We have seen annus horribilis ad finem. Now what?

Originally published in Mobile Markter, October 5 2009

A couple of weeks ago I had a great email exchange with someone I met online. Not that kind of online exchange, but in response to one of my opinion pieces.

Ten months later, Dave (who is also a contributor to Mobile Marketer) and I still have not met in person, but we have developed a lovely rapport – exchanging ideas on everything from how to fix the world, to writing a book on self-sufficiency to what is wrong with our industry (he is a marketer too). A lot, we have agreed.

Let us start with resounding cop-out of the past annus horribilis – the recession.

It seems that anyone and everyone is, has or was using this as an excuse for their company's ills – poor sales, fewer customers, loss of clarity. Take your pick.

To be sure, as an agency owner I have been affected too, but the truth of the matter is that marketing has imploded at the very time when “disruptive technology,” “forced innovation” and “reinvention” have become the catchphrases of the day.

Isn’t this cyclical? We grow, we learn, we stumble, we rise, we fail and then we start over, but with new visions and ideas about doing what we were doing in a far better and stronger way than before.

Creative destruction, right?

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