August 1, 2006

Interview With Seth Godin, Author

Seth Godin is a prolific marketing writer - pushing forward simple to grasp powerful theories through his books, blogs and magazine columns. Not only does he champion the new opportunities the web offers, he also gets involved - recently he launched a popular social networking meets skills database called Squidoo. Now, the man with a rather large reputation beyond the marketing community is launching a book called ‘Small Is The New Big’ where he argues all businesses (and all of us) have to start to act like small - and agile - businesses in order to succeed. IF! wanted to ask him a few questions.

So ‘Small Is The New Big‘ seems to be some kind of Golden Hits from your books, blog and column in Fast Company. Is it aimed at your existing audience or do you have a new one in mind?

Actually, nothing at all from past books. Just articles and blog posts. The idea is simple: a lot of existing readers wish they knew where to find everything, and more important, which they had a simple parcel they could use to share a bunch of stuff with their boss or clients or co-workers. So, for 12 quid, here it is, all in one place.

What’s the main premise of the book?

Marketing is not monolithic. Markets aren’t. People aren’t. It’s about bits and pieces and little thoughts leading to big ideas. The book is scattershot because our lives are too.

You seem to have written several books very recently plus launched a web service called Squidoo. Some could argue that the themes of your output put side by side appear rather chaotic. Is there a strategy you have here?

Actually, my last book was more than 15 months ago. For me, that’s half of forever!

The Big Moo was a charity event I chaired and edited. The blog is a bad habit, now turned into a book! So, I feel like my life is less chaotic than usual. BUT, if I have a mantra, it’s that everything is chaotic. Shorter, bigger ideas spread faster… on YouTube, in a blog, in a book, for a soft drink. That’s what my output is probably mimicking.

In your new book, you highlight the size of Craigslist the site (huge) and the size of Craigslist the company (tiny) and argue that part of the success is that Craig Newmark spends so much time on customer service. Could it just be that Craig’s realized that customer service is what he’s good at - and he’s just delegated his other traditional management responsibilities to traditional management?

I think that Craig himself would agree that in many ways, he’s become irrelevant to the bigger picture. His job is to keep people from screwing up the experience, but the product is a platform, not content… in other words, keep the platform healthy and the users will make it work.

If the future is small companies doing big things, what’s everyone else going to do for work? Will a serious employment / skills issue develop?

My cover essay says that big companies acting small is actually as good, if not better, than little companies. And there ALREADY IS a serious employment/skills issue.

You point out an exception to your rule: that TV sets are getting bigger. We wonder if that because they’re a dumb terminal - and that the items feeding the TV (PCs/Tivo/iPods) are getting smaller - does that fit in your theory?

I know for sure I don’t have a theory. I do know that big bigger biggest TV sets represent a fundamental truth: TV is an insanely powerful drug. The creation of a million-channel universe was good for consumers and bad for big marketers, because they lost the power of big TV. But Big TVs make it clear that people are hooked on images.

Let’s talk ‘fireworks’: So I get called in to talk to agencies and brands from time to time normally by a lone ‘believer’ (someone you say “gets it”) who wants to stir things up at work and show that there are new exciting ideas, trends, possibilities (and challenges) available today. I get a feeling that once I leave, everything returns to status quo to the frustration of the believer. So, what can that believer do to ensure that there is real action and reaction to the ideas I present - and what should I do to make sure the ideas I present resonate after I leave a company?

Here’s the thing (it’s actually more than one)

a. most true believers are waiting for someone in the company to give them permission and authority to do something, with no comebacks if it messes up. I think this is a fairly unrealistic expectation, don’t you? So I recommend people to do something they are willing to be responsible for. Just do it. If it works, take a lot of credit. If it doesn’t, apologize for having the wrong instinct and try again. Both outcomes serve you well. Start small. As you gain credibility, do it more often. Soon, there will be more than one true believer, won’t there?

b. the leave-behind matters. Not the “right answer”, but the right words, the right story, the right simple idea that people can embrace. That’s why I write the books I write (I don’t do consulting of any kind, so who knows if I’m right…). The books are designed as a living brochure, an easy way to spread the word among the team.

Even if you don’t write a book, you can coin a phrase, or better, institute a measurement. When Jeff Bezos told 100 people early on at Amazon, “A customer is worth $33, go do whatever you can to get us customers for $33 or less” he empowered his company in a rare and powerful way. Because everyone had the cover and the metric they needed to go do neat things. A metric like that… something to write on a whiteboard… goes a lot lot farther than a special report bound in a whitepaper.

Thank you!

‘Small Is The New Big’ On Amazon

http://www.sethgodin.com (click on his head!)

Seth’s Squidoo lens: http://www.squidoo.com/seth

Article categories: Creative Thinking