In 1983, Andy Grove knew that his company, Intel, was in trouble. Its core business, DRAM memory chips, a technology they had pioneered, was facing stiff competition from the Japanese. Both margins and market share were declining rapidly and the future seemed bleak.
Rather than stay and fight over what remained, Grove chose to bet the company on microprocessors. The rest, as they say, is history and Intel’s dominance today can be traced back to that fateful decision.
How did he know for sure that he was making the right decision? Is there a way to be certain?
Twitter is a social network, but social networks are not Twitter.
Much of the hype about social media obscures a vastly greater opportunity. Although social media types love to tell the rest of us that we “just don’t get it,” the fact is that very few social “gurus”s have actually taken the time to learn anything about social networks.
Happily, the joke is on them. Social networks are where the real money is.
I previously posted an article called 6 Ways to Spot False Gurus, which got an enormous response. It seems that I really touched a nerve.
While most of the feedback was positive, there was also some criticism. One woman pointed out (rightfully so) that it was a very negative post. I do feel that those who profess to advise others should be held to a higher standard.
Thankfully, there are many who meet that standard and are truly worth listening to. It is probably even more important to spot them as it is to avoid false gurus.
Following the same line of reasoning as the previous article, here are six ways to spot real gurus:
Unfortunately, in the digital world that can be disadvantage. When you have not only employees to pay, but loyal audiences and advertisers to keep happy, you’re going to be less aggressive than digital upstarts whose profitability is years ahead, if ever.
However, media incumbents can do a much better job than they’re doing. Here are some ways to make that happen:
In the fast moving, hypercompetitive inflection point that is business today, only the strong will survive. You need to get with the program or get eaten alive.
There are a lot of metaphor mixing, self proclaimed gurus out there to guide your way. You can do yourself a world of good by listening to what they have to say and then doing the opposite.
Forrester is a leader in technology research. They got that way by providing hard data and objective analysis to business leaders for over two decades. As I’ve written about before, brands are built on trust and, for the most part, Forrester has earned it.
That’s why I was so disheartened when I saw a Forrester report made available on LinkedIn a while back. What I found was a noxious blend of shoddy methodology and inane conclusions that were reminiscent of the Arthur Anderson – Enron debacle.
As many people know, and as James Surowiecki chronicled in his famous book, The Wisdom of Crowds, large numbers of ordinary people can often outperform experts. Lately, though, the idea has mushroomed into excessive enthusiasm for crowds.
Terms like open source and crowdsourcing have entered the lexicon and formed fanatically engaged advocates. There have also been impressive successes, like the Firefox internet browser the Apache web server project. However, much like people, crowds can be foolish as well as wise.
Ad agency services are procured as if they were a commodity. Is there any way out?
Unlike other professional services, ad agencies are constantly under price pressure. Consequently, shrinking margins have led to intense consolidation. The industry today is dominated by a handful of vast holding companies that offer every service imaginable, yet still struggle with profitability.
In a hypercompetitive, globalized world, a strong brand is essential for profitability. If you want your business to enjoy premium pricing, lower customer acquisition costs and big fat margins, brand equity is the best (legal) way to do it.
Building a powerful brand isn’t easy by a long shot, but there are some key principles that can guide you on your way.
Do you see digital technology as an opportunity or a threat?
Digital technology can be both a blessing and a curse. While the new possibilities are fantastic and great efficiencies can be gained, organizations often need to be restructured in order to take advantage of them.
Finding the right digital structure can be confusing. The key is to understand what role new technology is to play in your business. Sometimes we use digital technology to make us more efficient and sometimes we use it to create value. It’s very hard to do both.
Or install manually
Copy and paste the following Google tag code onto every page of your website, immediately after the element. Don’t add more than one Google tag to each page.
