Is there a future for associations?
Association Magazine has published my article, Metamorphosis: A Defining Success Factor for Associations.
We know we live in a world in which new trends change everything we know at a furious pace. Rapid change envelopes us, consumes us, and pounds us with its reminders of its urgency every single day. There are many obvious trends that impact us; we often refuse or are incapable of assessing their impact. And so the future marches on, and many associations remain stuck in a rut of complacency. They deliver the same old program. They focus on the same old issues, generate the same old knowledge, plan the same old conference, and have their agenda managed by the same old membership has-beens. Meanwhile, they bemoan the fact that membership is declining; that the Millenials seem to have little time or inclination to join them; and that the world is just becoming, well, too complex to deal with. So they form a committee, hire a consultant, study the issue, and lull themselves into a false sense of future-security. By doing so, they are almost guaranteeing themselves a march into oblivion.This article is a must read for any association executive today. Quite often, the trends that will impact us are right in front of us. This article puts those trends into perspective. In doing so, it provides a good framework as to how to start some innovative thinking in order to deal with those trends.
Read the articles
- Metamorphosis: A Defining Success Factor for Associations
- Are you prepared for the new role associations will play
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Advice for a flat world - taking your skills to a global audience
One of my July columns takes a look at the idea of taking your skills to a global audience.
Years ago, I wrote about the concept of "nomadic workers," individuals who rejected the traditional concept of a job, and instead, carve out their own unique career path, mostly contingent, contract, short-term and invariably fascinating.
These are the modern day knowledge-Bedouins -- they roam the digital planet, offering their works and unique knowledge up to a global client base. I've been doing it for eighteen years.
One statistic I use in a number of keynotes observes that some 60% of engineers and architects are expected to be working on a contingent basis by 2012. That's a huge number -- and is indicative of our onward march to a massively nomadic workforce.
Read the article here
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The Secret for Association Executive Success: Study Air Guitar!
My blog post of a few weeks ago caught the attention of the folks at the Canadian Society of Association Executives -- and so I quickly rewrote it to challenge their members to think about the role of "associations in the future."
Is your association brand becoming a bit "tired" instead of energized? Do you have a consultant studying the role of your association and how you might need to change it in the future?
Probably so, and here's the thing.
You've got to do all that, except you've got to do it faster. That's why you need to keep innovating, and make that a key part of your leadership role.
The challenge with association leadership today is ensuring that you stay on top of, and ahead of, fast paced trends. That's why I focus on innovation in the broadest sense. Innovation isn't just coming up with the next great iPod -- it's asking yourself the hard questions, and always challenging yourself to do something different to deal with the realities those hard questions pose.
If you aren't attracting 25 year olds as members, why not? And how do you fix that? By innovating -- by trying to do something differently!
- Read The Secret for Association Executives: Study Air Guitar!
- Read Led Zeppelin Leadership: How to Innovate When You're Dazed & Confused
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My latest CAMagazine article, "A Mac made in Heaven," published May 1, took a look at my recent move to a Mac notebook and desktop. I switched to a MacBook Pro last summer, and then purchased a Mac Pro desktop in March. Most of my work is now done in OS/X Leopard. Like many people, I just didn't feel right with the stories floating around about Microsoft Vista.
Seems that more people are feeling the same way, as outlined in a fascinating cover story on Business Week this week. ("The Mac in the Gray Flannel Suit")
It's not like I didn't know what I was doing in making the switch. I've been using computers since 1982 -- and Windows since it first came out. I have a number of Linux servers in my basement, and a fascinatingly complex home network. (A magazine covered this topic in 2002, with the headline: "Is this guy crazy, or just way ahead of his time?")
I believe that Microsoft, with Vista, has created a real disaster on the desktop, and that they have truly lost their way. Which begs the question: what innovation lessons can we learn from the Vista debacle?
I suspect that this question will be the focus of many a business book in the years to come, but probably the most important one is this: market leaders can never be complacent about their business.
We are in the era of rapid market and industry transformation. People still think my story of the Google Car to be a ridiculous one, but it need not be. Organizations that can tackle existing markets with innovative new ideas that work well have the opportunity to displace entrenched leaders. That's always been the case in the past, and will continue to be in the future.
More information
- Read A Mac made in heaven by Jim Carroll
- The concept of the Google Car
- Article:Is this guy crazy or just way ahead of his time?
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Five secrets for creating a culture of innovation
The April issue of the Advertiser magazine ("The Voice of the Marketing Community") from the Association of National Advertisers features an article, "Five Secrets for Creating a Culture of Innovation."
I'm quoted in the article with two key observations, on the issue of "taking risks and learning from them." My concerns?
- "...he sees too much 'bandwagon innovation" in marketing these days. Consider the rush by brands to launch viral videos on YouTube. 'That's not what innovation is ... it's admitting that everything we do -- how we are marketing to the customer, what the brand means to the customer, and what we do to update uniqueness and freshness of brand -- has to constantly change because everything around us is constantly changing."
- I also talk to the importance of taking risks: "CMO's who aren't afraid to focus on 'experiential capital', as Carroll calls it, or encourage innovative thinking by taking calculated risks, regardless of the outcome, stand a better chance of being successful over the long run.
It's a good article: there's no doubt that the high velocity economy results in rapid change of consumer brand perceptions. Leading edge marketers work hard to beef up their innovation capabilities simply in order to keep up with consumers who are charging forward at a furious pace!
More information
- Read What a great idea!
- Why bandwagon innovation doesn't work
- Is your brand from the olden days?
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Gloom has set in on global markets. Volatility rages. Some organizations have gone into a mode of "aggressive indecision," deferring action while they try to figure out "what comes next." A pretty lousy strategy that is doomed to fail in the longer term.
Future oriented leaders understand the reality of growth. They know that we live in a time in which opportunities for growth abound. They've aligned the mission of the organization so that they are capitalizing on real opportunity, not short term economic challenges.
Growth is everywhere.
It's easy during a time of economic volatility to lose sight of where the global economy is really headed. Yet while stock markets might rock, innovation thrives.
New ideas continue to be explored, markets grow, and industries emerge. A variety of trends indicate that opportunities for growth continue to surround us.
Read this document to get in the right frame of mind for the future.....and think growth. Think opportunity. Innovate for future, don't stagnate with the past.
