Toyota, quality, and what we knew in 2007 ......
Back in May 2007, I was invited to be the keynote speaker at the 4th World Conference on Quality and Improvement on behalf of the American Society for Quality; I spoke to an audience of about 2,000 individuals involved in "quality" issues -- everything from construction to pharmaceuticals, consumer products to automobiles.
The key premise of my message was that in a world of accelerated innovation and fast paced change, organizations would find that new and more challenging quality issues would appear. The result, I suggested, was that organizations need to pay a new and different type of attention to 'quality', since quality issues could now spiral out of control faster than ever before.
(I've got the entire keynote on tape, with the slide deck, and might put a few clips up).
Fast forward three years, and we've got a situation in which the CEO of Toyota, previously one of the world's most respected organizations when it came to quality, is on the ropes.
Let's revisit what I said three years ago; here's an interview from Quality Progress Magazine in April 2007:
Jim Carroll has been working as a futurist and innovation expert for 18 years.
A lot of people probably don't know what a futurist is. Explain what you do.
Essentially, I spend a lot of time examining what is happening with different industries, with different professions, with different skills, and put that into perspective for people so they can think about what might be coming next in their industry.
What is coining next in quality?
I think it's going to be managing quality in a period of high velocity change. We are in a very high velocity economy. Business models are changing at a furious pace. Products are coming to market faster than ever before. We are seeing faster rates of innovation. We have to ask ourselves, "What will the impact of that be on the concept of quality? And how do we rethink what we've been doing in an era of ever more rapid change?"
It doesn't matter if we're thinking of that from a product perspective or professional skills perspective or process perspective. The fact is things are happening faster, and that has implications on quality. One of the words I like to use is "agility." How do we develop agility so that we can respond quickly to changes?
How can one ASQ member who is trying to bring innovation to an organization make a difference?
The quality guy or lady is probably a lonely individual because he or she can be perceived as getting in the way of the rush to market. But the risk of screwing up that comes with a high velocity market is magnified. We're in the YouTube era, where somebody can take a video of your product screwing up and post it online. Then you're in trouble.
Quality people probably aren't getting as much respect or attention as they used to, so I think it's important that they heighten the importance of quality and get the word out there, because the consequences of things going wrong are potentially so much worse. They have to get across to their bosses that all a company needs is one video clip of something bad happening, and it will do millions of dollars in brand damage. That's the reality.
After the event, I went on to write a blog post, which looks spot on given the recent events with Toyota:
My 2nd Orlando event was the Day 2 Keynote for about 2,000 people at the 7th Annual World Congress on Quality and Improvement. I focused on the issue, "how do we ensure we can maintain quality, and the very concept of quality, in the high-velocity world we now find ourselves within?" One of my opening slides led with this observation: "Velocity drives rapid (consumer / customer / business) change, increases their expectations, which requires faster innovation and a faster more complex economy - which perhaps requires a rethink of quality methodology." Some of my major observations through the talk:Suffice it to say, there's going to be plenty of opportunity in the whole field of quality given velocity -- the faster things get, the more challenging it becomes to maintain quality!
- The entire China / pet food /melamine issue is showing the impact that a vast, complex, global economy can have on the issue of quality; I think we are in for a complete rethink and refocus on the issue of quality as a result of events like this.
- In the era of idea instantaneity, quality challenges can go supernova just like that...
- accelerated innovation drives faster time to market, more rapid development time, and less available time to assess potential quality challenges
- the high velocity economy requires more rapid implementation of business processes ...with ever increasing complexity and scope ... which introduces quality challenges in terms of organizational excellence
- exponentiating connectivity risk with supply chains, business processes, and infrastructure, means that we have to rethink all quality issues as we redefine the nature of the very nature of STUFF.....
- the skills crisis combined with rapid evolution of knowledge means that organizations will have fewer resources available to pay attention to quality, and that quality experts will be niche-orientated
- clearly, volatility is the new normal, and presents even greater challenges to our concepts and expectations with quality
It's easy to sympathize with Toyota.
On the other hand, any organization could find where they are, because we've known for quite some time that quality challenges were simply going to become bigger, faster, and more complex!
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Food industry trends: Faster is the New Fast!
Here's an article that I wrote for Food Manufacturing on trends in the consumer, food and packaging sector.
I spend a huge amount of my time as a keynote speaker at countless conferences and events, many of them within and to the food, packaging, retail and restaurant sector. I also spend quite a bit of time with smaller, strategy-oriented leadership session designed around the theme of 'how to innovate in a high velocity economy.'
And I do know that while volatility rocks the economy, some fundamental truths about that velocity remain: the food, packaging and retail industries continue to be subject to dramatic rates of change--and innovative organizations succeed by mastering the pace of this new high-velocity economy.
Think about what is going on out there: customer mindset has become increasingly difficult to capture as we become a society with massive attention deficits--the Twitter era is having a profound impact on brand image. Marketing and advertising dollars are fleeing traditional media and moving online at a pace that surprises even the more hard-core technology-evangelists. Faster innovation means faster in-store format change. New digital signage technologies and other innovations march forward at a furious pace, providing yet another new influencer in the retail space.
And in the midst of all this change, business models are subject to upheaval due to economic turmoil, commoditization of product and the rapid emergence of new competitors.
It's a fast paced world--and that's why cutting-edge organizations are focused on key leadership strategies that provide for a fast-paced future. So what should you do to confront the "big trends" that have so much velocity--and what you should be doing right now?
I approached this very question as the opening keynote speaker for an audience of 5,000 at a recent Las Vegas event. The client organization certainly finds itself in the midst of high-velocity change. There are fast paced trends in terms of new branding challenges and marketing methodologies (think Web 2.0), consumer behavior, and many other issues. Yet, there are tremendous opportunities for growth through innovation.
My keynote addressed a variety of trends that impact every aspect of the food, packaging and retail sector today. For example, to be a leading edge innovator, you must confront and have a strategy that deals with a variety of fast-paced trends:
- Rapid emergence of new methods of customer interaction. For example, in the next few years, we will likely see the emergence of contact-less payment technology, as our credit card infrastructure migrates to Blackberry, iPhone, and smart phones. This presents new opportunities in terms of customer contact.
- New methods of brand and product promotion. Organizations must be able to scale to meet the demands of new intelligent infrastructure, and that will require a tremendous amount of innovation. Consider text messaging: technologies that provide for the remote retrieval of mobile coupon offers will define the future of brand interaction. With 147 million people already interacting globally on social networks via their mobile phone--and up to 1 billion in but five years--there are tremendous opportunities for new methods of achieving brand and product awareness.
- Rapid change in consumer choice. Take the issue of health concerns and balanced diet. Fresh-cut snack foods grew from $6.8 billion in to $10.5 billion in a short time, according to the International Fresh-Cut Produce Association. Innovation comes from changing product mix to keep up with fast-changing consumers.
- Rapidly emerging new menus and taste trends. It's estimated that new flavors now move from upscale kitchens to chain restaurants in 12 months, compared to 36 months 5 years ago. This means that faster innovation is not a luxury--it's a necessity. Change faster, and you'll yeild new growth-based products.
- Fast emerging issues involving green strategies. The Grille Zone, a restaurant chain in Boston, generates about 15 pounds of waste per restaurant, compared to an industry average of 275 pounds. The Green Restaurant Association took 14 years to go to 90 restaurants; it's now at close to 1,000, with thousands more going through the certification program. Growth can come from evolving a brand so that it matches the social desires of the customer base.
Innovation today is moving from more than just "products" to process, structure, capability, and speed.
Here's the thing: in my keynotes, I focus on growth opportunities. There are enough people out there who are so focused on the doom and gloom of the economy, that they lose sight of the fact that if they focus on fast innovation--and keeping up with rapid trends--they can discover all kinds of new ways to grow the business.
Faster is the new fast. Think growth. Think innovation.
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Video: innovators focus on "corporate agility' How quickly can you scale if you encounter a new market opportunity? How quickly can you react to a crisis. In this clip, JIm takes a look at the concept of corporate agility
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Video: Food industry trends - it's all about velocity! In the food industry -- it's all faster.
A faster focus on 'fresh' food. New taste trends happen faster. There's faster innovation with ethical packaging.
And so it's all about time to market. Challenge yourself to think and act differently, when the food industry continues to speed up, and the process of innovation undergoes a deep transformational change.
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How to get faster when the world is faster...
