CyberFootprint

There is a problem with the Czech advertising and PR market. I call this a “problem of merry men in marketing”. Let us examine it in depth and at length. Caution: this post is fairly long for a blog.

Genesis of the merry men

These are the folks who are in their 30s now (generation X and maybe a bit of generation Y). They were educated by the pre-democratic system but started their careers in the already capitalist environment. Most of them went abroad to study a foreign language as soon as the iron curtain fell. They subsequently rose to the ranks of marketing managers in multi-national companies operating in the Czech Republic. Right now, they are climbing the corporate ladders even higher up.

Emphasis on affiliation instead of skill

While they started their careers in the early capitalist era (post-1989 for those who don’t know), their upbringing and education remains rooted in the old system, where group affiliation and connections to the establishment structures mattered more than skill.

I am not saying that connections do not or should not matter today. After all, we are living in a world of tribes. I just have a problem with placing affiliation above skill and expertise. No matter how well you are connected, the connections should not help you excel, if you are incapable. Sadly enough, this is not the case when it comes to merry men. By keeping the status quo, the level of marketing services in the Czech Republic stagnates and evolves very slowly.

Case in point: online PR. Everybody talks about it around here and nearly nobody does it. Agencies and marketing departments led by merry men do not recognize the value in it and treat it like a fad. Why? The return on investment is low and they do not understand it as well as the offline world. Until these roadblocks are removed, there is little hope for change.

Mentality

There is a thin line between confidence and arrogance. There is a very simple difference between them. Confidence: you know you can do something. Arrogance: you think you can do anything. The merry men do not even realize this distinction, which makes them very unpopular among their subordinates and co-workers. Their ego is often larger than life.

Value system

Money matters more than anything. It defines their world where the one with the largest net worth is the king. The merry men are driven by greed instead of a necessity to conduct business in an ethical manner. I often get reminded of Gordon Gecko when I look at the state of affairs today. Perhaps they idealized the image of a fearless managerial-looking breadwinner dressed in a white collar shirt and suspenders. Unfortunately, they learned only the wrong attributes and patterns of behavior.

The level of their managerial skills tends to be often underdeveloped. A friend of mine had a boss who tried to praise them according to a workshop he attended and a manual he read. The result was a flow of overtly insincere blabber that made him want to open fire at every living creature in the perimeter of 50 meters.

What to do about them?

The easy and convenient answer to that would be: wait until they all die out. Seriously now, we can’t do that. Active resistance is my way of challenging their flawed ways. Constantly opposing pointless and unethical intentions and suggestions is the most efficient way of changing their behaviour. It doesn’t make you popular, though.

I personally refuse to become one of them and I still believe that it is better to become a reject than to sell out.

On the concluding note, I would like to ask the readers from the U.S. and the UK whether they had experienced something like the merry men phenomenon. If yes, share it! I’d love to hear your stories.

Image credit: ooh.ooh