What does the landing on the moon have to do with marketing and business?

I would have said not much, until I read this caption in The Times.

apollo mission

In July we celebrated 40 years since the man landed on the moon, 40 years since we achieved “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. And what did this trip teach us about? The earth! We went all the way to the moon to learn about our own planet. Here are only some examples of what it influenced:

•    The Green movement was greatly aided because key people were inspired by the astronauts’ speech about how seeing the Earth from afar made them realise how fragile it is.
•   René Dubois (1) was inspired by the moon landing (more precisely how the astronauts described what the earth looked like from a distance, giving them an overwhelming sense of oneness), when he coined the phase ‘Think Globally, act locally’.
•   Bean stopped complaining about bad weather after his return from the moon, instead he said, “I’m just glad there is weather”

Reading this made me realise how much every move I made, be it to another country or a new job, taught me about myself…especially so when forced outside my comfort zone (which in my case would be for most jobs I ever took, or most cities I moved to). There is no doubt that what I saw, the people I met, the people I worked with, the challenges I faced turned me into a better marketer, a more flexible business person, and to the right company a more valuable employee.

If exploring had this effect on a few astronauts, on the people they touched, and on me… and if some organisations see the value having explored can bring in terms of new capabilities, ideas, shift in perception, then how come we see so little of it in business?

I suspect the answer lies in the definition, and in the concept of accountability.

‘Exploration is the act of searching or travelling a terrain for the purpose of discovery, e.g. of unknown people, including space (space exploration), for oil, gas, coal, ores, caves, water (Mineral exploration, or prospecting), or information.’

Read it again and ask yourself what the key word is in this definition….

Personally I think it’s the word unknown…

Unknown does not fly when the internal accountability process machine kicks in…Think about this possible scenario. Why are you doing this? I don’t know? What will you get out of it? I don’t know? Who will end up using the product/service? I don’t know? And finally what is the ROI? You got me there, I have no clue! It does not matter how enthused you are about your idea, how much you believe in it…if the figures don’t add up, it is not likely to happen in the corporate world.

And since exploring has by definition and unknown in it, well I think you get the point, not many middle managers (or senior for that matter) are going to sign up for something with unknown stamped on it…and I’m not sure I can blame them, after all they have a job to do…or should I say to keep.

I do however blame the corporate mechanism that makes exploration so hard, not to say impossible, (and let’s be honest the economy is not doing anything to help this situation). If any exploration, or discovery, is to take place it needs to be embedded in the organisation, its culture, who and how they hire, and how budget is allocated. Innovation takes real commitment. For example Google, as a motivation technique (usually called Innovation Time Off), encourages all their engineers to spend 20% of their work time (one day per week) on projects that interest them (2) (although if you speak to Google employees some of them will say, “Yes it’s called Sunday”). 3M used to have the same philosophy years ago. Despite the success of these organisations, few adopt these type of techniques in everyday management.

I wish this was not the case, so when an organisation do, or when they simply take a risk, they need to be celebrated! So in the spirit of the anniversary of the moon landing I would like to salute Coca-Cola for something many people do not know. In July 1969, Coca-Cola co-sponsored the first truly international telecast – the landing on the moon.

coca cola moon

A company statement said: “It is with true pride and a sense of pioneering spirit that we can announce that The Coca-Cola Export Corporation is commercially co-sponsoring the telecast of the Apollo XI Moon Shot — from take-off July 16 through moon landing July 20, to splash-down July 24 – on behalf of the product Coca-Cola.” (2)

I find it great that they chose to associate their brand with an event, as amazing of an event as it was, with an unknown outcome attached to it, a potentially catastrophic one. I wonder if in today’s world some scenario planning analysis would have told them not to go there since a very possible scenario would be for the spaceship to blow up at takeoff, or to actually make a splash (of the non Coke type) on landing!

So in honour of “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” why don’t you raise the sails, get your staff on board, and go on an exploration journey…somewhere you have not been, or never thought of going (and I don’t mean geographically). Do it in search of something new, different, original, incredible, extraordinary…just because you can! I bet you it will teach you a lot about your organisation, what you can and can’t do, should or shouldn’t do! And if one great idea, initiative, learning comes out of it (which it will!) make sure you turn it into a fabulous splash!!!

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(1) René Jules Dubos (February 20, 1901 – February 20, 1982) was a French-American microbiologist, experimental pathologist, environmentalist, humanist. He is credited as an author of a maxim “Think globally, act locally”.

(2) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google

(3) Source: http://www.coca-colaconversations.com/my_weblog/2009/07/appolo-11-anniversary.html

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