I've written a number of times about the important role that talent plays in our industry; actually, the most important role that it plays. People in our industry and the companies that they
drive may credit technology and algorithms for much of their success -- even putting their technologies and algorithms on a pedestal in glass cases filled with purified air, as if they were displaying
the Hope Diamond -- but it is the people that make things happen, not the mathematically driven tools that they created and chose to exploit.
All too often, we in our industry lose
sight of that fact. We find ourselves paying homage to the technology, not the people that make the technology precious by their ability to apply it to solve real-world problems and create new value
for themselves and their clients and partners.
Why I am focusing on the talent issue? Because it is the biggest challenge that we face in scaling the online ad industry. We know that
online advertising works. Marketers and their agencies know that it can deliver results and return on investment. However, they need smart, hard-working people with online experience to help them
design, implement and account-manage these programs.
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What is our talent problem? We are growing our industry faster than we are growing our talent base to support the industry. We have
an industry that is growing at more than 25% per year. We are not growing our trained and employable talent pool at that same rate. Almost no one in our industry, even Google, is able to effectively
grow their teams with experienced people that are also smart and creative at 25% per year.
Certainly, we all hope that we can use technology and streamlined processes and scale
efficiencies to manage that growth without having to grow our teams at the same rate, but the reality is that our industry is so dynamic and is changing so fast, and the growth is so constant, that
many of our problems can only be solved by applying smart, experienced people to solve them.
What is the answer to our growth/talent dilemma? Start-ups are one solution. Managing and
supporting growth is why start-ups will continue to have such an important role in our industry. No only do they bring innovations into the market, and introduce, evangelize and drive most of the new
technologies and new business models, but they fill in the gaps and the "white space" that market incumbents can't cover in a fast-growing and fast-moving market. They are what help the
industry grow faster than most of its major participants can. They operate off small bases and frequently double or triple their businesses each year, permitting our industry to grow at 25% year over
year when the majority of the 10 biggest players in the industry are growing at less than 15%. Yes. Revenue growth in the online ad industry is led from the bottom, not just the top, with the very
notable exception of Google, which is setting a blazing growth path from the No. 1 slot.
Industry consolidation and its consequences also deliver a partial solution to the growth/talent
problem. When companies acquire others in the market, be it competitors or start-ups bearing new technologies, they frequently "release" many of the folks from those acquired companies back
into the industry talent pool.
You need look no further than Google's move this week to lay off a significant portion of DoubleClick's domestic workforce, or AOL's recent
moves with some of its Platform A acquisitions. This infusion of experienced talent is frequently scooped up by other market incumbents or new start-ups. These folks are generally the most experienced
and versatile in the market, since start-ups generally require staff to handle more, and more varied, jobs than they might at a much larger company.
Look no further than the
comments from prospective employers of former DoubleClickers on the Silicon Alley Insider story announcing Google's layoffs [http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/4/who_wants_to_hire_doubleclickers_goog_]. Dozens of companies recognize and
desire the value of the talent that Google is letting go. As someone who is in the early stages of planning a start-up himself, I am watching the layoff roles closely as well. In an industry where
it's all about talent, I would much rather start with great talent than great technology. Great talent can build great technology, but great technology can't build great talent. What do you
think?
Dave