I got my rock moves, and I don’t need you… Yes, I’ve fallen victim to quite possibly the catchiest pop song this year, Pink’s “So What”. Laugh away, but at least it’s not the Jonas Brothers, right?
However, apart from being one of the best party songs of the year, Pink’s song could also be looked at as a poster child for surviving today’s economic mire. After all, in a year when corporate America finally screwed over everyone to bursting point, a song about taking the hits and coming out fighting is strangely karmic.
Yet perhaps there’s more to this than my questionable connection between Pink and greedy suits? For years the music industry has shown how to take an extremely competitive business model and stay relevant. While it’s true that the labels are suffering just like every other business at the moment, again that’s down to greed – charging exorbitant prices for CD’s, tour tickets, etc.
No, when I mention the music industry being successful, I mean the artists in it – specifically the ones that have adapted and changed to suit current trends. Look at the most successful artists of the last 40 years – the Beatles, the Stones, Madonna, David Bowie. They all continued having hits in different decades because they moved with the times and searched out new audiences.
This is where businesses need to do the same thing. There is so much doom and gloom being spouted by so many negative business owners – but this needn’t be the case. Yes, the Government and the city slickers royally screwed everyone – but is there anything new there?
Instead of complaining about the why’s, perhaps we should be looking at the what’s – what can we do, what changes can we make, what technologies do I need to adapt to in order to continue my business? Ed Lee of Internet communications consultancy iStudio wrote a great blog post about this very topic, and offered suggestions on the three areas that businesses should be looking at to be more “recession proofed” (one of which is social media, unsurprisingly).
It’s a theory I’ve subscribed to for all of my professional life. Before I started my own business I worked under some static bosses in this respect – sadly many of these businesses are no longer around, although unfortunately I can’t say I’m surprised.
The business world has been changing for a long time – the Internet and the explosion of online trading has seen to that. Although we’re looking down the barrel of a very scary economic gun, it doesn’t mean we have to be held hostage. The businesses that realize this and adapt will be the ones that survive.
For the rest? They’ll be the equivalent of Pink’s ex in her song – hung out to dry while everyone else moves on.
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