What should innovative organizations do? When everything is faster still, focus on these things:
- build up experiential capital - think big, start small, scale fast. The experiential projects are the "start small" part of the equation. Know what you don't know, and set out to learn those things
- master collaboration and share: the world is changing too fast, and things are too complex, to do it all on your own. Innovators have mastered the skill of learning from others
- focus on tactical to strategic transitions: innovators don't have staff who perform a lot of routine tasks. Each and every single person helps to achieve the core strategic goals of the organization, even if just in a small way
- monitor global idea cycles: your future is being invented all around you, and you success comes from your ability to plug in, tune in, and turn on
- fuse generational insight: we've got really disparate viewpoints, capabilities and levels of patience amongst generations. Innovators bring these differences together in order to get the best from each generation.
- take on anticipatory projects: one thing is certain: tomorrow won't be like today. Innovators look at what might happen tomorrow, and try those things out, in order to be better prepared for when the future arrives.
- be a farmer: it's all about growth, and learning how to relentless focus on that mission
- displace indecision: it's simply unacceptable to waver, wait, and pause. Innovators get things done.
- implement quicker: there's not a lot of time to get things done when markets, customers, expectations, competitors and business models all change at a furious pace. Innovators are religious on agility and speed.
- think bold: this isn't a time for small visions and small ideas. We're witnessing the birth of transformative new industries, companies, careers and ideas. Jump on board and go for the big win, not just the small stuff.
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Location intelligence, financial industries and business model change!
I had quite a few financial oriented keynotes through the last year, for banks, mortgage groups, credit unions and others. If there was a key theme as to the insight my clients were seeking, it was this: what are the BIG trends that are going to impact us (I'm a futurist), and what do we need to do about it (I specialize in insight on what global leaders are doing in the area of innovation.)
The scope of some of these engagements is pretty significant; Diners' Club featured me as the opening speaker for their global franchise conference; my focus was on the big trends that would impact the organization into the future.
I guess I and generated enough buzz on my theme within the financial services industry such that I was booked for a keynote down into a major bank in Sydney, Australia, via a fibre optic link. (I couldn't make a flight connection work!)
What should financial executives be thinking about? There are dozens of significant trends. Perhaps the most important has to do with the fact that 2010 is the year that location intelligence is coming to the industry as a significant business model disruptor.
Here's a snippet from an article that captures a bit of what I've been talking about. The world of banking is going to witness massive change as mobile and location intelligence technology becomes married together. Consider:
Jim pointed to an Australian study that found 65 per cent of children in preschool today will work at jobs that don't exist today.Give me any financial organization, and I can give you an organization that likely isn't prepared for the fact that their innovative agenda is going to be subject to some pretty significant change."Think about the concept of a location intelligence professional."
He discussed the possibilities presented by marrying smartphones equipped with global positioning systems to spatial-oriented information websites such as Google Maps.
"In the not-too-distant future, it's quite likely some real estate organization is going to roll out an iPhone app that you will go through and you will pre-identify the types of properties that you're interested in. It's going to use the location capabilities built into the iPhone to build you an interactive tour of those properties. And you're going to use your (iPhone) to drive around the neighbourhood and look at these homes through your phone."
The same application might refer users on to a mortgage broker, he said.
"What do you do when the essence of your business model and the nature of the referrals that you get into your business begin to change?
"Halifax Chronicle Heradld, "Expert: Essence of life is change", November 25, 2009
What I've been doing is outlining for my clients the trends that are going to impact them, and the innovative thinking they need to pursue to capitalize upon those trends.
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Key trends and insight from 2009
I'll be shutting down through the next several weeks from today; I'll still be picking up email, but my blog posts will slow down till the New Year.
I'll mostly be hacking away at improving my pathetic abilities as a skier. (Actually, I'm not that bad....)
It certainly was an extraordinary year; I spoke at some 75 conferences, annual meetings and executive retreats. Global powerhouses such as Rockwell Collins, General Dynamics, Burger King, Yum! Brands, Diners Club and National Australian Bank had me in for executive level global meetings.
Perhaps the most exciting news is that it seems my insight is becoming recognized as being unique ; the world's two most prestigious speakers bureaus, the Washington Speakers Bureau and the Harry Walker Agency began to represent me this year. There are now some 40+ bureaus who actively put me out to their clients as a futurist, trends & innovation expert.
- Jim's profile at WSB
- Jim's profile at Harry Walker Agency
Looking back at this amazing year, it's probably a good time to give a retrospective on what I think were some of the best blog posts I wrote here through the year. So here goes:
There were a whole bunch of reports on various keynotes in various industries, ranging from recreation to health care to technology. When I had the time, I'd write a little summary of the key trends that I was covering in these talks:
- Innovating for growth in the restaurant industry!
- It's January 15, 2020 : Do you know where your healthcare system is?
- Innovation and the future of energy
- HVAC 2.0 - Thoughts on my Las Vegas keynote
- Thinking big - the transformative ideas that will shape our future
- The future of education
- Reinventing the future with transformative technology
A key theme was "innovating during a recession" -- how do you stay out in front?
- 10 Things You Need to Do to Innovate in a Recession
- Failing at the future: 10 reasons why some companies will miss out on the economic upturn!
- A conscious decision - don't take part in this recession!
As the year progressed, my message started to change to "the new rules for the next economy."
- Insight on deep, transformation change - and the "next economy"
- A conscious decision - don't take part in this recession!
What is thrilling about this job is the feedback that you get when you change lives and outlooks. Here's a few posts with some of the observations by some in the audience:
- "Thanks for changing lives!"
- "....a whirlwhind of a speech..."
- "Anticipating the future"
Along the way, I kept my blog up to date with observations about innovation and other issues. Here's some of the more notable posts:
- "The hollowing out of corporate R&D"
- Being innovative - it depends on the company you keep!
- "The importance of innovation in the era of the "new normal"
- "Innovation and the concept of "chameleon revenue"
- Trend - The Emergence of the Chief Momentum Officer
2010 looks to be just as interesting; I've alerady got a solid list of events booked and confirmed. Stay tuned!
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A Key Trend for 2010 - increasing business velocity A huge number of global organiztions have me in to challenge their team to think about how to deal with the increasing speed of change in the world of business.
Here's a clip from a Las Vegas keynote, in which I speak to the topic of business velocity. I believe that in 2010, a greater number of organizations will need to deal with ever increasing rates of change!
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Article: "Anticipating the Future"
The feedback on my Salt Lake City keynote for the National Recreation and Parks Association continues; earlier in this story, I had a blog entry from a message from someone at the event thanking me for "changing lives."
The Past President of the NRPA has weighed in with an editorial in Perspectives, the NRPA's national magazine. Headlined "Anticipating the Future," Jodie Adams has this to say (excerpted).
Last month I saw the future, and it was exciting. Granted, it was one person's version of what parks and recreation may look like a decade from now, but the view is compelling. At NRPA's Congress last month in Salt Lake City, renowned futurist Jim Carroll outlined key areas where professionals and citizen advocates can expect to see major changes in the field. We chose Carroll as keynote speaker for our opening session as a way to crystallize the conference theme, "Prepare for the Future Today." Virtually each of his points held importance for our field. Even the best speakers quote others, and Carroll's quote by media magnate Rupert Murdoch spoke volumes about how we pursue our mission."The future will not be about big beating small, but fast beating slow."
And nowhere is this message more applicable than to the young people entering our field. Considering that they are in large part a product of the Internet Age- infinite choices at lightning speed in interconnected ways- it's no wonder they view work differently today. Carroll's statistics point this out- 65 percent of preschoolers today will pursue careers that do not exist today. For those entering the held today, two to five years is a long-term career. When you're interviewing them today, realize that they are looking right through you. two thirds of them say they are actually thinking about their next job and not the one for which you are interviewing them.
Because young professionals are increasingly more demanding in terms of flexibility, recognition, and loyalty, senior administrators must also think in these terms. It's a sure bet they reflect the views and values of the citizens they will eventually be serving. As Carroll pointed out, we can expect entirely new sports and activities to come at us faster and faster, while "old" sports will evolve in similar ways. Characteristic of a generation fully wired with itself, Carroll only half kiddingly pictured snowboards with embedded chips and webcams that communicate a good run down a mountain to the friends and family of its user.
As Carroll explained, if you are not preparing for the "next economy," you're way too late.
