Four years ago in “The Hughtrain” I published the cartoon above, with the following thought beneath it:
: There’s only one thing harder than starting a new business: Re-inventing an old one.
Start-ups are fine and dandy, most people reading this will know all about them.
But what about Start-Agains? Are they an exercise in futility or a tremendous opportunity?
THOUGHT: The future of advertising is clients increasingly asking their agencies to help re-invent not just their brands, but their actual companies. The future is agencies being increasingly unable to deliver on this.
Out of this wreckage a new industry will emerge…
So how do companies, businesses, brands etc re-invent themselves?
Big, big question. Worth a fortune to know the answer.
Actually, the answer’s pretty simple: The same way humans re-invent themselves.
I know. It shouldn’t be that simple, but it is.
1. I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. I like the entry, though four years later, I’m not sure how comfortable I still am with the statement, “Actually, the answer’s pretty simple: The same way humans re-invent themselves. I know. It shouldn’t be that simple, but it is.“
Corporate re-invention may be in simple in retrospect, but when it’s happening in real time it’s a tough, nasty, brutal business [Ask IBM if you don’t believe me]. Not for the faint of heart. But that’s what makes it so damn interesting. And potentially lucrative.
2. In the early 2000’s I had gotten quite disillusioned with traditional, Madison Avenue advertising, the industry I had entered when I left college [Though let’s be honest, it had never thought that highly of me, either, but that’s a story for another day].
Thankfully, with the advent of The Cluetrain, blogs and what later went on to be called “Web 2.0″, it seemed a new world order was emerging. The Internet was changing things; just none of us knew exactly how. But it was damn exciting new reality to contemplate.
In 2004, I first started articulating a belief that I still hold true today– that good, well-executed communication via blogging can make a huge difference in the fortunes of a company, large or small [I went on to explain it as “The Porous Membrane”]. And this time, the emphasis would not be a one-way message, but in a two-way “Conversation”.
Of course, “Conversation” is just a metaphor. When was the last time you wanted to phone up Hershey’s and have a long, deep, stimulating conversation with one their employees about 75-cent candy bars? No, sometimes you just want to put your money on the counter of the convenience store and buy your kids a little treat. And. That. Is. Enough. Human beings don’t scale. Our capacity for deep-and-meaningful is limited. “Conversation” is just convenient shorthand to better explain how markets– suppliers and buyers– relate to each other as human beings, not just as numbers on the spreadsheet. But that’s all it is. That’s all it needs to be.
Since I’ve become aware of this new world of Web 2.0, I’ve always been interested in testing its limitations, especially when it comes to marketing. So I’ve always been on the lookout for new opportunities in this area of business.
3. Earlier this year I started a conversation with Dell. So far the conversation is still going on. Some folks inside the company had seen The Microsoft Blue Monster and wondered if there was anything in this kind of thinking that could help their company. I’m guessing the answer might be “No”. The Blue Monster came out of pretty unique, random circumstances. Which of course, is the whole point. Ergo, I’m not really interested in a cartooning gig with Dell per se. I am, however, interested in the company.
4. It seems to me that, like a lot of large tech companies of a certain age, Act One in the Dell drama has reached its end. The war to get computers onto the desktops of the developed world, cheaply and easily, has been largely fought and won by companies like Dell, Microsoft, HP and Apple.
Mission Accomplished.
But what happens in Act Two? How do large tech companies like Dell have to re-invent themselves in order to make the grade? To keep their ever-growing army of customers and shareholders relatively content? Seriously. I want to know.
5. What needs to happen in order for Dell to become a better company? What needs to change? What needs to remain the same? These are huge questions. Like I said, it’s worth a fortune to anybody who can come up with good answers.
6. What is “The Conversation” that needs to happen? You tell me.
Over the last few years, I’ve had a few ideas about marketing and the internet. English Cut, Stormhoek and The Blue Monster were opportunities for me to prove them. And for the most part, I succeeded. Dell might be another opportunity. I’m not sure yet.
