Two big stories have come out recently that appear to be in stark contrast to each other: Apple’s emergence as the most valuable tech company on the planet and John Sculley’s speaking out on firing Steve Jobs back in 1985.
What’s interesting is that so many of the character flaws that led the board to oust Jobs 25 years ago are still present today. In fact he remains infamous for them. Then, as now, Jobs was brilliant and petulant, inspiring and frustrating. With Jobs at the helm, the question remains whether Apple’s success will perpetuate or be just another peak in a roller coaster career.
It’s a question worth asking and, whatever the answer, there are lessons there for all of us.
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Before you go ahead and drop $300 on a webinar this summer, you might want to think about spending a fraction of that at your local book store and investing the rest on beer.
The truth is that you can gain much more understanding into the hot topics floating around the web today by reading what true pioneers have to say about them. In many cases, their books are not only more informative, but more readable than the posers.
Here’s a partial list
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What’s your next move? That’s the key question every strategist needs to answer.
Game theory can help guide you. It has proved useful in fields such as economics, politics and negotiations, but is much neglected by marketers. That’s unfortunate because there are valuable insights to be gained.
Here’s a quick guide to get you started:
“The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science. It is based on fixed principles and is reasonably exact. The causes and effects have been analyzed until they are well understood.”
That’s how Claude Hopkins unfortunately began his 1923 classic, Scientific Advertising, which has had an enormous effect on not just advertising, but the marketing profession as a whole.
What Mr. Hopkins describes is neither marketing nor science. Good marketing, like good science, is about the questions you ask not the answers you give nor the knowledge you think you have.
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Who is the President of the United States? How many centimeters in a meter?
Arguably, these are not crucial pieces of information for our daily lives. We can get by without them. However, they are things that educated people should know. Those who don’t are open to ridicule, and rightly so.
It is the same with marketing. Many professionals can get through their jobs each day lacking critical knowledge and can go a long time without getting noticed. However, that doesn’t mean that their performance is what it could be.
Here’s a partial list of some things every marketer should know.
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Can you be crappy? Do you dare?
When we think about innovation, we usually think about what impresses us. Like Steve Jobs standing on a podium showing off his latest triumph: Incredible! Revolutionary! Mind Blowing!
However, the kind of innovation that changes paradigms is usually crappy. The stuff that doesn’t work all that well. The carpetbaggers who come into your industry utterly unprepared to service your existing clients. That’s where the danger often lies.
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When we talk about digital media, we often focus on the obvious paragons of the industry. Google, Apple, Twitter and Facebook are all amazing companies with real achievements. Yet, in truth they make very bad examples, because they are so unique.
There are, however, some other companies that we can learn a lot from. These are unlikely successes, from companies which look a lot more like the rest of us. Here are four of them:
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What do you know about Justin Bieber? If you’re not a teenage girl, the answer is probably not much. Yet if you want to a glimpse at the future of business, you should take another look.
He is a prime example of how our world is changing and how we’ll have to change with it. Understand Justin Bieber, and you’ll know why business statistics have a serious flaw and how numbers often lie.
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Are you feeling depressed? Maybe that’s because you toil day after day and still lack the basic essentials, like a Bentley, your own private jet and a decent sized chalet in the Alps.
There’s no reason to despair. With a little practice, you can simply blame it all on your clients. It won’t earn you any money, but it will allow you to commiserate with your similarly disenfranchised peers and gain lifelong friends and admirers.
Here’s a quick guide that will get you started:
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Can’t we all just get along?
No we can’t. Not if we think we can win by screwing over the other guy. We are all predators by nature (some of us more than others) and we do what we must in order to survive.
However, what this Nietzschean view misses is that altruism if often the optimal strategy. Building cooperation is one of the most important skills professionals and companies can acquire.
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