I recently heard an older gentleman bragging to one of his employees how he didn’t even know how to use Google. No, I’m not kidding, he was bragging, and the whole thing really made me want to barf.
You see, because we are currently in a transformational age, going from the industrial and quickly blowing into the information/creativity age, there are many people, especially bosses, small business owners, and company CEOs that are being left behind. And because these people are refusing to look ahead and embrace technology, their businesses, as well as their employees, are going to suffer.
In light of some of these hard-headed and ‘old school’ businessmen, I’ve come up with a list of 28 signs that your boss or company CEO may have more in common with Fred Flinstone than he or she does with the 21st century consumer. Here goes:
You know your boss is living in the stone ages if they think that………
- Road maps are awesome and owning a GPS is a waste of money.
- Blogging is some weird online diary that no one reads. They also would never even consider taking the time to have someone within the company create blogs and content for the website.
- Your company website should be very limited with information. Don’t discuss too much detail regarding products, pricing, etc. “Make the customer call first”, they say.
- LinkedIn is another phrase for a Vulcan mind-melding trick.
- IPods are some silly ‘Walkman’ that their grandkids listen to all day long and serve no other purpose.
- Radio, TV, and print (and all other forms of interruptive marketing) are great forms of advertising.
- Yellow Pages are the greatest and can’t wait to design the new ad for next year.
- Face book is some weird stalking tool for kids to keep up with each other.
- Their current cell phone ‘works just fine’ and wouldn’t consider wasting money to upgrade to an Iphone or a Blackberry…..(assuming they have a cell phone.)
- A Blackberry is a phone??
- The sales process doesn’t start unit the customer comes into the store the first time.
- Laptops are for college students.
- YouTube is for attention-loving teenagers.
- Windows 95 is the greatest.
- An ‘Excel Spreadsheet’ is some type of chart for reaching company goals.
- Flickr is a new type of lighter.
- Twitter is…..heck, they have no idea what Twitter is.
- ‘Organic search’ is something tree-huggers do when looking for food.
- One must have an MBA to know what such acronyms as SEO, SERPs, CMS, RSS, PPC, CTR, SMO, ROI etc mean.
- The phrase ‘Inbound Marketing’ refers to phone solicitors
- ‘Landing Pages’ are something pilots use for navigation.
- ‘Viral Marketing’ is somehow disease related.
- ‘Plugins’ are anything with a chord and an outlet.
- WordPress is the concept of forming a new word by mashing to old ones together.
- ‘Anchor Text’ is a boating phrase.
- ‘B2B’ and ‘B2C’ are the newest bombers created by the Air force.
- ‘Uploading’ and ‘Downloading’ have to do with stocking the shelves.
- Seth Godin is a crazy bald guy who makes no sense.
OK, I’ll stop there. If you’re having a problem getting your boss to move into the 21st century, just have him read this list 
Although I can’t guarantee what his reaction will be, at least you’ll give him quite a bit to think about! 
What would you add to the list? As always, your thoughts are welcomed and invited.
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