Branding is dead again, didn’t you hear? I think it has died at least five or six times over the last 3 years - if you believe the blog posts that is. However, don’t feel as if you have to grieve over branding’s passing - it has plenty of company:

• Newspapers and magazines


• Cable TV


• Bell bottoms


• Marketing and positioning


• Management


• …and the list goes on and on…though by the way, blogs are dead too.

But what about the other things that haven’t quite kicked the bucket yet? Oh, well those things don’t have any worth anymore unfortunately; things like:

• MBA degrees (included here are case studies and business education)


• Certifications (you name it, it’s worthless)


• Working for companies (the larger the more worthless by the way)

Now, don’t fret. There are a lot of lofty goals for us to reach for to get us away from these terrible things. Goals such as:

• Being authentic


• Using the cloud


• Joining conversations


• Going agile


• Being green


• Letting go of control


• …once again the list goes on and on.

The thought-leader recipe

Now, of course, opinions will vary. What one disregards is another person’s reason for being. A magic bullet for one, may mean the end of another. There really is no pleasing everyone in many cases. But that’s fine. However, what I don’t think is fine is this: pointing out a problem and an ideal end-point but not forwarding any solutions or plans of action as to how to get there - even half baked ones. This type of behaviour is rampant online. Here’s the template:

1. Identify a problem


2. Describe an end goal


3. Ask what people think

Let me illustrate:

1. Mobile budgets are siphoning funds from existing online budgets


2. Mobile initiatives should have their own budgets


3. What do you think?

To me, this is all fine and dandy until the third point. To me, this is akin to saying:

1. Children of the world are starving


2. They should be fed


3. What do you think?

As a web community, we look to thought-leaders to lead our thought and spark discussions. But why are our standards so low? Shouldn’t we be looking for some plans of actions - even if they are only drafts?

Thought is great. Action is greater.

In reality, followers are doing the thinking for the leaders. In reality, solutions are HARD to come up with. Doing so takes effort and cannot be done everyday - any of worth of course. Furthermore, presenting a plan of action commits us to a position and exposes our problem solving abilities. Presenting a plan force us to to defend our solutions or move away from them when proven wrong. In the end, to lead thought you never really have to put skin into the game and I’ve never really respected backseat drivers.

What can we do? Well, I’ll tell you what I think we should do (and that’s OK - it’s a starting point).

1. We as a web community need to go beyond thinking and start doing. We have very low standards for our thought leaders and this must change.


2. We should lead by example. If we ever voice an opinion, we should forward an ideal goal as well as a PLAN on how to get there.


3. We should work together on the PLAN and put it into action, find the problems, and fix them.


4. Repeat until the goal is achieved or updated.

Most strategies don’t fail because of strategy or poor goals. They fail because of a lack of planning and proper implementation. The more we plan, the more we try, the more we fail, the better we get.

So how about we stop joining conversations and start actually getting things done?