More information:
- Video: Location intelligence and the future of recreation
- Blog entry "Thanks for changing lives! A note from the NRPA Congress..." by Jim Carroll
- Blog entry The future of snowboarding and skiing by Jim Carroll
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Article - "The Future Belongs to Those Who Are Fast"
Chronicle Herald, November 2009
By Kelly Hennessey, ABC
Expectation gaps create tremendous opportunity
Jim Carroll would strongly encourage you to seize transformative growth and the opportunities it presents.
Mr. Carroll, a Halifax native, is a world-leading global futurist, trends and innovation expert speaking today at the Greater Halifax Partnership's Building Our Future event, the last in a series for 2009.
"There are two trends communities need to face now to stay strong for tomorrow," says Mr. Carroll. "One trend is the expectation gap."
Take any segment - health care, pensions, post-secondary education - and boomers expect there is enough money to fund these costs for themselves and their children in the future. The gap?
"We can't fund our current levels in many sectors into the future," says Mr. Carroll, "but that's okay. This quickly changing environment creates the opportunity to innovate - and innovation opens the door to all kinds of new possibilities, new jobs, and new growth."
Take the health care and life sciences sectors in Halifax. These groups are critical to the economic stability of our region and Mr. Carroll believes as they solve the expectation gap in their sector, it will open up big potential here - and on a worldwide basis.
Which brings us to Mr. Carroll's second trend: That overseas markets present the next big opportunity for this region.
"Canada has always thought it important to look overseas to reduce reliance on one economic partner. What is happening now is there are more, and more frequent, border irritants to the south. This makes the overseas markets even more attractive and more important.
"Given the global knowledge economy, there is no better time for Nova Scotia to turn aggressively outward and do more of the Bermuda-type ‘in-shoring' deals." In January 2009, the provincial government signed a memorandum of understanding between Nova Scotia and Bermuda to encourage new business growth in the areas of knowledge, finance, education and tourism.
Amid the trends, Mr. Carroll makes one other key point: Complacency is not an option for organizations seeking future growth.
"There's so much going on in terms of disruptive innovation, the rapid emergence of new opportunities and fascinating new technologies for marketing and promoting your business. I think the best thing to do is simply to adopt an attitude that it's fast, it's scary, but you're fully prepared to experiment, try out new ideas, and always stay focused on potential new opportunities."
"The timing of Jim Carroll's insight couldn't be better," says Paul Kent, President and CEO of the Greater Halifax Partnership. "We're pleased to bring him back home to invigorate our thinking and open our eyes to the trends we can capitalize on for economic growth."
The Greater Halifax Partnership is the catalyst for economic growth and confidence in Greater Halifax, the economic hub of Atlantic Canada.
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Innovation and the concept of "chameleon revenue"
I am not alone in thinking we're in the midst of a significant economic transformation. As Mick Fleming, president of the American Chamber of Commerce Executives, said recently, "It's going to be a move from a bad economy to the next economy."
What is the shape of the next economy? In many cases, it will involve structural change based on an acceleration of business cycles. Consider manufacturing, for example. We're moving from a world of mass production to mass customization, or what I call agility-based manufacturing. I often cite the case of Honda, as noted in a 2008 article on the financial website Bloomberg: "Honda's assembly lines can switch models in as little as 10 days." By contrast, the article suggests, it could take months for most rivals to make the same change.
Companies such as Honda can see what's selling strongly and quickly reorient their production to fit that demand. In the meantime, its competitors are busy cranking out 700,000 versions of the same old car, hoping to sell it to consumers who have already moved on to something different. It's no wonder Detroit is being killed off by its long-term reliance on gas-guzzlers.
Everyone now understands that the old Detroit-based manufacturing business model was deeply flawed. The newer model, based on agility and flexibility, is the model of the future. If an organization can rapidly change its production to accommodate what consumers are willing to buy, it has a good chance of future success.
This ability to respond quickly to change is a corner-stone of opportunity. Competitors will emerge, particularly as the new connected generation rejects existing business models and innovative people continue to shake up the fundamentals. Take the business model of Wizzit, a South African cellphone-based banking system, which could cause upheaval throughout the banking sector as mobile technology garners more of our attention.
Furthermore, the nano-cannibalization of markets is becoming a business trend rather than an aberration. For example, Apple broke new ground years ago by tossing out an entire iPod Nano product line worth billions of dollars of revenue, replacing it with a newer, up-to-date product. Imagine even considering that. How could it cannibalize its own product revenue?
I recently spoke at a leadership meeting for a global organization, where the CEO spoke of a future in which the company's success would come from what he called "chameleon revenue" - the sales derived from entirely new product lines. The chart he presented said it all: the organization's future consisted of a steady decrease in baseline revenue and accelerating revenue streams from markets it currently does not participate in.
I think this will become the norm for most organizations. The ability to rapidly enter and exit markets will define future success. The ability to sustain multiple, short-term product life cycles, each perhaps no more than 36 to 48 months long, will be a critical success factor. Agility at discovering, producing and capitalizing on new revenue sources will be a fundamental necessity. In other words, your ability to change your spots and your colour on a dime will be the key driver for your potential.
Which begs the question: does your financial system have the capability to provide information on your chameleon revenue streams? Does it provide the insight and analytical tools to tackle product life-cycle revenue so the organization can assess how quickly its chameleon revenue streams are evolving? If it doesn't, what do you need to do to adapt?
From Jim Carroll's CAMagazine December column
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Video - Location Intelligence and the Future of Recreation! Here I am speaking to an audience of 4,000 at the National Recreation and Parks Association Congress in Salt Lake City - a keynote in which I challenge recreation professionals to think about the future!
This was the keynote in which I received an email thanking me for "changing lives." It was a powerful day, a powerful talk, and I've got lots more video to share in the days to come!
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The future - opportunity or threat? Here's a short video clip about the fast future, and a challenge as to how you think about the future.
Which camp are you in?
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Are we thinking fast enough?
Back in 2006, I keynoted the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers at their annual conference in Tampa. At the time, YouTube was only just beginning to have an impact, and social networking was still in a nascent stage. It was January -- Twitter wasn't even around!
But there was a lot of talk at the conference about the rapid rate of change that the cable and telecom industry was facing. My job, as opening keynote, was to get them in the right, innovative frame of mind to deal with an upcoming tsunami of change.
I ended up writing an article for Broadband Magazine, on my keynote theme, Are We Thinking "Fast" Enough? I dug the article out the other day with respect to another upcoming talk within the industry.
It still makes for good reading today, starting with the observation that "in this era in which new developments and technology are coming to the market faster than ever before, everyone must become an innovator, whether it be with new business models, skills partnerships or customer solutions."
Some of the key points I raised are even more critical today:
- Innovation has moved from the corporate to the collective, a trend that is causing absolutely furious rates of discovery.
- This rate of scientific advance is such that a world of yottabits and zetabits is going to arrive faster than you might think,
- Things are happening so fast that some industries are beginning to witness the end of the concept of the product life-cycle
- Rapid innovation and technology development means that new competitors can now come into a marketplace and cause fundamental, significant and long lasting change at the drop of a hat
- Rapidly evolving technology is resulting in an increasing shortage of critical skills
Are you thinking fast enough?
- Read Are we thinking fast enough? from Broadband Magazine
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Trend: The emergence of the Chief Momentum Officer
One of my key themes through the years has been that "faster is the new fast" -- that the biggest challenge that organizations must face is how to keep up with the high-velocity economy.
I'm now observing that in many markets and industries, the pace of change is so fast that we need to put in place a senior executive whose sole area of responsibility is ensuring that the organization can keep up with ever-increasing rates of change.
Organizations need to adapt to all kinds of different issues when it comes to the velocity of change: rapidly changing business models, the emergence of new competitors, ever shrinking product lifecylces, a faster pace of new product development, furious rates of technological innovation, furiously fast new trends in terms of customer interaction, the decreasing shelf-life of knowledge and the more rapid emergence of specialized skills: the list could go on!
Hence, the likely emergence of the new position of "Chief Momentum Officer."
