There are plenty of examples of mad business rules.
According to Sky News, the supermarket chain Asda refused to sell a 44-year-old mother alcohol because she was shopping with her teenage son. The supermarket chain went on to admit that its tough alcohol sales policy may “seem mad”.
It does seem mad, on a number of levels:
1. The shopper was embarrassed
2. The supermarket lost a customer
3. The member of check out staff undoubtedly felt stupid
It was a triple whammy. The customer lost, the company lost and the staff member lost.
Best of all, if you were hell-bent on buying your 17-year-old a bottle of Thunderbird, you would hardly have to be the criminal mastermind, Lex Luther to get around the rule and pull it off. All you’d have to do was leave your teenager outside.
Does your organisation have mad business rules?
I bet it does. Every organisation I have ever worked for has more than plenty. Rather than worrying about whether or not you have them, a better question is who created the mad rule?
- Was it somebody in compliance at head office?
- Was it an overzealous store manager?
- Was it somebody in corporate affairs who felt the need to flex his muscles?
If you can be clear about who created the rule and why they did it, then you stand half a chance of changing it.
Perhaps all your rules should have a named owner, somebody to challenge. That way you won’t have nearly so many mad ones.
Photo by Hayes Potter on Unsplash
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