I don't know how you can be so prolific and maintain such a high standard of content but, good on you and thank you. Your final point about industry conferences got my attention. After decades of media, advertising, marketing, and digital advertising conferences where I attended as few as possible but that was still too many - after the experiences you just described perfectly, I became an independent brand consultant. I started going to procurement conferences instead of marketing conferences and that made all the difference for my little business.
That suggestion caught my eye, too, Mark. I recently attend a conference and thought "are we STILL talking about this topic??" I'm going to explore some other industries and think it will be re-energizing.
I totally respect the relevance thesis. I find being a polymath is good for business these days because the learnings are transferable across industries and categories. Being hyper specialized may be a near term win, but not good for long game myopia.
Thanks Rishad ... I like the use of 'fixed vs variable'. I am mean is anything fixed these days. I take your point on the unwillingness to acknowledge the problem. A friend who used to run a hedge fund said it quite simply. 'People who benefited from the current system... are never going to disrupt the thing that made them rich' hahaha
As always, thank you for the insightful and provokative words. It is not lost on me that I'm reading this while on a flight to speak at an industry conference. That said, you are right about attending conferences we ordinarily wouldn't attend - it leads to discovery and new thinking. I plan on repeating your words many times this week (with credit to you) - Companies do not transform, people do.
Love your writing Rishad and this post. You have some great principles in here for leaders. Why do you think organisations never take time or investment to question their assumptions of the past and 'Attack mode' themselves? My experience with transformation of the past ten years was digitising operations to make old models more efficient. Not transform the business model for the digital age. Yet according to PWC's CEO report almost half believe their companies wont be viable in the next 10 years. What do you believe is missing? https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/c-suite-insights/ceo-survey.html
Michael. Thank you. Difficult to simplify what may be missing but often it is that leaders are unwilling to acknowledge that three things they thought fixed about their business are now variable giving them degrees of freedom to re-imagine themselves. These are a) new economic models, b) new technologies and c) new metrics. For instance most of the profits of the Big 3 US airlines come from everything but moving people and these include charging for baggage and primarily their selling of miles to reward programs!
I don't know how you can be so prolific and maintain such a high standard of content but, good on you and thank you. Your final point about industry conferences got my attention. After decades of media, advertising, marketing, and digital advertising conferences where I attended as few as possible but that was still too many - after the experiences you just described perfectly, I became an independent brand consultant. I started going to procurement conferences instead of marketing conferences and that made all the difference for my little business.
That suggestion caught my eye, too, Mark. I recently attend a conference and thought "are we STILL talking about this topic??" I'm going to explore some other industries and think it will be re-energizing.
The conversation about digital advertising fraud is exactly the same as it was in 2008. LOL
I totally respect the relevance thesis. I find being a polymath is good for business these days because the learnings are transferable across industries and categories. Being hyper specialized may be a near term win, but not good for long game myopia.
Thanks Rishad ... I like the use of 'fixed vs variable'. I am mean is anything fixed these days. I take your point on the unwillingness to acknowledge the problem. A friend who used to run a hedge fund said it quite simply. 'People who benefited from the current system... are never going to disrupt the thing that made them rich' hahaha
Thank you, Sir, for this insightful post. Getting a hint from it, I watched the Apple Vision Pro video
https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/guided-tour/
You are right... You are visualizing the future ... Apple Vision Pro is a threat to any TV manufacturer (once its price declines in a few years).
Similarly, many changes are coming ... Tomorrow has already happened elsewhere.
“The future is already here; its just not very evenly distributed.” William Gibson
Finally, thank you so much for your insights.
Companies do not transform people do.
A company remains relevant if its people and leaders remain relevant.
As always, thank you for the insightful and provokative words. It is not lost on me that I'm reading this while on a flight to speak at an industry conference. That said, you are right about attending conferences we ordinarily wouldn't attend - it leads to discovery and new thinking. I plan on repeating your words many times this week (with credit to you) - Companies do not transform, people do.
Love your writing Rishad and this post. You have some great principles in here for leaders. Why do you think organisations never take time or investment to question their assumptions of the past and 'Attack mode' themselves? My experience with transformation of the past ten years was digitising operations to make old models more efficient. Not transform the business model for the digital age. Yet according to PWC's CEO report almost half believe their companies wont be viable in the next 10 years. What do you believe is missing? https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/c-suite-insights/ceo-survey.html
Michael. Thank you. Difficult to simplify what may be missing but often it is that leaders are unwilling to acknowledge that three things they thought fixed about their business are now variable giving them degrees of freedom to re-imagine themselves. These are a) new economic models, b) new technologies and c) new metrics. For instance most of the profits of the Big 3 US airlines come from everything but moving people and these include charging for baggage and primarily their selling of miles to reward programs!