Here today? Gone…?
Why do some business enterprises that last literally day…despite big hype and large hoopla…and others endure hundreds of years? Why is the ground littered with the wrecks of so many of the most exalted companies and ideas and technologies of the last ten years and yet so many others flourish and grow and so many older companies continue to thrive and prosper.
Why have we endured 50 years and will we here 50 years from now?
Maybe it’s all based on value proposition—the real value of the company as experienced by clients/users/buyers/customers/ consumers of its products or services.
Is it real? Does it really add value? Does it make a difference?
Or…
Is it just trendy or faddy or pseudo-cool?
Last week I wrote about social networking. I suggested that social networking is nothing new. I said that analysts are hyping behavior as old as humankind and unless we understand its true value and potential and the reasons behind them— all the technology in the world will not make it more successful.
Follow this link:
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080208/064718209.shtml
See my point?
Here is the problem. When we allow fad to dictate our business behavior, we might be successful in the short term. But, are we really building long term value?
Will we be here 50 years from now adding value to the latest and greatest or will we be just another footnote to business history.
Here is a thought:
A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic.
~George Bernard Shaw
How about this?
Let’s always be the antidote!
What do you think?
One last comment from a very special source:
Dreams surely are difficult, confusing, and not everything in them is brought to pass for mankind. For fleeting dreams have two gates: one is fashioned of horn and one of ivory. Those which pass through the one of sawn ivory are deceptive, bringing tidings which come to naught, but those which issue from the one of polished horn bring true results when a mortal sees them.
~Homer
There are elements of social computing-based marketing that are just silly trends. But, overall we know that it’s really bringing the century’s old marketplace to the digital space.
The Cluetrain Manifesto laid this all out more than 10 years ago. Anyone working in marketing these days should give that book a read, or re-read. It really illustrates how the social space is just a true manifestation of the traditional marketplace.
Hard to call something that’s been around for a millennium “trendy.” It’s only the technology that’s changed.
I guess marketplaces are the same since goods were first traded (and maybe watering holes since water was first drunk, and airport waiting lounges since flights were first delayed). But marketplaces have grown enormously, and the consumers have changed. Have the sellers changed? They still compete, fairly and unfairly. They still communicate with the consumers, honestly and shadily. Nowadays it seems to consumers can inform each other much more readily.
To the point — I think the question is if the application is trendy — clearly the behavior is as old as humankind. Bringing it to the digital space is a natural evolution
Agreed! The problem seems to be that we all forget about how people really interact whenever we try to move onto the digital space!
How about this — People are the real medium or channel — this thought courtesy of Gurval Caer teh CEO of Blast Radius — plan your next campaign with that thought and see where it goes…
Really interesting and useful blog
Would you be interested in exchanging links ?
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Eamon
It is interesting to note on a number of fronts that an organisation that bases itself on sound principles and practices and adheres to age old truths will maintain success much longer than those that do not. Fashions come and go, however, classic designs and styles are timeless, they may change slightly taking into account new material technology and/or manufacturing processes however essentially they remain true to what made them successful in the first place eg Dinner Suit, evening gowns or the little black dress. With regards the question of networking, again the same principles apply, it is as old as life itself, communication evolves alongside any technology that makes communication more accessible, more interactive, anything that allows people to be heard, from the first moment somebody blew into a Conch shell and realised that it amplified sound, to town cryers, to the telephone etc etc. It all makes sense when we know the original meaning of the word, Digital from L. digitus “finger or toe,” related to dicere “tell, say, point out”
Forever the Digital Age, the age of communication, the age of networking. Fashions come and go…