Wednesday marked the 100th day President Obama has been in the White House.
It has become media tradition to report on the president’s progress to date, first impressions, and how well he has kept to his campaign promises.
Obama shared he is “proud of what we’ve achieved, but not content.”
CNN did a great job allowing viewers and political experts to share opinion via their CNN National Report Card broadcast.
Viewers could log into CNN.com and grade President Obama’s performance in his first 100 day as president.
I don’t know whether the grades are a statistically accurate representation of how most of America feels about Obama and the administration. However, they are a great tool to create discussion and visibility to opinion. No doubt, CNN’s report card will inform (and potentially influence) Obama’s team.
What About A Company Report Card?
Many of you reading this article work for companies that measure customer satisfaction, brand awareness, and product performance. In fact, you may be the person in charge of that process.
But, what happens to the performance information at your company? More than likely it is delivered to those on a “need to know” basis.
Imagine the impact it would create to have your company customer satisfaction and product quality scores shared as broadly as the President’s score on CNN?
What if the president of your company had an employee-voted report card? You could measure in 100 day chunks, publish updates for each 100 transactions, or with every $100 spent. What if job applicants could see the report card generated by existing employees?
What would get fixed faster and made better if you had transparency and were held accountable to your customers and employees?
Does your company have the moxie to solicit broad input and publish the grades for the world to see?
Let’s talk poilitcs though…they should re-name “The Recovery Plan” to “The Bush Recovery Plan” for that is what we are currently recovering from. Well that and idiots and voted for him. The blood is on the voters who allowed the state of the nation to get this bad. CNN can be blamed for this too….they just sat by and allowed this to happen. The media is responsible for shifting oppinions on every current event and they just were in it for the ratings. Shame on you CNN!
I would be surprised if CNN’s report card influences Obama’s team. They already have their pollsters and are very adept at testing their superficial messaging — not only with the public, but also with the adoring media, who already have a populist bent.
That said, your overall point has merit. An informed company is a well armed company.
But should they publish the results? I’d agree with that only if it benefits them to do so. With the right spin and adequate follow-up, it might, but the approach has too many risks to broadly conclude that everyone should, in every situation, and that it doesn’t matter how it’s done.
Chances are, assuming that the audiences are substantially informed, if the company is getting a failing grade, people know it already, anyway. It can be good to have a way to address the failure and explain how it’s going to be fixed.
But most importantly, fix it.
As for the Obama team – here’s an alternative view: http://www.mediaresearch.org/BozellColumns/newscolumn/2009/col20090429.asp
I’ve seen a successful example of this with a consumer retail company I represent. The brand launched a new Facebook fan site, and asked customers to write on the wall with comments, concerns and questions. Several customers were experiencing the same shipping issues when they ordered online. By having them “complain” on the Facebook wall in a public forum, the information was shared with everyone – not only those who needed to know. The end result was an improvement to an internal ordering issue and better service for those who shared their experience, and for future customers.
- Kathy Cabrera, Director of New Media, http://www.carabinerpr.com