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Who else remembers the term monkey pile when they were kids?

Sometimes it was fun, sometimes it wasn’t.  Basically it meant to pile on.  In the school yard or on the playing field, when someone was down, we’d all pile on.  It could be fun (male sense of humor here) but it also could be mean spirited.  Bully like.

A few weeks ago I used the Big Three automakers in the States as an example of head-in-the-sand leadership and business focus in the wrong place.  This has been a favorite rant of mine for years.  How can such a poor product using a precious and finite source of energy then get so swept away with bigger, higher consuming products while we all knew the end was coming (supply) and we were supporting the hit of energy dependence on far away lands?

I followed with how their use of private jets to get to Washington to ask for money as an example of how their actions are disconnected from the kind of leadership that their organization and the public in general. It seems I’m not the only one who noticed.

I hesitated to post the second one because i worried I was “monkey piling”, picking on guys who were just oblivious.  Now I realize that there is a whole groundswell.  Did you see the Saturday Night skit?

SNL was hot on the same idea, since the comic possibilities were ripe for the picking, using the topic to generate an opening sketch this past weekend that zeroed in on exactly this type of leadership.

What’s interesting to me is that the Big Three “disconnect” in how they asked for money gives SNL unfettered permission to take hits at American car design in general. The leadership of these companies was compromised long before the current economic downturn and the need for a bailout - it goes back to what value their designs have been providing for the car-buying public in general over the last few years.

Whether deserved or not, SNL thought there were laughs they could get from poor user experiences with the product.

Now the blogoshphere is talking it up and wondering where the sketch in on NBC’s SNL site.  Conspiracy?  Parnoid neurotic auto execs puling sponsorship veto?  Limiting free speech?

How do they hear with their heads in the sand?

PILE ON!!!!

What product results from leadership on purpose?

In tune with the needs and values of the market.

Not.

Putting It Out There In Tough Markets

There’s a lot of noise and fear - understandably - with bad economic news. It’s tempting to act like a hunted rabbit and freeze until the danger passes. It’s a natural instinct. There are a lot of people and businesses in survival mode…waiting, frozen, hoping.

Then there are a few taking their business future into their own hands.

In a recent Business Week article (Oct 18) there was a short but enlightening article called “Pink Slip Special” about a Chicago bar in Wicker Park called Fifty/50 that are giving 50% off and a free shot to recent layoffs and anyone who has been served foreclosure papers this year.  The article quotes co-owner Greg Mohr as saying “If we’re here for them now, we’ll make some good customers.”

That’s the mindset needed now…how can we be valuable now and remembered later?

We all need to get out in front of this market and re-think marketing ourselves and our services, either as valued advice for navigating the storm, or - like Fifty/50 - making a safe haven to weather it out. Both will be rewarded for their confident strides outside (it’s just a little stormy…put on a rainslicker!), rather than huddling with the masses under a leaky roof.

Send us your ideas - or clippings of businesses - that are putting it out there.