WHEN IS "IT" GOING TO TURN AROUND?

Sitting in my home office after my first full week of unemployment, I have been pondering the question that seems to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue these days. There’s uneasiness in my mind as I look to colleagues, friends and mentors who might have the answer, yet they all have the same question: When is "IT" going to turn around?

In an effort to avoid feeling like a weatherman by predicting if it will be partly cloudy or partly sunny tomorrow (what’s the difference?), I decided to set out on a mission to discover what "IT" truly means. Thinking, if I define what "IT" is, then I might be able to figure out if and when "IT" will turn around.

"IT" IS THE ECONOMY
I first turned to the obvious. The media was filled with reports on how bad things were and how, with the right combination of bipartisan cooperation, chip manufacturing increases, energy conservation, and Tiger Woods golf victories (see http://www.msnbc.com/news/573698.asp), our de-listed dot com stocks would rally in a hurry.

This all sounded dandy to me at first, so I smiled at a Republican on my way to the store, bought a bag of Ruffles, turned off my lights, and tuned in to watch Tiger lose this year’s US Open. Damn! I thought. Had he won this weekend, surely "IT" would turn around.

Undaunted, I continued on my journey.

"IT" IS THE INTERNET
Having been in the Internet business for five years, I had seen everything from its humble beginnings, to the frenzied months of 1999 and 2000, to the eventual more humbling downfall this year. The Internet offered everyone so much promise yet never came through.

-Broadband was behind
-Technology was limiting

But how and when would "IT" turn around? Ahhh, when broadband was in the ground and technology caught up to our ideas, "IT" would be groovy and I wouldn’t feel guilty about this Aeron chair I just bought from a homeless Web programmer.

Damn! Still something lacking with this concept. If the economy didn’t improve, then there wouldn’t be any clients to receive our wisdom and "IT" would not turn around.

Keep searching.

"IT" IS THE CLIENT
I can remember all those meetings I had to define who the perfect client was for our business.

-The savvy client who "gets it"
-Fully funded with a sound management team
-Willing to spend unpredictable amounts of money on technology
-Months of ramp up time so we can follow our processes
-Excited to let us take over their brand

When will the clients turn around? I thought. All we needed were a few of these perfect clients to really turn things around. Then I remembered that the Internet still had to improve and Tiger Woods needed some more time at the driving range to kick-start that economy. Plus, who has ever found a perfect client?

TAKING STOCK
Everywhere I turned, there was some good excuse. I blamed the economy, technology, and even the clients. Frustrated, I wondered if "IT" could ever turn around.

This notion left me feeling powerless. Was there anything I could do to contribute something positive to the situation?

WELL THEN, WHAT IS "IT?"
"IT" is each and every one of us. We are still asking the question which leads me to believe that we are all waiting for something to happen that never will unless we accept accountability and move forward.

We developed a level of arrogance that ended up biting us in the ass. Our maverick attitudes did not evolve as budgets got bigger and projects became more complex. We didn’t listen to our clients and they got mad at us. We promised our clients that the Internet would do great things for them, yet we underestimated how big the challenge was to achieve those great things. We convinced the marketplace that we were the experts yet left ourselves no room to make a mistake. Meanwhile, the warning signs were out there and we ignored them.

In my view, the Internet is still an immature medium. Sure, there are some successes out there and we have done some good work, but we are still in the early stages of this industry. We have all learned so much so quickly and there is still so much to discover. I’m looking for a new spirit in our industry that thrives on patience, vision and realism. By building upon what we know now and being accountable when we don’t know the answer, we can rebuild credibility and expand our industry over time. That’s right over time. We will not turn this around overnight.

Companies who keep themselves afloat over the next six to twelve months will be rewarded with greater stability as clients begin to regain confidence in us. This renewed confidence will pump more dollars into our industry; improving the climate for hiring and expansion.

Let’s use this time to retrench and focus on creating something to grow from. Our industry has been a house built on stilts for too long.

It’s time to build a foundation, then WE can turn this around.