In this week’s thought leadership roundup, we take a look at we take a look at the effects of the meteoric rise of ad-free social startup Ello, CMOs driving transformation in their companies, and putting the “cult” in startup culture.
The Hard Truths About the Fast Rise of Ello
From the Entrepreneur:
“It seems as if every story or headline about upstart social network Ello has some sort of declaration that it’s a Facebook killer or people are ‘leaving Facebook for Ello.’
Nothing could be farther from reality.
The Internet and content-marketing lemmings have popped off dozens of posts already discussing how Ello is relevant for your business, how it’s the new Facebook and perhaps the “next big thing.” Even I got nauseous reading through some of them, and I generally just skim. But there’s relevance to the platform and thus, we need a gut-check on Ello and what you need to know about it.”
Our take: It’s like you don’t even care about us, Facebook. I’m tired of your ads. I’m sick of you collecting and trading my information like baseball cards. BUT I JUST CAN’T QUIT YOU. Not even for Ello, the sexy ad-free new guy on the block. No, Ello won’t be the next Facebook. Not just because people won’t leave their established social media investment, or that Ello isn’t even trying to be Facebook. Could it be that people don’t hate the marketing as much as they to say they do?
Can CMOs Lead Transformation Within Their Companies?
From the Forbes:
“‘Transformation’ is an oft-used and perhaps over-used word these days. However, it just happens to aptly describe the process of rapid change happening within the marketing practice and ,more specifically, for the role of the Chief Marketing Officer.
So, many of the world’s top companies are hurtling head-long into a journey of changing their business models, but not sure how to get there or where they’ll wind-up when they arrive. What role can or should the CMO take in leading this process?”
Our take: When you think of innovation, marketing might not be the first department that comes to mind. When you think of marketing, you think of crazy people drunk on taglines, campaigns, and content. And whiskey. But more and more often, CMOs spearhead business model transformations and customer experience, and Forbes has some conferences coming up to espouse this view. Being a marketing person, I am going to go ahead and back them up on this one.
You Should Run Your Startup Like a Cult. Here’s How
From the Wired:
“No company has a culture; every company is a culture. A startup is a team of people on a mission, and a good culture is just what that looks like on the inside.
Why work with a group of people who don’t even like each other? Taking a merely professional view of the workplace, in which free agents check in and out on a transactional basis, is worse than cold: It’s not even rational. Since time is your most valuable asset, it’s odd to spend it working with people who don’t envision any long-term future together.
The best startups might be considered slightly less extreme kinds of cults. The biggest difference is that cults tend to be fanatically wrong about something important. People at a successful startup are fanatically right about something those outside it have missed.”
Our take: This is much less about tricking people to abandon their lives to live forever and ever under the ping-pong table, and more about establishing the kind of startup culture that makes people believe in a company and what they are doing to move it forward. When your people are truly indispensable, irreplaceable even, they’ll hardly complain that they haven’t been home in a week.
The post Thursday Thought Leadership Roundup: Ello Won’t Replace Facebook, CMOs Lead Transformation, and the Cult of the Startup appeared first on via @Mindjet's Conspire #ideasquad.