Janis Joplin, Inc.
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007 by Mark | Posted in Advertising, Business, Entrepreneur, Management, Marketing, Sales, Small Business, Unconventional Thinking | Comments
Janis Joplin, the wild woman who downed Southern Comfort like it was Poland Spring burst on the drug-soaked rock scene in the 60’s and became its most electric diva. The girl was wired. She screamed her own brand of blues like she had ten minutes to get it all out before she died disappearing as fast as she arrived. But her legacy remains. The music, sure, but even more potent than that, the nuclear passion that fueled it.
In a real sense, Joplin was a mini industry, selling records and concert dates and Janis stuff. I think about how she ran her company, her life, as I walk down the halls of so many corporate offices.
Passion? There’s not a trace. Electricity? It’s like all the wires were cut. Dreams? What do dreams have to do with business?
No, the typical office is a virtual graveyard. Quiet, predictable, passionless. And that’s what leads to Buick’s and Campbell’s Soup and Ann Taylor clothing. Management there takes the Joplin’s of the world out in the shed and shoots them for lunch.
Every year (this summer will be no different) bright and jet fueled kids will stream out of colleges across America and dive in what they believe will be exciting companies because they have cool brands. And they will find, in an awful flash, that they are locked into hardened bunkers that demand adherence to the way it is, as opposed to suggesting how it should be.
The kids lose but not nearly as much as the companies that hire them. They put a lid on the creativity, the raw power, the dangerous thinking that is the real secret weapon of the Google’s and the Pixar’s of the world. They institutionalize mediocrity.
How can you prevent this postal mentality from turning your company into a motor vehicle bureau? Only by declaring war. With passion. The way Janis would do it:
- Seniority no longer counts for anything. Even the most junior of juniors can bring ideas to the CEO.
- A chief innovator is engaged and empowered to challenge and discard every tired practice that is clogging up the company’s arteries.
- The company’s biggest critic-from the media, the trade, etc-is brought on board and given a real platform for change.
- Management answers the questions that has been gnawing at it for years: How come it’s no longer fun to work here? And why don’t our records sell like they used to?
Mark Stevens
CEO
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April 17th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
I have been in technology and telcom marketing for a number of years. I have worked for some big industry leaders. I am presently running my own (small) marketing consulting practice. And I have bought all your books because you are the marketing “expert” that calls it like it really is. Your latest blog hit home the most –the most meaningful sentence being “that they are locked into hardened bunkers that demand adherence to the way it is, as opposed to suggesting how it should be.” I have never worked for an enterprise that got it any different. They hire you because you bring new ideas and ways of doing things, and then do everything in their power to make you fail. I now strive to guide my clients but probably don’t have the words or clout behind me to carry the weight that a Mark Stevens does. It makes me hate my profession many days (although I love marketing) and dislike what I have do on many a day to make a living to support my family. But somehow, you never fail to inspire me at my lowest to keep trying to fight the good fight. And to work to discover new and better ways to do that. You don’t know me, but I truly thank you for continuing to light a fire under me & motivate me to continue to succeed in my life personally and professionally.
April 18th, 2007 at 2:00 am
I love this blog! The phrase “insitutionalize mediocrity” really resonated with me. I met with a VP of marketing today for a large real estate company. I asked her if she ever thought about breaking away from the pack and creating marketing that was completely different then all of the other real estate companies. She said they really didn’t need to because their name was so well known. I met with another individual that told me that their latest P&L revealed that more then half of their offices were losing money. That’s right, “our marketing looks good….our phone is dead quiet, but our marketing looks good.” Even less than mediocre.
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer 8 months ago, I laid on the couch getting well and waged mental war on my marketing company. I completely re-engineered all of my talks so that they were relevant and gave exceptional tools and ideas to make the phone ring. As a result, I believe I got well faster. I just booked a great speaking contract and I am not even finished with radiation yet. Passion can come by appreciating a second chance at life and comitting to not wasting a second of it! Thanks Mark!
April 17th, 2007 at 9:33 pm
This fight you refer to is the right stuff of all successful people. Never do anything but fly. Against headwinds, sure. But fly. The tailwinds will wind up carrying you!
Mark Stevens
CEO
April 18th, 2007 at 9:02 pm
I diagnose you as a total winner. You have the brains and the DNA.
Mark Stevens
CEO
April 20th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Mark, sounds like what you’re describing is a classic case of Adultitis.
But seriously, you nailed it. It’s funny how many stories have been written about Pixar and Google, and yet their “dangerous thinking” is STILL a “secret” weapon. I don’t get it.
A little passion goes a long way, and you’re right: most companies have about as much passion as a cardboard cutout of Janis Joplin (and that’s probably giving them too much credit.)
April 22nd, 2007 at 2:22 pm
It is giving them too much credit. Anyone who brought that in would be hung in the cafeteria….as a warning to all.
Mark Stevens
CEO
April 23rd, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Clearly Chinese products are behind the curve in benefiting from brand value associated with a whole host of tangible and intangible factors… but obvious point aside, Mark, just what is it you are proposing? China make its shoes in Italy? China make shoes in China and label them as made in Italy? Your point is unclear and if you are going to presumptively say “China is the dumbest country in the world,” you ought to have something clear to say to back that up.
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:15 pm
It is tongue in cheek. China could conceivably create a province called Italy and con the world, but I am not suggesting that. I used it as a metaphor for the fact that china should do what it takes to begin to brand and not just build.
Mark Stevens
CEO
May 3rd, 2007 at 11:14 am
What a great blog. I work for a small company that is not doing well and I think part of (well, most it) is due to a complete lack of passion brought on by supression of creativity and lack of direction or worse big ideas that die by the wayside. Everyone is drained of energy. Some may say we are burned out, but it is more than that. Corporate culture is burned-out and we are caught in the flames.
I miss and mourn my 23-yr-old-can-do self (I’m now 40) who worked for a growing software company where the staff and mgt were passionate, exciting, and proactive. Every now and then, I will pull up the boot strapes and try to tap into that post-college enthusiasm, but the motivation fades after hitting resistance from co-workers and management.
What is the answer? Is it to find another job? If so, how can you be sure that their culture is not the same?
May 29th, 2012 at 12:42 am
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