Curtis LeGeyt, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, the leading trade group representing broadcast journalists, is blasting former President Donald Trump over his continued threats against some of the nation’s largest news networks. (The Hill) Trump’s threats against CBS have been particularly intense in recent weeks. He railed against 60 Minutes for editing the…Read More
Viewers are still giving Wheel of Fortune a spin with new host Ryan Seacrest. The syndicated strip’s season 42, with Seacrest taking over for longtime host Pat Sajak (and joining co-host Vanna White), made a splash in its opening month as the most-watched entertainment series in September across broadcast, cable, and syndication. (Variety) As the…Read More
The NewsGuild of New York filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against The New York Times, claiming that management violated the National Labor Relations Act by interrogating employees about their strike sentiments within the past six months. (Axios)Read More
Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Blair Kamin is paying for the Chicago Tribune’s next architecture writer out of his own pocket. Why would he do such a thing? (Poynter)Read More
For Alia Kemet, chief marketing officer (CMO) of Shipt, sponsoring and participating in Blackweek was a no-brainer. Kemet, who is on Blackweek’s steering committee and spoke at the event last week, said the conference speaks to Shipt’s values. “It’s really important to us, as a company, to think about all people from all walks of…Read More
Brands looking to connect with Gen Z often don’t know how to connect with them. Talent agency giant United Talent Agency hopes to change that. In February, UTA acquired Gen Z consulting firm JUV Consulting for an undisclosed amount to form a practice called Next Gen focused on helping marketers reach younger consumers. This week,…Read More
The numbers WPP reports third-quarter growth of 0.5% in like-for-like organic revenue, while less pass-through costs decreased by 2.6% to $3.5 billion (GBP2.7 billion). Its performance trails Publicis and Omnicom, which reported 5.8% and 6.5% organic revenue growth last week for the quarter, respectively. Interpublic Group saw a 2.9% decline in third-quarter net revenue. The…Read More
In 1983, an old article from the Harvard Business Review changed my life.
In 1960, Ted Levitt, a professor at HBS, wrote the most popular article in the Review’s history. Called Marketing Myopia, it described a different way of thinking about change and marketing.
I was a (very) young MBA student at Stanford and somehow got an interview for a summer job working as the assistant to Jim Levy, the CEO of Activision. At the time, they were the fastest-growing company in the history of the world.
Instead of meekly sharing my resume, I went in brandishing a copy of Levitt and HBR. I explained, with confidence, that Activision might be the Penn Central of their time, and they needed to be strategic in their approach to the market, broadening their focus away from the Atari console that accounted for what felt like 98% of their revenue.
He stood up to throw me out of his office. “Well, so much for that,” I thought.
At that moment, one of his VPs ran in with the Cashbox magazine bestseller list. Activision had 9 of the top 10 bestselling titles. The two of them ran down the hall to celebrate.
An hour later, Jim returned to his office, saw I was still sitting there, forgot why he was angry with me and offered me a summer job, one I ended up not taking. It didn’t matter, though, because I had seen the light.
I think Ted put his finger on something urgently important, and the lesson of the paper has stuck with me throughout my career.
This week, forty years in the making, Harvard published an edited version of my expansion of his idea, called strategy myopia.
I hope Ted would be pleased.
Strategy myopia is task focused. It’s based on a desire to get a guaranteed result for specified effort. It involves meetings and plans and powerpoints. Strategy myopia afflicts people who prioritize tactics over the hard work of finding a worthwhile strategy in the first place.
We can avoid it, but first we have to acknowledge it and discuss it.
[PS 40+ new podcast appearances are now live. Here’s an updated collection of them.]
For the fourth week in a row, ABC News’ Good Morning America remained America’s No. 1 morning show in total viewers. GMA continued to build on its lead over NBC News’ Today with 166,000 total viewers separating the two morning shows for the week of October 14. Despite that piece of good news, all three…Read More
Long-time KTIV sports director Brad Pautsch died on Saturday, October 19. He was 58. Pautsch underwent surgery to remove a malignant tumor from his brain in March 2021. After his surgery, he suffered a stroke. He made it through the seven-hour procedure, five rounds of chemotherapy, and stem cell treatments at the Mayo Clinic. In…Read More
