In 2023, we will become a little more circular again.
2022 was a remarkable year in many ways. That we would master Covid we knew. That three months into the new year a war would break out at our neighbors yet. And that that too has consequences for our society.
We are changing. That’s good
Even if you leave the delusion of the day behind and try to look a little further, you see that we are changing. I also notice that I am changing. I eat less meat, live a lot more consciously and pay more attention to the things I purchase. I prefer to buy from my local entrepreneurs. And (quite a “thingy” for me) : I travel by train more often these days and leave the car behind.
Getting momentum
I am also getting to know more and more people who are doing the same thing. Gone are the days when energy-neutral, circular economy, depletion of natural resources was a matter of goat’s wool socks-wearing lefties. I see entrepreneurs adapting their business models to the changing times and finding new business models. We see corporates adjusting their policies and putting well-being over profitability. And surprisingly make more returns because of that choice.
The economy is becoming circular
We see a circular economy emerging, which by 2022, in the USA alone, exceeded $10 billion. Because there is also a growing awareness that more resources have already been mined than are still in the ground. And that it is easier to extract precious metals from an old computer than from a mine. An economy in which we do less business with regimes that have a different set of values than we do.
More quality than quantity
It is that changing world that we are in, and that we also, as colleagues at Customer Factory, must deal with. Because this changing world also requires a different approach to communications, marketing and sales. A world where “more” is not about consuming more and more product, but where “more” is the demand for more quality and less volume. A world where the kiloknaller is finite and free-range meat is becoming the norm. A world where disposable society gives way to long-term (re)use of materials.
Small steps also work
Earlier this year, I co-wrote a sermon. (You will be surprised what I, as a sincere agnostic, occasionally get into) At the heart of that sermon was the idea that if everyone contributes something small, we as a society are capable of great things. I had to think about it for a while, because we have big problems. Yet there is something in it. Of course governments have to solve the big problems, but that doesn’t have to stop me from doing something too.
Not with Amazon, but with you
We gave it, together, some thought. Because we can be fine Customer Factory in a changing world. Doing business with companies that are part of that. And not doing business with companies that do not share our values. The latter is not really complicated: Jeff Bezos is not going to call us to achieve a better return on communication, marketing and sales. Hopefully you will. Because if we are good at anything, it is in providing products and services to companies that see their markets changing and embrace that change.
I wish you a good 2023 and hope to meet you soon.
