Today I’m going to share something you will think is negative that is actually positive. It’s positive because it’s a learning lesson for all of us in what Geoffrey Moore eloquently called the “Crossing the Chasm” period of business history. Or what Peter Drucker noted was a movement from the industrial economy into the cognitive post-capitalist world.

Your brand is going to fail.

So why would I in my right mind say this is good news? Think about failure for a moment. We’ve all been there in our personal or professional careers. What did you take away from it? What was the true learning? And most importantly, were you able to pivot quickly from this failure and transform it into a success?

Brands have been living in what we’ve known as the “industrial economy.” Built on size and scale, the more global a company and the ability to monopolize, the larger the relevance and profit margins. In this era bigger brands with the most resources swallowed all of the audience, market share and attention. But in the age of disruption big brands are going to have to learn, unlearn and relearn very quickly. Their size will work against them and they will have a hard time personalizing their brand solutions. The era of scale is coming to an end and if you can fail fast in this transition you will not only survive, but thrive in the “long tail niche” era or what I call the “creative economy.”

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