My Dream Job Came True., originally uploaded by roidrage
Any career consultant worth his salt will tell one to dress for the job one wants, not the one one has. It’s a superficial measure, but plays wonderfully into our natural inclination to (a) pattern recognize (”she looks like she belongs in managment”), and therefore, (b) classify (i.e. put people into “buckets”). Fortunately, those that will take the effort to change their appearance are often those putting in the extra mile at work and do deserve the jobs they seek.
I couldn’t help but think of this “dressing up” metaphor last week as IDG’s SVP of Online, Colin Crawford, announced the following on his blog:
“Going forward IDG Communications will define itself as a web centric information company complemented by expos, events and print publications.â€
Today, according to Crawford, IDG’s domestic publishing revenue is 35% online-based. It’s still primarily a print business but is dressing in web clothes. And rightfully so: the real news that Colin delivers is that top-line “absolute dollar growth” in the company’s online business is outpacing shrinkage in its print business and that’s big news that’s worth celebrating.
But I’m not surprised. When I met IDG’s President, Bob Carrigan, at the 2005 Digital Magazine Forum and struck up a conversation with him and Dorian Benkoil (then writing for PaidContent.org and now at mediabistro.com), it was clear that IDG had “figured out” the Internet (see Dorian’s comments on the conversation). The company’s business-focused content, and therefore valuable audience, garners premium online advertising rates.
In fact, in the midst of what’s been a consumer-focused media market frenzy, I think we’re going to see closer inspection of B2B opportunities in the near-term and IDG will offer a nice case study. This deserving company is dressing for the job it wants. And if Crawford’s projections are right, a job it’ll have in 2009 when online revenues make up a majority of the domestic business.
Any thoughts on when it’s alright to declare “your clothes”? Startups, of course, frequently declare before there’s much meat to the visual and I’d contend it helps get them there.
Hat tip: paidcontent.org
UPDATE: Ben Casnocha suggests, “Maybe the way to become an expert on something is simply to declare yourself so, and then work backwards.” Does enterprise-level scrutiny prevent a similar phenomenon in companies?
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