(Excerpts from my Keynote Speech at the Admonsters conference in Memphis 3/7.)

 Executives at the top of media and publishing companies don’t understand technology.

 A story.

 I am in the office of a client who is a billionaire. He is in the process of making a decision about an investment in one of his portfolio companies in media and publishing. Here is how the conversation went:

 HIM: So, Anna, you say the database is like the stapler.

 ME: No. No. The database is like the file cabinet.

 HIM: Really? I thought it was like the stapler.

 ME: No. File cabinet.

 I removed the stapler from the table. It was confusing the conversation, and this man needed to make a seven-digit decision.

 This can’t really happen? You can’t really mean the C-level executives, investors, and board members you interact with are that technologically illiterate?

 Yes. They are.

I have been asked why email notifications can’t be sent to alert executives when email is down. I have been asked to estimate the cost of a system migration when no one in the room can tell me what the current technology is. I have been asked, “Where does the Internet live?”

 The only possible answer to this last question is, “Arkansas.”

 I hear: You can’t actually be suggesting that CEOs of media and publishing companies have the equivalent of engineering degrees?

 I can and I do.

 Barack Obama recently said that technological innovation was the key advantage that would bring jobs back to the United States. And in media and publishing, there is broad agreement that technology is not only necessary for success, but for survival.

 So exactly what expertise is appropriate to expect from the leaders of our industry?

 A word about arrogance. Many CEOs are.

 (Newsflash, I know.)

 However, in the future it will be said that it was on the watch of this particular generation of media and publishing executives that entire swaths of American journalism died.

 You might say that the industry is facing hard problems. And you’d be right. How exactly do we change our digital pennies back into dollars? The truth is nobody knows. Get a bunch of publishers in a room and throw out the phrase, “Monetize video.” Instantly the gathering turns into the equivalent of an AA meeting.

 “Do you know how to do it?”

 “No. Not me. We’re losing our shirts. How about you?”

 Sure. The problems are hard. But last time I checked, Google was solving hard problems. Cancer researchers are too. Pixar creates pure magic capturing light and dimension in algorithms.

 Or maybe, if we got the best minds all focused on these core issues of how content survives and gets paid for—maybe they would all conclude that there is no solution. If that is indeed true, we all need to quit wasting our time.

 What’s the alternative? Go out and meet the future. Or better yet, create it. Jeff Bezos, despite legions of naysayers declaring that eBooks would never work, literally made the eBook market in this country. That’s what making your own future looks like. As everyone knows, waiting for the future to happen to you looks like the music industry.

To tackle these big issues, we need strong leadership. Strong, technologically savvy leadership.

 I just returned from the AdMonsters conference in Memphis. Talk to anyone who works in a company with any kind of traditional media legacy, and you hear a similar story: Entrenched technological ignorance is keeping their publications from addressing and solving the big issues they face.

Truth #2 to come.

I could not have felt more out of place at DrupalCon last April. As I walked around in San Francisco’s Moscone center in a suit, a sea of Drupalers in jeans and all manner of droplet t-shirts, bandanas, and even body art recoiled from me. I was not one of them.

It was funny. But then I started to think about the implications. As a business person, it was tough to find information to consume at DrupalCon, where some of the most well attended sessions featured PowerPoint slides stuffed with snippets of code.

Which is how the idea for the Drupal Business Summit came about: Creating content that helps business people understand Drupal and what it can do for their organizations.

Well the first Drupal Business Summit happened yesterday in New York City, and was a sold-out success. Co-hosted by my company, tmg-e*media and Aquia, the enterprise guide to Drupal, the conference provided rich case studies and discussions targeted at business leaders. Here are session highlights:

Kathleen Reidy, analyst of the 451 group, dissected the Web Content and Social Media space. A key point: Sometimes businesses don’t have an accurate view of where technologies fit in the spectrum. They might compare a content management technology like Plone with a social media technology like WordPress. She had a killer ven diagram illustrating where these products fit.

Next up, Andrew Hoppin of the New York State Senate chronicled his journey of transitioning the state government sites to Drupal. Now senators have their own mini sites that they can manage. And the public can get visibility into the law-making process that never existed before.

I started my panel on resourcing Drupal by saying, “If you’re not worried about the resourcing issue, you should be.” It was the number-one problem attendees cited when asked what their challenges were. Jamie Clark of Zagat survey talked about going to meet-ups and immersing herself in the Drupal community to retain talent. Jay Hartley of Taunton Press described the cultural differences in hiring and retaining Drupal talent. And yours truly and Sandra Matthiessen at Time Out New York outlined the innovative training program we kicked off to “roll our own” Drupal team.

A true highlight of the afternoon was Mike Meyers’ examiner.com case study. He rolled out NowPublic.com, a citizen journalist startup and sold it to the Examiner, who wanted him to work the same magic for them. A massive undertaking, the site is the earliest enterprise Drupal 7 release. In case you haven’t been tracking these things, Drupal 7’s not out yet.

