Have you got what it takes?

It’s a mad world. As one of the participants in Wessenden’s mediafutures project recently said: “It’s crazy out there at the moment, but we’ve got to believe that this is also opening up opportunities for the stronger, smarter, braver players. We’ve just got to stick in there.”

Yet I think that we can be a bit more structured and positive that that. In each wave of mediafutures, we ask our benchmarking participants to rate their own organisation on how well-equipped it is to drive change and innovation in seven ‘change asset’ areas.

1. Company vision

Every year, this receives by far the highest score, but this is the easy bit. Fail to nail this and you may as well give up. Importantly, the scores can vary significantly depending on who in the organisation is talking.

• Generally, senior management think they’ve got it sorted: “Our direction is clear. Everyone knows what the priorities and end goals are, whilst still being realistic.”
• Yet sometimes the frontline troops aren’t always so sure: “There are simply too many issues to focus on. And we’re not being given a real sense of direction and priority. We flit from one thing to another.”

2. Company culture

Each year, this score has been creeping up across the industry, as most companies clearly feel that they have made progress here despite the turbulence. Yet in 2025, our benchmarkers have become more polarised—

• “We have an entrepreneurial mindset and a track record of change, based on a culture that is collaborative, open, transparent and inclusive.”
• “We are a risk-averse company which is scared to think laterally. Or even understand why we need to change. We just keep on doing the old things in the old ways in the hope that everything will settle down.”

3. Company structure

Getting the right organisational shape in the middle of all the current disruption has been a real challenge for most companies, but the feeling is that this is now coming together. However, the range of scores has broadened.

• “We’re small, niche and flat. So, we can make changes quickly when we see an opportunity.”
• “Our matrix structure is a mess. No one is in charge or accountable or leading.”

4. Financial resources

This asset score wobbles significantly from survey to survey and from company to company for obvious reasons. Although a number of companies have refinanced, there are still some who simply do not have the cash and staying power to reshape the organisation.

• “Strong cashflow and a robust balance sheet mean that we are well positioned to weather the storm and to acquire new properties when the time is right.”
• “We need more cash in the bank to fund the investment that radical change requires.”

5. IT resources

This is the long-term Achilles Heel of the media business. Historically, it seemed like progress was being made and there was a real sense of “getting there” at last with tech developments, but this has now stalled. As tech is the key enabler of every change strategy, this weakness remains a massive issue.

• “Our long-term investment in tech (and it’s taken a long time!) is now paying off and is giving us real competitive advantage.”
• “We simply don’t have the scale and the money to build the system we want. And need, if we are to grow our business. We’re simply coming too late to the tech game.”

6. Staff skills

Another low score which both sliding down and — again — polarising.

• “We have a great team who are passionately committed to the company and its success. They also know their markets inside out, but are still open minded and able to think outside the box.”
• “Our ideal is that we can reskill our existing staff to do what we need. Some are rising to the challenge. The reality is that some will not (and sometimes cannot) come with us on that journey. When that happens, then our “people assets” turn negative and sometimes toxic and they get in the way of changing our business.”

7. Staff headcount

This is by far the weakest area. The growing ‘to do’ list means that staff numbers remain an ongoing constraint for everyone.

Behind these core change assets, there lies the growing importance of external relationships: an increasingly significant factor in 2025.

• “Out in the market, our brands (trusted and well known), reputation and customer relationships are our biggest assets.”
• “Our closeness to the market means that we also have loads of data which has a real value in its own right.”
• “Trying to interface with external partners has turned out to be one of the most complex (and unexpected) tech developments.”

So, most companies know what they would like to do to survive and prosper. Yet not everyone has got what it takes to execute that. And the picture is becoming more fragmented and polarised, with a growing divide between the performance of the largest and smaller companies and between the winners and losers.

This article was first published in InPublishing magazine. If you would like to be added to the free mailing list to receive the magazine, please register here.