Following up yesterday’s post … I was watching this great panel on new media models featuring Jeff Jarvis, Tyler Brulé, Carolyn McCall, and Michael Arrington, when I came to a realization: what the hell do I care if media companies never figure out how to make money online?
I’ve been thinking semi-seriously (reading a lot and keeping my eye open for insights but not exactly doing systematic research) about online business models for a decade – beginning when I was still in school and wanting to go into advertising or the music industry or journalism or the business-side of media. Seems I retained the habit of seeing those industries’ problems as potentially problematic for my own career, even after it was clear I have no intention of going into any of those fields.
As I was watching the panel, seeing tradition-oriented folks defending their assumptions against the newer mindset of Jarvis and Arrington, I realized it shouldn’t even be an argument. What do people like Jarvis and Arrington (and me) care if newspapers never figure out how to monetize online content and thrive? It’s one of arguments I ought to just stay out of. I’ve got a lot to prove but nothing to lose. If I’m right experience will be my proof, not reason. The market is the ultimate arbitrator.
Once I figured that out I started to wonder why I’d assume we need advertising at all. I wouldn’t miss it personally, and from a business or intellectual perspective I have strong beliefs that advertising and incentivization (and the sales-mindset in general) do more business-harm than good by muddling the way people think and making strategic vision too short, shallow, and thin.
Instead of looking for ways to cultivate generative opportunities, businesses tend to rely too much on enticing consumers and seeking efficiencies — both of which tend to hem enterprises in place and lead to unsustainable asymmetries between the sellers’ and buyers’ intentions, and ultimately to situations like we have today when tectonic plates are shifting and companies are scrambling at the last minute to avoid being crushed.
The best strategy is not to let things get “tectonic” in the first place: keep your industry fluid, keep your organization open, and keep your thinking alive.