Bob Kerner, a former U.S. Naval crypto linguist, told us his tale of storming into the NYSE, cleaning house and starting from scratch. With management’s support, he ditched a multi-year, multi-million dollar effort that had gone awry and took the enterprise down a nimble, open-source Drupal path, complete with frequent deliverables and truly agile teams. As Bob reminded us, most companies think they do agile but don’t, and also, “Waterfall is a lie.”

Rounding out the afternoon, we saw the great work VML had done on behalf of Cartoon Network. Martin Coady took us to school on how to create truly flexible site that can be managed by the business. For example, rather than taking the easy route and creating a flash movie for CN’s animated-character navigation, VML created small movies nodes that could be managed in Drupal. Now, Martin says, he comes to the CN site and doesn’t recognize it. A good thing! Because the client is completely empowered to change the look and feel of their site on their own.

Thanks to all who helped make the first Drupal Business Summit a success. Future summits will take place in DC and San Francisco.

Republished from Associated Content
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5863554/debunking_5_corporate_myths.html?cat=5

It’s easy to get snookered by prevailing myths: that sports stars are heroic human beings as well as athletes; that Thanksgiving will be a wonderful time to connect with family; that someday we’ll get to cash a social security check.

Corporate life overflows with its own fairy tales. I’m a consultant, so I’ve sojourned in myriad firms, industries and institutional cultures. Here are some common myths debunked.

Myth #1: Business is about making money

Truth: Business is about the agenda of the guy (or gal) at the top. The CEO might be obsessed with his image, or power, or crushing a competitor, or with fear of losing his job. The byproduct of this activity might enhance corporate profits. Or not.

I have seen a CEO protect a bungling friend who drove a division to quarter after quarter of losses. This CEO protected his pal to the detriment of the company and his own reputation. In his book on the financial collapse, “To Big to Fail,” Andrew Ross Sorkin depicts a pantheon of banking CEOs who put their own agendas ahead of not only their companies’ bottom lines but the wellbeing of the global economy.

Hint: Try to discover what the real corporate goal is. If you’re driving to enhance profitability through risk-taking, but the Main Man is motivated by fear, you will not get ahead. Become acquainted with the psychological makeup the boss. Is he motivated by greed? Jealousy? Ego? Endeavors that feed his motivations will be the ones to gain support.

Myth #2: People want to know if there are problems

Truth: Most businesses already know that the marketing woman surfs Facebook all day and that the VP of Technology’s emails are virus-infected. If they wanted to change it, they would have done so already. This kind of dirt is supposed to stay tidily under the rug. No one wants you showing up with a broom.

Problem-pointer-outers often indulge a fantasy that they’re nobly crusading against the conformist organization. However, in his book, “Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power,” C. Fred Alford points out that many whistleblowers are actually angry individuals, who isolate themselves from coworkers friends and family.

Hint: Learn to distinguish between problems that can be identified and those that can’t. If someone has been there for a while, they’re not likely to be out the door because of something you point out. If a practice is entrenched, it’s not likely to shift.

When you do identify something that might be changeable, don’t red flag the problem and walk away. Instead, bring a solution.

Myth #3: Complaining co-workers will support you

Most companies are one big bandwagon of complainers.

However, the minute you go to a meeting and introduce the idea of restructuring the circulation department, those vociferous whiners will go nose-down into their blackberries.

Jeannie Daniel Duck calls corporate transformation efforts a “Change Monster”— the title of her book. Far from wanting to change, most people, she says, enthusiastically embrace stagnation.

Hint: Like attracts like. Which means most companies have employees who are at home in the organization. They may not be happy, per se. But something about being there works for them, or they would leave. Granted, right now people may stay in their jobs because of fear of the recession. But this pattern holds just as true in non-recessionary times.

Myth #4: Being right will get you ahead
Truth: Career-wise, about the only thing worse than being wrong is being right. Many citizens of cubby-land harbor a private fantasy of being proven correct. You said if they did not upgrade the computers disaster would ensue. Secretly you hope for the day when the servers melt down and you can forward your email predicting doom.

Step away from the keyboard. Most particularly if someone on high up disagreed with your point. Be prepared for those above your head to co-opt your thinking and say it was all their idea.

Hint: Give up the need to be right. Famous anger-management psychologist Albert Ellis coined the term “must-erbation”—that incessant inner voice that screams people must agree with us, we must convert them to our point of view. People, however, are allowed to believe whatever they want, even that the earth is flat. If you need to prove yourself right all the time (and thereby make others wrong) you do not have the level Zen needed to succeed in business.

Myth #5: Companies change
Truth: A company only changes if there is change at the top. It’s the rare leader who is made of stern enough stuff to shift his point of view. As noted by “Change Monster” author Jeannie Duck, when confronted with something they have done wrong, most people look for someone or something to blame. They do not pause, examine their responsibility for the situation, and resolve to mend the faults in their characters. Right now, the Great Recession is serving as one huge fig leaf, with dozens of CEOs pointing to it as the cause of all corporate ills.

Hint: Choose good companies to work for. Many times the quality of the company and the person you work for is much more important to your overall happiness than the job description itself. The recession won’t last forever, and when it ends, set your sights on courageous companies that hold themselves to account and embrace growth.

