Universal truths and battling changes

Another spectacular Marketing Society Conference drew to a close and I was left mulling over some universal truths and battling with some challenges.

First for the truths.  These are the things that we know, but sometimes can lose sight of.  So an annual reminder of what they are and why they are important is exceptionally useful.  We all need to get re-inspired from time to time.
 
1. Thinking needs time. You have to create time for reflection or you can't expect to improve.  Sir Dave Brailsford’s suggestion is that we give ourselves time for ‘Reflective practice’.  And he should know, as he took the British cycling team from 0 to 18 gold medals in 12 years. Not to mention triumphs at the World Championships and the Tour de France.  Both he and Jeremy Darroch, CEO of Sky suggested that we have a book in which we make notes on our own ambitions and progress.  Perhaps the simple truth (mine not his) is that as you get more senior, you think you should know all this stuff, but in fact you don’t.  So we shouldn’t feel we are failing if we don’t have the answer to it all.  And we shouldn’t feel we’re not worth spending time on improving.
 
2. Enthusiasm or lack of it is infectious.  Author and Storyteller Elif Shafak told us, and whilst it’s something that we sort of know, the conference itself demonstrated it too.  It would be hard to sit with Anthony Thomson or Dan Ariely for long and not be enthused to do the things they believe in.  It made me reflect on the fact that leadership is largely about positivity, about, well, leading.  And that as marketers, we’re good at the very thing that businesses need – a vision of what the future might be, not simply a mission.  As Anthony Thomson of Atom Bank put it.  “A mission is something about doing good.  A vision should be something inspiring that makes you take a sharp intake of breath, or produce a nervous giggle.”.  It made me determined to go back and pick ours apart until it made me feel uncomfortable.  
 
3. The future is uncertain but not necessarily gloomy.  With talks about artificial intelligence and the one click consumer, it would be easy to feel depressed about what the future holds for us as marketing folk.  But in fact I came away enthused by both Professor Nick Bostrom, Founder & Director or the Humanity Institute and Maebh Quoirin, Managing Director of the Future Foundation. Both should be high on your lists of stimulating speakers incidentally. Turns out that our ability to be irrational is what will differentiate us from machines.  And ultimately our ability to be creative is what will make a difference between success and failure.  As Martin Glenn put it, behind every successful or unsuccessful business is a marketing success or a marketing failure.  Also the interesting point that machines find it quite hard to pick objects up because they find it hard to identify what an object is.  Also, of course, stairs can be a problem if you are a Dalek…
 
4. Capitalism is not bad by definition.  Luke Johnson’s polemic about large companies and in favour of smaller capitalists (or entrepreneurs as they are more politically correctly termed these days) was heartening, as was Sherry Coutu’s powerful data about what scale ups can contribute to the UK economy.  For once it felt like business per se wasn’t on a back foot.  Perhaps it’s time we stopped defending ourselves against the behaviours perpetrated by a few and concentrated on promoting the contribution of the many.  Another truth to try to hold in front of our minds between now and next year’s conference perhaps.
 
So what of the challenges?  For me the biggest one is about channelling the trends and changes coming over the hill in consumer world into meaningful implications for business communications.  Will business products and services ever be bought by a ‘one click consumer’?  Maybe not.  But the service ethic that underpins it will directly impact on our perceptions of what business looks like.  Businesses take note.
 
What can we learn about the positive contribution that consumer brands are making to help their customers positively curate their self image.  A lot.  Imagine a business brand that helps their customers look good when they’ve attended an event, as a speaker or an attendee.

Perhaps that’s one for next year’s Marketing Society Conference?

Fran Brosan is chairman and co-founder of Omobono. See more from Omobono here.