Download Where's the Growth? Global Innovation Opportunities for the Long Term
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The Masters in Business Innovation
Years ago, I wrote of the need for a new type of business degree: a Masters in Business Imagination. I've also called it a Masters in Business Innovation.
I wrote an article around the theme, and it remains one of the most heavily trafficked pages on my site. I've wrapped it up in a PDF : feel free to read it, share it, distribute it, and encourage people to think about it.
It opens with these observations: "COMPLACENCY In a time of rapid, disruptive change can be a death sentence – not only for organizations, but for the careers and skills of those who work there!
It’s time to abandon the thinking that has had you anchored firmly to the past – and to shift your focus to the future, with enthusiasm, motivation andimagination.
You can do this by abandoning any pretense that the skills of yesterday will be important tomorrow. Figuratively and literally, it is time to move beyond the thinking that has led us to a world of MBA’s – Masters of Business Administration – and focus upon the critical skill that will take you into tomorrow.
The world doesn’t need more administrators. It needs more MBI’s – Masters of Business Imagination!
- Access The Masters of Business Imagination PDF
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Future careers: Knowledge explosion is key
Career issues are hot! And one of my favorite ways to open a keynote or executive session is by quoting from an Australian study, which indicated that sixty-five percent of the kids who are in preschool today will work in jobs or careers that don't yet exist.
I passionately believe this to be true: and I've seen the trend occurring in countless professions and industries.
This week, I keynoted a Career Day event at Capitol One in Richmond, Virginia ; the focus was upon the rapid emergence of new careers, and the rapid evolution of existing skills. My message, in looking at the future career opportunities, was that there's nothing but upside, as long as people keep reinventing their skill set.
The topic of the future of careers is a big one these days; I'm being called into many organizations and events to talk about the issue, particularly in the context of recent economic trends. Some of these events have been local economic development conferences. In one talk in January, I spoke to an audience of executives and educators in an auto-sector city ; a group of people caught up in the throes of economic restructuring and turmoil.
Talk about an audience in the midst of challenge! Yet when you are in that type of economic bubble, it can be hard to see the future career opportunities that do exist. That's why I didn't focus on the short term economic turmoil, but instead, on the real, practical trends that are defining the careers of tomorrow.
Many sectors of the global economy: and in particular, the manufacturing and financial sectors, are being hit hardest by the US recession, the sub-prime meltdown, and global competition.
The auto-town event got covered in the local paper: and the story ended up being reprinted throughout the Canadian press, including in Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal. One of the key observations I made in the article: "We have to figure out how we can continue to move up the knowledge ladder because there's going to be a massive shortfall in specialized skills because of the rapid growth of knowledge."
That's an important issue to think about, and the article is well worth a read.
More information:
- Read Knowledge Explosion Key to the Future
- Read Global Economic Trends: An Interview with Jim Carroll
- The reality of future trends: grab the What Comes Next trends overview
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Credit Suisse Bulletin: Success Comes to Those Who Evolve
Credit Suisse, headquartered in Zurich, is global financial powerhouse operating in 50 countries; 48,000+ employees, assets of $75 billion US, and net assets under management of $1.345 trillion.
They've just released their 2008 Bulletin magazine, a publication provided to key investment banking, private banking and asset management clients worldwide.
They've include a fairly lengthy Q&A with me, in an article titled Success Comes to Those Who Evolve, in which they wanted wide-ranging views on the word "growth." It came out well: my key message has always been that we must always link the concept of innovation to rapidly emerging trends in order to constantly change what we do -- often simply to keep up, or attain competitive advantage.
Here's the key point: So what's the recipe to kick-start innovative thinking? I think it's about having your entire organization understand everybody is responsible for constantly figuring out how they need to change to keep up with the rapidly changing world. They need leadership that supports and encourages them to be open and share ideas, and that leadership needs to hammer home that message on a regular basis."
More information
- Read: Success Comes to Those Who Evolve
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"Here we are now, entertain us" - Decoding Gen-Connect
One of my latest columns focuses on what will likely be the corporate issue of 2008 - managing generational challenges in the workplace.
In the column, "Here we are now, entertain us," I take a look at the unique attitudes that Gen-Connect is now starting to bring in to the workplace. There are several key observations from the article that are critical to understanding the future of the workforce:
- What is clear is that we are witnessing the death of the long-term career and corporate loyalty, which will soon be but a quaint memory from the previous century.
- I often tell the story of a young engineering graduate who turned down a job with an architectural firm because its 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. work hours conflicted with the time he expected to be carving arcs into deep powder in the mountains. It’s a real attitude, and it’s already happening around us. The challenge, when such trends are so patently obvious, is trying to figure out what to do about it. And a good part of the solution will come through the transformation of rewards and remuneration.
- Gen-connect has very little patience, particularly when it comes to being rewarded for good work or significant effort. These youngsters are used to instant rewards: their Xbox/Wii video-game-oriented world has them accomplishing a goal, moving up a level, and earning some points or other valuable form of currency that helps them accumulate additional armour, weapons or whatever else is needed to accomplish the game’s next challenge.
- That’s why, at a recent conference, I framed the issue of rewards transformation to an audience of financial professionals this way: “Organizations that can attract, engage, retain and amuse an increasingly complex workforce will be the ones who find success in the rapidly evolving global economy.”
- Put the emphasis on the word amuse. Today’s Gen Y doesn’t, and tomorrow’s Gen-connect certainly won’t, have any patience whatsoever for slow and steady career paths.
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What Comes Next? An Outlook into 2008 and Beyond
As we end the year and start a new one, it's a good time to be thinking about some of the trends and issues which will impact us in the future.
Take a look at my newly released quick-report, What Comes Next: A Trends Perspective for 2008 and Beyond.
My message for my clients throughout the year - whether it was 2,000 executives at the World Congress for Quality, or the senior management team of one of the largest commercial construction companies in the US -- was consistent. The high-velocity economy demands that we think, react, plan and manage differently.
Some of the guidance I shared with global clients concerning future trends is found in the report; I highlight what I think are some of the most important ones that we need to be thinking about, broadly defined as:
- revenge of the math geeks
- small is the new R&D
- attitude and amusement is the new motivation
- time disappears
- resistance to change retires
- careers end
- knowledge & skills banks dominate
- interactivity redefines markets
I prepared the document on a MacBook Pro -- I made the switch from Windows this year! -- using the TokyoRPG Style Template for iWork 2007 Pages from KeynotePro. They have awesome styles for Pages and Keynote; if you're an OS/X and iWork user, take a look.
