THE RETURN OF AGENTS OF HAPPY CHANGE…
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
We’re so busy with everything else, most of which is not even worth bothering about, that wherever we are, I really don’t think we spend enough quality time thinking about children. Like how they think or how to help them grow up being the best they could be.
This is probably because we’re adults, and if not young parents, children are not a priority- which might also have something to do about how jaundiced too many are in how they view the future.
Looking at the almost slip shod marketing of Hong Kong, I am seeing what could be termed “scattered management”, and where much is falling through the cracks whereas, too often, the math don’t add up.
How, for example, can those in their seventies, and even eighties be decision makers of projects that will take at least five years before becoming close to reality, and how is anyone to know what the world will be like by then?
How relevant will be even parts of this brave new world being put together now for the next generation, and who are in line to inherit our handiwork?
Shouldn’t there be a better and more effective and democratic way of shaping the future- our children’s future- before falling at the startling line and being an embarrassment to everyone?
In Hong Kong, the usual reports about various projects and “surges” in tourism is a popular set narrative, but no one says how meaningless any of this is when it’s the type of tourism that brings practically nothing to Hong Kong. Hong Kongers leaving the city in droves during public holidays like “Golden Week” means more of a loss than any financial gains. Yet it keeps being repeated.
The problem is that if we don’t stop conning ourselves into thinking that all is working beautifully, the odds are that everything will come crashing down as there is a weak foundation and too many with different mindsets looking at individual opportunities built around their timetables.
Three years ago I started OneTeam and though always going to change an ubiquitous name for a business, it’s something still very much needed, though finding those good enough to be part of this “one team” concept are NOT in Hong Kong.
Game changing ideas require game changers relevant for today’s world and able to create building blocks for tomorrow.
Sadly, Hong Kong is bereft of this type of talent pool. There’s talent. Just not this type of talent and there are historical reasons for this for this too difficult to explain here.
I’m not a “MEGA” believer and have always followed a Small Is Beautiful creative ethos since my days in advertising.
This preoccupation with the word MEGA, especially in Hong Kong, shows that those in charge of whatever these mega events might be tend to be lacking experience in communications, marketing, presentation skills, people skills and an understanding of simple economics.
This job is not about attending ribbon cutting ceremonies and dotting the eyes of the lion at some lion dance.
The magic- and it’s not a trick- is about making something exciting and new sustainable and also versatile enough to change with the times instead of adding to the herd of white elephants already in the city.
I was recently in Scandinavia for a presentation and where the level of creativity is on a different scale.
Scandinavian countries have a very strong understanding of being “one team” and presented was the idea of companies, organisations and even governments having Directors of Entertainment and given titles that add extra value that don’t position these roles as something gimmicky and flippant.
Back in the day, Nokia introduced “agents of change” into their organisation charts and which was an exciting idea. But because of the changes taking place within Nokia, this never took flight.
Pity because Nokia was the biggest supporter of the entertainment world in Asia. Without them, we have been floundering.
This is a much needed role, because when the world of entertainment is in the hands of those new to something like this, what happens is panic and throwing everything against the wall and hoping like hell that something sticks. Nothing rarely does because it’s a patchwork quilt job made out of cheese whizz and with no legs.
This shambolic way of working might have had its time and place during the early days of MTV Asia and Channel [V] and when being a top music executive meant something.
Today, there are no bananas and the smart entertainment industry Chiquitas bailed into retirement and advisory work over two decades ago. They read the tea leaves well.
The landscape of every business has changed and is continuing to change and businesses need someone like Pharrell Williams who has kept evolving and revolving and changing with the times.
Here is someone who has the name, the portfolio and the creative and business skills to be a Developer and Director of Entertainment for any business anywhere in the world.
Are there more like him? We probably don’t know because we leave this to research companies and Human Resources while erring on the side of caution and highly paid safety nets.
There is a need to get back to facing reality and away from things like researching algorithms because they don’t work anymore.
There’s no money coming in and “influencers” are being seen for who they are not.
There’s a mad scramble going on in EVERY business for survival with way too many cooks involved.
Going to the office has changed because no one needs to actually GO to any office. Offices are mobile and good, strategic ideas travel.
If still with Universal Music or EMI Music, I would close down most of the offices and have people work from home or on the run and create a far more productive, profitable and sleek business model.
The bottom line matters more than ever and I am seeing old school management with parent companies listed on stock markets allowing these extremely expensive businesses to continue as usual while talking about AI and how it’s the future and doing more more effectively for much less.
I use AI more and more to ask for opinions, and in less than an hour, I receive more than needed with the type of THINKING I could never get from “staff”. This includes answers on how to perhaps change things to make an idea stronger.
If a good “prompter”, ask and you shall receive- and receive more than you expect.
Where there’s the need for people coming together are those TEAMS made up of a couple of people who have the ideas.
That blank sheet of paper will be blank without those who prompt and inspire ideas.
As advertising legend and my mentor Keith Reinhard always reminded us young creatives, neither the technique nor the technology is the idea.
Having someone like Pharrell Williams and with his links to Louis Vuitton and Lego as a Director of Multimedia Development and Entertainment is relevant and cool and exciting and sexy. And he is DOING things- block by block.
He and a handful of others are game changers and business developers who can really change today’s world disorder and make all the pieces that need to fit come together and give the world a global OneTeam.
Out of chaos doesn’t always come opportunities.
Often, out of chaos comes more chaos until someone yells “time” and actually SHOWS the way forward instead of talking in riddles and coming up empty.
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