Came across StrawberryFrogs'Scott Goodsons' blog entry - ADVERTISING NEEDS MORE ENTREPRENEURSHIP, MORE THAN EVER. Says he - 1. The sign of a healthy industry is the state of its entrepreneurial spirit. The advertising industry as a whole needs more entrepreneurs. The large conglomerates that control and dominate the industry need more competition.
2. We need more entrepreneurs. A little backbone and a lot of ambition. Because this drives the industry forward. And the more people in the huge conglomerates see indies succeed the more they should think "hey if they can do it, I can do it too"!!
Scott's post made me think what's wrong with the big networks who have a fair share of talent and entrepreneurial spirit.
(a) It's not that the big networks don't have talent, it's just that there is not much incentive to do things differently. Failure is heavily censured. So, the brightest guys are afraid to deviate from the dotted line.
(b) Entrepreneurship grows when there is a small pool of like-minded people with shared belief and passion. Big networks seldom actively allow their brightest minds to pool their talent and energies together. Most often talent is locked in silos that seldom partner each other.
(c) The existing power-structure is so focused on the things that worked in the past and in servicing the current big clients that any new thought/ project/ venture never gets the attention, money and backing to lift-off...
(d) And many a time the best of the CEO's vision gets lost in translation as it has to pass though the fat layer of middle management and mindsets stuck in the past...
But looks like the winds of change are blowing hard:-)
2 comments:
I think it's a vicious circle. We all know that to add more value and increase revenues we need to work on new thoughts and projects which can help the organisation. But these things can be worked upon when we have time and there is a steady flow of revenue. But as competition heats up we struggle everyday to ensure the basic revenue flow, giving very little time of the team to new projects and ventures which can help us grow.
Yes, the challenge will be to break-free and stretch ourselves to innovate and be enterprising for new adventures.
i essentially feel most of us are scared. Scared of new things, new ideas, new technology, new ways of working, new futures...
We love the comfort of the old, the tried-and-tested, our habits, our currrent knowledge, our current mental models...
We need brave, visionary CEO's who are willing to take risks and experiment.
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