Traditionally, this is the time of the season when many of us would reflect fondly on the year just past as we look to the New Year. This year, many of us will look back in anger, sorrow and disgust. However, permit me to break ranks with those who do…for, I will be looking back with pride at a Destination Marketing sector that pivoted on a dime to race to the aid of their hospitality and community partners.

Not unlike you, we’ve had lots of opportunities over the past 8 months to be part of Zoom calls that challenged us, informed us…and some that inspired us. And, those are the ones that prompt this edition of the Z-News. Two of the trinity of ideas we’ll share today came from futurists that we follow (and you should too). And, they all start with the letter “S.”

Boxer Mike Tyson (am I really quoting Mike Tyson?) famously said “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” The Destination Marketing sector has been punched in the mouth. And, we’ve taken a fair number of hits to the body. And, a few below the belt sucker punches. We hurt…but cannot give up. Some of us are clinging to the ropes. A handful have been ruled TKO. And the future for many of us is unsure and ominous.

In the classic 1996 movie Jerry Maguire, the lead character, played by Tom Cruise, experiences a moment of clarity in which he recognizes that the way he and his peers have been operating their business is fundamentally flawed. He writes and distributes a 25-page memo entitled “The Things We Think and Do Not Say: The Future of Our Business.” The next morning, as he walks into the office he helped create, fellow agents and support staff stand and applaud his words, vision and passion. Within hours, he’s fired. This moment in time feels a bit like Jerry Maguire for us at DMOproz. We may be congratulated and called visionary by those who read the manifesto we release today. And, hopefully we won’t be shunned after rocking the sacred boat called “The Way We’ve Always Done It.”

As the protests raged last month, I had a serendipitous conversation with Searchwide Global’s Mike Gamble. We were discussing some of the current CEO searches they were managing and we began talking about the Boards with whom we both engage; his firm with Executive Searches and ours with Strategic Planning. As we discussed what we saw that worked (and what didn’t), we began to zero in on Board Diversity…or, indeed, the lack thereof.