This individual will carry a number of responsibilities, such as:
- managing the product innovation pipeline, so that the organization has a constant supply of new, innovative products, as existing products become obsolete, marginalized, or unprofitable
- managing the talent pipeline, so that the organization has the ability to quickly ingest all kinds of specialized new skills
- managing the technology pipeline, so that the organization can adapt itself to constantly improving and ever-more sophisticated IT tools that will help to better manage, run, grow and transform the business
- maintain and continually enhance brand and corporate image; as I've written here many times before, brands can become "tired" and irrelevant if they aren't continually freshened and refreshed
- ensuring that the organization is continuing to explore new areas for opportunity, and that it has the right degrees of innovation momentum
- that the business processes and structure of the organization are fine-tuned on a continuous basis so that it can keep up with all the fast-change swirling around it
- ensuring that a sufficient number of "experiential" programs are underway with respect to product, branding, markets, and other areas so that the overall expertise level of the organization is continually enhanced
- keeping a fine tuned eye on the trends which will impact the organization in the future, and which will serve to increase the velocity that the organization is subjected to and;
- keeping their hands on the appropriate levers throughout the organization such that it can keep evolving at the pace that these future trends will demand.
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Video - "The impact of social networking on brands"
There are 147 million people interacting on social networks through mobile devices today - expect that to grow to 1 billion within 5 years.
A clip from a recent keynote in which I outline the dramatic impact that social networking -- Twitter, Facebook, etc -- is having on brand image, relevance of brand, and longevity of brand.
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Accountancy in the Twitter era
One of the columns I write on a regular basis is for CAMagazine, which goes to about 100,000 professional chartered accountants. My big secret? Despite the fact that I spend my time advising some of the biggest organizations in the world on strategies for innovation and creativity, I'm also a professional accountant. I spent some 12 years way back in the 1980's which one of the world's largest professional services firm.
My June column is out -- and it talks about the challenge of trying to reconcile the emerging demands for more financial disclosure with the short attention spans that come with the Twitter era.
You can access the full article below; but here's a few excerpts:
We stand at a seminal moment - a crossroads as it were - between what we might call the new age of disclosure and the new era of inattention.Read the article Accountancy in the Twitter era....we will see all kinds of new rules and regulations within the financial sector and beyond, including most of the business world. Let there be no doubt, in the year to come we will witness a new, onerous set of regulations surrounding financial disclosure....
On the other hand, while we ponder an emerging need for more detailed disclosure, media reports seem to indicate that the general populace is rushing off to Twitter-ize itself.
So here's the thing: to satisfy the demands of angry investors, the typical 10Q and SEDAR filings will have to quadruple in size, if not more. Pretty soon, a typical public company will need to file several thousand pages of disclosure documents to keep up with regulations. Financial statement footnotes will become complicated enough to deserve their own dead tree. An army of accountants will find itself dedicated to the cause of digging deeper with every single sentence.
At the same time, the audience for whom these lengthy documents are targeted is concentrating on writing 140-character texts.
So, the big question is, what is the relevancy of accountancy in the Twitter era?
Might you instead find yourself one day writing a financial disclosure that goes like this: Qlfd opn'n. Gng Cncrn vr m2m vln on unreal(dude!)ized rvnu.
If you understand that, then your brain synapses have shrunk enough to fit the speed of information in the modern age
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"What am I going to do today to kill new ideas?"
Here's a video clip from a recent keynote in Las Vegas.
I was on stage in front of an audience of 4,000, speaking for a global organization.
In this clip, I'm speaking about the challenges that organizations face with innovation -- and in particular, the fact that every organization has people who wake up each day and ask themselves, "what can I do today to kill innovation?"
Do such people exist? Are there really attitudes like this out there with such high-velocity change in the economy out there? You'll realize the answer to this question is yes, as soon as you hear the list of the "innovation killers."
Think about what they say:
- "We've always done it this way"
- "It won't work"
- "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard"
- "That's not my problem"
- "You can't do that"
- "I don't know how"
- "I don't think I can"
- "I didn't know that"
- "The boss won't go for it"
- "Why should I care?"
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Time for a little innovation oxygen? Why wasting time is a GOOD thing.....
When my friend Scott Kress summited Mount Everest last year, he used a little bit of oxygen for the final push. Many climbers do -- sometimes you need the extra energy to accomplish something massive!
So it is with innovation -- sometimes you need some help to accomplish great things. I've written an article this morning, "Time for a little oxygen?" that offers some thoughts on you can kick up your innovation efforts a bit more. Here's an extract:
To get into a frame of mind of acting fast, everyone needs to be able to learn a lot, very quickly. One way of doing that is by encouraging people to "waste" time. That's right - I really recommend that as a business strategy.. As for Scott, his time spent summiting Everest certainly wasn't a waste of time. He's an Executive MBA teacher, consultant and speaker, and the experience has given him a unique message on leadership, teams, and effective strategic planning!How can people understand the high velocity change in markets, business models, competitive challenges, the emergence of new means of marketing and branding, and all kinds of other issues, if they are restricted to formal education programs? How can they learn about the new products that they need to sell when those products are coming to market so quickly? How can they learn new methods of dealing with a customer by taking an in-house course that was developed over a year ago, when the market was completely different from today?
That's where frivolous education comes in, as a complement to traditional, formal corporate education programs.
Why not establish some "playtime" with your sales force, with the purpose being to try out a multitude of new technologies: encourage browsing through industry magazines, surfing the Web for market research, etc... Such activities may help bring understanding to how the customer is changing. So in fact, what may appear to be "wasting time," really is not so
More information
- Read the article Time for a little innovation oxygen?
- Learn more about Scott Kress
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You need to have a relentless focus on growth -- RELENTLESS!
I was interviewed some time last month by FoodProcessing.com - this was related to their discovery of the keynote I did for the Readers Digest / EveryDay with Rachel Ray team food industry summit in New York last fall.
They ran a short article, "March of the New Machines: The Future of Food Processing" -- and ran my comment on what I've seen in terms of CEO's who have relentless focus on growth. Many of my recent keynotes -- several in Las Vegas, Austin, Miami and New York -- have been focused on how to maintain a growth strategies during an economic contraction.
Here's an extract from the interview. Some good food for thought on the need to be RELENTLESS on the future and opportunities.
In a tough economy like this, it's time to hold the line on spending and to be especially cautious of leading-edge technology. Right?The article at FoodProcessing.com itself takes a look at the technologies, production platforms, processes, ideas and methodologies which can provide for innovation in terms of market growth, product development, cost management and other areas. There's no shortage of opportunity for innovation in the food and consumer product sector - or any other industry.History's full of companies that leapt ahead of competitors by increasing spending, especially on innovation, during down times. Jim Carroll (www.jimcarroll.com), author and innovation consultant, recalled a speaking engagement in which he followed the CEO of a global restaurant chain, who spoke for a brief but powerful 20 minutes.
"For the first minute, he spoke about the global economy and the meltdown. He then spent the next 19 minutes identifying eight growth opportunities and how this organization could do great things if they relentlessly obsessed over them.
"How cool is that?" asks Carroll. "All these other companies are retrenching, pulling back, and here's a guy who's saying to his team, 'Let's focus on growth.' "
He says growth plans and strategic if judicious spending is mandatory for managing during a downturn. Companies that aren't paralyzed by total spending freezes can get the jump on those competitors who are. And when the economy is back on track a year or whatever from now, Carroll says only then will we be able to point to companies and say which ones lagged and failed and which ones "took risks and did great things.
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What is missing right now for many organizations is the COURAGE TO TAKE RISKS and INVEST!
Innovators focus on the future, they focus on growth, and they focus their team on opportunity. That's a key message, and you'd do well to obsess over it.
Think growth!
More information:
- Read March of the New Machines: The Future of Food Processing
- Read the RDA Food & Entertainings Consumer Food Symposium summary (PDF)
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Growth strategies - What I've Seen From the CEO's Here's a brochure extract from another upcoming conference. The theme : "Moving Beyond the Meltdown: Focusing on Growth Through Innovation."
It's been a busy six months since the meltdown.
Throughout this time, I've been keynoting events all over North America, for organizations and events large and small, focused on the theme of innovation and working our way through challenging economic times.
What has been fascinating is that in sharing the stage with a variety of CEO's, for both massive, global organizations and smaller associations and businesses, there are many who share a relentless focus on opportunity.
There's no doubt that there is lot of pain and retraction and pullback out there. But my experience in the last six months indicates to me that there is an equally fast pace of innovative thinking, as to 'what should we be doing with these new realities in which we find ourselves.'
My most favorable moment comes from one particular event: before I went on stage, the CEO of one particular global organization went on to give his "call to action" to his team.
