Franz M. Schmid-Preissler

Of course it is part of the business model of publishing houses to publish new promising market strategies at the beginning of each year. As every year, I took the effort of looking at at least half a dozen of those books. After all, I do not want to miss out on anything, even if I already got several decades of working in this profession on my back and as such might be prone to think I already know everything and then overlook something truly new.

My diligence was not rewarded. A lot of old stuff, simply clad in new empty words and the basics of selling and advertising furnished with a promotional book title – certainly studded with well-sounding stories of imaginative future and trend researchers. That was it.

In regard to the topics that were truly ardently important, I saw very little and if so then most of it was pointless. How can we keep the showcase Europe attractive for high-end products and brands? How are we going to contrast with the new brands of Asian origin in just a few years? How can the classic manufacturers of products with brands hold their ground against increasingly stronger brands of retail partners? In general, what could a coexistence of producing and retailing marketers look like? How do we develop instead of addressing traditional target groups? How do we create market personalities so that they can take their places in a wide variety of retail and last but not least, how do we go about it so that not every second word is China? Answers to this questions – negative.

The most significant realization here is that new things don’t come to us through osmosis. New ideas cannot be bought in bookstores or workshops. One has to work on creating new ideas. What others do only plays a subordinate role and the many case studies are not worth the paper they are printed on.

We do not get to new strategies without drawing from our origin and history or without applying our whole personal being. Avoid doubt at all costs. If you are serious about it you will notice that Creation has given us an incredibly large potential of abilities on our path to reach great goals.

If we simply dare to do something people’s confidence in us will grow and then we will have achieved exactly what one needs for success: Giving and taking on a very high level. 

Doubts in this very simple recipe are allowed, but only until one has dealt with the core of this message. Then they will disappear.

Yours sincerely

 
Franz M. Schmid-Preissler