The New Republic
Len Schlesinger
Tony Hsieh
Seth Godin
Brian Clark
Hugh, Like me, you must love a trainwreck. I guess that’s when strong, decisive action led by someone fearless can make the biggest impact.
Seems to me Dell has lost the trust of many different stakeholders. I’m most familiar with their shareholders’ disappointment. Who’s the biggest company to admit to deliberate accounting manipulation, post Sarbanes-Oxley? They’ve been incorrigible.
Good luck finding a way to sell folks on their supposed regret and redemption.
Hey Francine, Thanks for that.
I don’t regard it as a train wreck. I regard it as the usual grim-meathook realities of running a large, publicly traded company. Like I said, not for the faint-of-heart.
But that’s what makes it so interesting. This ain’t no taco stand.
Well, Madonna has reinvented herself into a multi-million dollar corporation. I find inspiration in her hutspah. Now, instead of sex-vixon, she is glam mom. Works for me. The world is being reinvented, as we read. Personally, I think Dell should put dots on all their computers. Or maybe plaids. Or stripes… Not just the packaging.
Interesting post… obviously there are a lot of us inside Dell wrestling with some of the issues you raise.
A couple of points from my perspective:
–in my experience social media done right (through blog outreach, Twitter our own blogs, etc. help change customer perceptions better than anything I’ve ever seen. But, scaling the work involved isn’t easy.
–social media at any level will never be a substitute for quality products and great service.
We have lots of work left to do. We have to get better at connecting our customers with people and conversations that are important to them. Maybe it’s not re-inventing – it’s just evolving.
Hey Lionel, thanks for stopping by
Evolving vs Re-Inventing, the debate continues
Luckily, yours is a big company. Lots of room for both!
Hugh, good post.
Lionel — your second point is really important. “social media at any level will never be a substitute for quality products and great service.“
So true, so true. Social media is really important in terms of how companies engage employees, customers, partners, etc., in a different kind of conversation than we have previously. But it doesn’t replace the fundamentals of doing business well. Some of us stuck in the social media world forget that at times.
Good work, btw, on all fronts.
I think it always comes back to basics. If it’s a *real* product it will sell. And it has to be backed by integrity.
Of course promotion is important (you obviously know that better than I), but word-of-mouth, low level promotion can easily grow to a groundswell.
If I were advising I’d say Dell needs to find something they, as a company, can *believe* in. When the people doing the work believe, Apples happen.
Whether one likes/agrees with Apple they DO make money. Again not the only measure of success, but that’s another thread.
A very thoughtful, well put post. I like that you held your ground: I’m not interested in making a cartoon for Dell — but I am interested in the company…that’s a great point! That’s your value. Your not carbon copying your approach to helping these companies out — your letting some oxygen in, some chance to happen and unfold, some hard work and creativity no doubt — and a keen interest in the process and the company. From that come the great ideas, a chance for great work and real value! kudos.
I’ve said before that business is like sex — not war or sports. (see here for a longer version) http://thesmallbusinesscoach.com/blog/2006/03/20/business-is-like-sex-not-sports-or-war/
Now you’ve given me another vantage point. Perhaps re-inventing a business is like putting the zip back in a marriage.
When companies succeed wildly people usually focus on what they are doing. But that’s only half the story — it’s also the context in which they are doing it. They were able to exploit some aspect of that context that resonates with customers in a big way. Sometimes they do this on purpose and sometimes they just get lucky. When the context changes but they don’t realize it then they’re screwed (see we’re back to the sex analogy).
If they even need to reinvent themselves, it’s because the context has changed. They may or may not be good enough, or lucky enough to exploit the new context given their old baggage.
I worked at Dell five years ago. Perhaps some has changed since then, but I wouldn’t know.
When I was at Dell, people were rewarded for making profit. Every metric, every meeting, everything was centered around it.
