Talk is cheap in the theatre of business

In the theatre of business, talk is cheap.

I was listening to the radio earlier and heard an online security expert, discussing what he called the theatre of security.  He used the term, to refer to the grand posturing some organisations indulge in regarding online security, without them actually rolling their sleeves up and making their security rock solid.

The theatre of business

That got me thinking about the theatre of business we see every day, where business owners postulate about how amazing they are, with no sign of them actually practising what they preach.

We have all seen them:

• The SEO experts who have to use email marketing to reach you, because their own SEO doesn’t attract enough inquiries.
• The company that greets your customer service call, with a string of recorded messages, assuring you “we are doing everything possible to answer your call” – Yeah, other than picking the phone up!
• The self proclaimed marketing experts, who are so clueless themselves about attracting business inquiries, that they need to pester people for leads at networking events.

Talk is cheap, which is why we need to be mindful of 2 things.

1. We need to examine the deeds behind a person’s words, before we decide whether to hire them or partner with them, etc.
2. We need to ensure that our own deeds meet and surpass our words.

Whilst talk is cheap in the theatre of business, intelligent activity can be priceless, because it’s so rare.