The Need To Re-Invent Yourself & Your Company - Steve Blacker - MediaBizBlogger

Imagine a media ad agency or marketing executive trying to function today as they did just 23 years ago Smaller staffs budgets and fewer people buying your product or service is just part of the challenge If you have not reinvented yourself in the past 612 months your career and company could be in jeopardy If you are a magazine or newspaper editor you now need to be a multiplatform content producer with the ability to turn out more content with fewer people You must realize you are competing with every new Web site that emerges on a daily basis If you are not endlessly testing getting paid for your content you are putting your business in harm39s way Why not test 3 or 4 new approaches to get paid for content online on a daily basis until you find a few that workThe biggest reinvention challenge is accepting the fact you will not have enough time to get to all the things on your quotTo Doquot list The ability to triage and use your time effectively becomes one of your most important challenges Rupert Murdoch would often have people stand at meetings in order to keep them short More than 50 of the executive meetings I attended at Time Inc Hearst Conde Nast and Playboy were on noncritical issues and a waste of time If you are continuing to schedule your day as you did a year ago you have not reinvented yourselfAlbert Einstein said quotYou cannot expect the people who caused the problems to solve themquot Are you facing new problems with old solutions The newspaper and automotive industry waited too long to attempt to reinvent themselves Worse yet when they finally started they moved at a snail39s pace Are you devoting a part of your day to developing outofthebox new approaches to solving your business challenges Too many executives issue weather reports versus innovative action plans Why aren39t newspapers and magazines launching multitest programs to charge for content Why the delay The problem is not going away it39s only increasingA quotReInventionquot executive should have only three priorities fix what39s not working create new profit centers and reduce operating costs Everything else becomes a waste of time Companies need to encourage new ideas and get rid of people who oppose change Today too many people are clinging to what they are comfortable with until a company division or product goes out of business Acknowledging problems is not solving them How well do you and your company understand the consumer and all your competition Do you invest in conducting consumer insight research MTV in its heyday never did anything without a permission slip from the consumerMost media companies tend to look at their traditional competitors instead of looking at their new media competitors Newspapers magazines and television are all competing with digital media Too many companies think they are doing OK because they are increasing their market share but their marketplace is dramatically shrinking and moving on to new media Magazine companies have known for a long time that they compete with TV Since the 1960s major publishers have just watched ad budgets gravitate more and more to television Why didn39t Sports Illustrated launch ESPN or Bride39s magazine the KNOT Why Because nobody was thinking about reinvention Just as the railroads failed to realize they were in the transportation business when air travel became prevalent magazines and newspapers failed to realize until it was too late that they were content providersTo survive and profit you cannot surround yourself with traditional business as usual executives and workers You must hire people who challenge status quo and have new thinking And you need to encourage everyone in your organization to focus on reinvention Anyone can reinvent themselves at any time in their careers Age is not a factor Nor do you need to take special courses or hire consultants You just need to encourage and mentor it When I was at Time Inc back in the 3970s we were encouraged to present ideas regardless of what a new innovation might cost The thinking by Time Inc management back then was that often a great new idea could be executed without having to spend the amount of money someone thought it might cost This type of thinking led to the launch of People magazineI have reinvented myself over 25 times and I am still doing that today I broke every rule when I worked at Macy39s by taking toy batteryoperated tug boats out of their packaging putting them in huge bins and making up signs saying quotSpecial Price 299quot which was the exact same price they were before We sold out in a few days I have marketed my new book in a totally unorthodox way Rather than going through book stores I have sent copies to friends and business associates and asked them to recommend it on their Facebook Twitter LinkedIn etc and send people to my Web site In 7 weeks I have sold over 1600 books and each day new orders come in My current reinvention is a partnership with Steve Frankfurt Advertising Hall of Fame etc to help form new partnerships among media entertainment and technology companies You can check out some of my reinvention tips by going to my Web site wwwblackerreinventioncom My new book is quotYou Can39t Fall Off The Floor The Insiders39 Guide to Reinventing Yourself and Your Careerquot It contains 189 lessons learnedSteve39s new book You Can39t Fall Off The Floor The Insiders39 Guide to ReInventing Yourself and Your Career chronicles his 50 year career working for over 25 different companies with 189 lessons learned and insider tips from Gayle King Cathie Black Chuck Townsend and 28 others Blacker is still going strong today as a partner in Frankfurt ampamp Blacker Solutions LLC His web site is blackerreinventionscom and email address is blackersolutionsaolcomRead all Steveamp8217s MediaBizBlogger commentaries at Steve Blacker MediaBizBlogger

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The Need To Re-Invent Yourself & Your Company - Steve Blacker - MediaBizBlogger

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