Summary:
from hype to hyper negative about the Internet industry which is foolish, though to be expected, the media loves extremes...
...May the real players stand-up please!
Top right graphic design by martin from Cheesefactory
:: Dot bombings - revenge of the hoi polloi*
- YEAH! +
*hoi polloi: Greek expression meaning "the many" that gets fairly common use in English as "the common people; the masses." In title, substitute for "the little people".
::Please read addendum: How your peers are coping with the web design crisis. Survivor!
by Carole Guevin and KD
I have been predicting this much needed correction on the IT markets for over 2 years. Before you think I'm out of my mind, hear me out. What about all the vulture capitals with their 9 failures for 1 success philosophy who have been drunk on media hyped forecasts and the biz plan crap stating that you needed to have the *old guard* carousel of execs close to retirement looking to strike their last couple millions before going bye-bye who in the end let the kids run the place!
Pinstripes, jaguars and jetlags are passé1, get a life...
It's as absurd to focus on the interior decoration of hip offices as it is to have an oak-paneled conference room high above the hoi polloi* in the canyons of SuccessVille. Abundance of resources and minimum of predation led to impractical adaptations. Consider an office full of Aeron chairs like a peacock's tail: pretty to look at, but totally useless, and only there because of an excess of nutrients (read: VC) in the mix.
The VC market of the late '90s led to an algal bloom of new Internet companies. There was so much money from burgeoning mutual funds and new VC funds hoping to get in on the action that the process short-circuited: it funded poor management teams, untested models and incomplete technologies. CEO ego played too big a part in money decisions which are sustainable only when there are big pots of money. Companies need to start somewhat hungry to reach their full potential.
New or old economy, bad management is bad management, period.
People with pure power hunger are NOT to be permitted to destroy a working team to serve their mini-me processes! The recent dot bombs say enough of higher clueless creeps who think because they can do five Xl commands and make pwrpoint pres that they can run a new media agency... More often than not, in these companies, ignorance ruled supreme!
In every x-booming .comAlley, companies became as much a lifestyle as overnight industry mavericks, there was money to burn2. It was a surreal contest to see who could spend the most money on seeming cutting edge! No matter what, you had to look new and different, get with it, be hip to the new new thing, start wearing black turtlenecks with jeans and practice your very own flavor of megalomania. Oh and most of all, ditch that concern about bottom line, as it is SO old school: the big story's volume, numbers, eyeballs baby! Every issue of Wired came with a free Kool Aid for you to drink, every share of CMGI came with a free Dutch tulip.
With so much greed, short-term and short-sighted vision even a $100M couldn't make a poorly-executed idea fly before its time had come, especially if that money was not all going to fundamentals. New Media consultancies were much better talking about managing expectations than actually doing it. Remember the Razofish and Sapient recent scandals?
Alas a lot of people worked on optioned promises that recently ended up as wallpaper! The Internet industry at large was built on the vision of the founders, but it is the true believers in the technical and visual arts that made it all possible.
ok Mo we get the point - what now?
The positive side is that the companies who have bellied up, who have sold vaporware and who have a board screaming for profits are becoming teethless competitors! These companies are caught up with a sudden wave of new responsibilities: restructuring, firing, downsizing3, bottom line, end-meet, quarter losses... and a schedule of flurry meetings with their overcharged clients needing to vent their wrath and who won't be quieted down without a huge slash in agency fees.
While they are busy trying to sell/salvage the house4 it opens multiple opportunities for us. *They* are the compost in which we can root, find sustenance and livelihood. We, who have worked at taiming this new media and understand that our strength is adaptability, we who have learned by spending countless midnight oil, sacrificing everything for the future, we became the strong and nimble. Success in business comes through determination and patience.
The doers of our industry understand that you can't be everything to every client. Our talk is reality talk and business is about answering one's needs - not inventing needs. Those who can build companies and technologies on a shoestring rather than chasing the next hype bubble and do the less sexy work of making businesses more efficient, one line of code and business process at a time, will be the stars of the next decade.
Focus on the fundamentals, look for and make a good work environment (people-wise, not furniture-wise), reasonable work weeks, get payment in something other than promises, hire/work for seasoned project managers with good people skills, help cement teams into firm social units and pride only in delivering.
May the real players stand-up please!
Bibliography:
- 1 Year 2000 Dot Com Shutdowns by WebMergers.com
- 2Dotcom Inferno: Money to Burn" by Michael Newman - e-Company now - November 2000 - http://www.ecompany.com/
- 3Small consulting firms feel pinch" by James Evans, IDG News Service\Boston Bureau - December 11, 2000, 09:09 - http://www.idg.net/
- 4EToys' survival as independent looks slim - shares fall 70 percent in a day by Thi Nguyen Reuters, 12/18/2000
Originally published in [network+economy] newsletter - February 2001
Addendum:
How your peers are coping with the web design crisis. Survivor!
A) I've been predicting/hoping for this correction for over two years. Though it may sound like a doomsday scenario (or at least pessimistic), the basis of this assumption is rooted in good old business sense.
In my opinion, any business lacking solid R&D in the development of their business model — for example, the precocious launch of Business to customer models — was a complete flop. (Boo.com/Pets.com/Mercata.com since it's still the Business to Business era.) The lack of sound forecasting of revenue models, over-funded start-ups charging/spending enormous amounts of money for little/NO results, hypermediatized, half-crazed clients who wanted a piece of the virtual pie, all conspired to become flying elephants who were going to need a much need back-to-reality slap somewhere in the near future.
B) The true positive side is that the companies who have bellied up, who have sold vaporware and are struggling with a board screaming for profits are no longer our competitors!
They are the compost in which we can root, find sustenance and livelihood. Clients are now less ignorant and more expectant of results when expressing their web needs. This is the right time for the pioneers of who have slowly grown, who have been both observers and contributors for countless hours during the emergence of the web — those who have kept a determined outlook and weathered all kinds of adversities (lack of funds, lack of resources, lack of competent team players, lack of personal life, lack of sleep). They have become dedicated and rooted in the ever changing demands of our industry, they understand that you can't be all things to every client. They will grow from the rumbles. Their talk is reality talk and business is about answering one's needs not inventing needs.
Will the real players stand up, please!
Originally published in A List Apart - in 2000.