If you want to survive and thrive through the baby boom crisis and beyond, then you would do well to follow Millionaire Rapper 50 Cents’ business model.
Recently I read an article in Fortune magazine. It featured Mega Star Rapper 50 Cents. I was intrigued to find his business model was a simple one and an ideal blue print all corporate companies around the world, would do well to emulate.
His ideas were powerful and coincidentally similar to what I touch upon in my impact report: The Looming Human Capital Crisis: How E-Learning, Professional Development and Recruitment can Weather the Impending Storm.
50 Cent’s mantra is this… if you want to survive in the marketplace, you need to throw out the old business model, listen to your clients, and think beyond the first sale. cmo email id
Throw out the old business model
We’re living in a unique time in business history that’s changing faster than ever before — and with the baby boom crisis looming ever closer — companies now more than ever, need to toughen up while still finding a more ‘feminine’ side.
And like 50 Cents, be willing to take risks, create their own circumstances and adapt to the ever shifting marketplace tide.
And yet, far too many companies still rely on the stodgy ’70s and 80s’ business model that just doesn’t fit in today’s fast pace, touchy feely environment.
An environment where prospects have more power to control the marketplace than at any other time in history and want to engage in a dialogue with their service providers.
Coupled with that, companies will soon be losing their most important asset — intellectual real estate — the many years of loyalty and service given by their many baby boomers and to make matters worse, replacing them will be a fierce struggle.
It’s so important, now more than ever that companies throw out the old business model and adapt to the new marketplace trends. Otherwise they won’t survive the harsh marketplace winter that’s upon us.
And while there is nothing they can do to stop baby boomers leaving the marketplace or the fact that clients desire dialogue, there are two further principles they can put in place to help them stand on rock instead of sand.
They can…
Stop living in fear – listen to your clients
Companies are still deathly afraid of their clients and are not willing to throw down their corporate mask and engage in a meaningful dialogue with them.
Fear of change compels them to stick with the old fashioned business model; stubbornly clinging to their own ideas on what they think the public and their clients want.
Then foolishly hoping their marketing campaigns will manipulate or shift their prospect’s mind long enough, to get them to buy something they never desired in the first place!
Companies who do that, do themselves and their prospect’s a serious disservice; treating them like children and as reward, can only watch in horror as their profits continue to plummet.
But the truth is, their prospect’s are not stupid, they’re very bright and very sharp. They know what they want and they won’t stop until they get it. No longer will they purchase a product or service companies try to thrust on them.
Those days are over. 
Millionaire Rapper 50 Cents is very successful for another reason, he…
… thinks beyond that first sale
He constantly thinks beyond the deal and onto ‘ownership’; how he can own the material, the company or get equity.
While CMOs are not in a business ownership position there is nothing stopping them thinking ‘big picture’; like 50 Cents, beyond that first sale.
They would do well to think about how they could win customer loyalty, long term contracts or even business partnerships, because in that way they would build financial stability and security for their company.
In this day and age of recession, downsizing and the talent crunch, sharp CMOs would do well to put 50 Cent’s three simple business principles in place.
By throwing out the old business model, listening to their clients and prospects, and thinking beyond the first sale, sharp CMOs would be in a better position to survive and thrive in this harsh marketplace winter.
