The new job guarantee: there isn't one. Why even the strongest brands must evolve or die

Was reminded about the pace of change today in reading Seth Godin's blog on the fate of the Singer Corporation, which once employed more than 12,000 people in a single plant. Business today moves at the speed of light, and the only guarantee for workers today is this: there are no guarantees. When was the last time you took inventory of the brands that have come and gone in your lifetime? Are you old enough to remember Underwood typewriters, or even the IBM Selectric? How about film? Or most recently Gottschalks? Pontiac is going the way of Rambler and Packard.









From Seth's blog:

"When was the last time you even thought about Singer (or a sewing machine for that matter)? The cycles are far shorter now than they were during the century that Singer was a shining light for corporate success. More now than ever, success today is no guarantee of success tomorrow.
"Sometimes we spend more time than we should defending the old thing, instead of working to take advantage of the new thing. I bet you can list a dozen "critical" industries that will be as relevant to life in 2020 as Singer is to our world today."

Big media is also an endangered species. I thought about this earlier this week when I followed the entire first day of the Iranian protests on Twitter: raw, unfiltered and often first hand accounts. By the time I tuned into the NBC Nightly News, Brian Williams had nothing to tell me. It was clear to me then that CNN, NBC and the other networks are just as endangered as newspapers: if they don't change.
Change is hard, it's traumatic and it often turns your world upside down. But at the end of the day, we don't really have any other options.

As Seth concludes:

"The key difference is that back then, managers and shareholders could stall and fumble and wait out the transition until after they retired. Now, it's almost an annual event. Hiding isn't working, and neither is whining. The best marketing strategy is to destroy your industry before your competition does."

Seth Godin: "safe is risky," and only the purple cows get the attention

Another thought provoking piece from marketer Seth Godin on organizations, marketing and risk taking. This is a long one - 17 minutes - so either just skip it or settle in with a cup of coffee. If you're in the media business - newspapers, radio, TV, ad agency, digital, blogger, photographer etc - or for that matter any kind of retailer, this is for you. Around the 14 minute mark Seth talks about "safe is risky," and organizations that fail to take risks - and sometimes that means substantial risks - are destined to eventually wither and fail. Media has a lot to learn from this. Interested in your thoughts. Enjoy.

When the tribe holds onto the past, often it just takes one uninhibited dancer to trigger change

Came across this video from the Sasquatch music festival on Seth Godin's blog (see his blog here). It struck me that in times of stress and traumatic change, organizations often become paralyzed by fear of the unknown even when they know they simply must change to survive. This is particularly true in the mass media business (newspapers, radio, TV, magazines) which are undergoing a seismic upheaval that calls for a total rethinking of our roles. And yet, even when presented with overwhelming evidence, we tend to hold onto the past because it it familiar, and comfortable. The tribal instincts of organizations are strong, and few want go to against the "us not change" mentality of the herd. And yet, as in this video, often is only takes one or two people to initiate and embrace change. From Seth's blog:

"My favorite part happens just before the first minute mark. That's when guy #3 joins the group. Before him, it was just a crazy dancing guy and then maybe one other crazy guy. But it's guy #3 who made it a movement.
Initiators are rare indeed, but it's scary to be the leader. Guy #3 is rare too, but it's a lot less scary and just as important. Guy #49 is irrelevant. No bravery points for being part of the mob.
"We need more guy #3s.

Laid off or earning a six-figure salary: it's time to crack a book and get curious about the world

Have a friend who hit me with this the other day: "What's the big deal about Twitter? I don't get it." In fairness to him, a lot of folks don't "get" Twitter and in truth it's not for everybody. But the fact that it's the fastest growing social networking site in the world right now indicates that somebody sees the value in it. So maybe it isn't for you, but does that mean you shouldn't understand it? Or are you so comfortable in your routine that it's easier to simply write it off as another flash in the pan? Thought of this today when I read marketer Seth Godin's blog on lifelong learning. Seth is a master marketer (and yes, some folks don't "get" Seth either) who writes books and sends out a daily musing to those who sign up on his blog. (read the full blog here)
His piece today was aimed at recently graduated college kids who are looking for work, but I think it applies to all of us, no matter our age, our employment status or our interests. The world is full of folks who stopped thinking, and learning, years ago. They're satisfied with having others think for them, stopped reading long ago and are so set in their views of the world that nothing can move them. It's time to crack a book, challenge our assumptions and open up a bit. Seth's recommendations to the college grads:

* Spend twenty hours a week running a project for a non-profit.
* Teach yourself Java, HTML, Flash, PHP and SQL. Not a little, but mastery. [Clarification: I know you can't become a master programmer of all these in a year. I used the word mastery to distinguish it from 'familiarity' which is what you get from one of those Dummies type books. I would hope you could write code that solves problems, works and is reasonably clear, not that you can program well enough to work for Joel Spolsky. Sorry if I ruffled feathers.]
* Volunteer to coach or assistant coach a kids sports team.
* Start, run and grow an online community.
* Give a speech a week to local organizations.
* Write a regular newsletter or blog about an industry you care about.
* Learn a foreign language fluently.
* Write three detailed business plans for projects in the industry you care about.
* Self-publish a book.
* Run a marathon.

Why our kids should remember that posting to the web is like a tattoo; permanent and hard to erase

Marketing tsar Seth Godin (check out his blog here) has a reminder for the kids out there about the consequences of posting to MySpace and other social networking sites. Too many kids believe they can post whatever they want - photos of them binge drinking, passed out, atop a table dancing and flashing their breasts - with little consequences. Seth recalls a friend who was looking to hire a housekeeper on Craigslist and used Google to check out the applicants:

"The first search turned up a MySpace page. There was a picture of the applicant, drinking beer from a funnel. Under hobbies, the first entry was, "binge drinking."

"The second search turned up a personal blog (a good one, actually). The most recent entry said something like, "I am applying for some menial jobs that are below me, and I'm annoyed by it. I'll certainly quit the minute I sell a few paintings."

"And the third? There were only six matches, and the sixth was from the local police department, indicating that the applicant had been arrested for shoplifting two years earlier.

Three for three. Google never forgets."

RB's footnote: a few years ago we rescinded a job offer to a young man who had passed our drug test and was ready to join the staff but then posted on a social networking site how he had "beat the Californian's drug testing." Brilliant. We now routinely do Google searches of all applicants.

Seth Godin on the power of tribes and being small

Recommended reading: Seth Godin is a marketing blogger and best selling author whose blog is a must read. For a really powerful interview, go to this video interview for a taste of his blog. He talks about the power of the tribe, of how being small and committed to excellence (think niche) is the path to greatness as opposed to being large (think mass) and trying to be everything to everybody. Real lessons for newspapers and the media in this.