NASHVILLE, Tenn.–A former executive with Netflix, Twitter (now X) and Colgate Palmolive told credit unions success isn’t about the movies, the character count or the teeth, respectively. Instead, it’s all about being consumer-centric, said Nikkia Reveillac, who formerly held senior positions with all of those companies.
“Want to create a distinct customer experience?” Reveillac asked an audience at Velera’s THINK Conference here. “Let people -centricity be your guide.”
Reveillac shared the well-known story of how Netflix’s founders at one point attempted to sell the company to what was then the market giant, Blockbuster Video. “They were laughed out of the room,” Reveillac noted.
“The reason was there was a certainty that people weren’t going to take this Internet thing seriously,” Reveillac said. “While data and insights are not predictive of the future, trends were emerging. They saw was the Internet as a passing fad.”
Reveillac observed the irony that now, “Netflix has kind of become a blockbuster.”
‘Nugget of Disruption’
Reveillac, who said she is a student of companies that took a “nugget of disruption” and ran with it, cautioned CUs that they may feel “distinct in your world, but we are all kind of the same, whether toothpaste or social media or fintech. It’s a world where consumers have a plethora of choices and trying not to be a commodity is universal. I hope you are inspired to think a little bit differently.”
Understanding people, Reveillac said, “primes” the business.
“You know your members The more you have a culture and way of operating that is founded in insights, the more likely it is you will outperform your peers,” she said.
Tweeting Outrage, Until…
When Twitter doubled its maximum character count to 280 from 140, Reveillac recalled some people were “outraged” (and used Twitter to voice it).
But Twitter focused on people—its end-users—with then CEO Jack Dorsey tweeting “that there was an important thing that needed to be done, which was to allow people to express themselves to more than 140 characters.”
“Jack Dorsey used language in that tweet saying choice may feel arbitrary, but it solves a real problem people have when trying to tweet, but at same time still allows for brevity, speed and essence,” Reveillac said.
She urged credit unions to realize “not all problems are worth solving.”
Sinking Teeth into Example
For 14 years Reveillac was a leader at Colgate Palmolive and among the challenges it faced was very low penetration rates of its toothpaste in sub-Saharan Africa.
The initial idea was to sell a cheaper toothpaste. But instead, she said it applied behavioral science techniques to understand the nature of habits and habit formation.
In sub-Saharan Africa, Reveillac explained, “the way people engage with their mouths is different. In the U.S., we eat a ton of sugar. In these regions people die with all of their tech. We needed to understand the culture. Behavioral science is just understanding what people do when trying to solve a problem.”
Colgate’s solve was to educate to increase awareness of the link between calcium and cavity prevention.
“Sometimes, the innovation disruption required to meet needs once you understand them isn’t a physical product, but a program,” Reveillac said.
Ba Dum: Netflix
Reveillac said one of the things she loved about Netflix was how its founders had integrated disruption into the culture.
“They have a culture memo, a series of values integral to how employees view their work. Its embedded in how they hire, how they fire, how they hold meetings,” she said.
The Barriers
Reveillac said there are barriers to getting to a people-centric culture. Those include:
- Unfettered Creativity. “The focus is on the quantity of ideas vs. the quality of the problem,” she said.
- Speed to Market. “An internally beloved idea creates pressure to launch yesterday.”
- Research Maturity. “You have a lots of insights, but the ability to influence decision-making is limited.”
- Know it All Syndrome. “Everyone feels like they already have all the answers. Very few are asking the right questions or any questions at all.”
To overcome some of those obstacles, Reveillac offered this advice:
- Be humble. “Assume you don’t know the truth.”
- Be curious. “Start with observations but don’t end there.”
- Be courageous. “Integrate consistent research touchpoints.”
- Be bold. “Make research a leadership and business priority.”