He spoke about the challenges of the global economy for a little less than a minute -- and then went on a fascinating 20 minute outline of the great things that the company could accomplish with revenue growth by focusing on 8 succinct strategies.
I now use his story (and many other similar stories) when I'm on stage, in order to get people thinking about GROWTH again.
What I'm out there talking about are the real, practical strategies that organizations are pursuing to stay focused on opportunity. There are dozens of things I'm seeing happen first hand. Some of the other strategies, off the top of my head (most of which I've written about in this blog):
- act faster to respond to fast changing consumer demands
- innovate locally in a global economy
- focus on customer retention as a core strategy
- go upside down - innovate with supplier partners to achieve faster product or service innovation
- enhance community knowledge - rapidly leverage best practices
- speed up efforts to collaborate internally, and reshape hierarchy to be able to respond to faster change
- innovate with skills access in order to form fast teams
- anticipate customers needs before they know they need them - stay in front of your market
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100 Days of Innovation: #4 - Innovators master faster markets because they master fast failure
Think about it.
Google announced today that they were shutting down Lively, their Second Life 'wannabe.'
They brought the product to market earlier this summer. So it survived only about four months, before Google decided it wasn't going to work, and moved on. Noted Google's blog: "We've also always accepted that when you take these kinds of risks not every bet is going to pay off."
I was on a mailing list today where some folks were discussing this; they seemed to be shocked that Google would make such a decision in haste.
I wrote back, with what I think is a critical lesson on innovation.
- Innovators fail fast.
- Innovators who fail fast learn faster.
- Innovators who learn faster from faster failure master faster markets.
- Innovators master faster markets because they master fast failure.
And that's all you need to know about innovation. Or at least, one critical bit of knowledge in an ongoing commentary around 100 Days of Innovation.
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Kicking off 2009 with innovation as the CORE STRATEGY!
I've been confirmed as the opening keynote speaker for the 14th Annual Portfolio Management for New Products & Services Conference in Fort Lauderdale, February 2009.
The event is sponsored by the Product Development and Management Association, the membership of which are individuals responsible for product and service innovation throughout the corporate world globally, as well as from within the world of academia. It's a pretty influential crowd, and I'm honored that I will be able to share my insight with them. Previous keynote speakers have included G Lafley, CEO, Procter & Gamble; Mads Nipper, SVP of Product & Marketing Development, Lego Group; Gary Loveman, CEO & President, Harrah's Entertainment; and Tom Stewart, Former Editor in Chief, Harvard Business Review, among others. The PDMA is the publisher of the renowned Journal of Product Innovation Management, which is arguably the must-read academic journal that covers the latest issues with new product and service development.
This year, the conference theme tends to revolve around my entire focus on "innovating faster" -- "creating a high performance environment to fuel strategic growth and operational excellence."
"In the changing global economy it gets harder every day to develop winning portfolios that drive long term business value. The 14th Annual Portfolio Management for New Products & Services Conference will present a critical 360 degree view of portfolio management from the discovery phase straight through to commercialization. Learn to innovate faster, optimize resources, select the right projects, and ultimately develop a high performance environment that fuels growth & organizational excellence regardless of the economic conditions"...
The issue of faster time-to-market has become increasingly important with fast-paced economic change. With all the volatility, consumer choice can change quickly ; brand image can shift radically ; execution becomes critical. I'll focus on a variety of themes as to how I see organizations doing this.
Here's a key message in advance of the conference: it can be tough, right now, to be an innovator, particularly as organizations deal with the economic crisis. But, the big question is: do you start/continue to innovate now, or do you wait until conditions improve?
To me, the choice is obvious. I detailed this in my blog post, The Seven Stages of Economic Grief. I also addressed the issue in another earlier blog post, A Memo to the CEO, in which I stressed the need for a continued focus on innovation despite challenging times.
I think they are well worth a read again.
More information:
- Innovation and the "Seven Stages of Economic Grief?"
- Read the Memo to the CEO
- Visit the 2009 PDMA conference web site.
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The economy and leadership: strategy meetings are happening NOW
I continue to see a lot of activity with inquiries and bookings for senior management / CEO leadership meetings.
This confirms my belief, which I have been posting in this blog, that there are many organizations out there who are determined to stay ahead of fast paced economic trends. Here's an example of a client request that came through this morning; they are looking for insight on:
- how can an organization succeed given the current world and marketplace realities by thinking and doing things differently relative to the following:
- how to use, and deploy and share resources in new creative ways from a variety of places to serve the most critical needs or during the most critical times
- how to employ a a non-traditional structure or organization design that is creative, flexible, different and nimble to support critical business priorities
- how to leverage key capabilities in new and different ways, either through developing them internally, outsourcing them or partnering in a type of hybrid manner
- someone who will provide a thought provoking point of view, with inspiration around new and different approaches to achieving the above
- can speak to trends in this topic arena, yet also cite some examples of companies that are acting or behaving in some of these innovative ways to achieve results
- someone who can push the thought agenda yet provide information that is deemed doable, possible, realistic and not too extreme of an approach
- a person who can deliver the information in a small group/ intimate setting with a "working session" format vs a large key note "speaker" address forum
I'm off later today to keynote just such a leadership meeting for a major accounting firm in the DC area; I just returned from Palo Alto where I gave a similar talk to a high-level group of Silicon Valley executives. More on that particular talk later, because I've been busy writing a post about "what comes next with tech."
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Rethinking innovation models - from Disney, to tin cans, to automobiles Here's another video clip from the New York keynote -- actually, this is from the Readers Digest Food & Entertainment (publishers of Everyday with Rachel Ray) keynote.
At this event, I was speaking to an audience of advertising executives, food companies, packaging companies and others about how innovation models are shifting. Today, innovation is much more:
- partnership oriented - think Disney!
- flexible in terms of solutions - think tin-cans!
- faster in terms of market response to rapidly changing consumer demand
The key point : faster is the new fast -- because consumer choice changes faster than ever before.
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Starbuck's Icarus moment .....
I'm quoted in a Reuters article that has run in the Washington Post, Globe and Mail, and the Sydney MX among a few, that comments on the recent woes of Starbuck's.
Titled "Not everyone's crying in their lattes for Starbucks; There's a schadenfreude among some coffee drinkers who think the java giant got too big too fast," the article looks at how some people seem to be enjoying Starbucks in its Icarus moment.
My comments?The schadenfreude of coffee drinkers drawing satisfaction from another's misfortune is part of the popular culture that enjoys the downfall of companies or celebrities, said Jim Carroll, a Mississauga-based trends and innovation expert. "There are a lot of people out there who take delight in seeing an icon torn down by the masses," he said. Starbucks fell victim to a rapid change in attitude, fuelled by Internet bloggers complaining endlessly about everything from layoffs to its breakfast sandwiches, he said. "Starbucks was a cool brand, and then all of a sudden it's not a cool brand," he said. "There's this new global consciousness that is out there that can suddenly shift."This is exactly what I write about in my book Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast. Indeed, one chapter talks about how in this era of very fast change, a brand can go from "hero to zero" in a matter of months, or even less. That's partially what we are witnessing here. The key thing today is velocity: business is impacted by rapid consumer change, product change, business model change, cost challenges, market change. The phrase I've been using for years is "volatility is the new normal." Realize that, and build your innovation strategy around that, and you'll be set for the types of challenges that will come your way.
This is particularly true with issues of branding : brand perceptions can change very quickly today, and I don't think many organizations are prepared for that. Just look at how quickly any brand equity left attached to the US auto industry has evaporated!
More Information:
- Buy Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast
- Blog post: Your Customers Are High Velocity: Are You?
- Is your brand from the olden days?
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After flat? Rethink strategies and go post-flat!
As some economies continue to experience rounds of volatility, there are still plenty trying to figure out what to do next. And there are a many who are focused on the theme of "what do we do after the world has gone flat?"
In the "post-flat" world, you need to change your focus. In an upcoming keynote, I'll be concentrating on several core themes:
- focus on growth - shift your focus to opportunity rather than cost based competition
- think "market transformation" - don't tinker with strategy; you've got to be willing to shift assumptions, habits, routine
- refuse to compete on price - change the rules by recreating value in your product or service
- make big bets - whether its' infrastructure, sales force, distribution network: you've got to be willing to spend to transition
- think international - local markets are small markets; the global economy is well within reach for any organization today.