- Grab the What Comes Next PDF now
- Learn more about iWork Themes from KeynotePro
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In the area where I live, the school system has an annual "take your kid to work day" for Grade 9's. Today was the day for my eldest son -- and since I've been working at home for 18 years, I suggested it might not be a good idea to have him hanging around here for the day watching TV!
So we sent him off to work with the local grocery store......
18 years is a long time in a home office. Back in 2003, I wrote an article, "10 Rules for Working At Home." Here's the short list; you can also link to the full article.
- Make a daily plan, set a commitment. You've got a job like anyone else, and quite simply, you have to get things done.
- Make space. Your home office has to be just that -- an office. ... do things to ensure that your office is "someplace separate."
- Don't feel guilt Don't feel bad if you take some private time here and there! It's part of the balance...
- Set boundaries. Learn to shut the door. That's got to be the most important thing when it comes to developing a healthy separation between your work day and your home life.
- Kick back. In your home office, you'll have a desk. That doesn't mean you have to do all of your work there!
- Educate your coworkers. Working at home means that you are in the vanguard of a workplace revolution.
- Talk to your mailman. When you work at home, you've got to make sure that you replace water-cooler chit-chat with something else. Get out and talk to people!
- Appreciate the rewards! Love your job! Realize that you've got the best of both worlds -- you've got a great career, and you get to spend time with your family.
- Plant flowers outside your window and buy a birdfeeder. Take the time to make a home office that will drive you to results, and that will spur you on to enjoy your work!
- Recognize that you get a lot more done. That's a simple truth.
- Have a laugh. Did we say a list of 10? I have 11!
More information
- read the full article, 10 Rules for Working at Home
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Speakers 2.0 - The Evolution of the Speaking Industry
The business of speaking has evolved dramatically in the last five years — have you noticed?
It used to be event planners would spend quite a bit of time planning for next years annual conference. A committee would begin a slow, careful, and routine process of planning a program agenda, which would include finding a celebrity speaker or two to fill the agenda. Year in, year out, they’d carefully follow the same old process. Often, they’d end up with the same old conference.
Today, of course, faster is the new fast, and we’re witnessing a different role for both the speakers and the bureaus who represent them. Let’s call it “strategic knowledge delivery” — we’re helping organizations to get the right knowledge in the right place, at the right time, for the right purpose. Events have evolved from, well, events, to critical get-togethers that help a company, association or organization adapt to sudden new realities.
Today, a company might find itself in the midst of a rapid product launch — after all, product lifecycles are collapsing. (Just look at your iPod, and think of the rapid changes occurring in the consumer electronics industry!) There’s now a new requirement for fast knowledge — they need to pull together their sales force quickly, update them on the forthcoming marketing plans and sales strategy, and give them a strong motivational push out the door. They call a speakers bureau, and quickly line up a retail expert, an expert on selling strategies, and a top motivational speaker to boot.
Oh — and they need these people in two weeks!
That’s the new reality of the speaking business today. It has now evolved into a highly specialized industry, in which knowledge-brokers (formerly known as “speakers bureaus”) provide their highly specialized insight into who-knows-what, to provide their clients with the key knowledge-experts that they need. By doing so, they’re helping the client to quickly solve new business challenges, adapt to new markets, stay competitive, and deal with the reality of all the circumstances that come with our fast-paced world of today.
Every organization on the planet today is working hard to ensure that it can “keep-up.” I’ve certainly witnessed the trend first hand through the last five years, doing exactly this type of thing with some of the largest organizations in the world.
When you end up advising companies like Disney as to how to be creative, you get a different perspective of the world. Disney, for all of its vaunted reputation as a cauldron of creative genius, is like every other organization out there: it finds itself immersed in a whirlwind of rapid change, whether with its’ business model, product line, or rapidly changing consumer demand. (Anyone with pre-teen kids has seen the huge and sudden take-off of the hit High School Musical, or the explosive growth of the Hanna Montanna franchise, knows what I am talking about!)
Like any organization, Disney is constantly working to ensure that they can remain on top, by understanding the trends that will continue to impact them, and by ensuring they keep their creative spark fresh by seeking to learn what other innovative organizations are doing. For Disney, it’s almost as if they are beyond faster-is-the-new-fast : they’re in an industry in which tomorrow is simply today’s urgent problem. And that's why they call in outside experts -- someone like me.
The changes in the speaking industry — and the role that bureaus and speakers play — mirror the changes occurring in the fast paced world of business today. It’s all about just-in-time knowledge delivery. Understand that, and you’ll understand the context of the solutions that this industry and speakers bureaus can provide you.
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New article: Don't mess with my powder, dude!
Earlier this year, I wrote the Foreword for the book, The Rise of the Project Workforce: Managing People and Projects in a Flat World.
It was titled, "Don't Mess with My Powder, Dude", and tells the unique attitude towards work and life of a snowboarder.
The foreword, now available online, puts in perspective the unique and often challenging workplace changes now underway, which are often driven by unique and different attitudes towards careers and work with the younger generation.
It's worth a read; you can grab a copy below. You might also want to look at Rudolf's book.
- read Don't Mess with My Powder, Dude!
- Book: The Rise of the Project Workforce
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Future trends - Of groundhogs, criminals and hackers
One of my recent, regular columns for a financial publication, managed to link together the issue of groundhogs (in my backyard), with the future of policing and financial crime.
The article relates my backyard war with a groundhog to what I refer to as an "anticipatory approach to those with a nefarious purpose."
I go on to note that "the issue of policing and law enforcement .....is much like battling a groundhog. The police deal with unique challenges that constantly change, whether fighting white-collar or street crime."
The future of policing? I comment that "through the next decade, police forces will start using sophisticated technologies such as clothing that will link to an in-car mapping system through a wireless network, allowing officers to perform a “hot-location” lookup of a colleague in the field during a ground operation. We’ll see today’s current generation of military hardware become a part of tomorrow’s crime-fighting infrastructure, such as unmanned aerial drones being used for highway surveillance to crack down on street racing. Police education will change as well, with a migration toward virtual reality training based on airline simulator models."