The OMMA Social conference on social media today at the Yale Club is overwhelming. There is standing room only. Also, the information is so rich and new and coming at all of us so fast, it’s hard to wrap it all up in one post. Instead, I’ve organized quotes heard from client people, agency people, tech people, and publishing people.
 

Best Social Media Advice
 

In order to know what your constituency wants, you have to talk to them, which means you have to become one of them.
 

People on social networks are doing things that are social. They are ignoring things that aren’t social.
 

Right now, this game is jump ball.
 

People just want guinea pigs to carry their message forward. Really, social media is more about listening.
 

ROI. Sigh.
 

ROI is difficult to talk about.
 

In terms of the ROI question, I can’t give it to you. Not because I don’t want to or because my general counsel said I can’t. But because I don’t know.
 

While engagement might not generate into a sale, it certainly has to help.
 

I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t equate a widget install with a clickthrough to your site.
 

Reality Check
 

You need to continue the engagement while realizing you are a commercial enterprise.
 

We sell a product. What we’re really about is the physical. How do you take the social model into the physical space?
 

Advertising has always been based on reach and frequency. How do you blow up an entire industry?
 

If you don’t have standardization, you can’t possibly monetize this stuff.
 

Will You Stop Being So 1.0
 

If you just have a transaction value in your head, you’re going to miss the long term value of the customer.
 

Not all the things that you can count counts.
 

Does engagement transfer into ROI? Should it?
 

A lot of people thing that if we’re not talking about millions and millions of eyeballs it’s not relevant. What about thousands and thousands of engaged people?
 

Shocking Numbers
 

Social networking will be a $7 billion dollar business by 2012.
 

In social networks, there are more impressions than ever. But the clickthrough rate is abysmal. It’s .02%. And the CPMs are 4-5 cents.
 

I just got a $10 million insertion order for a social networking buy from a major computer company. That means to me that the Fortune 500 is moving real dollars into the medium.
 

Curmudgeonly
 

It’s not a given that since consumers are showing up they want advertising directed at them Do I want an LED screen around my neck serving me contextual advertising while I’m having a conversation.
 

Jargon Disease
 

There have to be contextual psychographics.
 

We’re both a container and a developer.
 

Social media is more than just arbitraging traffic.
 

What social media does is it allows you to take a 360 degree view of the customer.
 

When we talk about data mining in the social networking space at the end of the day it’s about consumer behavior.
 

Well, we’ve all heard about tribal media behavior.
 

We’ve said a lot of hard words today. Like “engagement” and “snarkle.”
 

Really Interesting Perspectives
 

If you’re a marketer for Crate & Barrel, try to market to the wife’s dad. He’s the real influencer.
 

Mortgage ads saved the ad networks. Entertainment will do the same for social media.
 

The Unanswerable
 

Engagement. Does anybody know the definition of engagement? And what does it have to do with the broader objectives an advertiser has?
 

Can you hit everyone on the entire internet? Is that media buy possible?
 

Social media is a $1-$2 CPM. How is that going to support New York lunch accounts?
 

I know I came in late, but what’s the definition of social networking?
 

What does above the fold mean? My computer really doesn’t fold.
 

Zen-Like Truths
 

Lego is modular self expression
 

All media will eventually become social.
 

When a marketer says viral, I get all nauseous.
 

Just because we call it “media” doesn’t mean it really is.

Navy blue blazered preppies are overrun today by the uber-hip social networking crowd. 

 

Really, it’s rather amusing. I myself am a card-carrying preppy and, in fact a Yale Club member. So it’s quite a trip watching today’s event unfold. I have been on an OMMA conference binge. Last week, I attended OMMA Video and OMMA Publish, both of which were held at the Marriott Marquis, a touristy, anonymous location. And cold. As one moderator observed during a panel, “It’s 52 degrees in here. And windy.” 

 

Well today the OMMA Social Networking Conference at the Yale Club is cozy. Very cozy. This morning when I got here—yes it was 15 minutes late—there was not a seat to be had. Now, that’s not unusual for the morning keynote. EVERYONE shows up for the morning keynote. It’s like homeroom. But here’s the thing, more people kept arriving. The California crowd, about 20 of them, were delayed by the New York weather. The red-eyed travelers arrived around 10 am. 

 

After lunch the crowd usually thins out as people are lured by their berries and stacked up voicemail. Not here. The bemused blue uniformed Yale Club staff is still squeezing among classy leaf-patterned chairs and white linen covered tables trying to serve coffee to nerds, ad people and VCs. 

 

Seeing this, spurs some thoughts. 

 

First, this is one of the most crowded conferences I’ve attended this year. There are old faces here and new faces. If you didn’t get the message previously from the amount of VC dollars flowing into social networking, you’d get it now. My briefcase is wedged in between my legs and the guy next to me is glaring at the way my elbow jostles his papers as I type this. 

 

Second, there is the culture clash between the tweed preppies and the blue shirt mafia. (Did you ever notice that digital media dudes all wear Wedgewood blue dress shirts rolled up at the sleeve?) In a way, this culture clash is simply emblematic of the theme of this conference. How can social media gain a legitimate seat at the traditional table?