Tag Archives: life lessons

October 22, 2015 · 10:32 am

The Tip Of The Iceberg

I”m not sure why, but a lyric from the Rush song “Distant Early Warning” popped into my head this morning:

I know it makes no difference
To what you’re going through
But I see the tip of the iceberg
And I worry about you…

I think that’s something we do in business – see the tips of those icebergs – but we also do a very human thing and ignore them. I’ve been part of organizations that were just as guilty. I can clearly recall a sports sales meeting in the 1990’s in which the sales staff laughed at competing with this little cable sports network called ESPN. Buyers were talking about it, even though their numbers weren’t much at the time. It was the tip of the iceberg, except we didn’t worry.

Those tips surface all the time. A decade ago, no one was “worried” about social media taking dollars from mass media (although what could be more “mass” than social media these days?). Having a highly profitable media business disrupted by consumers watching TV on demand and on a mobile device? A good way to get a room full of executives to laugh.

It’s not just the media business. How many businesses have a written disaster plan in case a server goes down, a system gets hacked, or a natural disaster occurs? Why written? Because there is a high likelihood that you won’t have the time to figure it out on the fly, and it’s possible that members of the team will lose communication. We see the tip of that iceberg in other businesses struggling with floods and hacker incursions, but what do we do about it?

You might also ask yourself about the distant early warnings of burnout. Many of us are stressed, and that constant strain can lead to burning out – a state of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion.  When was the last time you looked inward as well as outward for signs of those icebergs?  Ignore the distant early warnings at your own peril.

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October 20, 2015 · 11:00 am

Myth Busting

When my brother was born, I’m told that he was to be named Mickey. Upon being informed of this, my response was “don’t be silly – Mickey is on television.” The “Mickey” in question, of course, was Mickey Mouse, and I was an avid viewer of his afternoon club. TV Mickey was very real to me. Brother Mickey was renamed Michael. 

I’m sharing that story because it speaks to the power of myths that have become real. You might think that business is the last place we would find such things, but you’d be wrong. Most prominent in my mind, of course, is the shared myth that drives billions of dollars of media spending: Nielsen ratings. Putting aside the obvious issues with sample error and lack of reporting from out of home viewing, read any ratings book and Nielsen will tell you that what’s inside is only accurate within certain limits. They are a shared myth, one that allows both sides of the advertising transaction to negotiate against some standard, even if it’s dead wrong.

The ratings field is instructive because some folks finally decided to challenge the myth by providing another, more accurate look at audiences. It’s having a double effect – Nielsen is improving their service and there is a second “currency” that can be used in negotiating ad placements (sometimes you would rather buy in Swiss Francs than dollars). Someone challenged the myth and both they and business is better for them having done so.

Another example: a taxi medallion in NYC is worth lots of money. Uber challenged the myth by making every car owner a potential taxi service, and Google and others are challenging it even further by negating the need for drivers at all. Until recently, a car needing a driver was a shared myth, and when we can simply call for a driverless car, day or night (no drivers means no sleep needed!), the nature of car ownership changes as well. How will car dealers and resellers be impacted in 20 years? I suspect the myth of fossil fuels will be blown up in the next decade too.

The point is this. Nodding one’s head at myths that have the force of reality instead of seeing them for what they are can impede progress and obscure opportunity.  Sometimes the emperor really is naked and you need to be that kid saying so.  It won’t make you popular, but it just might make you very profitable.  Any myth busters out there?

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October 19, 2015 · 12:08 pm

Let’s Cure This Epidemic

I had another topic on my mind this morning, but I’m going to go on a rant about carelessness instead. I’m sure that many of you read as many, if not more, articles and emails as I do. Have you noticed that we are in the midst of an epidemic of carelessness? I don’t mean with the “facts” many writers pass off as gospel. I’m talking about something far more basic: spelling and grammar.

I know English is a difficult language, even for those of us who are native speakers. Spelling, however, isn’t. Of course, one needs to take the time to check not just the spelling of a word but also if the correct homonym is being used. It’s not just individuals either. I see lots of corporate “content” that contains errors of the same sort. Social media, white papers, blogs and tweets are overrun with misused and misspelled words.  As a former broadcaster, I wince at every graphic that contains a typo.  You just know that more than one person looked at it (or should have) before the error ever saw the light of day.

I hope it’s carelessness and not ignorance. I’m pretty sure it is – what politician would spell “education” as “edutation” or “America” as “Amercia” out of anything other than carelessness? That carelessness makes me think you’re careless about everything, including how you will protect my data, my credit card information, and how you will service your customers.  I’m fed up with “it’s” being used as a possessive (it’s a contraction!).  I hate “your” preceding “welcome” (it should be a contraction – you’re!).

I admit to being an optimist, so I’m assuming we’re not all just idiots.  Most of us feel a time crunch and sometimes rush to meet a deadline.  It’s not a new sickness, as you can see from the clever 2013 Snickers ad, but it’s time we cured it.  Let’s be careful out there!

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