I don't know how I come up with this stuff, but the article has certainly generated a lot of welcome comment, some of it puzzled!
More information
- Read "Of groundhogs, criminals and hackers
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I don't imagine this is going to win me any friends, but my latest CAMagazine article is out.
For something that is supposed to be so new and exciting, there just doesn't seem to be a lot of positive buzz out there about Vista.
It just seems, well, old, even though its' new.
I catch this feeling in the article, noting that ""I often talk about how my sons (12 and 14) describe a variety of things around our home as being from the “olden days.” This list includes 35mm film, paper cheques, TV guides and other items they just don’t understand, see or use." To me, Vista just seems tired compare to the "other guys."
I then go on to comment, "Is Windows set to develop a reputation of being from the olden days? ...I’m wondering if Microsoft has become so big and bloated that the efficiency of its operating system now resembles that of its organizational structure."."
- Read the article, "Is Windows Past It's Prime?"
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Outsourcing transitions from cost savings to strategic necessity
My latest CAMagazine column is out ; in it, I focus on the role that financial executives should be thinking about in the context of the massive rates of change occuring in the globla financial economy.
My observations come from a talk and research I undertook for a global financial conference in Grand Cayman back in January.
In the article, I note that "....there is a subtle and distinct shift in the location of "global money," due to oil wealth and the industrialization of Asia. A recent article in Barron's suggested that there is now about $1 trillion in excess reserves in these two regions. The likely result is that while more of the world's wealth moves away from North America and Europe and into these new economic centers, the skills will follow."
I also go on to note that "a recent comment in Asian Banker in December 2006 is instructive of the impact of this trend, noting that in the future, "...outsourcing will become less about cost containment and more about accessing the best skills and expertise....""
The issues are important, because it is all part of the increasingly complex war for talent occuring in every industry sector.
You can read the article
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There are quite a few people out there who talk about innovation, all of whom have a very different background: some with design experience, others who are from the product marketing world; yet others from the university research sector.
I'm unique, in that my innovation insight, gained through the last 15 years of private consulting and speaking, also comes from the reality that prior to that, I spent 15 years with the world's largest accounting firm, with a client base in industry, health care, government, retail, consumer goods, financial service and insurance, and many more.
I'm still a professional Chartered Accountant ; though I don't practice accounting on a daily basis, I still provide deep insight into the financial issues that are increasingly important in the high velocity economy. That reality has boosted my credibility in the minds of many of the Fortune 1000 clients who book me.
Why is this so? I often talk about innovation in the context of the ability of an organization possessing the agility necessary to respond to a world of rapid change. Innovation is not just a design issue; it is an operational, structural and analysis-capability issue.
In one of my regular columns for CAMagazine, which goes to about 110,000 Chartered Accountants, I wrote of the criticality of instant insight and what an organization needs to survive today's fast paced markets: " immediate customized detailed insight into what is working in the field and what is not; where the product introduction is succeeding and where it is failing; data on regional breakouts of market success and factors that could help replicate that success. They needed financial numbers, real numbers — important numbers."
There are tremendous opportunities for innovation in the way an organization deals with market and operational rapidity. As I note in the column: "Call it financial insight for market rapidity. Shouldn’t that be the goal of the financial systems we are putting in place?"
The article goes on to tell a great story of how a US manufacturing organization used the concept of deep-insight to deal with a very unique market challenge. I still think it is one of the greatest innovation success stories I have ever seen.
Innovation = insight. It's an important concept, and one well worth pondering.
Read the article
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Article: Innovators look beyond the horizon
CAPITAL Magazine in Dubai has run my article, "Tomorrow is the New Today."
The article is based on several of the postings to this blog over the last year, opening with the observation that "with all the organizations I've studied, I've long realized that innovation comes naturally to those organizations that are focused on the opportunities of tomorrow rather than the challenges of today."
While that might seem like simple common sense, I've come to learn that quite a few companies don't do this. They are too busy dealing with the 'here and now;" in the meantime, their markets are changing, their customers are evolving, the products and services they sell are rapidly transitioning before they know it, they wake up and things have changed quite dramatically.
I catch this reality in my "3 types of companies" video: it's worth a quick watch.
That's why I suggest that companies should "instill a culture that has everyone thinking about what can be done, rather than what needs to be fixed."
Read the full article in Acrobat format (5.2mb)
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Innovation and insight in manufacturing
"Do you want to be focusing on the problems of the past, or do you want to outfit your organization so that everyone has the insight they need to deal with all the challenges that are being thrown at you in the future?"
That's my opening comment in an article I wrote --- the IndustryWeek Manufacturing Challenge -- that has appeared online.
The article presents a ficticious company struggling with multiple disparate information networks; they're wondering if they should bite the bullet and invest in a more sophisticated system, or whether they should struggle to make things work.
I opt for the former; from my perspective, innovative manufacturing companies should focus on these key traits, to deal with the unique challenges of the high velocity economy:
- Concentrate on rapid replenishment
- Go maximum on flexibility
- Transition single-source labor to multisource skills
- Implement flexible, just-in-time processes
- Develop better bid or service costing
- Have deep insight into rapidity
- Work to become the supplier of choice
- Be relentless on operational excellence
As I note in the article, "I’ve long been convinced that spending time on trying to rationalize disparate, uncoordinated, inflexible and unconnected systems is quite simply a waste of time, and I’ve seen dozens of organizations who have realized this and have moved on.
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Why Santa rocks at innovation!
It's likely a good time to put into perspective the critical lessons we can learn from someone who is a true master of leadership, insight, creativity and innovation.
None other than the jolly old fellow himself!
Santa is an innovation master. Analyze his leadership style, and his operational insight, motivational style, approach to creativity, forward thinking orientation, or any other management trait, and he has it nailed.
Here's what we can learn from Santa Claus.
- He is future oriented: Santa knows. His talent for insight is unmatched. He's aware. He's sees you when you're sleeping, for example. He knows when you're awake. For goodness sake!
- His operational insight is pure genius: he's organized. He's got a list. He checks it twice. Operational excellence is his middle name.
- He's a fanatic on customer oriented innovation: he knows exactly what the customer wants. There's no other individual or organization who has such deep insight into the customer. And he's had this core focus for hundreds of years.
- He excels at customer service: he always answers customer's mail. And even if he doesn't, your peers (whether they be your parents or your friends) will let you know in no uncertain terms that even if he didn't answer, he did get and read your message.