A change wouldn’t come easy. Metrics are deeply ingrained in the culture there. We were told to help the customer, but we were rewarded monetarily by doing the opposite. For example, if we had an escalation that we could solve, we were told to help the customer right then and there so as to leave them with a good experience. Our paychecks depending on metrics that were profit based though, so helping the customer actually hurt our efficiency and therefore our pocketbooks. The highest paid sales reps tended to have a lot of escalations they did not solve. It was really annoying.
I know meeting quarterly projections is important, but if the result of this profit-based culture is a high number of incidents that lead to bad PR and lost business, perhaps this should be reexamined.
I left Dell because I wanted to help people, and I was tired of solving issues created by other sales reps while watching their paychecks get fatter.
Not sure how much of this has been resolved in the past five years, but that’s just my two cents. I care about Dell because it is an Austin company and I know a lot of people who work there, so I hope your evil plans work, Hugh.
There’s something missing here…something about Dell knowing who they are and what they want to be. Without that, the re-inventing conversation results in a generic answer/solution/reason for being.
There’s something missing here…something about Dell knowing who they are and what they want to be. Without that, the re-inventing conversation results in a generic answer/solution/reason for being.
what’s next ?
once all you have within the borders of the western borders is a saturated market, with exhausted people who can’t take a single bit more of propaganda, all that remains is the outside world.
but the outside world is way more difficult, wild geographies, languages and tantrum-throwing governments.
it’s more difficult for sure, but the rewards can be immense.
Europe wasn’t in a good shape 50 years ago.
can we stop being so fucking lazy and start constructing the rest of the world ?
the idea that there’s little else to do is false, there’s plenty to do, and plenty of money out there to be made.
we only need to start moving our lazy asses.
Hugh
Beautiful — difficult — questions. As to Number 6, the big one, an easy answer would be to adopt the criteria for leadership articulated by Peter Koestenbaum: Vision, Ethics, Courage, and Reality. Which is lacking and needs to be bolstered. If any aren’t there the “window” of greatness closes.
A tougher answer might be this: can the company handle its “discrepancies,” the gaps between the way it says it gets things done and the way it really gets things done. What are the “undiscussable” issues at Dell, the ones that people are afraid to talk about with those who can actually address the problem? Reinvention is a product of facing the lack of internal congruence between an illusion of a certain identity and actual performance. I bet you are just the guy to help people find the courage to face what is. That’s the transformation. Just finding, accepting, and dealing with…what is.
I call it as improving the old one. I will have one idea on my mind which is already invented. I try to add many things to it like making it more useful. Cadillac arrived like that.
It is same as reinventing know?!
Great to see the first comment coming from my friend and forensic accountant Francine.
I guess I don’t need to tell you this but the big problem with companies like Dell is that they have a long history of success and often take the risk averse approach — ie — If it ain’t irretrievably broke, don’t fix it. See it all the time.
And actually, they’re not doing badly at the moment. Their direct outreach program has gone really well and they’re getting favorite status in some of the cloud computing environments I see cuz they can turn on a dime where the likes of Sun are leaden footed.
It ain’t all about marketing though — they need to step up to the plate in a lot areas, part of which Francine identified. Lots of other stuff they could be doing.
“the feint of heart” — what a poetic phrase!
I feint love
You respond with affection
I CRUSH YOU WITH FULL FRONTAL RAGE!!
Can the heart really feint?
Having worked at DEC/ Digital/ Compaq/ HP for 20 years, I really should have something useful to contribute. But from the trenches, each new general comes along with their new ideas, they all look plausible and then suddenly something works.
Hard to tell why, though one can always rationalise. I have two rationalisations for our recent uptick:
1. luck
2. better discipline in execution, including a clear choice of how the company will organise and what it will and will not do. (It’s surprising how IT can delude a company into thinking it can organise by some sort of matrix rather than clear lines of responsibility. Reporting and management are not the same!)
