I recently had an exciting time of traveling to Vermont with my Dad for a presentation he was giving. Him and I spent a lot of the drive talking about various problems America is facing and ideas on ways to improve them, but when trying to solve or give ideas on how to solve the problem it always came down to who has the power to make the decisions. What I started to realize is that in many cases (even past experiences of my own) the people who are making decisions seem to be the ones who DO NOT understand the problem at hand. Why is that?
Every time I meet a corporate CXX or dare I say (50+ year old VP) I realize that these people seem to be the ones who are making the decisions yet fail to understand today’s every changing market because they do NOT understand or even know what is out there or what the problem is. These are the same people who have FUCKED over America as a Harvard MBAs who is trying to save that extra 10 cents but doesn’t see how that 10 cents effects the entire rest of the company causing a decline in sales because that 10 cents is separating the company from the competition (like using organic eggs, they may cost more, but it’s a huge differentiator and a big reason why people buy a specific product).
Another issue that I see decision makers having is accepting change and innovation. Innovation is key and a big part for fueling companies. A lot of the companies out there (even ones that I have worked for in the past) seem to fail at accepting the changing market and fail to focus on ways to improve the future bottom line by constantly revamping the product. These companies and decision makers are just accepting a decline and maybe only focusing on slowdown the decline of a product or project and doing as little of extra work as possible.
Most business fail to realize that even if they are making money today, they may not be making the same amount of money the same way tomorrow. (ie. Google Adsense, remember those $10 clicks) Business and customers change daily, so if you are focusing on one specific niche and fail to keep up with the demand curve by innovating, then you are going to fail at some point or another. It’s the same thing when it comes to peoples expectations and future goals. Accept change and understand it’s the only constant in life. Stop settling and betting the farm that your product will sell today and tomorrow to the same person.
The key to having everyone on the same page is to set expectations and understand where everyone is coming from and what you plan to do. I see in America large business are run by people who do NOT understand this current market. People want to create a big brand awareness around their product, but do they know of the various ways to do this? The people making the decisions may say, let’s build a twitter app or an iphone app that does xyz, but these people and decision makers do not use twitter or own an iPhones. The decision makers may have read a review about an iPhone app making $1 Million dollars so they obviously think it’s the best idea since slice bread. Since they are the decision makers, and the boss in most cases, people won’t step up to the plate and say it’s a bad idea.
So maybe the next time your boss or the head of whatever who you work for says let’s do this… ask yourself, are they in the know or just staying the course.
Promo Gear
I completely agree but how do we change it? I honestly don’t think it will change anytime soon.
I deal with this all the time with bigger clients and especially (and sadly) agencies. They’re just clueless.
I get called in and hired to implement social media practices to companies and most work and see the benefit and jump on board and when they’re kickin butt I’m done and move on. Other companies just don’t get it, won’t step in and do anything other than dumping press release after press release and hooking their twitter feed to their blog RSS to belch out the same PR crap and never interact, never become a part of the community they’re trying to get in front of.
My thought is that it won’t change until a newer generation get involved, BUT… there are still a ton of people in my generation that act just like the old coots that run the big companies and don’t see what’s going on. The big problem is MBA’s and their system of school and ass kissing and shadowing the old school biz world. Until that changes or they start to listen to the right people… we’re doomed lol
Dude – you’re a good writer! Anyway, I think the problem with “decision makers” is that the process for decisionmaking is one that needs to be reinvented. I’m sure you notice that some of the hottest companies around now are run by people under 30 (Google, for example). They don’t subscribe to the old methodologies that their corporate peers use daily. This is not a new phenominon: Bill Gates pushed the envelope in the same way 30-or-so years ago. Page and Brin at Google ask “What if?” and “Why not?” Not “How will my shareholders react if I make this decision?” – better put it off for a few months/years/decades/ever.