Harvey Mackay, author, toastmaster and chairman of Mackay Envelope Co. gave the last speech of his professional career at the Direct Marketing Days New York conference.
At least, that was what he told his audience, before explaining that this mind game was one he often played with himself, approaching every speech as his last, as well as every sales pitch, or every tennis serve as his final one.
Until he gives his next one, he’s not wrong. Mackay’s “last speech” covered topics ranging from industrial change to the opportunities raised by thinking creatively and not limiting oneself based on preconceptions to the need to stand out when making contact.
Regarding changes in the business community, Mackay observed that of the 500 companies on the Standard & Poor Index in 1958, only 75 are still in existence today, the rest having been renamed, merged, acquired, or bankrupted out of existence. And that pace isn’t going to abate any time soon: By 2020, the list will feature 325 firms that don’t exist today, he said.
Likewise, the direct marketing industry has been changing as well, as demonstrated by the metamorphosis of the primary trade association from the Direct Mail Advertising Association in 1917 to the Direct Mail Marketing Association to the Direct Marketing Association of today.
Consumers have been changing right along with the industry, becoming more intelligent and sophisticated. Part of this demand has come in the form of the multichannel consumer, who is solicited in a number of ways. Mackay noted that households wired for the Internet receive twice as much direct mail as those that aren’t. (That said, both could be the result of these consumers having higher incomes.)
While musing on not being bound by perceptions, Mackay noted that for several millennia people thought it was impossible for someone to run a four-minute mile. But they year after Roger Bannister broke that barrier, three more runners did so, and hundreds have done it since.
Mackay described his long-time practice of carefully tending to his Rolodex, a habit that enabled him to convince publishers to print far more copies of his first business book than a never-before-published author would merit. (Bob Woodward has the same habit, and his cultivation of W. Mark Felt, otherwise known as “Deep Throat,” resulted in Woodward receiving the information about the Nixon White House that ultimately made his career as a reporter.)
Mackay, who gave a keynote address at DM Days New York, has honed his image as a walking example of the considered life
Network
