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Trend View From John Parikhal: A Look Back at 2005, A Look Ahead for 2006
(John Parikhal, December 2006)
The biggest news stories in 2005 were poorly handled disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, oil prices), technology shakers (WiMax, iMusic/Video), and the brief "rediscovery" of poverty in America (before everyone switched channels for the new episode of Lost).
On the media/advertising business side, quite a few head-in-the-sand CEOs woke up with a headache. In most cases, their company had at least 10 YEARS of warning about how technology might disrupt their business and when it did, they acted as if it were someone else's fault.
Record companies continued to blame the customers because of their own unwillingness to acknowledge the digital train that had been running down the track since at least 1992 (can anyone say "Kodak"?)
Advertisers suddenly discovered that "mass" advertising was no longer working (Alvin Toffler wrote a best seller about how this wa already happening - 25 years ago!). 
And, without a clearly articulated plan, the multi-billion dollar radio business suggested that HD radio would somehow save their 40%+ margins.
The biggest "missed" story was the continuing damage to productivity that is caused by e-mail.
If you get and respond to more than 85 e-mails a day, you're losing about 2-3 hours a day in productivity (which is why you're working harder and getting less done). This explains a lot of the collapse in creativity and forward thinking that used to happen in radio (and many other businesses). There's no time or incentive to think.
Read the rest of John Parikhal's article on 2005 and what's ahead for 2006 click here.
posted by Unknown @ Saturday, December 31, 2005,
