Out with the old and in with the new! 2011 not only promises the usual array of hangovers due to over-indulgence accompanied by hastily made and equally hastily broken new year resolutions, but also major changes in the world of business and the way companies communicate. In fact by all accounts from those in ‘the know,’ about future trends in business, 2011 heralds the waving goodbye by companies to the traditional currency of the written word, expressed in the form of emails. Shock horror! ‘What sacrilege, how can this be?,’ I hear you saying. Yet economic ‘gurus’ with no fewer credentials than the Economist magazine insist that communication success(or failure, for that matter) will no longer be measured in units of volume of emails but instead in a new currency consisting of images transmitted in video format. Neither is this an overnight sensation. For the last three years or so, almost while we slept, video has moved from near insignificance to occupying the enviable position of forming almost half of all Internet traffic. What’s more, it is predicted that this will be more like three quarters by 2012.
So what lies in store for the stuffy business executives whose personalities are only surpassed in ‘greyness’ by their suits and curt emails? Well, now it seems like a bit of life is about to be injected into the corporate world, as the success of company bosses will be measured in terms of their ‘performance prowess’ in front of a camera. Yes, there has been a paradigm shift in terms of visibility for company chiefs, who must now demonstrate their ability to market themselves and their companies by showcasing their vision for their organization through the medium of video, which takes no prisoners!
It is believed that this process will become a form of ‘natural selection’ for businesses characterized by successful companies being set apart from their less visually articulate competitors through their ability to present complicated ideas through a more accessible route.
‘Less is more,’ will be the mantra of the future as video demands not only greater structural discipline but also much leaner content in the expression of company strategy. It will now be like looking through a freshly-cleaned window and any company that falls short of the new success criteria will immediately be exposed…there will no longer be a way of hiding behind a wall of words.
In a nutshell, corporate communication of the future will be nothing short of a call to be an effective storyteller.
How good is your story?