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Where Are We Going?

I cannot remember the circumstance that elicited the following advice but I try to follow and share it. Always be sure you are going to something and not away from something. This has helped me evaluate job changes and make personal decisions. It seems so appropriate right now. One cannot pick up a newspaper, listen to a television talking head or contemplate what appears to be the insanity in government without asking where are we going.

The other day, Michelle Obama sent me an e-mail suggesting I make a donation to a food bank or charity. Great idea but I have gotten so many requests from the Obama organization to give money that I just moved her e-mail into the trash. You have to give the Obama organization credit for trying to keep us involved but it is almost always about giving money to something. From retiring Hillary Clinton’s debt to Obama’s inauguration committee. There was an exception that made a lot of sense, they invited me to go to a local meeting on what needs to change. At least the new administration wants to keep involved those people who they have e-mail addresses for. What about the rest of America? Ā  How are we going to reach them and what are we asking them to do?

Tom Friedman, the New York Times opinion writer and author, continues to challenge his reader with the concept of America needing to retool or reinvent itself. In almost everything he writes he makes a compelling case for how the rest of the world is moving ahead and we seem to be stuck in a 9/11 fear. It raises a question when one contemplates the current cause of our economic situation and position in the world if in fact is not our focus on the past, especially the events of 9/11, versus the future. Is America going to something or are we just trying to go away from something?

I am happy to admit being an unabashed Obama fan. His message of hope is what America needs. I remember Jack Kennedy and remember sitting with my grandfather who had never voted for a Democrat in his life explaining to me that America needed hope far more than party loyalty. From the first time Obama spoke at the Democratic National Convention to his early primary speeches he made the words and pictures of hope go together. That America could do better if we wanted it to. He was able to prove over and over again that civility was a better course than negativism.

Even with that said I have a growing concern with O and he is not even president yet. He has put together a diverse, intelligent and innovative Cabinet. He appears to have a Cabinet that is not only balanced in a classic diversity sense, but combines experienced “bureaucrats” with highly motivated individual thinkers. He has set a positive mood while being honest with America. “Things are going to get worse before they get better.” It is always good to set expectations that you can exceed. But my growing disappointment is in the fact that at least to date he has not put forth what it is that he wants me, my family and my neighbors to do so we can all make America better.

Last week J. Walker Smith who has long been with the Yankelovich organization gave his annual presentation on the outlook for 2009. Yankelovich has been tracking consumer attitudes for over 30 years so he has a solid analytical database for his predictions. What I found most interesting was his discussion on not where we are going but what we (as marketers) had to do. Whether one might agree or disagree, Walker made a real case that marketing organizations had to get consumers back out in the stores buying things. We owe it to the country to encourage consumers to stimulate the economy. Who knows whether he was right or wrong or whether marketing organizations have the confidence to move on programs which might seem politically incorrect when the country is so overspent. What I found important and resonated was that Walker was asking all of us as marketers to do something.

Tell us O what should we be doing? What behavioral changes do we need to make? What is your plan for us and how can we be part of the solution? Please stop asking me to give money to things. You said it yourself throwing money at things is not a solution. I remember growing up as I would walk down into our basement right by the door was a gray helmet with a CD emblem on the front, a whistle and a flashlight. Even though where we lived the houses were pretty spread out my mother was a local civil defense leader. The Cold War required us to be ready and everyone had a role. Who is ready to be an economic defense leader and what should we be asking them to do?

I agree with Tom Friedman we need to reboot, retool and reinvent but the operative word is we. Washington needs to quit doing and start engaging. Washington needs to show leadership and give out assignments and stop asking for money and throwing money at the problem, assuming they know what the problem is. Leadership needs to lay out, as Jack Kennedy did in his inaugural speech, where we need to be going. We must stop this reaction to where we have been. This will be my hope as I watch Barack Obama on January 20th.

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