You can happily quote me on this point:

“It is highly unlikely if not impossible that the next major shift in the <insert your industry here> industry, will come from an established player in that industry currently.”

I whole heartedly believe that this is true. Very few, I can’t even think of one, people can or will revolutionise the same industry twice.

This is a very scary thought for entrepreneurs like me, who have to face the reality that they will not be able to strike twice. Yup, sadly, it’s unlikely that the next revolution in presentations will come from Missing Link.

Bad news?

Not necessarily. You see I believe we still can be revolutionaries, I just think we need to find an establishment that we know very little about to revolt against.

This applies to everyone, if you fancy yourself as a world-changer, and you find that you’ve got really good at what you do now - then chance are it’s not just the world that needs changing…!

Thanks to Johan for pointing me to this gem:

It would even funnier if it wasn’t so true. Much respect to Geert.

Required viewing for marketers and clients alike…!

Phone them to opt out? Fat chance.

Do they really believe that buying my birthday information will get them close enough to me to pitch? I don’t feel warm and fuzzy, I feel like my privacy has been invaded.

This reminds me a lot of the video posted below. The job of the marketer is not to find personal information and exploit it, but rather to create meaningful relationships, and celebrate them. Vida gets this.

I’m not sure, but I’m don’t believe that large corporations should feign intimacy, despite what they read in business books. It rarely comes across as authentic, and very few consumers buy it anyway…!

Last week, I had the great pleasure of hosting, along with Jonty Rhodes, Standard Bank’s fifth Espresso Session.

The guest this time was Oli Barrett, and it is to him that the quote in the subject line refers.

(Spot the Colgate ad smile, and you’ve found our hero)

Oli truly is one of the most connected people I have ever met, he hands out business cards by the herd, but rarely without someone else’s number scribbled quickly on the back.

There were far too many gems in his talk to cover here, so I write this post rather to encourage you to give his blog a read, or better still, get in touch with him.

Chances are he may just know a guy, that knows a guy, that…!