Controlling Creative (Part 2 of 3)

I’m frequently asked, “How can you keep people from stealing your ideas?”

Answer: I can’t. In fact, I don’t even try, figuring that creativity and originality are muscles—what doesn’t get regularly used (by the habitual plagiarist) will become flaccid over time, but you can’t let those negatives keep you from striving to be creative and original, or from producing your ideas.

This is the second of three client examples come to mind when talking about controlling creative.

Donna, the self-made home decorating expert, had contrived an elaborate kit for helping  homemakers come up with just the right palette, textiles, and tschotkes for each room of their homes. I didn’t want to do this job—from the first I sensed something was wrong or, at least, not positive—but she worked in a client’s office and it would’ve been churlish to refuse her.

From the outset she was paranoid that this idea would be stolen, so rather than show me any business or marketing plans, she preferred to feed me discrete portions of the project and to micro-manage me, much as the CIA may handle a new operative of whom they’re not entirely sure.

At the end of the project she had me sign a complex disclaimer form, basically pledging to never try and steal her ideas, or to reveal any of it to others. I felt tempted to make jokes about how my entire life had waited for this brass ring, this home-decorating kit, but feared she’d take them seriously.

Not surprisingly, the kit never took off and I suspect it’s because to put something on the market, you have to be public about it, not guard it like the formula to Coca-Cola.

Controlling Creative (Part 1 of 3)

I’m frequently asked, “How do you keep people from stealing your ideas?”

Answer: I can’t. In fact, I don’t even try, figuring that creativity and originality are muscles—what doesn’t get regularly used (by the habitual plagiarist) will become flaccid over time, but you can’t let those negatives keep you from striving to be creative and original, or from producing your ideas.

Three client examples come to mind when talking about controlling creative.

Example 1: Troy wanted me to rip off—there’s no other way to put it—the Nike line, changing it to “Just do I. T.” The local VP of an international software firm, he figured any ensuing U. S. controversy would be excellent free advertising.

I said, “Troy, I’d like to continue working in my profession long after your time’s up at the minimum-security white-collar prison where they’ll be sending you for copyright violation.”

“So you’re not going to do this?” he asked.

“Not a chance in hell,” I said tactfully.

In Defense of Millennials

Even very recently, the elders could say [to the youths]: “You know, I have been young and you never have been old.” But today’s young people can reply: “You never have been young in the world I am young in, and you never can be.” . . . This break between generations is wholly new: it is planetary and universal.

— Margaret Mead

The myth: Millennials are materialistically brand-conscious.

Yeah, well, who made them aware of brands but their brand-loyal Boomer parents who were coming of age as consumers in the early 80s when designer jeans and labels were retail game-changers? And so what if this is true? Millennials were cultivated from a young age to recognize brands and to stay loyal to those companies that stand behind their products. Brand names also provide social code for peer recognition, and this is a generation that grew up on divorced parents and blended families. Identifying and having one's own tribe outside the family home is important to these folks.

The myth: Millennials aren't very driven or hardworking.

Wrong again. They simply approach work differently, often without a lot of fanfare. They don't just go to libraries; they research online. Laptop keyboards don't make as much noise as Smith-Corona typewriters. During my daughter's adolescence I learned that she did indeed get lots of work done but I just wouldn't see most of it being done. Millennial brains are wired for complexity and they have rich internal lives of imagination and creativity. If Boomers lived in an external world of social change and civil rights upheaval, Millennials live in a digital world with a virtual wire to their brains—downloading music, surfing the Web for viral videos (which they then post on Facebook), social networking, online group events, digital communications, and digital learning. They're not merely consumers, these guys want to create! so anyone who offers them a rich, multi-media Web site experience with lots of interactivity is going to win them over (hello, institutions of higher learning; not just The Gap).

The myth: Millennials are spoiled with entitled attitudes. They expect to be rich, successful, and powerful before they're 30. (And its geezer corollary: In my day, we worked the grunt jobs and were grateful to have them!...We paid our dues, dammit).

But wouldn't you have this expectation as well, if the big hitters of your generation were Mark Zuckerberg (born 1984) and the two guys who invented YouTube (Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, both born in the late 70s)? Millennials have been shown the road to epic success at an early age, and it didn't necessarily involve a band (such as what inspired Boomers). Instead they could conceive of creating a killer app, selling it to Google for millions, and thus become a social networking legend by age 40, like that "old guy" Joi Ito (born 1966).

