Wonder what the beer ‘die hards’ are saying this week (Feb 14, 2005 – Anhauser Busch announce their new ‘B to E’ drink, a cross between Red Bull and Budweiser)? Probably very similar to the cricket ‘die hards’ with the advent of 20 overs cricket.
The real question is where’s it all going? This is just a transition. Beer will not stay as beer has stayed. In fact beer has already changed to suite the tastes of the masses. There are very few breweries making beer the way it was always made, and they’re going out of business (and for good reason, it tastes aweful). These breweries are surviving only as historical relics and sites worth visiting to catch a glimpse of the past.
E is a transition. E is somewhere on the way to what we’ll be drinking soon. While this isn’t the first, it signals us leaving B.
I was prompted to put in some thoughts by a combination of Barrie’s two comments – this one and ‘Walking in your Shoes’.
I live in the UK, where things are not changed if they are not broken. Beer (and wine) are still, at least by my perception, the universal drinks with alcopops and other such innovative drinks not making too much of an impact (yet?). Interestingly, Ale – a beer type drink without the fizz – is still very popular despite possibly centuries of popularity. If anything this seems to bear out your thought that different countries and cultures have vastly different contexts (Walking in Your Shoes, 29 March 05) – when compared to the SA context Barrie referred to.
In SA, change is part of the fabric of society. I think how long ago my Dad was able to migrate to short sleeve collared shirts for work. Companies moved from Centralised offices in the CBD to decentralised one. In the NGOs and other SA contexts in which I was involved until 2002, people of colour and women were an integral part of management structures.
The Charity I run in the UK is governed by a Board. There is 1 person of colour – despite us operating in the most ethnically diverse areas in the country, and there are 3 women out of 12. The majority of Boards that I have had exposure to here are pale, male and the average age is 60. After all – dont change it unless it is broken.
I wonder how you would contextualise your message in this context? Women will be the leaders of the future. Organisations need to develop feminine attributes. Bright Young Things need to be valued (and protected – Burn out and Wellness 29 March 05). etc. etc.
Thinking in terms of my meeting with Steve Griffiths (UK and Europe Director) – is it possible to promote, in the UK, a company (tmtd.biz) that presumes leaders will have a willingness to change (or perhaps more accurately have a requirement to change) as the starting point? Would the UK face of tmtd be best served by blending in or standing out as being distinctly different? Is it possible to change the fabric? Or do people here need a band who will play while the Titanic sinks?
Let me get my tie and jacket…. I am off to the office.
Interesting stuff Russell. Comments certainly worth hearing as someone taking a message out of South Africa to other parts of the world.
We (South Africans) say we have much to take to the rest of the world (we’ve been on the receiving end for a long time) Russell, if you are only 20% correct in what you say, then maybe we do? (I’ll tie this back with some Tom Peters at the end) Maybe the messages being generated from South Africa (TT.biz is one vehicle) need to be heard, but perhaps ‘softened’ if we are not to alienate our audience.
I copy the following from a Tom Peters advert for a conference he is speaking at. It illustrates (if Tom Peters is correct – even 20% correct) that we are living in a world of change, and lets hope that Russell is not correct about the part “band who will play while the Titanic sinks’:
1. “Off-shoring” will continue; the tide cannot be reversed 2. Service jobs are a bigger issue than manufacturing jobs, by an order of magnitude.
3. The automation of business processes is as big a phenomenon in job shrinkage as off-shoring.
4. We are in the middle of a once every hundred years’ (or so) productivity burst — which is good for us … in the long haul.
5. Job churn is normal and necessary: The more the better … in the long haul.
6. Americans’ “unearned wage advantage” (Born in the U.S.A. ) could be erased … permanently.
7. The wholesale, increasingly upscale entry of 2.5 billion people (China, India) into the global economy at an accelerating rate is virtually unfathomable. Unfathomable = Unpredictable, exceptional challenges, amazing opportunities.
8. For my future grandkids’ sake, I relish the idea of billions of wealthy, relatively happy Indians and Chinese — rather than the idea of billions of impoverished people pissed off at wealthy Americans.
9. Free trade works – PERIOD. It makes the world a safer place … in the long haul. The process is not pretty at times. (Sometimes long times.) Those who dutifully followed yesterday’s rules yet are displaced must be helped when the “rules change.” Such help must not be in perpetuity — it demands a sunset date.
10. THE USA WILL NEVER AGAIN BE AS DOMINANT AS IT IS TODAY. BUT IT CAN REMAIN IN THE TOP SPOT AS LONG AS IT OBSESS ON FIVE THINGS: RESEARCH-INNOVATION, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, EDUCATION, FREE TRADE-OPEN SOCIETY, AND SELF-RELIANCE.