- He has mastered organizational logistics: his delivery system puts FedEx to shame. The timing and execution of a massive burst of activity in such a brief period of time should be required reading for anyone interested in how to manage a supply chain in the global economy. Not only that, but he has been doing it for years without the benefit of a GPS.
- He inspires his staff with a singular mission: there's leadership, and then there's Santa. He has brought together a team that stays singularly, absolutely, completely, focused on one straightforward mission. They fulfill their duty with passion, enthusiasm and a smile. They wear cool hats that serve the purpose of reminding them that they are on a team. They are often known for even singing while they work. Now that's leadership!
- He is not afraid of hiring those who are different: Rudoph. Red Nosed. Reindeer. Enough said. Santa has got this diversity thing down to a science. Not to forget the previously mentioned staff, most of whom are quite altitude challenged.
- He is mindful of work life balance: some people take a few weeks off for a holiday. Some might take off a month. Santa takes off entire seasons in order to recoup from his big night.
- He has maintained the essence of the brand name despite massive change: ensuring brand longevity over a span of several hundred years is probably the most impressive feat in branding that we have ever seen. In an era in which brands can become boring, out of date or tired, Santa has managed to keep the brand image intact.
- He excels at keeping up with constantly changing consumer demand: he is a trend watcher, always on top of what comes next. A new toy? Santa knows. A new toy that isn't quite appropriate for a particular child? Santa knows. Santa was doing one-to-one marketing/selling long before marketing entered the college curriculum.
- He has integrity as a core virtue: his leadership core is based on knowing who's naughty, and who's nice. Ethics are at the heart of his mission, and he uses this to inspire and lead his staff, suppliers, customers, and elves. He rewards those who excel, and provides a blunt management point of view on those who have been naughty. He puts success into simple, basic, concrete terms, and in doing so, inspires those of us who have been naughty to do better the next time. And the essence of his ethical message means that there is an entire generation who maintain good behavior, careful of his watchful eye.
- He constantly transitions his brand to the next generation: Santa is the master of reinventing the brand. Even while one generation becomes aware that Santa will play a different role in their life, they ensure that other generations have deep loyalty to him. There's no other leader who can pull off this feat!
- He is a wizard at HR management: the elves are there for the busy season, and then redeploy themselves as garden gnomes during the summer time. Santa mastered proactive job-oriented skills access long before human resource professionals even came to realize that multiple career paths would be the way of the future.
- He's reliable: he shows up. He's coming to town. We know that. There's a song about this reliability. Even Jack Welch doesn't have a song.
I dunno about you, but I'm inspired by the fellow!
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"....the concept of nine-to-five will have just absolutely disappeared...."
At this point, I've been working at home for close to eighteen years. When you've been doing it that long, and you've built up a thriving global business, you gain some real insight into how the economy is shifting. Not only that, but you have a remarkable relationship with your family, with some unique visits into the home office through the years.
Business Edge magazine is now running a "20 questions" interview with me in which I'm talking about a variety of stuff.
Inevitably, talk turned to the next generation, the workplace, and the change occurring with careers. This is a topic that I've frequently been talking about on stage, under the title, "Hyper-boomers, Gen-Connect and Manure Managers: How the Heck Do We Manage the Workplace Challenges of the Future?"
The interview highlights some of my thoughts on what is happening with the future of the workplace.
- "This next generation is completely different in terms of how they think. Kids today 15 and under coming into the workforce are not going to want to have a job, they're not going to want to have a career path, they're not going to want to work for a company. They are the ultimate entrepreneurs. You're not going to be able to hire them. You're going to be able to contract them at best."
- "Everybody's talking about the retirement of (Baby) Boomers. That's one aspect of it. Everybody's talking about how difficult it is to attract the next generation. And you've got all these employers running around and asking, how do we become the employer of choice and how do we make people like us? But I don't think that's the issue. The big issue is that skills are becoming extremely specialized. There's so much knowledge happening and so much stuff happening so fast. I've got a certain set of skills, but increasingly, those skills become narrower and narrower."
- "...the concept of nine-to-five will have just absolutely disappeared. It doesn't mean that we're going to become a nation of home offices, but I think there will be a lot more choices that people will be making as to where and how and when they're going to be doing the work and what constitutes the organization. You talk to senior managers and CEOs today and they talk about how they have to become more collaborative and team oriented. I think the generation of 15- to 20-year-olds just look at that talk and go, 'duh.' They say: 'We do that, we're on instant messaging, we've got webcams, we're just collaborative by nature and we don't give a heck whether we're in the same room or not. We know how to work cross-country, around the world, globally and how to form instant teams. We come together to form some function, then disband and move on to the next thing because we're the generation that gets bored so darned easily.' I think they're just going to shake up the concept of the workplace to a huge degree. The reason that hasn't happened is because of simple Boomer resistance to change."
You can read the full interview here.
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It's summer -- and it's in to be out!
Forgive me if you've seen me recycle this post, but it's a good trend overview. It's summertime, I'm writing a book, and I'm preparing for an upcoming keynote for the American Nursery and Landscape Association in Vail.
A year and a half ago, I was engaged for a New York City publicity event, where, I met with the editors of O (Oprah Magazine), Elle, Family Circle, Parenting, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Working Mother, American Baby, Soap Opera Weekly, Woman's Day, Glamor, Teen Vogue, Seventeen, Good Housekeeing, Family Circle and about 40 other national trade magazines, in New York City.
My focus, on behalf of a consumer products company, was the presentation of my "10 Trends that Will Rock the Outdoor World." You can read the list and see the "fun facts" here.
In preparing, I undertook detailed research and analysis of leading lifestyle, demographic, social and cultural trends, to put into perspective what we can expect in terms of active, outdoor living in the future. And while I prepare for next week, it's certainly proving itself to be a document that is bang on.
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Article - "Get on top of rapid change"
From my most recent ProfitGuide article: "If your company culture doesn't embrace agility, innovation and flawless execution, you could be headed for trouble."
It's interesting to see that BusinessWeek ran this theme as a cover story last week; I've had it as the main focus of much of what I've been advising my clients through the last five years!
You can read the full article here:
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Article - "Are we thinking fast enough?"
After my keynote for the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers, I was asked to provide a guest column for the prestigious Broadband Library.