A final myth: Millennials care only about themselves. They won't volunteer for the environment, for civil rights, or for socio-political change.

Think again. It's just a difference in style and approach. Maybe their Boomer parents protested at peace rallies, handed out pro-choice flyers, and stuck flowers into the barrels of National Guard rifles. Millennials are seeking social solutions that will also work as a lifestyle—ie, do good and get paid for it; don't just volunteer once a week for it, make a life out of it. One example of this is Blake Mycoskie (born in the late 70s) who calls himself CEO and Chief Shoe Giver of TOMS Shoes, which he started on the premise that for every pair the consumer purchases, one pair will be given to a child growing up barefoot in places like the mean streets of Argentina.

Are there slacker Millennials? Of course: after all, there were bogus Boomers who rode the zeitgeist for self-gain (most egregiously, Charlie Manson, who is 81, or Ira Einhorn, 71). But just as Millennials detest traditional media experiences, they're also creating their lives—and refashioning our world—through means we don't yet recognize. But that doesn't mean it's poorly conceived or ill-fated.

Do you really care if your CEO arrives by Rolls Royce or skateboard?

When Bob Dylan Turned 70: From Boomers to Gen Y

Recently I've been doing research on the best media mixes for generational marketing so it felt especially poignant when it was reported on May 24 that Bob Dylan turned 70. At 69, Paul Simon is not far behind. Joan Baez turned 70 last winter, with Crosy, Stills, Nash and Young each preparing to pass from 60somethings through the golden arches to 70. 

I wonder if Bob Dylan's 70 was a sobering—if not scary—moment for most Boomers. The first wave of Boomers is scheduled to hit 65 this year. Had she lived, Janis Joplin would've been 68 last January.

This is the generation who continues to believe they're cool, into uniquely cool things, and that most messaging is either about them or for them. Seeing Dylan turn 70 couldn't have been easy, because mathematical logic then dictates we're really in our 50s and 60s. The generation that grew up crying, "Make a difference! Change the world! Imagine the possibilities!" now also says "Make the doctor's appointment! Change the progressives! Imagine cortisone shots to ease the pain!"—so, no surprise demographers and marketers believe Boomers will transform the concept of "old age."

Boomers' children are the Gen Y lot—the Millennials, or anyone born 1982 to 2000. Reportedly, these kids are problematic, characterized as spoiled, not very motivated or hardworking, with big entitlement issues for their own lives (eg, CEO's office by age 32, making millions, with luxury cars and killer toys).

I think they're transforming all our concepts about work.

Consequently, I also think they've been given a bad paint job, probably by bitterly resentful Boomers who took a superficial read on these kids. If the Boomer question for life had been "Is it meaningful?" most Millennials tend to ask "Is it fun?" This can make them seem supercilious, until you examine their particular meaning of "fun."

Next week: In defense of Millennials

Qualities of a Good Project Manager (PM)

For many salespeople, the selling cycle doesn't stop once the purchase order is issued. Salespeople must then shepherd the project forward to completion. Projects that go well strengthen relationships with customers and lead to future sales. Projects that bump along from start to finish cause the customer to question your expertise and their decision to buy. To please the client, what does it take?

• Know how to set expectations, understand quality standards, and how quality is achieved. (This also means you understand “quality does not equal perfection”).

• You must be knowledgeable about the skills and capabilities of others in the production process so that work is appropriately delegated (square pegs to square holes). A good PM understands he’s working with professionals (not children or criminals) and that production process parts are interdependent.

• Be fearless about asking questions, and persist in hammering out process and alternative process details, especially when tensions are running high, and people are impatient to leave the discussion, or to gloss over details in their effort to escape unpleasantness.

• Be prepared to handle contingencies — “if this happens, then we’ll do that” — always holding Plan B (C, D, or E) in readiness.

• Clients love organized and efficient salespeople who pride themselves on maintaining those skills and habits. By nature of the job, a salesperson/project manager has to be more organized than anyone else because he/she maintains overview on all jobs, and thus all details—especially those emphasized by the client.

• Strong project management depends upon excellent analytical skills—skilled at deconstructing project concepts to block out production needs, good with details, vigilant with evolving expenses, and the professional maturity to understand that every detail has an attached cost within your company.