When my daughter was fourteen, she said, “Dad, I’m going to Central America next summer for three months.” There was no implied request for permission. I wrote it off to youthful fantasy. It made no sense for a fourteen year old to go alone and live in a small village in the mountains of Central America. Her mother was vehemently against the idea, logically outlining the risks from disease and rape to snakes and revolution. But in the end, my daughter used one argument to persuade us to let her go, an argument that I don’t hear enough of from marketers and corporations.
Today, I hear American companies and pundits claiming we need more innovation to stay competitive. The indicators of growth, new businesses, patents and new technology, all seem to be waning for the US. China is the new leader in green technology. Other countries are now catching up to the US in the number of new patents. Our universities are no longer the beacons for education and many of our best and brightest immigrants our returning to their countries of origin to start new businesses rather than stay here. Our venture capital investment is at a 16 year low. There are lot’s of causes, but how is that our corporations have more capital in the bank, the lowest tax structure in forty years and still are not investing? My fourteen year old could have told them. It’s a matter of our appetite for risk.
As a nation that has been renowned for our innovation, we have lost the appetite for risk. We say we want innovation, new technologies, new businesses and patents but we are unwilling to invest. Why?
Risk has an internal and external component. To evaluate the external component we can estimate market potentials, costs, investments, and probabilities. When we look at external risk today, all the numbers indicate that this is not the right time to invest or take the next step. Yet evaluating external risk is the easy part.
There is also an internal component of risk that is more important. It is our ability to assess and face our own fear. And we have become a nation of spoiled chickens.
Facing internal fear and risk happens on a microscopic level every day for marketing professionals. Should I speak up in a meeting against my boss? What if the marketing automation system I invest in doesn’t produce the results I’ve sold to my company? What if this campaign isn’t successful? Should I hire this person…what if they’re not right? For today’s marketers and sales people, failing to identify these fears and take the safe route minimizes the risk. It’s safe. It’s also a certain path to marketing death. Marketing needs to continually push the envelope against what is safe and low risk. If you’re not doing this, then find another profession, or learn from the sales job my daughter did with me on why she should go alone to Central America at the age of fourteen.
She used my own argument against me. She said, “Dad, you’ve always told me that the only things you regret are the things you haven’t done.” Fear is the enemy of reasonable risk, and we have too much of it today in our economy, personally and in marketing. Have no regrets.
Very sound observation…They’ve also become lazy chickens too! When the feeds on a tray in front of you, you don’t need to look or travel far.