I open the article with the line: "If there are three key words that should carry broadband organizations and the people within them into the future, it is these: agility, innovation and execution."
I then focus on the major trends impacting companies today, including hyperinnovation: "Innovation has moved from the corporate to the collective, a trend that is causing absolutely furious rates of discovery. Fifteen years ago, the exchange of new ideas, research and scientific advance in the world of cable, technology and telecom occurred at a rather leisurely pace, through conferences, journals and publications. Today, we find ourselves in the midst of a global infinite idea loop, in which new ideas, inventions and innovations are shared faster than ever before in countless numbers of online forums, discussions, blogs and other collaborative efforts. The pace of R&D and discovery has forever changed at this global collaborative network, as has an eternal discussion about what comes next. The result is that no one can hope to define the future anymore -- the best you can do is simply to plug into the future that is being developed all around you, and learn how to profit from it."
Read the full article
You can read the full article here:
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Article - "Are You Prepared for the New Role Associations Will Play?"
An "association of association executives" has just printed my article that takes a look at how the role of associations will change in the future -- with the major focus being on the need for "just in time knowledge," a phrase I've been using for over a decade.
From the intro: "If you want to understand the future role of your association, you might want to spend some time staring at an iPod Nano.
Arguably the hottest consumer technology in a marketplace that astounds everyone with a furious rate of technological innovation, it’s more than just a cool piece of electronic hardware that plays music. It’s a good barometer of the fact that we live and work in a world in which massive, sudden, wrenching change will become the norm, not the exception.
And it will be by helping your members cope with, adjust to, and prepare for this rate of change that you will find the evolution of your new role."
Read the full article
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One thing has become clear in the past few years : there is a huge amount of wasted creative energy in the "creative" industries today -- broadcast, entertainment, publishing.
Take a look around, and many are now focused on their efforts to protect the business models of the past through litigation, instead of chanelling their energy into exploring, innovating and doing things with the potential of the future.
I think part of it is due to anger and loss of control - traditional media executives just can't seem to understand that they no longer control their destiny. And by lashing out with lawsuits, they are really wasting a tremendous amount of human capital -- energy that could go into discovering the opportunites that are emerging in this strange, new converged universe.
One thing is clear -- litigation really won't solve their problem. Five years ago, I wrote an article titled "Business Battles the Mighty Geek." It still rings true today. One of my comments is particularly relevant: "Any attempts to prevent the distribution of information by legal means in this digital world -- whether it be music, movies or television signals -- will ultimately be doomed to failure."
Read the full article in Acrobat format
Business battles the mighty geek
by Jim Carroll
31 January 2000
The Globe and Mail
Decades from now, people will characterize the early years of the 21st century as a period dominated by a battle between the corporate entertainment world and the computer geeks.
With all the recent merger frenzy, it's become obvious that the corporate types have finally clued in to the Internet, e-biz and e-commerce. Yet to their horror, they realize that while fabulous opportunities exist on-line, a Pandora's box of challenges has also emerged. In particular, it seems that they can no longer control the distribution of their products.
I'd hazard a guess that given the flurry of recent lawsuits, some media moguls have decided that the only way to deal with the Internet is to sue anyone and everyone who is challenging their business models.
The music industry has been busy suing various groups involved with MP3, the music format that makes it easy to distribute digital forms of music. The movie, television and entertainment industries are busy suing Toronto-based on-line broadcaster iCraveTV.com, charging it with "brazen theft."
There are new lawsuits against computer geeks who have managed to figure out how to get around the copy protection scheme found on DVD-ROMs, which is arguably the hottest new entertainment technology on the planet.
Things are getting nasty: Just the other day, a 16-year-old Norwegian kid who figured out the mathematical equations behind the DVD code found the police banging at his door.
A battle royal is under way, and it's fascinating entertainment. On one side, we have the entertainment companies, finally ready to take advantage of the opportunities of the wired world, and ready to use lawyers to defend their turf.
On the other side, there's a ragtag army of computer geeks, bound by the global reach of the Internet, and impassioned by their collective distaste for anything that puts constraints on how they might use their computers.
I don't know about you, but my money is on the geeks.
Regardless of the deep, troubling and complex issues at work here, the reality is that the folks who control the computer code will be the ones who will control the future. Any attempts to prevent the distribution of information by legal means in this digital world -- whether it be music, movies or television signals -- will ultimately be doomed to failure.
To understand why, you need to immerse yourself in the mindset of the technical community, instead of simply pondering the press releases from the other side.
One of the best starting points is to visit Slashdot (http://slashdot.org) -- it uses the tag line "News For Nerds. Stuff that Matters." It's a geek perspective on the issues of the day, including the many legal battles. (Investors take note: It is probably also the best place to understand new technologies before they come out. The entire Slashdot community knew what Transmeta was up to before any public announcement was made.)
Often weird, slightly adolescent, extremely irreverent and often not understandable, it is still a goldmine of information as to how the Internet of the future will shape up.
There are countless other sites similar to SlashDot. Techdirt (http://techdirt.com) is but another example of these on-line communities.
You come to realize that all these lawsuits are viewed as nothing more than an amusing challenge to the geek community. The on-line mindset, when confronted by a legal letter or restrictive computer code, is to play a version of a popular quiz TV show. "I can crack that secret code in three steps, Alex," goes the response to the challenge.
Instant communities, such as OpenDVD (http://www.opendvd.org/), are emerging in which the geeks passionately defend their right to open up technology or share information -- and where they counter the PR spin from the corporate or entertainment world. This community often acts in bad taste, poking fun at the futility of lawsuits in the digital age.
I just visited a Web site and bought a T-shirt that contains the entire secret DVD code printed on the back.
What chance does Hollywood have in this battle, when its crown jewels are protected by a mathematical equations that can be printed on the back of a T-shirt once the geek community has figured it out?
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From an article I wrote for The Boardroom, a publication for associaton executives: "Take the time to do this simple to test to determine if your association and its members are in the right frame of mind for remarkably new and innovative things, or whether they and you are stuck in a rut, unable to respond and deal with the change that is swirling around you." It's based on some previous postings I did here.
Read the full article .
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10 Ways to Not Have a Boring Meeting
I'm carrying the list of "10 ways to not have a boring meeting" forward from December 2004; for some reason it disappeared from my main blog index.
