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Seth Godin
This is true not just for individual careers, of course.
Companies have the same trouble. They follow an industry
leader that stumbles. Or they launch a thousand imitations
of their first breakthrough product – never realizing
that the market is drying up.
For years, the record business has been dominated by a
few major players, and they work hard to follow each
other’s lead. The labels have similar pricing, merchant
policies, contracts, and packaging. Each label avoids criticism
by sticking with the pack.
But when the market changes – when technology reshuffles
the deck – the record labels are all in trouble. With no
practice leading, no practice trying the unknown, they’re
trapped, panicked, and in serious trouble. Their trade
organization, the RIAA, is spending millions of dollars
lobbying Congress to get legislation to keep the world just
the way it is. In the long run, of course, they’ll fail. You
can’t keep the world the way it is, even if you buy the influence
of Congress.
The lesson of the Cow is worth repeating: Safe is risky.
What tactics does your firm use that involve following
the leader What if you abandoned them
and did something very different instead If you
acknowledge that you’ll never catch up by being the
same, make a list of ways you can catch up by being
different.
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