Dumb planning

Few months ago I started a convo with Gordon Euchler. He had offered public on Linkedin to help publishing articles with fellow strategists and I accepted the gift.

Our discussion led to the provocative title of this article (his idea). But I'm getting ahead of myself...

All started with his question: "What do you love about planning and what do you hate?"

That made think...

I love strategy mainly for two reasons:

1) Gives me the opportunity to have a helicopter view about the issue or the project. Give me the opportunity to get in touch with the broader aspect of the company (if we are talking about strategy for a business) even if my ultimate goal will be far more narrowed (like a campaign)

2) It gives me breath of scope. As the term is quite broad, it gives me space to tackle different aspect of a client (brand, channel, distribution, retail, etc etc). 

My background is quite diverse for the same reason, I was never content to be just a marketeer or just a planner, I felt I could be more effective if I could influence more silos.

What I hate is more about the behaviour than the function per se.

It is this self entitlement we are the smartest person in the room. Like an oracle we descend upon mortals and pour or wisdom. I think these things don't do us no good.

In Orson Scott Card's Xenocide (5th book on Ender's Game series) we met Si Wang-mu, a dweller of a planet called Path. The elit of this planet were genetically design to be super genius. Si Wang-mu was not one of this people. She was just a servant of normal intellect and no education what so ever. Plain dumb.

At some point of the story, Si Wang-mu becomes key to discover a solution that would save the universe (spoiler alert).

How does she do that? Asking dumb questions. She forced the bright but biased minds to rethink their train of thought. Sometimes dismissing her questions but not the implications that they could bring. Only someone ignorant of one's own brilliance was  humble enough to make "stupid questions" other would think waste of time.

Unknown by her or anybody she had also being designed to be uber smart, she was just not part of the elite but she wasn't recognised as such.

The point I want to make is not brilliance is everywhere, but rather about entitlement.

You can even be the smartest person in the room, just don't assume you are the smartest person in every room.

That means your competition. Hence you shouldn't assume you are the smartest person in any room. Plot twist.

Nick Geogheghan from eatbigfish uses an expression that any planner should follow (fuck, any person in business). Intelligent naivety. Be naive when comes to business problems. Question the basics, ask why things are like this and not like that.

And when I mean the basics I really mean it. "Why are we advertising this?", "Will anyone watch this film?", " even "Is advertising the answer to this problem?".

Many years ago I was in a conference and a Pepsico marketing person was talking about Gatorade's launch in Brazil.

At that time, something like Gatorade was a complete novelty. Rehydration wasn't a common jargon nor sports drink and they were having a hard time pushing their product to retailers.

One day one of the sales guys came euphoric. A big retailer just wanted to made a huge sales order that would save the quarter. The catch was it was a drugstore.

The brand manager asked " do we want to sell to this guys?". Everyone was awe. Why wouldn't we?

What was behind his dumb question was "Do we want to sell a new product that people have no idea what it is first to a drugstore incurring the risk this brand will be perceived as medicine rather than a drink for generations to come?

(Here it is important to highlight some cultural context, in Brazil drug stores are mainly known for selling medicine and personal care products. That has changed now a days but it is not like CVS or Walgreens).

Don't be afraid to be the dumbest person in the room because heck, you might help to save the universe or at least a multi-billion dollar brand. Whatever you fancy.