One of my favourite historical figures of all time – ranking right up there with Leonardo, Michelangelo, Beethoven and the Beatles – is Benjamin Franklin. This month was his 300th birthday. Bummer I wasn’t invited to the party…
Much like my other heroes, Franklin was a renaissance man. A poor boy, the youngest son of a youngest son (he was number 10) he arrived in the city of Philadelphia poor, and died an icon.
Change is a funny thing. When has the world not been in the midst of change? Search for this (I did): find me a time in the modern era when the business and social press were NOT consumed with issues of change. Then go back to the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Roman or Greek era, Biblical times, and even before. Change always seems to be in the air. So what’s the big deal? Read on….
Try this one on for size. We obsess over the idea of change. We pay homage to its presence, make the necessary cosmetic adjustments, “talk the talk”, and declare the victory of change – maybe because it’s easier than actually walking the walk…
Now before you howl, there are no doubt some obvious exceptions and many good examples of change. But here’s the rub. If we “change”, and yet keep on doing the same old thing – walking the old walk as it were – well, what have we really accomplished?
Let me bring it home… Search again, this time within our own industry, and see how far back the notion of “integration” goes. Synergy was the word used in the 70’s for example. In the 60’s multi-media took off. And do you think that linking channels is a new concept? That someone only recently thought it up? Think again…
