| | By Mick James
Now is the time that
all good pundits and
commentators dig out the
crystal ball; mine is
currently displaying the
words “Parental Guidance
Required”. 2009 could be
summed up as a year of
trying to put the most
positive construction on
a confusing and
increasingly bleak
outlook. Now we are at
least spared the pain of
doubt. Unfortunately, it
turns out that a one-way
ticket to Hell on the
Oblivion Express isn’t
quite as much fun as
those heavy metal bands
made it out to be.
I’ve lived through
many a recession, and
would say that one of
the things that marks
this one out is not just
its global nature but
the swift, decisive and
co-ordinated action that
governments around the
world are taking to
combat it. The fact that
this action seems so
remarkably ineffective
so far leads one to ask
whether we would be in
that much worse a state
if we’d done nothing. Or
should we have used all
that money to do
something useful or fun,
like a solar plant
covering the Sahara or a
mission to Mars?
Personally, I think | |
|
| | the problem is that we
are using real money to
counter a largely
conceptual problem.
There’s no point in
getting your chequebook
out at the end of Peter
Pan and offering to pay
for Tinkerbell’s medical
bills – you have to get
to your feet with
everybody else and
proclaim your belief in
fairies. The current
situation was neatly
summed up for me over
Christmas by an exchange
between Slade lead
singer Noddy Holder and
Private Eye editor Ian
Hislop on Have I got
News For You?
Holder: “So where did
all the money go?”
Hislop: “It never
existed in the first
place.”
Holder: “Well, that’s
alright then, isn’t it?”
So if the current
crisis is a failure of
the imagination (or at
least, of pantomime
logic) perhaps that
points the way forward.
I’ve never ceased to be
amazed by human
ingenuity – I’ve only
just got tired of boring
people with the £17
gizmo I recently bought
that turns my laptop
into a television.
That’s incredibly
clever, but couldn’t all
that cleverness have | |
| |
| | months of a recession
looking like someone who
has been on one of those
Christmas crash diets
that leave you fatter
and more out of shape
than ever.
But this pragmatic
focus and attention to
cost needs to be
tempered. The best
clients – the very best
clients – will have
realised that the time
to get a grip of costs
is while the sun is
shining. All too many
organisations get too
carried away with
success – and the
prospect of future
success – to worry too
much about consolidating
internally. I heard the
sad tale recently of one
highly successful young
brand that has grown
massively from a
standing start and yet
was on the brink of
collapse even before the
downturn really kicked
in. The reason: there
isn’t a single business
process in the place.
The danger is that
these cautionary tales,
while valuable, tend to
have the effect of
scaring people away from
innovation in tough
times. But I would argue
that in these tough
times it’s more
important to be creative
than ever before. The | |
|
| | one thing we know for a
fact is that things
aren’t going to be like
they were before. A lot
of companies will be
going into survival mode
– and let’s face it, a
lot of companies will
also be going into
non-survival mode.
That opens up
opportunities. Take
retail, for example. I
don’t doubt that I’ll be
reading a lot of “death
of the high street” type
articles over the next
months, as one retailer
after another succumbs
to lack of demand. Our
high streets could end
up resembling a row of
rotten teeth, with only
pound stores and charity
shops filling the gaps.
Or we could see the
emergence of totally new
retail concepts, some of
which might fail, some
of which might emerge as
new paradigms.
I’m not saying it’s
going to happen, but the
hypertrophied
monkey-brains that put
cameras in mobile phones
ought to be able to
think of something
interesting to go where
Woolworths used to be.
We could be in for a
very interesting year,
albeit with rather a lot
of grim and boring bits.
Happy New Year to you
all. | |
|
Previous Page 