The Web has become the most consequential force for the spread of information and innovation since the advent of the printing press. The debate over its future is heating up, so it was inevitable that its creator, Tim Berners-Lee, would eventually weigh in.
He did just that in an article in Scientific American in which he lays out the facts as only he could. The online world as we know it is under dire threat from a variety of special interests who seek advantage at the expense of the rest of us.
The issues, although abstract, are far from esoteric and there is truly a lot at stake.
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It’s a tired old tale. A plodding industry, stuck on a conventional business model, blind to the new realities, digs in its heels and gets world upended by a young, tech savvy company. They never knew what hit them.
That’s what Ken Auletta, says Google is doing to traditional media in his 2009 book Googled. As the story goes, with powerful algorithms and a disruptive business model, the web upstart is killing the media business as we know it.
The book is a worthwhile read and he largely gets his facts right. However, he gets the media principles wrong. While Google has truly become a force to contend with, its effect has been a mix of positive and negative. Old media is prospering and, increasingly, it is Google who is having to adapt.
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“New Economy” theories are usually popular during booms. After the party is over, more conventional ideas inevitably come back into vogue.
However, things are clearly changing, despite the dismal times. The way businesses function and compete has altered considerably and, most likely, permanently. While this probably won’t bring about a revolution in productivity, it is already creating big changes in how companies are managed and how they succeed.
The fundamental difference is that, while in the old economy promoting efficiency and organizing work reigned supreme, in the emergent new economy inspiring the passions of employees to create and innovate is far more important.
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Why play by the rules when you can make new ones?
While conventional marketing targets consumers, disruptive marketing creates them. It’s exciting, very profitable and even one big success can make your career. Nevertheless, most efforts go towards conventional marketing and with good reason.
Knowing when to be conventional and when to be disruptive can make the difference between an innovative coup and a huge flameout.
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Do you have a strategy? Is it the right one? Does your organization buy into it?
These are all important questions, often without clear answers. Strategy doesn’t play out in PowerPoint or Excel, but in the real world. We have much less control over it than we would like to admit. Even the best laid plans can go awry.
Albert Camus famously said that ideology should serve people, not the other way around and it is the same with strategy. In truth, to find the one that will serve us best we need to pursue four types of strategy simultaneously.
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Are newspapers dead? Probably not. However, they do need to seriously rethink their business model.
As traditional media in general are making a comeback, newspapers still have a very tough road ahead. While circulation numbers show a long, steady decline, classified revenues have plummeted and newspapers have never been a strong display medium.
There has, of course, been much discussion about this subject, but one thing that has been missing is any serious discussion of the one part of the newspaper business that has experienced amazing growth over the last decade: Free newspapers.
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Are you making your own decisions or just going along with the crowd? The answer might suprise you.
Collective wisdom is entering a golden age. Opinions are aggregated though search engines, social media and croudsourcing initiatives. New “creativity” is sought through conformity.
There is something seriously wrong here. Often, crowds can lead us astray and, as we have seen in the recent financial crises, you often follow them at your peril. So the operative question is, when should you bet against the crowd?
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Voltaire once said, “If you would like to converse with me, define your terms.” He would have never made a career as a digital marketing guru.
However, if digital marketing is ever to mature into a serious enterprise, we need to return to Voltaire, because defining terms is the core digital problem. For any communication endeavor to succeed, there needs to be some consensus of what we’re talking about.
Digerati like to say, “Nobody gets it!” Gets what? That’s what we need to figure out.
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Everybody should be excited about the next big thing. And why not? It’s very, extremely big. Even bigger than anything that came before. No, really, it’s that freakin’ HUGE.
If you don’t want to get left behind, you’ve got to hop on this right away. Of course, you will need to be fast and smart and work late nights, but it will be worth it. You can’t go halfway on a thing like this. It’s all or nothing, baby!
I’m here to tell you what this big thing is. But first, let’s take a quick look at past big things so that we can see why this one is so much bigger.
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Michael Porter, the renowned strategic thinker, says that “Sound strategy starts with having the right goal.” However, what is becoming even more important is choosing the right kind of goal.
As technology, media and the marketplace evolve, the way we plan needs to adapt and change as well. This is truly one of the great challenges of modern marketing and it requires us to not only think differently than in the past, but also acquire the skills to meet new challenges and grasp emerging opportunities.
To gain perspective, let’s review how we got to this point and then look to what the future holds.
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