The GDPR is an elephant; chunk 2........

If you are reading this and you also read part 1 https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/gdpr-elephant-richard-merrygold then the title will make sense to you, if you are reading this and you haven’t read part 1 then welcome aboard. In truth, you don’t need part 1 for this to make sense but if you want to know where it all started, click on the link above.

When I talked the last time about how best to eat the elephant that is the GDPR a key part of that was finding out what is important to your business and focusing on that and using it as your enabler or what we previously referred to as the legs of the GDPR elephant.

There continues to be more and more articles, seminars, blogs and opinions that push the sizable fines available under the GDPR as the biggest reason that businesses should comply. Now don’t get me wrong, the fines are big (potentially) and no one likes to spend money they don’t have to but the fear of these potentially hefty fines are not the only reason to comply with the regulation……

If you are still looking for the legs of the elephant then you should probably start somewhere that you may not have thought of before, something that can’t be measured in pounds and pence, something that takes a very, very long time to build but can be knocked down in an instant and that you, potentially may never be able to rebuild again, your company’s reputation.

A strong reputation can take years to build, hard work, building a trusting and engaged customer base, a transparent and clear strategy and employing the best people for your business are all key factors. Now what happens when that trust is brought into question or even lost completely, you don’t just lose customers understanding or their loyalty, you lose consistent and continued revenue from repeat and new custom, not to mention the brand security that you need encourage new customers to believe in you and your business.

As always, I’m not going to reference the articles, the guidance call out any past events or showcase other organisations failings because this isn’t about learning from other peoples’ mistakes, this is about learning from your own, before you make them.

A bad review for a restaurant on Trip Advisor can have a detrimental effect on a small, independent business, maybe they’ll only lose 10 customers and 10 more will choose to eat somewhere else but the effect of that one review will likely last for a long time.

Now imagine that magnified by 100 or even a 1000 times, imagine losing 1, 2 or even 3 hundred thousand customers, imagine how hard it would be to gain those customers back, regain their trust, gain the trust of new customers and start to build your customer base again. Long after the cheque for any fine has been cashed the effects of a breach on your organisations reputation will live on because let’s face it, even if your customers forget, Google doesn’t……………

Reputational damage doesn’t just have an impact on customers though. The employees you’ve worked hard to attract, onboard, train, engage, would they want a company with a bad reputation on their CV? Or your partners that you have built relationships with, would they want to be associated with you any longer? Depending on your business there can be a lot of groups of people impacted which is why reputation is the legs, the enabler. You need your legs, they give you stability, keep you moving and allow you to stand tall, all of which in turn speaks volumes of your reputation and in todays world or indeed the Serengeti, respect and reputation are key to survival.

So next time you are talking to your exec team, your board, stakeholders or anyone else about the pitfalls and benefits of not complying or complying with the GDPR I would start with your brand, your reputation and what makes your business successful because there is more to life and business than just money. You could even tell them about the elephant, I can’t promise it won’t raise eyebrows but explained in chunks it is easy for everyone to swallow.