- think velocityOne of my most often used quotes when on stage comes from Rupert Murdoch: ""The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.""
More information:
- What do you do after the world gets flat? Put a ripple in it!
- Innovating in a flat world
- The new face of manufacturing : agility, insight and execution......
- Innovating in a flat world
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Branding, marketing, and manufacturing 2.0
From a variety of keynotes through the last few weeks, here's what we've got to deal with.
The consumer of today is:
- time challenged
- attention starved
- jumpy & fast with product perceptions
- edgy and vocal when operational excellence is not provided or perceived
- influenced differently in terms of brand / product / service choice
- more vocal when they've been "wronged"
- faster in adopting new trends and ideas
- faster to market
- more collaborative in design
- solutions oriented, responding to the fast consumer
- rapidly redefined by the customer
- having to maintain a brand image that is energized and up-to-date
- more transformational
- revived and rejuvenated on a more regular basis
- lifestyle oriented
- experimental
- shifting it's focus online
- changing faster in terms of message
- going premium and upscale, to avoid commoditization
- focus on the opportunity that comes from such rapid change, not the threat
- don't panic at the pace
- focus on the value of your product or service
- collaborate with your partners (i.e. packaging companies, retailers, consumer goods companies)
- invest in experiential capital by trying out lots of new ideas
- understand that the pace of change is only going to increase
- transition your team to think differently -- innovate!
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There were two pretty heavy-duty keynotes I did for companies in the financial sector last week. The second one involved a group of several hundred executives responsible for managing and overseeing the strategic infrastructure within their wealth management organizations.
I presented an overview of the trends occuring in the financial sector -- see the post immediately before this one which takes a look at the growth of sovereign wealth funds. I also outlined what I think were the key strategic concepts they should be relentlessly focused upon to ensure that they remain competitive in a very fast paced industry. These 7 points were:
- respect the competition
- prepare for the new analytics
- move faster
- stay ahead
- maintain brand relevance
- structure for skill set challenges
- think transformation, not just innovation
These are all themes that I've written on throughout this blog and in my book Ready, Set, Done, How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast.
The key issue is that as business rapidity continues to pick up, organizations need to stay relentlessly focused on trying to stay one step ahead of the fast trends which will impact them.
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Innovation on the "fast" track - what do you do when its faster still?
My June is shaping up to be a tremendously busy month. Based on the bookings that are in, it's clear that innovation continues to be at the top of the CEO agenda, despite some economic challenges.
In most of my upcoming keynotes, I'll be spending time putting into perspective how executives should be thinking about future trends within their industry, and will take a look at the innovative strategies they might pursue.
Each of these talks is pretty tightly focused; I'll be zipping from the insurance industry to optometry; from the future of global wealth management to high-velocity innovation in the banking sector; from opportunities in dealing with the new consumer 2.0 mindset, to how massive skills specialization will affect the world economy in the future. There's been a tremendous amount of research underway as I prepare for each session; most of these talks get pretty darned specific in terms of industry issues.
Some of the unique topics that are unfolding include:
- "the new risk" : a keynote for the US Association of Actuaries that will take a look at how the insurance industry will the rapid emergence of new risk, and the impact of the "new analytics" on the global economy.
- "the new market" : how can a leading manufacturer transition to a market where it is not competing on price, but on brand, quality, image and value : in other words, "what do they do after the world is flat?"
- "the new customer" -- how do we sell to the new 2.0 consumer, in this era of the wired-up-no-attention-span Gen-Connect demographic? The average consumer scans 12 feet of shelf space per second. What innovations do we need to think about when it comes to selling today?
- "the new investor": Dubai and Singapore have "money-velocity." Where is the investment world going, and how does a wealth management firm innovate to stay at the leading edge?
- "the new workforce" : how does a major global professional services firm transition into a new world of micro-skills and knowledge niches?
- "the new agent" : what comes next for the insurance industry? This one is a a keynote and a workshop for about 200 senior executives from the insurance industry, on behalf of LOMA, a major global insurance group.
- "the new collaborative team": how can a leading bank outpace, outlast and outperform the competition?
I'll be posting observations from the road, as there are powerful innovation lessons to be learned and shared from each situation.
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Branding in the high velocity economy
Last week, I gave the opening keynote for a leading global auto collision repair group, Fix Auto, which has locations throughout the US, Canada, the UK and France.
I opened with one of my favorite quotes from Rupert Murdoch: "The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow."
What precisely does that imply? In this case, those who can spot the opportunity for rebranding of an industry sector, and who can pull off such a rebranding quickly. If you think about auto collision repair shops, there are a number of areas where we are seeing "high velocity change": customer expectations in terms of service quality are going up; there is a focus on cost reduction as insurance companies become more sensitive to increasing accident claims; rapid change in the very technology that makes up an "automobile" today. Each one of these areas of change can be spun into an opportunity through some unique business strategies.
My focus for the audience was to realize that we we live in a time in which we are seeing the:
- rapid emergence of new markets
- fast opportunities for arrival of new brand images
- new ways of achieving customer awareness around those brands, and
- significant opportunity to transform old, stale market and business structures to vibrant, new brands
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High velocity leadership: how to stay focused on growth
Organizations today are looking for deep insight into the trends that will affect their markets and industries. CEO's are focused on the need for innovation, knowing that a world of high velocity change requires that they respond to opportunity and challenge in an instant. They are looking for guidance on establishing high-performance, innovation oriented teams that are focused on achievement.
I've been doing quite a bit in this area; the other day, I spent time with a global organization, for a full day, with a keynote and workshop focused on the issue of "growth." It's easy -- in a challenged economy -- to lose sight of opportunities for growth. That's what I talk about in the recent interview by Credit Suisse.
With this particular client -- and many others -- I went beyond a keynote, and participated for the balance of the day through a series of workshops. This new document outlines what I do: I'm often called upon to deliver unique, half day or full day executive retreat, leadership oriented programs.
More information:
- Read High Velocity Leadership
- Read my Credit Suisse interview for my thoughts on "growth"
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A recent client asked for some background on some of the events I've been doing through the last year.
I put together an Acrobat file that features some of the brochures for a few of the major conferences I've headlined: the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations; the World Congress on Quality; the National Home Furnishings Association; the National Association of College Stores; and a few others.
The theme of linking innovation to the high-velocity change that surrounds you is a common one in all of these keynotes; people are realizing that as everything around them changes -- business models, competition, customers, markets -- they need to continuously innovate simply in order to keep up, if not to get ahead.
It's a big file -- 4mb -- but grab it if you want it.
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Faster is the new fast: innovating for the new. high velocity customer
In the fast paced world of instant obsolsolescence and rapid innovation, time-to-market is becoming a key factor for success.
This is a video clip from a recent keynote that I gave for hundreds of executives from the grocery and consumer products industries, titled Faster is the New Fast: Innovating for the New. High Velocity Customer . I take a look at what innovative retail, packaging and consumer goods companies do differently.
This is the third retail presentation that I've done for a major retail conference this year; earlier, I spoke to several hundred convenience store owners and their franchisees; as well as to a group of executives involved in health care retail.
There are a few key themes that I wove through this keynote that retailers, consumer goods and packaging companies need to be thinking about, as well as their advertising agencies:
- velocity: i.e. collapsing product lifecycles
- instantaneity: faster trends; I have a wonderful story about dive-in movies, that I use to describe how the new global idea sharing machine results in faster product to market!
- spontaneity: social networking, rapid emergence of new "hits"; there's a new suddenness with consumer choice!
- intensity: business operational excellence is critical; I have a story of a video game distributor -- 45% to 60% of profit of a new video game occurs in the first FOUR TO FIVE days. I explained similar short, sharp shocks of revenue are coming to consumer goods
- unpredictability: sudden, rapid shift of consumer choice, with nicheing, impact of new packaging, etc.
- simplicity: the new consumer wants nice, simple solutions that fit into their life; there's a great story here from the work I did with the American Nursery Landscape Assn, that spins directly into consumer products, beverages etc, in that simplicity is the new branding.
- volatility: great unknowns; water on planes, melamine/pet food; we have to be prepared for unforeseen risks!
- attractability: there's another video that I'll post soon that involves a story of the plasma people and the cardboard people. suffice it to say, the new consumer will be more highly interactive, sooner than we think
- unfocusability: short attention spans, consumers scan 50 feet of shelf space per second; we're seeing collapsing newspaper/magazine spend, rapid growth of online spend, etc.
