I find that having ideas is probably the easiest part of leading an organization.
Communicating those ideas clearly and consistently enough such that they are understood by everyone is orders of magnitude more difficult.
But even that isn't enough...
The real key is actually creating a culture that can produce and evolve the ideas into new creations.
"If children can't write the scripts of their parents, if their access to ancestral culture is read-only, then that culture won't be replicated"
For your organization to produce new life, ideas and solutions it must be able to recreate [and apply] the ideas they have been taught from first principles.
Its the difference between memorizing an equation (like v x cr x ltv - vc = $) and understanding its application broadly
But this kind of teaching and training is FAR more difficult.
I find myself constantly wanting to switch to "read-only" style training (follow this step-by-step guide, decision trees, daily routines etc.) because in theory, they are easier to teach and produce results faster.
BUT I think they have real long-term consequences in our world.
eCommerce is what Range author @DavidEpstein would call a "wicked environment". One in which there are rarely repetitive patterns and the rules of the game are constantly changing.
There is no "playbook" only principles.
So my question to you is, do you agree?
If no, what am I missing?
If yes, how do ensure your ideas don't become "read-only" inside your company?
Somewhere around $50M many eCommerce brands go through a similar experience.
I call it "The Shrinking Sponge"
Here is how the story plays out time and time again...
Venture Capital group "Power Johnson Ventures" has just invested some fresh capital in DTC darling "Never Towards".
The first meeting with the executive team lays out one simple, obtuse, ambiguous, unclear goal. Growth.
Absent any clear indication of in what time horizon, at what margin, on which product, from which customer this growth is supposed to happen, the CMO excitedly gathers her leaders up...
1/ What causes long term sustained performance in an ad account?
🧵featuring real examples 👇🏻
If you explore the source of FB ad growth and subsequently revenue growth for eCom brands it is almost never a function of iterative improvements to ad creative or tactics over time.
2/ More often it is a series of moments that unlock an order of magnitude increase in awareness, engagement, traffic and performance.
These moments can be caused by:
A single ad
A big PR moment
A breakthrough campaign
A change in market dynamics
A new product release
Etc.
3/ The problem is they are very hard to predict and create.
I’ll give you an example of a few that happened for us @QALORing that changed our trajectory (and ad account performance) each time...
You've never heard of the brand from this screenshot.
They have no PR, no influencers going viral on tik tok, they just have 1 powerful thing...
Perfect, product-market fit
I share this, not to brag. We did very little. Really, look how simple that ad account is...
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I share this to remind MYSELF and all entrepreneurs that blaming FB for your ROAS is a cop-out.
When you can unhitch yourself from the idea that FB is screwing you, or is broken, or is not what it used to be, then you can begin the powerful process of self-reflection
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Understanding that FB is simply a distribution engine for your message moves you from victim to the one in control of the outcome.
From there, you can begin the hard work of making people care about your message.
Making your product so MAGICAL that people must have it.
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1/ Your brand is much more than a headline away from exit.
“Testing” as the highest value of marketing behavior is deteriorating “brands” down to a series of headlines and image variations.
At its worst it removes the “tester” of obligation to do deep, quality work up front.
2/ It (testing as the highest value) precludes any activity (like community development) that doesn’t fit neatly into a pseudo scientific measurement system or has a more latent value capture.
3/ It also favors “incrementality” over truly innovative thinking. The kind of thinking that isn’t rooted in an extrapolation of past results.