factors . Being aware of such factors allows one to navigate accordingly .
From pandemics , to wars , to global inflation and recessions , to countries in serious debt , to food insecurity and impact on personal privacy - these external factors seem to be mercilessly raining on humans left , right , and center .
The marketer of today has to figure out how to work through all this and still use the tools available to maintain and grow market share and build brand equity . They say knowledge is power . Let us share that knowledge .
The World Economic Forum is an international organization that drives public private partnerships . It was started in 1971 with the headquarters in Switzerland , and engages global leaders in all areas and sectors to drive worldwide change .
The founder is a gentleman by the name Klaus Schwab who is the current Chairman and he recently said that “ companies should pay their fair share of taxes , show zero tolerance for corruption and uphold human rights .” WEF is founded on the stakeholder theory - that an organization is accountable to all its stakeholders in order to achieve success .
Almost every year , WEF hosts a conference in Davos where the who-is-who meet to discuss matters that concern the world . The sustainability agenda has been quite prominent . According to the WEF website the conference in Davos encouraged use of public transport and walking as a way of reducing congestion and a more sustainable option for transportation . Electric cars were also encouraged .
At the forum , red meat was not served and other items were locally sourced . There was also a push to embrace vegetarian foods . It was also focused on removing single use plastics from the event and is interested in driving renewable energy sources like solar power .
Now how does any of this impact marketers ?
“
Change is inevitable . By itself , change is a good thing . It gives us an opportunity to embrace the new and to grow . Choose change wisely .
Let us pick one topic . One that is close to the heart of every living being on this earth . This is food . Some of us eat to live , whereas others live to eat . Food choices are dependent on cultural practices , religious beliefs , availability , income levels and of course personal tastes and preferences .
Supply chains are already in place to ensure availability of varieties of foods . Globally , there is trade that ensures fruits and vegetables are available all year round . In the past , it was more focused on seasonality . Farmers grow crops and keep livestock for exactly this purpose ; being able to feed people .
Imagine you are the marketing manager at a global chain of hotels . You are focused on driving customer experience . You know that aside from the service and the experience , the clients are looking for great dining and want the best on offer .
Let us go back to the WEF approach . According to an article on the WEF website published in 2020 , close to 80 % global emissions of carbon dioxide is due to growing food crops both for humans and animals and keeping of livestock and fish farms . The article also highlights that obesity is on the rise and attributes this to overconsumption of proteins . There is also a lot of food wastage and this is impacting the planet .
The article then highlights options for menus . Plant based burgers - which suggests stoppage of eating meat . If consumers stop eating meat there will be low demand and farmers will not have to engage in livestock farming . What if we just stop the farmers from livestock farming in the first place ? Already the farmers in the Netherlands
40 MAL49 / 22 ISSUE