The Least Efficient Post I've Ever Written
Written Nov. 4, 2009 by Tom Webster in Terrestrial Radio with 4 Comments
In Radio Business Report today, Cumulus Media CEO Lew Dickey was quoted: "...more than ever before we believe efficiency is becoming the greatest source of competitive advantage [in radio] today."
Today, that's correct. Tomorrow, it's not. Tomorrow, when towers and sticks are irrelevant, then a passionate Jimmy Buffet fan with a server in his garage will be vastly more efficient in serving a given audience than any station with overhead could hope to be.
The industry can never forget that its core business is to develop relationships with listeners and advertisers, and use those relationships to promote profitable interactions between the two. Relationships aren't efficient. Human business doesn't scale very well, but I find myself increasingly drawn to companies that act like humans when I spend my hard-earned cash. The things that will set radio stations apart will be an army of dedicated local relationship drivers--sales talent, air talent, technical talent and enthusiastic social media practitioners. More humans, not less--and an investment in entertaining programming to make the pie higher.
Art isn't very efficient--neither is entertainment in general. It's not very efficient to rent a copter and drop a gigantic pumpkin from the sky to watch it splatter on a parking lot, but it's hella funny. It probably isn't very efficient in terms of ROI to send your stunt team to bridges and tunnels to pay people's tolls for an hour, but it sure makes me warm and fuzzy. Seurat, luckily for us, wasn't a very "efficient" painter--surely all those little dots took time. Harper Lee only managed one book, but it was a book to be proud of. I think we'd all like to make things we are proud of. It's a small, good thing.
I'm not knocking efficency, per se--but eventually radio is going to realize that they can never cut their way down to compete with one passionate music lover with an ever-growing list of Twitter followers. The most efficient distribution of Rush Limbaugh will be direct from his house, no towers needed. When that happens, all those stations that cut their way to growth will suddenly be driving empty trucks to nowhere.
Reader Comments
Your 2¢, in chronological order — add your comment below.
This should be required reading for everyone in our business.
Tom,
There's a very important reason that inefficiency is important in any business--evolution is nearly impossible without it. We learn this through the study of evolutionary biology. Systems evolve through redundant mechanisms. When two things are doing the same thing, one of them is free to adapt or pursue new approaches to the problem.
This holds for business, as well, and your point about the future is critical to understanding that--if all your systems are working at peak efficiency, then there is no possibility of adaptation or change. Things CAN'T change, they're too busy doing what they need to do at maximum efficiency.
Jim Kerr
Triton Digital
I know when I "spin" the radio dial, I'm looking for the most efficient radio station I can find. No, sorry, that's not right. Now that I think of it I realize that I gravitate to stations for which I feel some kind of personal, human connection.
Bravos, Tom. Well said.
To quote Gary Hamel, one of our brightest living thinkers on strategy: "Thank God for screw-ups, for if life had adhered strictly to six sigma rules, we’d all still be slime." Really good slime, no doubt. Therein the logic trap of optimization and so-called efficiency. Dickey's claim that efficiency "is becoming" the greatest source of competitive advantage fails to address the obvious. Efficiency is finite and, perhaps most importantly, is simply not a sustainable competitive advantage.
As a practical matter creating and sustaining real competitive advantage involves risk taking and higher rates of failure. Innovation is messy. Moreover, it's a process not an event. Tomorrow is all about proprietary intangibles. To effectively compete we will need to recruit, develop and retain (and empower) a great many more of those messy, difficult to manage, artistic right-brainers. My sense is the era of Mr. Dickey and his fellow left-brain travelers approaches twilight and increasing irrelevance.