By Chris Barrow on 30 December 2008
Yesterday I took my youngest daughter Ellie over to Liverpool to see the Ancient Egyptian collection at the World Museum.
Before I get to that and, as an aside, I was astonished at the miles of cars queueing on the M60 to get into Manchester’s Trafford Centre Mall – I have never seen traffic as heavy in that area and suspect that the bargain hunters are out in force before the darkness falls on the economy. If we are all “consumed out” by the 5th January, does that mean that the wallets will disappear from the High Street? Hmmmm….
Back to Liverpool and the Egyptians.
Not the most exciting display for kids I have to say – largely due to the absence of dead bodies (always a winner – look at the success of Bodyworlds) but interesting for adults because of over 1,000 day to day artifacts and trinkets that gave an insight into everyday life along the Nile.
Those Egyptians loved:
- Their Gods (in the way that we love our soccer teams);
- Their Pharaohs (in the way that we “love” our politicians – my favourite exhibit was a papyrus letter from an elderly general to a court official more or less stating “who the hell does this Pharaoh think he is anyway?”);
- Their symbols, badges, icons and mementos – in the way that we love our brands.
It really dawned on me that those people would wander around with necklaces, medallions, arm bands, rings and brooches that declared their allegiance to a particular social, religious, economic or class TRIBE.
In just the same way that people would have spewed out of the Trafford Centre at the end of the day with branded carrier bags containing clothes. electronics, entertainment, cosmetics and food that made exactly the same declaration.
In just the same way that I intend to fall out of an Apple Store shortly with a new “aluminum” Macbook – after years of patient frustration, I’m about to leave the Windows TRIBE and join the Mac TRIBE.
“This is how I want to be measured. This is who I am. This is the TRIBE I belong to.”
Nothing much has changed. Seth Godin has it nailed in
his latest book – I’m going to read it again in the next few days.
When you understand TRIBES you can build a prosperous business selling any product or service.
Just like an Egyptian.
Posted in Building a Business |
About the Author
30 December 2008 by Chris Barrow
Chris Barrow is co-founder of Barrow Kwong Hing Group of Companies, a private dental corporate active in independent and retail dentistry and post-graduate dental education, operating in the UK and Canada.
Chris has been active as a consultant, trainer and coach to the UK dental profession for over 15 years. As a speaker he is dynamic, energetic and charismatic. In 1993 Chris moved into business coaching and became one of the first UK students at Coach University, from where he graduated as a certified coach. In 1997, he created The Dental Business School (DBS) and the development of a 12-month business coaching programme for dental practice owners and their teams, delivered to over 400 UK dental practices in the following 10 years.
In the last 5 years Chris has acted as a Non-Executive Director, Director and Consultant to a number of dental corporates, whilst maintaining his freelance activity as a dental business coach for independent practice owners. BKH is the culmination of his past experience in the business of UK dentistry
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Chris Barrow said 
dave mantle said 
Premident (@Premident) said 
(@ChrisBKH) (@ChrisBKH) said 
Dental Practices For Sale said
Welcome to the ‘light’ side. You will love your mac more and more each day.
Hello Chris – What a shame – I work for the museums in Liverpool, and I’m afraid you may have missed out on some of the display as there are 5 mummies (bodies) in the new Ancient Egypt display, including one which was unwrapped during the Victorian age!
The body has been rewrapped but you can see the face. One of the mummies is a child and there are also a number of cat mummies. Perhaps the kids will enjoy watching the Ancient Egypt videos on the website http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk instead …!
All the best
Dawn
I am listening to Tribal Leaders. I think you might find it interesting in all you do. Looks at businesses that are making it really work.
Have you read malcom gladwells outiers?
what did you think?