Old Bull, Young Bull
An old bull and a young bull were standing on a hill looking down on a valley full of cows. “Hey”, says the young bull. “Let’s run down and enjoy one of those cows…”
“No”, says the old bull. “Let’s walk down and enjoy them all.”
Yes, that’s the clean version of the joke.
Don Draper’s Revenge
A recent Business Week article, Don Draper’s Revenge, reminded me of that old joke about two bulls. The point: You don’t have to be first if you want the biggest share of the reward. Sometimes it’s better to be second (or even third) if you are wise in your use of energy & resources.
Young Bulls in the 1990s
WisdomGroup was active in the digital subscriber line (DSL) marketplace in the late 1990s. The field was full of competitors. Covad, Northpoint, and Davnet were especially active. AT&T was noticably absent in 1998. Everyone laughed at AT&T for being slow to the DSL party. Clearly, the upstart DSL companies were smarter than AT&T. That old company was toast. Or so we thought.
In 2002, AT&T walked down the hill to enjoy all of the cows. AT&T is now the dominant player in DSL. The other companies (young bulls) are either dead or drastically altered.
History Repeats
The Don Draper article notes that large ad agencies took a beating in the early days of Internet advertising. They just didn’t get it, everyone thought. But they didn’t get big by being stupid. Yes, they’re slow. Slow in the fashion of the old bull.
The BW article notes that a few industry veterans have seen this before. One vet, when approached by a staffer with predictions of doom & gloom, responded:
That’s exactly what we thought when television came along. What you really have to do is engage with this stuff, learn it, and you’ll be in fine shape.
That’s it. Engage & learn. Be the old bull. Note: You don’t have to be big to be an old bull!