It's not linear....

There is very little about business, particularly entrepreneurial business that is linear.

Not growth, not opportunity, not investment, not customer relations or brand development. In fact I would go so far as to say that real entrepreneurship, market changing innovation can only occur in a state of controlled chaos.

Controlled Chaos is the state in which guidelines and boundaries exist at the outset... and then explode into new directions, and previously unforeseen outcomes (think of things like distribution channels, customer management, inventory management, risk profile tend to fairly common across industries).

All industries converge when it comes to operating in the consensus view of 'best model practice'. It is not until someone challenges the consensus view and demonstrates true innovation that the market evolves and a new consensus view is established.

Given this, entrepreneurial warriors need not only the appropriate temperament and skill set for operating in chaos, they actually need to be the catalyst for chaos.

A state of chaos serves two distinct benefits for the entrepreneur:

1. It necessitates flexibility, quick thinking and nimbleness

2. It unbalances your competition who are only comfortable competing in the traditional way, across traditional levers. Change the levers and watch them drop the ball on the traditional game as they try to catch up on the new one!

I will come back to chaos again shortly but be weary of the traditionalist third party service provider (lawyer, banker, investor, board member) who dismisses chaos out of hand - just make sure it's controlled....

pipeline (the second epiphany) online paid models...wtf?

I exist in a universe where incredibly the following is unfolding before my eyes....

- The media and advertising landscapes are morphing into something that is changing the relationship between them and their individual and combined relationships with their audiences / customers, FOREVER.

- 'Old world' pipe masters such as News Corp, Fairfax, et al. are trying to use their once heralded commercial domination to perverse the free supply of information online to protect their cash flows (see paid online subscription models at both orgs above)

- Younger generation 'information consumers' will (and are) questioning the need to transfer the old 'pay for information' model into the digital world (thanks Google). After all, why pay for an article from the WSJ if you can search for a topic or article and find information aplenty albeit from a different source (perhaps not as familiar or credible - on the surface).

- Old world pipe masters are STILL trying to pull the same levers as they always have to affect their bottom line - price, cost cutting, subscription, advertising. This begs the question, do they REALLY understand where the value exists in their business?

Let's break this timeline down a little:

• Consumers want free information access
• Advertisers want to 'return on reach'
• Traditional media products are drawing smaller audiences, so
• Traditional media products move online
• Advertisers follow the old masters online (brand recognition) but not with the same fervor
• Traditional media entities now online try to change online consumer behaviour

I hear you all screaming... 'hold on there, Amazon and iTunes make you 'pay to play'. True but they provide you with something tangible that we have always been happy to pay for literature and music. True we used to hand over $2 or a printed newspaper, some (myself included) still do, but information online is an entirely different proposition. Information has NEVER been more accessible, there has NEVER been more of it and truth and quality is no longer the exclusive domain of major media entities. Never in history have so many conflicting voices had an opportunity to share a pulpit.

So what does all of this have to do with pipeline I hear you say.... well, everything.

Pipeline saves traditional media owners from having to turn the www world into an online version of 1985.

Follow the logic....

• Media orgs carry the risk of losing brand loyalists for moving to paid online models
• Media orgs have a growing distressed advertising inventory in traditional formats
• Media orgs are looking to keep advertisers happy and invested in their brand

Hence Rupert Murdoch and his fellow pipeline masters are damned if they do go to paid online subscription (suffer consumer backlash and over time, dwindling authority) and damned if they don't (suffer continued advertising losses). Hmmmm, what's a billionaire to do???

Why the answer is simple my dear Watson....

Change the relationship with your advertisers....remove the master / servant model of the past 60 years and genuinely come together for the same end. The one thing advertisers want is quality reach - not coincidently, this is the one thing pipeline delivers.

The answer comes in the form of the chain...

Pipe - Destination - Consumer Product - Advertiser Product

OWN THE CHAIN, OWN THE CHAIN, OWN THE CHAIN.....