I wrote it when thinking about the problem I see at many conferences ... I spend a huge amount of time speaking at organization and corporate events, and have long seen a problem where the folks planning a meeting are stuck in a creative rut. Every year, they bring in the same old "industry experts" to speak the conference. These folks come in with all the right charts; all the detailed statistics; all the deep insight into what is going on. And everyone in the room has seen it all before, and promptly goes to sleep.
And every year, they do the same old thing, with the result that everyone goes to the same old conferences each and every year, and sees the same statistics and the same charts and the same reports from the same industry experts -- and everyone continues sleepwalking along....
Look, the world out there is changing at an absolutely furious pace! People don't need reports on what is going on -- they need insight on where they are going! They don't need to hear from folks in their industry -- they need to learn from folks who are different from them. They don't need traditional insight -- they need a huge wakeup call to what is happening with their industry. That's why I wrote this post -- and why it should serve as a challenge to do things differently.
Original post from 2004:
I spend a fair bit of time on the MimList; it's a global forum of meeting planners. Someone referenced this article from Hotel and Motel Management, on the fact that many attendees at conference are finding that things are becoming a bit dull.
When I read the article, I agreed; I see many meeting organizers on autopilot, doing the same programs over and over. So I charged ahead and wrote up my thoughts on the matter, coming up with my 10 Ways to Try to Not Have a Boring Meeting:
1. Do things different. Don't do what you did last year. Set out from the start to try to do something else. *That's* your key objective.
2. Banish bad phrases. At your first meeting planning meeting, stop the meeting the first time someone says, "We've always done it that way." Stop. Pause. Deep breath. Calmly state, "And your point is?"3. Get a 22 year old involved. They think different! They are different! They are the ones who are really bored; the rest are probably asleep. Seek their input; it's valuable and important. You can learn lots from them.
4. Forget teambuilding, icebreakers, keynotes, spousal programs, breakouts. Think of new words that mean new things. "Startling openers." "10 ideas that will shock you." "Not a keynote -- it's a dramatic wake up call." "A big group talking about big things". Whatever -- the point is to banish words *that mean the same old thing*. Banish the words -- and you are banishing a certain line of thinking.
5. Throw out your program brochure template. Hire someone you don't like to redo it. Explain what you are trying to do, and ask them what *they* think. You might find their radical ideas present a breath of fresh air.
6. Go elsewhere. Forget Vegas, NYC and Orlando. Go to Boise! Maine! Seattle! Victoria! Halifax! Cuba! Einstein said : "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result each time." If you take your folks to Vegas every 2nd year, it's just another opportunity for them to get hammered in the same bar while they wake up with the same hangover to go see the same old tired opening talk.
7. Put the seats in the opening session upside down, and face them backwards! Why not? Everyone knows that they are going to come in to this big room, there are going to find lots of seats, and they are all going to be pointed at the front. SO CHANGE IT. Radical times call for radical change -- and that's a good point to get across. Heck -- put the stage at the back of the room, and sit everyone up front.
8. Put a big "ITS RUBBER CHICKEN!" sign on your lunchtime chicken -- and have a rubber chicken for a centerpiece! We *ALL* know it is going to be chicken. It's going to be lousy. The fact is, we're bored with chicken -- so lets celebrate it! Lets' note it! Let's point it out! That itself is good for a bit of dfference!
9. Program differently! Invite a speaker you don't know. Invite someone in from an industry *totally* unrelated to what you do to talk. Do things different -- if your CEO or association head typically does the opening address, ask the newest member to say something too! In other words, do something totally different from what you do. Y'know, sort of like "opposite day," which is what my kids always suggest to me.
10. Confront boring. The fact that there is an article like this out there *IS NOT A GOOD THING*. This is an industry suffering from a deep malaise. The same programs. The same content. The same table settings. The same stuff. The same places. The same things. The same phrases.
Dullsville.
Think different, be different, do different. At least Apple had it right. So should you.
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10 Ways to Do a Press Release That Matters
On a mailing list to which I subscribe, someone just asked how to write a great press release.
Off the top of my head, I jotted out a response. I'm on the receiving end of a ton of press releases sent by various companies because I do a lot of writing. Most are dull; contain no news; announce stuff of absolute insigificance; and really tell me nothing at all. I toss most of them.
So here's my list:
- Change the focus. It's not a press release - it's a news release. It should have news.
- Make it new. It should say something your audience hasn't seen before. They're jaded. They'll say ho-hum. They're bored with press releases. "Been there, done that." You've got to swat them on the head.
- Get a different droid. Make it different. These folks likely see a zillion PR releases that all look the same, written by PR-droids in PR-factories with tiny-little droid-computers that spew out droid-PR-rubbish. Read what they wrote, and write it differently.
- Give the facts. Provide interesting tidbits, statistics, factoids. Most people today have the attention span of your average rock, and you've got to connect with their innermost-hyperself. You've probably got about 5 seconds to get their attention. Use it well.
- Keep it short. Short.
- Don't be dull. Avoid the same old long drawn out boring quotes. "Mr. Peter Didsworth, an expert in our industry, and a distinguished individual of long accomplishment, noted that it was time .... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz." Every press release has them, and people hate them. Don't boast.
- Do the work. Give them the story, nicely packaged and put together. I find that most news people are lazy. Sorry! But if this is so, prepare the story for them -- so that they can rip and rewrite. Want to read tomorrow's news? Go read a press release wire today. It's all right there.
- Give them bullets. People love bullets. I think people like bullets these days more than they like sentences. Sentences are just too much work. Bullets are better!
- Make it fun! Most people are so bored with routine that you'll hook them if you can make them laugh.
- Make it personal. Find out the 100 people who really care about who you are, and send it to them. Send it invidually. Personalize each note. Take the time to 'relationize' with them.
- Make it a list of 10 things. People like lists of 10 things. Then add an 11th item pointing this out, which will make people chuckle. If people chuckle, they remember you.
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New article - "8 ways to embrace change"
"Opportunity today comes from your ability to innovate, adapt and evolve. Stay static, and you'll be left in the dust." Read my new PROFIT article here
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"Believe it or not, manure can teach us a great deal about the future of business." That's what I learned about the future from manure, and it's covered this week in my column in Profit. [ article ] (opens in a new window)
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Does your organization use these innovation killers?
