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THE BASS LINE
Inset: If you’re unsure what to do, digging for victory is Adam’s advice. Bottom: Work calls and meetings have switched from in-person to via Zoom or Teams for the majority. Below: Golden Goose’s Adam Bass.
History has proven that humans adapt well to change, and the COVID-19 pandemic has given us the chance for a complete global reset. Adam Bass, md of agency Golden Goose, offers some positives to take from the last six months and how the licensing industry can start digging towards the light.
Dig for victory C
OVID-19 bought us a spectacular shake up of the events and service industry, with the Olympics, Glastonbury, football, cricket, music festivals, live theatre, live music, restaurants, cafés and business conferences, all grinding to a shuddering halt. The implications of this global hiatus are going to be revolutionary. Never before in peacetime has humanity had the opportunity for a complete, global reset as a species, as a nation and as an industry. This reset will be tough financially but, for most of us, that was the norm anyway. If we as a species of supremely intelligent tool-making monkeys have
proven one thing time and time again, it’s that we adapt well to change. Here, then, are some positives from The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Entrepreneurial advantage
Entrepreneurs are essentially risk-taking decision-making machines. They decide the vision and focus of a business and set off in a direction, taking as many people as possible with them. Given the status of economic and social uncertainty, it’s no surprise that many businesses are in partial paralysis, unsure if they should Meetings overhaul wait for normality to return or Remember the time when you adapt to what may be a set up a speculative introductory meeting, schlepping out to the transient transition. middle of nowhere, signing in to a As licensing people it’s our job desolate reception area and to trigger new business, being served nothing more than a milky tea for your troubles? All whether that’s with new to explore a vague opportunity branded product, new that turned out to be, at best, a marketing channels or new long shot and, at worst, a non-starter? Well, fortunately for you those days are distribution channels. This puts probably over. The chances are that introductory meetings will happen first and foremost via teams/video conference call. While the current rationale may be the licensing industry as a whole about avoiding infection, the time will come when no rationale is needed. at a significant competitive Gathering multiple people in the same place at the same time to discuss advantage over other industries something uncertain is going to be so overwhelmingly inconvenient that it’s not going to be the way things happen again, unless it’s absolutely necessary and the with a more static business opportunity is real. model. Licensing is never Sure, you’re going to want to actually meet people, but not until there is a real relationship. So, the days of the two-hour road trip to Leeds to discuss something ‘business as normal’ so the postCOVID world is just more of the that may never happen may actually be over. Having said that, I’m going to Liverpool next month for a meeting with three people I’ve never met! same for this unusual, dealmaking sector.
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LICENSING SOURCE BOOK EUROPE 2020