Why SHOULD a company continue after its Mission is Accomplished, anyway?
Because it has built a capability that is valuable in another context. It is easiest to start with a deep understanding what the company is capable of. Then look for a market. This seems to be the approach that Lou Gerstner took with IBM and Mark Hurd with HP.
So the first conversation is corporate psychoanalysis.
Hugh:
A most excellent post. This is the kind of commentary that keeps us thinking all day – and creates its own “conversation.“
Keep this flow of stimulating conversation coming. I’ve missed it.
Seems to me that it’s the usual branding vs. commoditization problem. As long as Dell make commodities (PCs) they have no social object to hang a story around. We know what a PC is and what we want from it. Either Dell give it to as cheaply as possible or they can’t.
If Dell want a social object / brand makeover they have to make products that are differentiated in a way worth talking about. With English Cut and Stormhoek you had a novel story : “a tailor / wine that blogs”. With Dell, “a computer company that blogs” isn’t going to fly.
Who’s making a differentiated PC today? (Apart from Apple who are at a whole other level.) Basically Asus. They have great stories : a whole new form-factor, a whole new price, new technologies (solid state disks), Linux really making things cheaper, etc.
Dell used to have two good stories : “cheaper because we sell direct without dealers” and “you can customize on our web-site and our super-lean process will build to your design in a day”. The first story is probably no-longer available. Doesn’t *everybody* sell direct? The second seems to have gone AWOL. “Customizability” could be an idea that Dell still owns. The right web-site, a cute user-interface, could turn computer shopping into an intensely personal Build-a-bear kind of emotional experience. Dell could offer wider variety of peripherals, accessories etc. They could invest in and promote their supply-chain, gain green credentials through offering you the chance to build “low carbon footprint” PCs from local or lower-polluting sources. They could create an Etsy-like market for casemodders etc.
But they need to have *something* to tell a story about.
buy — rent — give away free. they should head in this general direction i reckon
Your comment about reinventing a company being as tough as reinventing a person struck a chord with me. Change is hard for most of us when it happens around us, and it can be doubly challenging when we are actually making a conscious effort to take our lives or our businesses in a new direction.
Recently, I asked the question What is your relationship with change? Even those of us in Generation X and Y, who tend to embrace change, have to admit that it can be a frightening prospect when we admit that the direction we chose might not be where we end up, both in business and in life.
Still, it takes guts to try instead of doing what you’ve always done to get what you’ve always gotten. Life rewards those who move in the direction of greatest courage.
They need to satisfy customers, to do that they have to innovte process. Right now they are empty PR.
Hugh, I’m curious what exactly they want you to do? Their direction or lack there of baffles me.
Although a reinvention can be many things or have many meanings, setting the course of a company the size of Dell is a tall order. A tall order that a CEO and a board of directors are paid to envision and carry out.
Companies hire consultants all the time, that’s not a big deal, however it strikes me that if they don’t have an idea of what direction they need to go in, the management needs to change before anything meaningful can occur.
It would be a different story if they had an idea and needed expertise in getting there, but it’s completely another when they ask someone to tell them where they need to be. The old quote from Wayne Gretzky applies here. The reason for his success was that he didn’t chase the puck, he skated to where he thought the puck was going to be.
Clearly their present leadership is unable to do this, so unless you plan on taking up permanent residency at Dell, they’ll still have trouble long-term. That is unless they have a clear vision and just don’t know how to get there (enter Hugh), which takes me back to my opening line/question.
What I’m hearing from their customers is “They lie and their customer service is a farce.” Yeah… so how does one re-invent that?
Good Luck with them Texans (LOL yeah I know it’s my home state and I’m dieing to go back home to visit … They talk different, They walk with a determination, They know they’re a nation unto themselves. … They’re dang stubborn … and If they are convinced an idea is suppose to work, they’ll not let go until the last second … but this is only true of the natives. Be certain you’re lining this info up with a native. Imports & 2nd gen-ers are another story.)