I wrote this post in If not more so. It was exciting to play a role in the burgeoning online news industry. It was also scary to know that the daily newspaper was about to be disrupted by the Internet.
We had a sense of what was coming and created new online approaches to deliver the news, new advertising formats and new services including well-trafficked community forums which were a harbinger of the coming power of social media. Craigslist started as a San Francisco event email service in , moved to Web based delivery in and then expanded into other categories. Craigslist began to rollout across the world in Craigslist and other online classified sites like HotJobs, Monster, Realtor.
The decline of newspaper revenues from the loss of classified sales and the move to other forms of digital advertising and news delivery has been dramatic. Guess what, even Craigslist is getting hammered by newcomers. That somewhere is the total pot of advertising dollars. Even some analog businesses are disrupting the old advertising model.
The barrage of disruption is growing daily. But you may need to change your stay-the-course mindset — and soon. Maybe staying the course seems sane to you but living by past decisions and worrying about sunk costs could make you red meat for disruption. I recently read the results of a CIO Network task force on how major corporations deal with disruptive technology. Here are a couple of their recommendations plus some of my thoughts and ideas related to the advertising industry.
Invite venture capitalists and entrepreneurs to talk to senior leadership and identify ways your business is going to be disrupted. In the world of disruptive technology, the future is next month not next year. Get out of the office and meet with start-ups and young, hungry technologists.
