Time's Man of the Year
Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that I buy into Time Magazine's choice of "me" as the 2006 "Person of the Year." If you haven't seen it, the media behemoth overlooked Al Gore, George Bush and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the person who "for better or worse" affected the news in 2006. It chose instead, everyone who gets onto blogs, social media sites and product review boards as that person. I think the choice is a complete copout personally, but let's put that aside. If the average Jack and Jill is "Person of the Year," then Fred Reichheld should have run a very close second. Here's why. The huge rush toward product recommendations, personalized marketing and the power of social "internetworking" has been driven by media companies and consumer marketing entities (agencies, brands, etc.) It has been in their best interest to drive consumer participationto access its resulting customer intelligence. No one person has been more influential than Reichheld in creating this environment. No single person has influenced the power of customer influence the way he has. His ideas have crystallized a new direction for business. Now, it ain't exactly overshadowing global warming or nuclear proliferation, but here's a reserved vote for Fred.
