Fantastic TED talk by Rory Sutherland on how companies and governments think big in order to either make profit or influence people (or both) while they sometimes could achieve more by thinking small - 'Sweat the small stuff'.
A part of his presentation:
'So there seems to be a strange disproportionality at work, I think, in many areas of human problem solving, particularly those which involve human psychology, which is: the tendency of the organization or the institution is to deploy as much force as possible, as much compulsion as possible, whereas actually the tendency of the person is to be almost influenced in absolute reverse proportion to the amount of the force being applied.'
It is an interesting point of view and I can see its appeal in the area of consumer regulations. The simplest thing, like making the professional parties use language that is understandable by consumers on forms and in documents used by them, would not cost the professional parties much, but instead they prefer to invest in more technology development or more advertisment. The idea introduced in this presentation - to start paying attention to the details and try looking for ways to increasing consumer satisfaction with small things - is definitely worth thinking about. After all, we hear more and more often, from various media, the phrase: "Enjoy the little things".
