Good Intentions - and Unintended Consequences

There's actually a law of unintended consequences:

 “The Law of unintended consequences holds that almost all human actions have at least one unintended consequence. Unintended consequences are a common phenomenon, due to the complexity of the world and human over-confidence.” – Author Unknown

Ah, overconfidence.  We are so often so entranced by our latest great idea or the newest shiny new thing that we don't spend enough time thinking through the possible negative consequences.

When I was doing the marketing for Hawaii Pizza Hut, we introduced and advertised a pizza buffet for lunch and for certain nights for dinner.  The program was doing well in general, but some of the restaurants were doing better than others ... and some didn't do so well at all.  So, after analyzing restaurant-by-restaurant sales, management decided that some of the restaurants would have buffet at lunch - and some wouldn't.  And some would have buffet on certain evening nights - and some wouldn't.  The unintended consequence was that we could no longer advertise pizza buffet on television and, as a result, the whole concept of buffet declined.  Unintended consequence coming from well intentioned business analysis.

There have been recent news reports that a low cost air carrier (LCC) may be starting service to Hawaii.  The industry and the media are all excited about the prospect of new airlift.  There may be an unintended consequence, though.   If a carrier like JetBlue comes into the market and changes price expectations, we may see the large "legacy" carriers like United, American and Delta cut way back on their service.  So the net result may be negative. 

I think we're seeing an impending case of unintended consequences when it comes to voting.  Governments are starting to push for the idea of online voting.  On the surface, it addresses some shortcomings of in person voting:  low voter turnout and high cost for managing a voting site in each precinct.  Here's my "unintended consequence" worry.  While it introduces convenience and cost savings, it takes away some of the benefits of in-person voting, notably the privacy of the voting booth.  Once voting can happen on line, what's to prevent someone (your boss, your religious adviser, your union rep, your cult master ... or whoever) from standing over your shoulder and "helping" you make your choices.  I can imagine organizations inviting senior citizens or those without transportation to centrally located computer banks where they could get "assistance" in voting.  Currently, regulations restrict campaigning within a certain distance from the voting site.  How do you enforce this when any computer can be a site?  Maybe there are some safeguards that can be put in place ... but this and other possible unintended consequences should make us think long and hard before making a fundamental change.

Someone once called me "Dr. Doom" because I would probe and ask hard questions when evaluating new ideas.  I don't mean to be negative, but I do want to pursue new ideas with my eyes wide open and an understanding of what might lurk in the world of unintended consequences.  

One of the many challenges in marketing is that there are so many ideas floated around.  The trick is to evaluate them carefully and work hard to imagine the possible negative connotations to a seemingly great idea.