Graham's Blog

Trust is the new Green

“Social” is a bubble. Trust me on this. I urge all consultants on “social ______” (fill in the blank) to make hay while the sun shines. says Kristine Lowe.

My response was How about '________ Relationship Management'? You can fill in the blank with Customer, Vendor, Social, Government, Medical, Career, Financial, etc., etc.

It's about relevant conversations driven by the individual 'under their control, with their consent, for their benefit'. See my views on Personal Relationship Management.

If Trust, Loyalty and Confidence are the defining objectives of a relationship then both parties need to be involved. I believe that companies, and even some government agencies, are beginning to recognise the benefits of embracing the principles of VRM as Reputation becomes an increasingly important brand value.

According to Computing on 11 Dec 2008 central government civil servants " . . .have no confidence . . ." in the National Fraud Initiative (NFI), run by the Audit Commission, plans to extend coverage to include bank details of half a million civil servants who will not be responsible for entering the information or be able to view it. What hope is there for the NIR and Identity Card when civil servants don't trust the government? Similarly, the banks need to wake up to the fact that 'You can't expect customers to trust banks when banks don't even trust banks.'

4iP - Making a Difference

I attended a very interesting meeting at Channel 4 last week organised by the Glasshouse London and sponsored by NESTA.

It introduced Channel 4's new initiative to encourage innovation on digital platforms. I had a look at their Submission Guidelines and found that not only did PAOGA tick every box, addressing the issues of Trust and Privacy for the individual in their digital world, but also fotoLibra of which I am an advisor.

Jon Gisby, Director of New Media and Technology, and Tom Loosemore, Head of 4iP, described their strategy to harness innovation and entrepreneurship to Deliver Public Service in the Digital Age. Saul Klein, a well known entrepreneur and investor in early stage projects, is a supporter of co-owned content and struck a chord with me when he made a comment regarding 'knowing when to hand on the baton' as a business grows - something that I have always lived by. Zenna Atkins, Chairman of Ofsted, Places for People, and a Guardian columnist, was clearly and rightly frustrated by the layers of Bureaucracy in the public sector. Great to hear such passion and Derek Wyatt MP was keen to advise her not to let go of her anger. 

Stop copying data!

An extract from the ICO November Newsletter quoting Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner:

In a speech at the RSA on 29 October, Richard Thomas highlighted the risks associated with large databases, the need for tougher sanctions to deter data breaches and called on chief executives to take responsibility for the personal information their organisations hold.
"The number of breaches brought to our attention is serious and worrying. I recognise that some breaches are being discovered because of improved checks and audits as a welcome result of taking data security more seriously. More laptops have now been encrypted and thousands of staff have been trained. But the number of breaches notified to us must still be well short of the total. How many PCs and laptops are junked with live data? How many staff do not tell their managers when they have lost a memory stick, laptop or disc? Many losses are probably simply undetected."

Surely the solution to this is STOP COPYING personal information and sensitive data. If authorised individuals (including the subject) had online ACCESS to relevant data to do their job then there is no need to have data on laptops, memory sticks or CDs. An audit trail would reveal who accessed what data for what reason and when. This is one of the key principles of VRM.

Unlocking the See-Saw

This well attended meeting of VRM ambassadors from the UK, USA and Europe rightly ignored the technology and debated the issues of adoption by individuals and vendors.

I was pleased to hear from interested and diverse vendor organisations including Johnson & Johnson (wanting to interact with 'a growing army of well informed patients' - see Philip Virgo's blog), nPower and The Royal Horticultural Society (CRM not appropriate to manage the fast moving and diverse content of their community) who recognised the wisdom of Doc Searls 'a free customer is more valuable than a captive one' but also compared many organisations current attitude as that of 'a turkey voting for Christmas'.

Also well represented was the marketing industry which can see the new opportunities for Permission Based Marketing for the consumer that VRM tools could provide. Nick Buckley of GfK NOP (Market Research) is aware of the cost/time it takes to collect data and is interested in the potential for individuals to volunteer data (on their terms) using the metaphore of the mail train snatching the mail sack which has been hung out for collection. Exactly what My Sorting Office proposes.

The key issue, so aptly demonstrated by the current banking debacle, is all about Trust - can we trust the accuracy of the data? can we trust companies to use it responsibly? can we trust organisations not to lose it? 

More information about the event and links to companies and individuals are available on the VRM Hub website and Doc Searls photos of the event here.