• by Sara Holoubek , May 1, 2006

I have a secret to tell you: sometimes it is the outsiders who really know what is going on.

Long inside the fortified walls of growth firms, I became accustomed to a certain corporate xenophobia as we ritualistically scoffed at outsiders. "Outsiders," by definition, referred to anyone not inside any particular firm I was working for at the time. Clients "just didn't get it." The competitors were dismissed as being behind the curve. Investors needed tutorials. Analysts were a lost cause. We were proud not only to have our finger on the pulse, but to be the pulse.

Now on the outside, I realize how myopic that perspective was.

And this is one of the major issues facing many search players: we are often so holed up in our castles on high that we forget to look around and assess how others are evolving the business as a whole.

A Game of Toss

Think of search engine marketing as a ball. SEMs might be holding it now, but throw it to the agencies and let's see what they can do with it. Pass the ball on to the techies, and it becomes something else. Let players from completely different industries join in and the game advances.

The speakers at February's Digital Hollywood Media Summit hailed from NBC, Comcast, Motorola, BrightCove, Walt Disney, McGraw-Hill and the like. Not exactly your standard search fodder, but these are the same firms SEMs have been trying to reach for years. Surprisingly, the search conversation far surpassed what one normally hears within "insider" circles. Not only do these firms now get it, but they are executing well on search and contemplating moves that will redefine the industry. And all I could think was, "other than a few private equity guys and Dave Vockell of Yahoo, why am I the only search person in the room?"

Surpassing the Teacher

After spending many years educating the world on search, it should come as no surprise to us that many of our "outsider" students now might have something to teach us.

Once verboten to even make eye contact with my former firms' competitors, I now have regular mental spars with them. No longer serving one particular venture, I can call a spade a spade with the investment community. Frank conversation with sophisticated advertisers comes easier when the uncomfortable up sell is not between us. The whole lot makes up a wealth of search engine marketing knowledge unbeknownst to those who set the industry afire.

And this is the critical moment, where we must be humble enough to learn from the students, or at least pay closer attention to their moves. IBM, Betamax, Microsoft and many others throughout corporate history most certainly wish they had.