The Globe & Mail published my article on "innovation killers" today -- " ...in a world of rapid and constant change, many people still manage to think that they can get away with routine. That's why I'd suggest you undertake an "attitude inventory" during your next staff, board or executive meeting."[ Read the article ]
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My new PROFIT column - "The coming labour crisis"
My new semi-regular online column in PROFIT's X-Tra online edition debuts today. As I note, "One of the most challenging issues that you will face through the next decade will be an increasing inability to access the staff and skills
necessary to effectively run your business. Blame it on retiring babyboomers,
Generation Y and hyper-innovation." [ link ] or [ PDF ]
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From Dialogue, an article I wrote for payroll professionals. As they note in the intro, "although Jim is not a payroll professional, he is our featured VIPP this month because of the insightful keynote presentation he recently gave at our Annual Conference ….This article is based on parts of his presentation on change, including ideas on how to embrace it." [ article ] (in Adobe Acrobat format)
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My latest article: "I find it fascinating that a number of recent presentations have focused on the theme, 'The Future of Risk,' in which I’ve been asked to take a look at the unique challenges that will emerge in society through the next several decades.....you should gain an appreciation for the new types of risks that are emerging in a world undergoing rapid, relentless change, with resultant new forms of unexpected risk becoming the norm."
Read the Adobe Acrobat version of the article [ here ]
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Still paralyzed by indecision?
Just over a year ago, my artilce on the rampant indecision throughout the economy appeared in print, in which I noted "fear of the unknown has made doing nothing the new reality in business."
I think a lot of organizations out there are still in this state of mind -- and are doing themselves long term damage as they continue to drift into a culture of complaceny. It's probably a good time to relink to the article -- have a read since it provides some good food for thought.
Read the Adobe Acrobat version [ article ]
Then think about bringing me in to help destroy your culture of complacency -- read the topic page [ brochure ]
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Get ready for career extinction
I've carefully been watching the crowds in my keynote presentations over the years, and have come to realize that there is a direct relationship between the nature of the audience, and the way that they react to my observations on the future.
Call it Carroll's law, because what I've learned is this -- those doomed to extinction and other severe career implications as a result of rapid change, are usually the least receptive to a message as to the reality of their impending doom. They would prefer to escape rather than adapt to reality.
Looking out into the audience, it sometimes seems like I've got a bunch of deer in the headlights -- they seem so shocked by the change that is occurring around them that they don't know how to take the next steps of figuring out what to do about it. This is particularly true when I discuss the reality of outsourcing/offshoring, or when I focus in on how rapid innovation, fuelled by scientific advance, will continue to cause havoc and turmoil in every industry.
I wrote an article yesterday, How Science Will Change Careers -- And Associations -- that looks at the theme of impending, rapid career extinction. Read the article 
(PDF)
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Article - "We Can't Make Up Our Minds"
My comments about the indecision that is driving the economy made the cover of Meetings World, in this article. "People have decided not to make decisions -- and they like it -- because it mitigates their fear". Read the article (PDF)
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Article - Will Sarbanes Oxley Kill Innovation?
Will the intense focus on governance and compliance issues in the wake of major scandal somehow force many organizations to throw the innovation baby out with the bath water? It may inhibit a board's ability to focus on risk taking and long term value creation. And once risk and innovation are removed from the board table, it will soon disappear from the rest of the organization as well. Read my latest article on this topic: (PDF)
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New article - Gen-Y and the workforce
"One of the more challenging issues that organizations will have to deal in the next few years is how to successfully integrate “Gen-Y” into the workforce........ there hasn’t been a lot of thought given as to how to successfully integrate this new and diverse age demographic into the workforce, an issue that is becoming more important with every passing day. The fact is, these kids are unique in more ways than one, and hence, forward thinking executives should take the time to learn how to take advantage of their uniqueness, and how to best manage and motivate them." Read my latest article and think about what it might mean to your organization " (PDF)
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Nine issues for not-for-profits
The Texas Society of Association Executives has printed my article, Nine Issues for Not-for-Profit Executives in 2004 (and beyond). Read the article (PDF)
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Does the Internet carry any evidentiary value when brought into the courtroom? One year ago this week, I was actually testifying in Federal Court, as an expert witness, on that very question. I ended up writing an article about my views on the matter. I predict that within the next 10 years, this will be one of the more challenging issues that our legal system will be trying to come to grips with. Read the article (PDF)
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"Are you ready for a world in which the concept of "retirement' has come to an end? If not, you'd better be, as this is likely to rapidly emerge as the most significant issue for every organization through the next ten years. That's because right now, we have a "perfect storm" brewing that involves three succinct but inter-related trends that will see the ongoing involvement in the workforce of people well past the age of 65." Read my latest article and think about what it might mean to your organization " (PDF)
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"Ten years ago, I spoke to 300 telecom engineers ...and made the observation that within 10 to 20 years, most of the world’s telephone systems will have moved to Internet technology. You might imagine that my remarks were met with derision, if not outright anger, perhaps because the idea of an accountant explaining the future of something like the telephone system just seemed too bizarre at the time. Fast forward to 2004 — telecom industry prospects are looking up and there is much talk of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. It seems I have been proven right." Read my latest article, Not Your Father's Telephone. (PDF)
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A year ago this month, my Profit article noted that "unfortunately, most entrepreneurs continue to ignore computer security shortfalls that leave them vulnerable to system crashes, hacker attacks, virus outbreaks and even internal sabotage. My point? Companies better pay attention to security issues, or they'll find things getting increasingly ugly.
Fast forward a year. Wow! Today I got an e-mail from Rogers Communications -- they're my high speed provider -- notifying me that an attempt had been made to break into a computer -- and that the attempt came from my Internet address.
Whoah! Obviously, I don't spend my time hanging around trying to hack into systems; indeed, I've long been warning companies about the risks of neglecting security.
Not only that, but through the years, I've taken the time to understand security from both a high-level and very-technical level. Given the complexity of my home system, I don' take security lightly.
Needless to say, the message struck my immediate interest ... and so I sent it on to the head of PR for Rogers, asking what's up!
A short time later, the answer came back -- it looked like my Web server on my inbound connection, which I use to access e-mail while on the road, had been compromised -- it appeared on a list of "public proxy servers" on several Russian sites. Sure enough -- I've been hacked.....
I'm digging into it further, and I'm really none too amused. What this involve