- virtuality: Screen Digest, a media consultancy firm, predicts that 80% of active Internet users will become involved in a virtual world by 2012.
Watch the video clip
Related postings:
- Next big home entertainment trend? Dive-in movies!
- Can you run your business at video game intensity?
- High velocity retail innovation
- Creativity, trends and innovation in retail, packaging & consumer goods
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Innovation - agility is critical
I often talk on stage to my clients about the concept of organizational agility: that is, the ability to respond to fast-changing circumstances. In the high velocity economy, everything can move quickly : markets, customer expectations, competitors, products ....
In this video clip, I take a deeper look at the concept of agility, outlining that organizations that master the capability have several key attributes:
- they are rapid movers
- cost excellence is a major focus
- their customers have set high expectations
- they establish instant, need driven relationships in order to get things done
- they excel at rapid response to new market demands
- they focus on fast time to market
- they have mastered the ability for quick marshalling of resources
- ....and they have instant scalability!
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Innovating in the high velocity economy
What does it mean to function in the high velocity economy?
It's all about learning to operate at high speed -- particularly given the rapid rates at which knowledge obsolescence is occuring, due to the rapid advancement of science.
In this video clip, from a presentation to 2,000 engineering and technical staff in Orlando, Jim puts into perspective what it means to operate at high velocity.
Watch the video
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Innovating in the era of instant obsolescence
We're in the era of instant obsolescence: can you innovate fast enough to keep up? Can you keep up, when faster is the new fast?
In the last few years, I've interviewed CFO's and CIO's with companies that have achieved rapid market growth, all of them customers of SAP. This includes such global success stories as J. Crew, Body Armour, Adobe, Purdue Pharma, Hunt Oil, Lennox, Jazz Semiconductor, Merit Energy, and others. SAP has had me in to keynote a wide variety of events, and host panel discussions with these senior executives: it's been a wonderful opportunity to explore what innovate companies do in rapidly changing markets.
I recently such a discussion, both online and at SAPPHIRE 07 in Atlanta, under the theme, Velocity, Agility, Complexity, and Flexibility: The Four Key Drivers for Competitive Advantage. I interviewed CIO's and senior IT executives with four high-growth hi-tech companies: Entegris, Intervoice, Avocent and Citrix (and it Atlanta, Checkfree.)
One of my opening comments: "We're in the era of absolutely instant obsolescence. We can't afford to take a week to roll up the sales numbers ... we have to know what's happened in the last 10 minutes."
All of these organizations are faced with the challenge and opportunity of the high-velocity economy. Rapid growth, collapsing product lifecycles, and the need for a focus on" time to market."
They provided wonderful insight into how they innovate in order to stay ahead of the market, manage global supply chains, build a cohesive, collaborative culture, and provide for real time insight into their business.
You can listen in, several ways. First, I'm interviewed by Paul Gillin, former editor-in-chief and executive editor of Computerworld, and the author of the book, The New Influencers, on why companies must be in a mindset of innovating when "faster is the new fast."
- You can watch / listen to the podcast of the interview
- You can also download the podcast and listen in later by right-clicking and downloading the podcast
You can also listen to the full interview with the panelists at SAP's web site (registration is required); it's available iin multiple formats.
What do these organizations do in terms of innovation? Several things:
- operational excellence is a major focus
- there are high expectations for growth, and an IT infrastructure that enables such growth
- they have a need for instant, need driven relationships with their partners
- they focus on rapid agility for new market demands
- they are religious on "fast time to market"
- they focus on quick marshalling of resources to accomplish velocity
- they provide for instant scalability, given market volatility and rapid change
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Rethinking quality in the high-velocity economy
It's been a whirldwind two weeks, with keynotes in Orlando x 2, Boca Raton, Vancouver, and a few other places.....
My 2nd Orlando event was the Day 2 Keynote for about 2,000 people at the 7th Annual World Congress on Quality and Improvement. I focused on the issue, "how do we ensure we can maintain quality, and the very concept of quality, in the high-velocity world we now find ourselves within?"
One of my opening slides led with this observation: "Velocity drives rapid (consumer / customer / business) change, increases their expectations, which requires faster innovation and a faster more complex economy - which perhaps requires a rethink of quality methodology."
Some of my major observations through the talk:
- The entire China / pet food /melamine issue is showing the impact that a vast, complex, global economy can have on the issue of quality; I think we are in for a complete rethink and refocus on the issue of quality as a result of events like this.
- In the era of idea instantaneity, quality challenges can go supernova just like that...
- accelerated innovation drives faster time to market, more rapid development time, and less available time to assess potential quality challenges
- the high velocity economy requires more rapid implementation of business processes ...with ever increasing complexity and scope ... which introduces quality challenges in terms of organizational excellence
- exponentiating connectivity risk with supply chains, business processes, and infrastructure, means that we have to rethink all quality issues as we redefine the nature of the very nature of STUFF.....
- the skills crisis combined with rapid evolution of knowledge means that organizations will have fewer resources available to pay attention to quality, and that quality experts will be niche-orientated
- clearly, volatility is the new normal, and presents even greater challenges to our concepts and expectations with quality
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High velocity retail innovation
Back in October 2005, I identified the major trends that would sweep the retail and consumer products industries, and some of the key innovation methods that organizations should pursue in order to avoid product and service commoditization. You can read the original post here.
Since then, we've seen continued massive rates of change in these sectors. Three weeks ago, I keynoted a major convenience store conference, speaking both to store and franchise owners, as well as dozens of executives from major consumer product companies.
The retail industry today is now driven by hyper-innovation, rapid technological advance, increased customer expectations, rapidly evolving product trends, and increasingly fickle consumers driven by the rapidity of instant trends.
How can people turn these trends into opportunity? It comes from innovation -- not just with new products, but with business process, store design and layout, rapid adoption of new products, format mix, and partnerships between the retailers, consumer goods companies and packaging companies.
Some of the trends I highlighted in my talk included:
- the rapidity of change: The retailer of today is drowning in new product innovations. According to the Washington Post, some 33,679 new products were introduced into the consumer products sector in 2004, up 53% from 10 years earlier. With room for only so many new SKU's, it can be pretty difficult to keep up.
- constant format change: There's a lot of innovation with in-store formats and display technology : constant experimentation with store formats, brand partnering promo innovation, new in-store displays, logistics and tracking studies, and countless other new ways of doing things within the store are all critical.
- zero-attention span customers: The average consumer now scans 12 feet of shelf space per second. News becomes old news within 36 hours. The average age of a video game player is now 37 years old. Today's consumer has precious little attention, and you've got to work extra hard to get them interested in a product while in the store.
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Fast to innovate. Fast to build. Fast to market.
Though I spend my time travelling the world with my innovation message, it's nice to find some recognition at home. I've been living in Ontario, Canada, for the last 22 years, a region that has long been an economic powerhouse.
The economy here, like many others, has its ups and downs; and in going forward into an economy of rapid change, it's the innovation capability that will make the difference.
The Premier of the province, Dalton McGuinty, has just issued his first Ontario Innovates newsletter; I'm interviewed within it. The Premier notes that "we're living in an exciting era where ideas are springing to life faster than we can blink." He goes on to note that "in today's hyper-competitive global economy, "it's not about the big overtaking the small. It's about the fast overtaking the slow."
I agree, commenting ""We can be wide open to the world and participate in global opportunities, or we can retreat and hide away from it ..... I sense folks are dispirited, especially in smaller communities. It's like they feel they tried it and it didn't work. We need to remind people of what is possible."
Read the full newsletter
Read an extract
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I gave the opening keynote this week, in Orlando, for BICSI, a telecommunications trade group; these are folks primarily involved in the implementation of sophisticated corporate, institutional and backbone infrastructure networks.
There were about 3,000 people in the room -- and my message was that within high-velocity sectors of the economy, there are unprecendented new opportunities and careers that are emerging. Not only that, but constant innovation is critical, simply in order to keep up!
The velocity in the world of telecom is stunning. Just last week, I managed to upgrade myself to the new Blackberry Pearl. While everyone is ga-ga over the iPhone, one also has to look at the high velocity change occurring with other information devices. This new one replaced the other Blackberry I just received last April ... and there is such a difference in sophistication, I think my old Blackberry is now from the "olden days!"
