Thought for the day…
By Carl Scott
It’s started already. As I type this in July 2024, it looks as though the next boxing match on the agenda is Trump versus Harris, my thoughts turn once again to the way that it seems acceptable for these contests to be conducted. Even when there are sometimes seemingly credible fighters in the ring.
We saw it in the UK recently, and we’ve seen it in the past. We’ll see it in the future too.
As I listen to each round of these fights, I draw parallels to businesses of all shapes and sizes, mine included, and wonder how the commercial landscape would look if we all took a leaf out of the politicians’ books.
I tend to focus on what Woodfarm has to offer as opposed to beating up the competition. When promoting the business I tend to look at our levels of service and repeat guests, the amount of five star reviews we have, the wonderful feedback that we get from our guests, the way things look when I walk around the Barns and the Barges, and of course promoting our locations and the wonderful things they have to offer.
I’m pretty confident that if you look back at all of my Facebook posts, of which there are thousands, and every word written on our website, you won’t find disparaging comments about X, Y, or Z Holiday Cottages.
I’m fairly certain that I have never sought to promote Woodfarm by stating that you should not go to X holiday cottages because they smell, or they’re rude to you, or that their breakfast baskets taste horrible, or that they are dirty, or that you won’t have a nice time, or that they are in horrible places.
And I can’t ever remember Tesco saying you should under no circumstances shop and Asda because they are mean to their staff, or they sell out of date products, or they break all the biscuits and dent the tins etc. Sure, they do use phrases like “10p cheaper than the other fella” every now and then, but I think that’s as far as they go?. They seem to talk about quality and things like that.
So how come the people who make the decisions on the far more important subject of running countries seem to think that it’s okay to just beat the other guy up?
It’s a continual head-scratch for me that all the attention seems to go on bad mouthing the competition, rather than setting out what they have to offer. Every now and then they make vague promises on things they think will win votes, but most of their energies appear to be in telling you why you should not vote for their foe.
But what do I know? I guess it’s always been this way, and always will be. Shame really.
