Media Companies Are Missing the Biggest Area for Innovation

The rash of new interest to innovate at media companies in an economic downturn is to be expected. Newspapers (http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=135809), TV (http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=135779) and others are focusing on new ways to improve their business as can be seen from the recent headlines from recent trade shows.

Yet, media companies miss the biggest opportunity of all - that's the least resource intensive - Innovating through "connecting the dots" within their own organizations.

Recently, I sat in a meeting with a leading media company leadership team and their biggest challenge was seeing beyond their divisional perspectives to create big ideas. It isn't they aren't smart or inventive, but rather they aren't really encouraged to explore outside their sandbox. And that is problematic, considering their customers don't live in those silos and neither do consumers digesting their content.

In our world of marketing performance, we encourage media leadership teams to live outside their comfort zones. We use an exercise in our planning processes that make them walk a day in the shoes of their customer and their customer's customer (consumers). The lessons gained alone from these experience help them see around the corner and view their world from the outside in. Now they understand why their customers react the way the do.

Remember, the silo-ed mentality of yesteryear, create a competitive disadvantage to others that have broken down those divisional walls.