Amazon’s Jeff Bezos is driven by his prescient belief that, “The disruptor will soon be the disrupted.” Change is happening so fast as to be revolutionary, but we misunderstand it, thinking it is about the new, next thing from TikTok to Vero. But it isn’t about the hardware or software, it is about the power of sharing, which has transformed us in a few short years from a republic to a hyper democracy.
Virtually every major policy debate now emanates from the grassroots, not Wall Street or K Street. #MeToo, fracking, global warming, sugar, GMOs, the Keystone pipeline. Go ahead, name a major issue that hasn’t come from the grassroots.
The power of corporate (and nation-states’) communications to control the narrative is gone. No longer are the four horsemen of communications — PR, advertising, lobbying and PAC funding — a formula for success. “We did what was in the best interest of our shareholders and our customers,” is no longer a viable holding statement. The change is extraordinary and swift.
Yet, how many companies have overhauled their enterprise risk management (ERM), their decision-making hierarchy, their advertising and marketing, and their litigation communications and branding in a way that incorporates how our democracy and capitalism now works?
For insight into these dramatic changes and the thinking that’s required, please read our latest column in Forbes.
Enjoy the read.
Richard Levick
