Those blog readers from the U.S. could not miss the media bruhaha this week over Don Imus. He was fired for saying some outrageous things on the radio.
Don Imus is a self-proclaimed "shock jock". Don made a living for over a decade by saying outrageous things to public listeners of his radio show. He made a fortune, well over $1,000,000 per year personally and multiples of that for his producers and syndicators.
So, what happened? He created a Success Formula all around being outrageous. And the more outrageous he was, the more it appeared people listened, and the more advertisers wanted his show, and the more money he and his network (CBS) made. Don Imus spent 10 years building this Success Formula, and Locking it in. He was succeeding with this outrageousness, and his producers succeeded, and CBS succeeded and all the affiliate stations that aired his show succeeded. So, they kept promoting outrageous behavior. And, as more people listened, even very well known, very famous, very successful people appeared on his show. They leveraged Don Imus’ success to give them access to more people and increase their awareness and success. That’s what a Success Formula is all about. People succeed by doing more of what they always did. And they Lock it in.
But then, the market shifted. Not clearly. Not obviously. Not with an announcement on the front page of the New York Times. But public sentiment shifted about "shock radio." We could see the signs. Howard Stern and his producer (Clear Channel Communications) were severely fined by the FCC for things he said. The pressure became so great Howard was forced to go from public radio (called terrestrial radio now) to pay radio (called satellite radio.) And we could see that there were increasing negative articles appearing about off-color comments by everyone from Stern colorful characters like Rush Limbaugh. But Don Imus and his producers ignored the signs of this market shift and continued to push their Success Formula.
Then, last week, it all came down. Mr. Imus said something that got under the skin of too many people. In a week, his sponsors (advertisers that paid for him to be on radio) refused to support him any longer. His revenue dried up, and he was fired from his show.
Why did this happen? Because he (and his producer and his station CBS) were so Locked-in to the Success Formula, which was working, that they ignored the signals of market shifts. They kept right on going until they fell off the proverbial cliff. That’s what happens to Locked-in businesses. Too often, they work that Success Formula right up until it fails. Rarely do we see an example that is so dramatic and quick. But now, we have a very good example of the risk of following your Success Formula and ignoring market Challenges and shifts.