Written by: Vickie Sullivan | November 11, 2021
How to Compete When the Game Changes
One of my favorite sessions from last week’s Women’s Leadership Board meeting was with 2021 Nobel Prize Laureate Maria Ressa. She’s a longtime investigative journalist and CEO and co-founder of news website Rappler. Some of her efforts are to expose wrongdoings of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
Ms. Ressa’s perspective on changes in journalism over her 30-plus years in the industry is a great reminder for us thought leaders. She says social media and technology changed the standards for good investigative journalism. I’m paraphrasing her response here: Investigative journalism can’t compete on page views. Hard stop. Drop the mic.
Let’s move past the topic and explore how this dynamic applies to us. Something happens in our market, expectations change, and then we compete on standards that we don’t excel in. It’s a race to the bottom.
Listen: 2 Best Responses When We’re In the Weak Position
What can we do? A lot of us give in and try to compete from a position of weakness. Instead, Ms. Ressa shrugs her shoulders and says, “Nope.” She chooses not to adopt criteria in a contest she can’t win.
The moral of the story: We don’t have to play the game. Sure, we can adapt to changing buyer expectations. But if we provide what is scarce out there, we can create a tradeoff that buyers are willing to make.
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