Steve Jobs liked to say that it’s not enough to kill bad ideas, you have to kill good ones too. That’s because good strategy is about making choices and it takes more than intelligence or even instinct, it takes discipline, one of Jobs’ most overlooked qualities.
Marketing strategy is particularly difficult because, as I’ve noted before, the rules have changed. A generation ago, brands mostly strove to create buzz and “drive awareness,” now they need to build compelling experiences that keep consumers engaged.
However, the old tasks have not gone away. We still need to run TV ads and in-store promotions, man conference booths and hand out brochures, but now on top of that we have a whole new world of algorithms, apps and devices to master. To meet the new challenges, we need a new strategic approach, a new mindset and new organizations.
Hannibal Smith, the fearless leader of the A-team, always loved it when a plan came together and on that campy ’80’s TV show, they always seemed to, no matter how intricate and contrived. It seems quaint now. In the real world, things rarely happen as we imagine they will.
As Mike Tyson, another icon from the ’80’s, liked to say, everybody’s got a plan until they get hit and, like it or not, we all get hit, usually sooner rather than later. When that happens, as it inevitably always does, even our best laid plans go awry.
In truth, planning has never been about strategy, but control and control has always been an illusion. Nevertheless, for a long time, it was true enough to be successful. Plans set direction and, if problems arose, plans could always be changed. The problem is that as technology cycles compress, planning cycles can’t keep up. We need a new model.
Mr. Taleb contacted me to object that I mischaracterized his views. A few readers also commented with similar objections. I offered to correct any mistakes that he could point out, but Mr. Taleb declined to do so.
While I disagree with Mr. Taleb on this point, he’s a thinker I greatly admire and feel should be taken seriously. So I want to describe Mr. Taleb’s comments in greater detail and explain why I believe he is in error. While he claims that he is not anti-technology, his views undermine the innovation process which brings it about.
Technology pioneer Alan Kay famously said that “the best way to predict the future is to invent it.” It’s the kind of inspiring quote that can completely change your outlook on things.
That is, until you remember the sorry plight of failed geniuses, from Gregor Mendel to Vincent Van Gogh to thousands of others who are long forgotten and whose ideas only took hold long after their death. Inventing the future, it seems, is no panacea.
The truth is that ideas don’t change the world, people do. From the American Revolution to Civil Rights Movement to the Arab Spring, most of their names are lost to history, but their accomplishments stand testament to the power of what can happen when people act as one. It’s not the nodes, but the network that makes great things possible.
This post was written by Simeon Spearman, a Senior Innovation Strategist at Engauge, a full-service marketing agency in Atlanta, GA. He helps brands identify emerging media and technology opportunities and devises strategies for experimentation and learning for brands. You can find him on Twitter @srspear.
March is always a month where technology companies receive a lot of attention. Between SXSW and Samsung’s Galaxy S4 announcement, March has been rich with insights into issues facing consumer technology and indications of exciting new spaces to watch in the years ahead.
Trends get a bad rap, mostly because they are often equated with fashions. Talk about trends and people immediately start imagining wafer thin models strutting down catwalks in outrageous outfits or a new shade of purple that will be long forgotten by next season.
Yet trends can be important, especially those long in the making. If lots of smart people are willing to spend years of their lives and millions (if not billions) of capital on an idea, there’s probably something to it.
Today, we’re on the brink of a new digital paradigm, where the capabilities of our technology are beginning to outstrip our own. Computers are deciding which products to stock on shelves, doing legal research and even winning game shows. They will soon be driving our cars and making medical diagnoses. Here are five trends that are driving it all.
Innovation has become management’s chief imperative. Everybody wants to be the next Apple, Google or Netflix, nobody wants to be the next Kokak, Blockbuster or US Steel.
Go to any conference these days and some whip-smart technogeek will declare that you must, “innovate or die,” and then dazzle you a wide array of case studies to illustrate the point. You’ll feel inspired, then scared and then have a few beers and go about your business.
What’s missing is a clear set of principles for action. What good is Steve Job’s unfailing design sense when I struggle to get my outfits to match? How can Google’s technological supremacy be relevant to me when I can’t even figure out my TV remote? In other words, we need to take innovation down from the presentation screen and into working life.
Insight used to be considered a personal quality and one that was essential to be a successful marketer. While other corporate functions, such as finance and logistics, were driven by cold, rational calculation, marketers were supposed to thrive at the human side of business.
Nowadays, when we refer to insight, we often mean the work product of algorithms, analysts and maybe a mathematician or two. As Forbes previously reported, by 2017, CMO’s will outspend CIO’s on information technology.
However, for all of the wondrous possibilities of big data, there are still some things that it will never do. Computers, after all, are not people, much less consumers. While they can help execute plans, they cannot form our intent. Ironically, as marketing becomes more automated, true competitive advantage is even more inextricably tied to the human spirit.
Nassim Taleb, doesn’t think much about the technology crowd. In his new book Antifragile, he suggest that we’re suffering from a condition he calls “neomania, the love of the modern for it’s own sake.”
After all, he argues, we continue to wear shoes, eat with silverware, drink wine, beer and coffee and do many other things that have been around for thousands of years. He also notes that, while old technology has been tested by time, new technology is prone to failure.
It’s hard to argue with Taleb, a man of impressive erudition and impeccable logic and after seeing enough technology cycles come and go, it’s easy to be skeptical of the latest “killer app.” Still, skepticism is one thing, overt denial of the obvious is something else. The world has, in fact, profoundly changed and we need to change how we operate in it.
After struggling for years, print publishers seem to think that they have found a workable digital model with subscriptions. According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Hearst has signed up over 800,000 digital subscribers, Conde Nast, 500,000 subscribers.
Thanks to the popularity of tablets, they are often charging more for digital than they did for print subscriptions. What they are losing in advertising sales, they often make up in distribution revenues.
Unfortunately, this does them little good. While traditional publishers have chosen to focus on signing up subscribers, digital media is booming, creating transformative business models and new media lifestyles. By staying in the same place, they are falling behind. To survive, they will need to abandon their old model and become true digital businesses.
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, he suggest that we’re suffering from a condition he calls “neomania, the love of the modern for it’s own sake.”
