• by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, July 14, 2011

If you work in media, advertising and entertainment, are not within 12 months of retirement, and don't spend time thinking about your own personal vision of the future of your industry, you are headed out to sea into a five-year hurricane without a life preserver and a compass, let alone a lifeboat or a GPS.

As Tom Friedman wrote in his column in The New York Times earlier this week, being an employee in today's business world means being in a "Start-up of You" world. You are only as valuable to your company as the quality and quantity of your personal contribution and output each and every day. And, I would argue, your company is only as valuable to the extent that it can successfully navigate markets and dynamics that are becoming increasingly intense and complex.

The media, advertising and entertainment industries have entered a period of extraordinary disruption -- from technology, from expanding competition, and from ever-demanding and changing customers and suppliers. But, what has happened over the past 10 years, I believe, is only the precursor for what is to come.

There are many opinions about what is likely to happen or what the consequences might be: Will Netflix make HBO obsolete? Will all magazines be delivered and read on iPads and tablets? Will Groupon and clones deliver a "kill shot" to newspapers by taking away their FSIs, coupons and promotion money? However, virtually all rational industry observers agree that extraordinary change is coming.

Is your company ready? Does it have a strategy not only to survive these market changes, but to thrive in the emerging future? You should all be asking those questions. Of course, to follow Friedman's logic, it's not enough just to ask the question. You need your own point of view as well.

What is your own market vision? What do you think will happen? How will you and your friends, family and colleagues interact with media and ads and entertainment in five years? Have you thought through these issues yourself? Do you have an opinion, or several? Have you sketched out likely scenarios? Have you checked whether these align with your company's? Do they align with your job as well?

Or, do you, as so many incumbent media, ad and entertainment companies do and have done for decades, go through your daily job life taking care of what is in front of you day by day, week by week and year by year, without stepping back and checking it against any real strategic vision?

Why should you care? There will continue to be a significant amount of consolidation as the big media companies of the Internet age sort themselves out. Perhaps your company will be acquired. If you have calculated your own perspective on the future of your industry, you might be prompted to take the money and run, or double down and invest your time and future earnings and pension in the new company. The press and perhaps the equities markets will render their judgments about each deal -- but not in time or with enough precision to guide the decisions you will need to make.

What about you? Do you have a personal market vision?