New Comm Biz

There were two seemingly unrelated news stories this past week: 1. Apple’s new iPad, and 2. that lucky dog rescued from an ice floe in the Baltic Sea after drifting for over 100 miles. (Ice Station Zebra, the spy thriller yarn with a story centered around the ice of the North Pole was also on TV this week, which is relevant in a way too.)

Here’s the connection:

We are all living & working on ice floes, super wide ice floes that define our trends, generations, and zeitgeist. The floes are so big and contain so much on the surface that we can’t tell we’re moving UNLESS we pay really-really close attention to their incremental shifts by perceiving the low rumblings of the currents below the ice. I believe this is why the world requires consultants and strategists and why (even though I myself am a strategist/consultant and might sound like I’m tooting horns) their enterprises are immensely productive. Objectivity is the ROI of listening deeply. If you’re not listening deeply, you might miss the shift in currents and become stranded on a sliver of ice far beyond the horizon in the Baltic sea.

Apple is a master navigator of ice floes, but in truth they are fighting handily to stand still. They have found the “confluential” spot in the water, a magnetic pole, where the cultural forces of price-point, want, demand, luster, and design meet and form a robust wellspring. In 2007 they planted a flag in the floe above this magnetic spot and announced, “the iPhone is here! It’s the most important device of all history!” and sold a billion-trillion units. Immediately the floe shifted, and the iPhone was no longer the most important device. But floes move slowly, so Apple had the time to capitalize on their new product. As the floe continued on its path down current, pulled by forces of economics, necessity, bubbles, and nature, new versions of the iPhone were launched, and software updated, but Apple was sliding away from the wellspring. The Apple navigators went to work to keep their crew above that pole. They trudged through the ice, climbed a few bergs (from the top of one they looked over their shoulders and saw the jagged line of their former flag-plantings poking out from the snow, all the way back to the Apple IIc) and then turned their vibrant faces to the future and hiked it back to that confluential spot. This week, they arrived. Boom! A new flag planted in the ice! “The iPad is the most important device of all time!…”

You get my drift (all puns intended).

You can find these floe-navigators in many arenas. As an example, 80’s pop star Matthew Wilder (Break my stride, 1983) produced No Doubt’s 16-million-unit selling record Tragic Kingdom (1995) and recently worked with Miley Cyrus. He’s hovering over the wellspring of teen angst, clear diction, catchiness and a whole lot of revenues.

Many consultants will suggest that businesses need to be remarkable, or to resonate, or jump to the next curve. All are true and are immensely helpful bits of advice. But the above describes a specific, more intense, approach that I suggest you take as well.

Realize you’re on an ice floe and listen very deeply. Then seek to find, and remain affixed to, the confluential spots below the ice.

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