Joseph Jaffe on Fixing Corporations That Are Built to Suck

Not coincidentally Jaffe39s previous consultancy was named Evol8tion and had the goal of leveraging an automated platform and innovating around quotbetter cheaper fasterquot The former director of interactive media at TBWAChiatDay and OMD USA is now the author of five books and a frequent press source on marketingIn our conversation Jaffe explains the full title of his latest work amp8212 with its subhead of The Inevitable Demise of The Corporation and How to Save It amp8212 includes a question mark saying quotI39m not sure the corporation can be saved There39s enough in this book to talk about how to save the corporation but I39m neutral herequotWe39ll see Listen to our full conversation hereJaffe also describes the four reasons for what he calls the corporate apocalypse company size age culture and being a public company The following is a topline edited for length and clarity You39ll want to listen to the full podcast to hear his specifics on all four issues and the suggested pillars for growth Hear what he believes is the biggest fundamental recent change in all of marketing the Jaffe version of the quotthree Psquot for today39s evolving environment and why he has no tolerance for those quotdiscoveringquot instead of rediscovering their brand purposePlease listen or subscribe wherever you consume audio Appleamp160GooglePodcastsamp160iHeartRadioamp160Pandoraamp160Spotifyamp160Stitcheramp160TuneIn andamp160YouTubeamp160Moss I appreciate you being here on Insider InSitesJaffe Well in 2005 I was I think one of the first marketing podcasts It39s amazing watching this incredible resurgence of podcasting It39s such a powerful medium strategically if we think about how much time we spend commuting gardening running etcetera amp8212 when we39re a captive audience with these headphones in our ears amp8212 it39s not a fluke that we39re finally seeing podcasting getting its dueMoss Speaking of how content consumption boundaries are gone amp8212 being able to watch Netflix here or AE there amp8212 is a nice transition to Built to Suck It39s all about transitions and ways we need to embrace a new kind of worldJaffe Bill Duggan asked me in a recent MediaVillage interview about one of the growth pillars described in the book which is digital disruption But I had said in my keynote at the ANA Masters of Marketing Conference that maybe it39s more about disrupting digital because digital has become so boring and predictable and just uninspiringImagine if we went back in time and I was telling you about this amazing new thing called ecommerce where at three o39clock in the morning on a Sunday you could be ordering stuff online Or about the even more wondrous thing that lets you search for stuff that you wanted based on when you wanted it I still believe that the most fundamental change in all of marketing in terms of actually reversing the entire direction of messaging of transactions and being truly customercentric is search If at that time someone was presenting this to us we wouldn39t have reacted with wonder We wouldn39t have said quotI39m quitting my day job I39m all inquot We would have resisted it We would have told everyone what our concerns wereI always say it39s easy to get to quotnoquot the challenge as marketing professionals is to find a way to get to and fight for that quotyesquot We39re surrounded by change but do you recognize it when you see it and are you prepared to do something about it That39s what separates the winners today from the losersWhen you think about corporations recognizing that their entire business model amp8212 the fundamental revenue streams amp8212 are being disintermediated and disrupted are they deaf to these signs So go back in time to almost project yourself forward and say quotI made the mistake before but I won39t make it againquotMoss So there39s resistance to change and not embracing the wonder of new things then pivoting But how do you back up the claim that corporations are on their way outJaffe I call my books giant opinion pieces not research papers While this book has a lot of anecdotal evidence amp8212 Blockbuster Kodak Toys quotRquot Us Sears and most recently Barneys Payless and Thomas Cook amp8212 there39s also a lot of empirical evidence For example there are now less than 50 companies of the original Fortune 500 which was started in 1955 still on the listThere are four reasons for the corporate apocalypse The first is size the fundamental business model of big business is broken Everything that was a growth enabler is now a growth inhibitor size scale economies of scale efficiencies of scale costcutting global networks global reach What has really happened is that the corporation has slowed down when the world is speeding up has become too big too siloed too political too dysfunctional too conservative amp8212 and the corporation has lost its competitive edgeSecond is age being too stubborn set in their ways Third is being a public company How can we think and act long term and see the bigger picture when we are constantly being weighed down and anchored by these shortterm quarterly returnsThe fourth reason is culture and ironically that39s the one that can actually be defeated first but only if the company can get back to day one and not discover its purpose but rediscover its purpose This whole discovery effort amp8212 paying the McKinseys and Deloittes millions of dollars for a year and a half of time that we don39t have Don39t discover it just you forgot it Go back to that scrappy entrepreneurial spirit when your company when your large behemoth of today was literally operating out of a garageMoss Those reasons actually parallel paths what MediaVillage keeps reiterating about the media industry We have ageism in terms of mediabuying demographics and the talent pool corporate cultures that demand more diversity and inclusion And on the financial side look at what39s happened with procurement and the agency communityJaffe I agree and this may sound like a controversial statement I would say the demise of prime time is probably the best thing that39s ever happened to advertising I call it time or lag analysis It39s the amount of time that elapses between exposure to a message and the ability to convert on that message So again I39d be there watching ER or Seinfeld on Thursday night and see this commercial for a car But the car dealership is closed at night What can I do about it at the time So I do what every human being does I forget Which is one of the reasons we need all frequency amp8212 to keep reminding people But we39re reminding them at the worst possible times when they actually can39t do a damn thing about itUltimately we need to be serving the right person with the right message in the right place at the right time And that39s why I think we are seeing to a degree a resurgence of outofhome and radioMoss Two plugs here the first the relatively new organization DUZY tv has a patent on an overlay that lets you buy that product then and there without leaving the video And second MediaVillage39s Jack Myers also talks about how advertising is getting more efficient so we don39t have to oversaturate if we are targeting and using addressability more But that requires starting from zero to budget for just the solutions that deliver that right message So it39s got to start with What does your marketing require And how do you get out there at the right timeJaffe I completely agree with that The acquisition funnel is going to shrink and the retention funnel is going to grow and we will spend less money acquiring new customers because we39re more efficient at doing so That39s the pursuit of zero waste That is the future for media and for marketing but it39s not one that lazy and entitled and resistanttochange executives are going to like at all The path I lay out in Built to Suck starts off with quotembrace your heresyquot amp8212 embrace your deepest darkest fears What if you charge your customers for admission like Costco does What if you killed the cash cow like Netflix did when they shipped their billionth DVD then almost immediately shut it down Or REI closing on black Friday You39ve got to be able to accept and embrace your mortality and then say quotWell if our time is limited let39s live Let39s maximize this gift this opportunity of lifequotAnd the four growth pillars They are digital disruption talent resurrection customer obsession and corporate citizenship I do believe that if a company goes down this path they absolutely will maximize their chances of surviving and even thriving amp8212 from survival to thrivalClick the social buttons to share this story with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writers

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Joseph Jaffe on Fixing Corporations That Are Built to Suck

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