Must say I enjoyed Hugh Macleod's Hughtrain that can be downloaded from another excellent site, Changethis.
Hugh, being a man of advertising, is suggesting that something is not quite right in how advertising is done - at least the way I read it. And his many observations are excellent, frickin' amazing if I dare use his expression.
Still, I'm missing something. Why not say it, that marketing as we know it is plain wrong (including advertising of course).
And while he's at it (he works in a classic organisation does he not?) why not add that organisational hierarchies and current management theories are off too. Way off.
It certainly could explain the lack of real-and-major results from the gazillions spent in management schools, think tanks, advertising firms, on management handbooks, different Sigmas and what not over the last hundred years. Any dramatic changes to how we operate? Any wee little results? Check Dilbert for answers.
Let me give ye the shoemaker factor:
Any business or organisation have two basic tasks: interact with the customer, and make the product.
Take your great-great-grandfather's shoemaker. He could discuss shoe needs and leather types with about ten clients a week, and with help of a couple of chaps actually deliver ten pairs a week. Nice balance between his two tasks. Excellent.
Then he was 'industrialised' as in installing a few machines that enabled him to produce a couple of hundred pairs a week. But his client-interaction was not up to that task.
He had to rely on a newfangled and growing business of distribution, advertising, selling (push now) and so forth. Business growing, so did his organisation, hierarchical of course.
He was given the 'production technology' but nobody gave him the 'interaction technology'.
So makeshift solutions were invented, revived and refined to get back a certain air of balance. Marketing, distribution, retail, inventories, selling, push, push - and yes, management.
All makeshift solutions. Empty beer crates on top of each other.
And, tata, we now have the much needed 'interaction technology' aka IT!
But the makeshift solutions will not budge. Hmm.
Now another factor comes into play, the good old 'truth'. If we're used to something, if the mere thought of changing it makes us shiver then make current methods into a 'truth'. "We need marketing!", "Management is a given, cannot live without that!", repeat and nod, repeat and nod. Will not have any doubt about our positions, our lives, our beliefs.
What does the IT do then, or rather the software industry? It sell solutions to problems, it shores up (= solution) the wobbly (= problem) 'truths' and cements the status quo (strengthens solution).
Frickin' stupid that is. (Thanks to Hugh for teaching me proper English.)
So, why not dabble with the thought of change?
Windmill operators and most of the shoemakers are gone, and their great-grandchildren are copywriters, vice presidents, sales clerks and consultants. What about their children?
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