How Will You Convince People to See Things Your Way? - Martin Puris
Once again, I will presume that we’re of a similar state of mind: we agree that there is a problem and we agree that change is necessary. Now the question is how will you convince your own management, likely left-brain people, that there’s enormous financial value in Big Thinking and Big Ideas? Or put another way, how are you going to turn around a giant supertanker using your hand as a rudder?
As you perhaps know, 2500 years ago, give or take, a Chinese philosopher-General named Sun Tzu allegedly wrote a book called The Art of War. I say allegedly because there’s no proof that he actually wrote it. Nevertheless, it’s a book much beloved by Wall Street people, business school professors, military colleges, generals of the army, CEOs who fancy themselves generals, and a whole cottage industry of motivational speakers.
I have to say that I am not a big fan of the Sun Tzu philosophy of life. I find the idea that one should live one’s business life in a perpetual state of war unpleasant. However, there are elements of the Sun Tzu philosophy that are worth applying, particularly given the herculean task that lies ahead of you.
I’d like to think so. That objective may be ambitious but it’s not totally irrational. We’ve seen and studied the power that Big Ideas and Big Thinking have had in the world, how one Big Idea has the power to change everything. And, after all, it was Big ideas and Big Thinking that created the great American companies in the first place.
What the Great Advertising Renaissance certainly will do, when successfully executed, is to convince corporate management to see things a bit differently, reevaluate the value of creative thinking and the power of Big ideas to produce topline revenue — which, when all is said and done, is the best and most legitimate way to create a healthy and non-bogus bottom line.
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Ignorance is a choice. Here is a list of popular international news websites:
Yahoo! News Google News HuffingtonPost CNN New York Times De Telegraaf NBC News Mail Online Washington Post The Guardian WSJ ABCNews BBC News USA Today LA Times De Volkskrant Le Monde Le Figaro
