Good morning: Not so fast

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Good morning, Marketers, and here we go again.

It’s the first work week of 2022 and so far it’s all a little disorienting, isn’t it? Back to work, back to school, back to some in-person meetings, back to the shops and restaurants and bars. But not so fast. It’s like everything is on pause. Sure, some in-person events are still scheduled to go ahead (I wouldn’t have bet on the ball dropping in Times Square, but it did) — but aside from considering health risks, there’s the whole question of how to get to a distant event if airlines can’t staff flights.

Similarly, for all the understandable talk of not shutting things down again, I see plenty of closed theaters and restaurants because staff are sick. I see entire New York subway lines out of service. And I don’t even want to think about schools and colleges.

Seizing on a silver lining, there seems to be a consensus that we’ll have a better idea where we are before the end of January. Let’s hope so.

Kim Davis

Editorial Director

Shorts 

What we’re reading. “When you think about a digital transformation or a business transformation, oftentimes we spend an inordinate amount of time on the technology or on the business processes, but we don’t spend enough time on the human piece. It’s great if we move the needle on the technology and the operational business process side of things. It’s not so great if the humans aren’t keeping up.” From “Digital Technology and People in Digital Transformation” by Eric Kimberling. Founder and CEO, Third Stage Consulting Group.