The Incredibility of Getting Away With It

Accountability can be so lacking, or am I just under stating the state of such things?


When there is obvious misdemeanour - or worse - several parties reckon all is done with by proclaiming a Sorry.   The structures of legislation or governance spend money on elaborate structured commissions of enquiry, but the hearings consist of pre-staged replies from representatives of the guilty.   The seriousness of the matter at hand is undermined and ignored by the parties going through the motions, without any apparent attempt to explain why it occurred in the first place or what those responsible are going to avert the causes in the future.


The unspoken costs in psychological trauma of being inflicted in an unfair manner can never be measured by compensation in subjective financial terms.   Is accountability restored in part by the shaming in public by the media?   What is more obvious is the lack of effectiveness and authority of the regulatory bodies set up in the first place to prevent, identify and punish crimes of cheating, greed, fraud and general taking advantage of less empowered individuals.     What happened to the esteem and ability of such regulatory agencies in the first place?  What is the point of funding toothless tigers in the realm of compliance agencies?


It is evident that in our contemporary society, there are powerful entities that are deemed too important to be sufficiently punished for significant misdeeds, or that their existence is deemed to be so necessary that the government of the day has to keep them afloat, no matter what their negative deeds are.   Too large to go under, too connected to be kept afloat by every means, perhaps by tax payer money.   Such is the state of things that perhaps capitalism wrought.    The truly free forces of the market, supply and demand do not apply to such institutions - they are exempted from what happens to others in the wild law of the commercial jungle.


Service levels can be so obviously inadequate, but such providers are not criticised enough for corrective action.   Entities are set up with judicial firewalls between them so that when a related parent commits the crime, the punishment can be pushed to the separately set up entity, without inflicting any responsibility and damage to the parent.


The threat of financial penalties are managed by sufficiency of provisions made and by the setting up of apparent compliance teams to project an image.   The costs of financial damage imposed by regulatory agencies are passed on to customers in terms of extra fees.   The mindset in managing misdeeds is not to correct behaviour and repent, but to avoid costs in strategic planning and on-going execution.


So we have a working system to perpetuate negative behaviour in various sectors.   Those responsible are thinking short term, as they will not be around to support a longer term and more effective change in the factors that cause such an environment.


Those responsible for such misdeeds really think they have got away with it, but the true cost has not surfaced yet.


The widening gap in accountability and the lack of rewards in doing the right thing is a malaise of our modern society.  Whether it is in the election of so called democratic governments, the modus operandi of our economic system or in the signals we encourage in our younger generations, the price for it all will come.  We shall not get away with a reduction in accountability, at whatever levels of our lives and community.


It all starts with the individual - you and me.  If my lies are deemed fake news inflicted by others, the only casualty is the casualisation of truth.    If the boundaries of accountability are pushed further and there is no wholesome penalty for our laws and policies, who is going to take seriously our framework of legislation and penalty structures?


A strong society is built on morals within not just the family, but all the entities whom we rely upon for the conduct of our day to day lives.     If accountability is undermined for such entities, what can we be more uncertain of?


Do we overlook accountability in the pursuit of more financial accumulation, the nurturing of specific powers and in the build up of ego?

Churning For More Business

Churn, more than ever, continues to be the source of business profit and drive in contemporary society.

Turnover of paying customers to one's books means showing an increased customer portfolio, no matter how temporary this increase can be.  Inducing them to use your services or buying your products can mean offering some interim concession, creating some excitement in the joining experience or differentiating your offer from your competitors.

This can be in passing on discounts in prices or rates. It may be linking access to frequent flyer rewards, providing nicely packaged gifts or increasing credit card points. In the past, this was reinforced by hiring a team of effective communicators in person or in adverts to push the package. It is sad these days that many on line offers involve interacting with just software - something is lost in this process but business costs are reduced and a new rising generation of potential customers may prefer it this way.

In having a high churn, shareholders and business owners are pleased to receive the eventual outcome, that is profit margin multiplied by the number of transactions. What simple common sense this can be. What has been neglected inevitably is that once a customer opts in, the level of engagement and service from the business invariably declines.

Once you lock in with an insurance policy, wealth management product or gym membership, do you feel increasingly neglected?   However, if a customer actively changes providers for utilities, telecommunications and subscription services, the incumbents may chase you intensely like forsaken lovers with emerging inducements you were not told of before.

It is all a game as old as human history. Commerce used to make profits on a single transaction, but today's financial markets thrive on benefiting sellers with trailing commissions as if they possessed imtellectual property.  Hence we are not surprised that in unethical cases, fees are still charged long after the initial primary transaction.

Churn can be seen in the frenetic reporting by media of even small changes in prices, whether of currency, options or man made instruments. Churn is the vitality of gambling, churn can be creating value out of nothing at all. Churn thrives on sentiment, speculation and movement. Churn is betting on change and making money out of it. The fast paced and more responsive internet enables the better managing of faster and larger transaction universes. The day trader is only a simple example of the utilisation of churn, which underlies all the financial centres of this world.

To the ordinary individual, better managing churn is the key to better purchasing decisions. The seller need not have a monopoly on making a buck out of churning. It is all a game beyond haggling and bargaining. Understand why sellers like churning.

#yongkevthoughts