Chasing Obsolesence

There’s been reams of writing on Kodak’s demise. Here’s a cracking insight from one such lament. For a firm then obsessed with ‘film’ the bosses were shown a new product. Which today we’d call ‘digital’;

“In what has got to be one of the most insensitive choices of demonstration titles ever, we called it ‘Film-less Photography’. Talk about warming up your audience!”

Lost on Slide One.

Firstly, when was the last time you were conscious of the importance of your presentation’s title?

Secondly, in a daily environment where we typically have to promote change to the change averse, how do you push the reluctants forward without trampling all over everything that they (however misguidedly) currently hold dear?

In this case, perhaps the title may not have made any diffence to an audience so entrenched in Canute mode. Perhaps it may just have swung the day though. On such fine nuances can such big wins rest.

I love the title chosen way back then. Most solutions offered intend to make something obsolete. If you don’t create the new way, someone else will. So why not be responsible for the next stride forward yourself?

In our prospects, it may be a process, a way of doing things. It may be providing a whole new lease of life, a new opportunity. Either way, positioning your newness in terms of the next inevitable innovation, but which you do first, can only be a good angle.