(Note: Tim wrote “Are You Climbing Hills or Crossing Valleys?”. I commented: “You will have to lead your people and your consumers across the valley to where dragons live”. Tim liked that comment and we – more or less – agreed that I will elaborate on that.)
“Where Dragons live” lends itself from ‘Here be dragons’, which “is a phrase used to denote dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of the medieval practice of putting sea serpents and other mythological creatures in blank areas of maps”.
Corporations, their inner cultures, their leadership and management will have to decide what they want to stand for: being cowards not daring to travel uncharted lands, not daring to discover new horizons, not daring to transcend the edge of their company plate …
… or to embrace change, to conquer the unknown. To walk off the beaten track and create and innovate!
Will they create the future? Be curious and brave? Do they want to learn and develop? Challenge the existing game, change the rules, change the playing fields?
Will corporations, their inner cultures, their leadership and management, brands, and marketers outgrow themselves, strive for excellence, and inspire others to follow?
Will they search for new business models – instead of hiding on common ground? Will they disrupt their category landscape? Will they understand their customers and anticipate their new individuality, independence, and impatience? Will they lead?
Will they become the heroes of future success stories? Will they be known for being brave pioneers creating new markets?
Will they be known for proving that there are no dragons? That the dragons solely exist in our minds and stories? And that these stories are told by market leaders to keep young adventurers, inventors, and challengers of the status quo off their own back?
You all should become heroes, brave men and women, fighting establishment’s intolerance, arrogance, and ignorance! Do not believe the stories the old are telling you.
You all should push your individual limits, borders, limitations each and every day. Stop making sense! Beat your inner dragons! Lead us to the land of future riches – mental and material! Follow your intuition, your heart, your curiosity!