Friday, December 1, 2017

Don't kill it!


Don't let one failure kill your zeal for thinking out-of-the-box.

I've seen this happen thousands of times. With clients, colleagues, professionals & creative directors.
The failure of an idea closes the doors on any further effort to think out-of-the-box.
All professionals agree on one thing, that out-of-the-box thinking is the need of the hour. Then why is so little of it happening?
If you set aside technology companies, almost no large company is embracing this unquestionable truth. Why is this so?
The reason is simple: "A burnt child dreads fire" Take a company facing fierce competition or with an ambitious growth target. An out-of-the-box idea is the need of the hour.It develops one along with its agencies and research teams. It earmarks a huge marketing budget, top professionals in the company put their careers at risk to back the idea. A huge PR campaign is launched and the product is rolled out. After the initial euphoria, no great growth is seen. The naysayers within the organization draw out their daggers and heads begin to roll.
For the company & the professionals who lost their jobs one question is asked repeatedly, "Who told you to do this? at least you would have a job!" There's now a unspoken bad word within the company - "out-of-the-box". Everyone flinches from it. The professionals who join other places come down hard on anyone in their team who uses these blasphemous words! Nobody want's to be unemployed again! Even though everyone can see the end of the organization looming, they now prefer to sit tight and keep shut. Sad, but true.
We must understand that an idea carries high risk and seek learning not scapegoats. Standing still or flowing with the tide is also failure.

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