Creativity Quote by David Rose

Nothing dates a sentence faster than watching an industry try to talk itself back into relevance. David Rose’s line lands with the weary optimism of a legacy technology confronting its own obsolescence: pager companies, once the backbone of urgent communication, are now “very much looking” for “new services” - a phrase that telegraphs scramble more than strategy.

The intent is pragmatic, almost managerial: reassure listeners that these firms aren’t dead yet, that innovation can patch the leak. But the subtext is harsher. “Regain some of their customer base” admits the loss as fait accompli; it’s not about growth, it’s about salvage. The hedging is telling, too. “Very much looking to” is corporate throat-clearing, the language of press releases and industry panels where action is always just over the horizon. Even “help them regain” pushes agency outward, as if services will do the rescuing instead of the companies making hard structural pivots.

Context matters: Rose’s lifespan spans the century’s biggest communications revolutions, from radio’s golden age to the rise of mobile telephony. As a musician, he’s not speaking as a telecom insider so much as a cultural witness to how quickly the public reroutes its attention - and loyalty - when a new medium arrives. The quote works because it captures a familiar modern drama: the incumbent trying to retrofit itself into the future, using language that sounds like progress while quietly conceding decline.