A note on marketing *noise*. Over the past 10+ years, Ive been a learner, author, advisor, and teacher, around entrepreneurship, leadership, and innovation. Ive read hundreds of books, thousands of studies, and appreciate good research and work when I see it, starting with Peter Drucker. Unfortunately, were living in a world that often rewards and recognizes good marketing far more than solid research and rigor. My favorite example from 2014 came from Inc. Magazine, a publication I used to admire, yet in search of page views, published a list of top 50 leadership and management experts. The methodology for the list was to reference other top lists, twitter followings, blog reputation, and Wikipedia entries. Ironically, the person who developed the list, Jurgen Appelo, someone Ive never heard of, landed at #40 (and now displays the top Inc. List on the front of his website). Whats more, Tim Ferriss, who I happen to know, was #5. Tim Ferrriss is a great many things (I could tell you many stories), but a leadership and management expert he is not. He is a brilliant self-promoter and Internet marketer, but put him in a room with Ed Catmull, co-founder and president of Pixar, who wrote perhaps the best management book of 2014 and yet did not make the Inc. list, and Tim will have a very hard time getting taken seriously (unless he is talking about how to rejig Amazon ratings). I was happy to see some people I do respect on the list such as Bob Sutton and Daniel Pink, but I wrote to some Inc Magazine editors to ask why they put out such a clearly flawed methodology and hadnt included people who are generating some truly great work like Adam M. Grant, Nilofer Merchant, Jeffrey Pfeffer, and Bill George. Not surprisingly, I got no response. It seems to me to be part of a broader shift were seeing in the media: away from quality toward celebrity and marketed b.s. (the Kardashianisaztion of America). Given all the marketed noise today, its no surprise that people are thirsty for authenticity -- authentic leadership, authentic brands, and people who are authentic, and not just manufactured. What do you think? Heres to more authenticity and less marketed noise and b.s. in 2015. :)
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 19:21:08 +0000