I quickly decided that I'd get a 2GB card for my new Pearl, so that I could load it up with tunes, and take it along with me instead of my iPod for some trips. (With 2GB, I can take about 500 songs.)
The Pearl also supports video playback. I wondered if I could get my own video on it. After all, sometimes I'm stuck in an airport, and rather than watching the endlessly droning doom of CNN on airport monitors, it might be nice to zone out with my own stuff, without having to drag out my laptop.
Looking at the Web site of my cellular provider, I didn't find much help, other than a message stating it couldn't "record video." However, I have long realized that in the high velocity economy, those who actually sell the product often know less about the product than their customers do. It wasn't surprising that they had no guidance.
Yet, it took me a matter of moments to find a Web forum where folks had posted all the specifications for encoding video onto a Pearl. Minutes later, I was busy transferring a number of Daily Show with John Stewart episodes from my PC over to the Pearl. (I grab a bunch of TV for the road, on one of my home office PC's, using BeyondTV; it's like a TiVO for the PC.)
What's the key point to all of this? It goes back to a point I raised in this blog earlier: Your Customers are High Velocity: Are You?
In many markets, customers now know more about the product that the supplier does! That's another reason why innovation is critical: today, for the first time ever, you have to work hard to keep up with the furious pace at which your customers are evolving!
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Why high-velocity makes innovation THE word for 2007 ....
Here's a reality that you need to think about: 2007 is the year in which most every organization and individual will begin to focus all their energies on innovation.
As someone who spends a lot of time helping some of the world's largest organizations adapt to and understand the new high-velocity economy, I've long realized that there are big, creative-stumbling-blocks that have restricted the type of thinking that is necessary to "doing-things-differently."
Yet, I am encountering a new group of leaders who know that the emergence of the high-velocity economy means that they must have a a team that can constantly adapt and evolve, coming up with a regular stream of new ideas on how to better run the business, grow the business and transform the business.
There are several reasons why innovation will be the word, and the primary area of focus for every business, throughout 2007:
- people are finally "getting it": They are realizing that innovation isn't just about new products ; it's about looking at what you do, how you do it, and how you can do it better.
- people are realizing that innovation isn't optional: They have come to realize that in the fast paced world in which we find ourselves, with multiple competitive threats and unprecedented new opportunities, those who can think differently and who can do things differently will be those that make the leap from potential failure to massive success
- people are realizing they can "do" innovation: they're realizing that innovation isn't some dark, mysterious ancient ritual: they're realizing that it simply a mindset that involves constant probing to see how we can fix things, find new things, or transform things: whether those things be business processes, customer service methods, new products, marketing and distribution channel concepts, or just about anything else.
- people know that innovation is driven by extreme velocity: In every industry, the certain minimum expectations which have long existed are now constantly rising. Whether it issues of cost/price, customer service/support, logistics/delivery, brand coolness or new products, the rule is simple: to compete today, you have to keep up with high-velocity change. If you don't innovate to maintain the same velocity as everyone else, you get left behind. It's that simple.
- people know it becomes easier to be innovative if you plug into the global innovation idea loop. Despite all the press foo-fah-rah about Web 2.0 and all that junk, what has happened in the last decade is quite simple: there is now a huge and massive global discussion underway. If you can learn how to tap it, you can discover a wealth of innovative ideas and thinking, new knowledge, wonderful insight and creativity.
- people know that demographic change brings about more innovative thinking: quite simply, as change adverse baby-boomers begin to retire, they are being replaced by change-adept Gen-Connects: individuals who view innovative opportunities in the context of connectivity. They are always asking themselves, how can I do something cool with this business problem if I layer connectivity on top of it? Whether it's supply chain reorganization, collaborative tools or something else, they bring a whole new innovative perspective to the game.
- People are learning that innovation is not a one time thing: when it comes to innovation, the idea of a "suggestion box" is just so "20'th century." There is now an understanding that a company must live a culture of innovation: everyone must be completely and fundamentally focused on the new things we need to do to stay in the game, and excel at what we do.
- People know that innovation has gone mainstream: Everyday people are starting to use the i-word in conversation, and it's becoming natural. Innovation has left the realm of the esoteric, and has become the next natural area of focus in business.
- Management is now focusing on the attributes of an innovation team: agility, insight and execution have become their guiding principles. They know that they must have agility to respond to the rapid change that constant innovation demands; they know they need depth of insight to discover where innovative ideas can work; they know that it isn't just coming up with the ideas, but making them work, that is so critical to their innovation success.
- People are seeking a head start on how to make the leap to innovation: A guy like me, who makes his living helping organizations understand innovation, now finds that 07 is already heavily booked. Management everywhere has put innovation on the agenda for 2007, and they're doing what it takes to get a kick-start on the process.
People have come to realize that being innovative is just plain fun.
That fact, more than anything else, signals that innovation is the word of 2007.
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2007 and beyond: Understanding the velocity of change
It's that time of year when everyone is taking stock of the future -- what's going to happen in 2007? What trends will we see? What big changes will occur?
I'm not thinking much of 2007 -- I'm thinking about 2010, and 2015, and beyond. And one thing I do know is that things will be very, very different that far out.
The best way to understand the future is to understand the velocity of the future -- that is, the rate of change that is occuring. The key point is that we'e now in an extremely high velocity world, as the rate of change is speeding up to an unprecedented degree.
One of the best ways to get a sense of this velocity is by doing a "10 Things Test." Sit in a room, whether you are at work, home, in a factory, retail store or wherever you might be, and take a look around. Compile a list of ten items that you see, and then sit back and ask yourself: "how might these change in the next decade?"
By doing so, you can spot opportunities for innovation: areas where you can apply your creative thinking to do new things; opportunities where you might invest; career paths that you might choose to follow.
I sat this morning in my home office, and here is what I saw:
- Paint. We painted the home office wall this year. My wife did a great job! How will paint change? Actually, it turns out that 'white could be the new green' when it comes to the world of paint. Dulux, one of the world's premiere paint manufacturers, is actively involved in learning how to use starch based plants such as potatoes and wheat to replace upwards of 25% of the petroleum based products used in a typical paint.
- Window shades. Think "smart-glass." Our need for window shades will soon be eclipsed by intelligent glass that will automatically adjust its opacity and transparency for various conditions. Whether it's bright sunlight, a need to better manage heating and cooling costs, or to provide for greater privacy, it's likely that we'll see rapid changes with this basic component of the home and office.
- A Kleenex box. It's not the Kleenex itself which will have changed, but the retail technology which interacts with the box as you worked your way through the store in 2010. The box itself will have developed intelligence; it was busy updating the stores inventory system and revenue sales figures as you walked with it out the door. (You didn't have to go to a check out ; they're so yesterday!)
- Eyeglasses. Sure, they'll still be there. But maybe they will have the ability to link directly to an implant next to the neurons in your retina, providing a direct visual link through the bifocal part of the lens for close up objects. If that's too farfetched, then a more realistic scenario would be genetic alteration of the macular tissue in your eye that would prevent any inflammatory genes from killing your vision cells - thus leading to a reduction in the leading cause of blindness in seniors -- AMD (age-related macular degeneration).
- Ceiling lights. They'll be drawing upon the solar panels on the top of your roof and that of your neighbors. You'll have established a small community energy grid, which bypasses a need to tap into the local electrical network during the days when the sun is ready to rock and the wind is ready to roll. Solar panels are decreasing in cost at a steady pace, just as their efficiency is increasing; the same holds true for wind power. Given the likely increased volatility with traditional energy supplies, we'll see an increasing focus on alternate, micro-grid energy innovations.
- A laptop. What laptop? Your desk is now monitored by a 3D virtual sensor that traces the action of your fingers. You aren't really typing onto a keyboard anymore, since there isn't one. Instead, the ceiling light has directed holographic keyboard onto your desktop; simply simulate typing anywhere with the holographic keys that you see, and your words will appear on screen.
- Orange juice. It will still come from Florida, but it will be packaged in such a way that the shelf life has been dramatically extended. There are huge new innovations within the world of agricultural packaging; for example, some bananas are now shipped with a special membrane that doubles the shelf-life of the product, by regulating the flow of gases through the packaging.
- A telephone. It's likely to be "so yesterday." The next generation of kids is fully immersed in interactive tools; for them, an office with virtual 3D long distance video chat will be as normal as apple pie. Not to forget the technology behind the telephone as well; there's a good chance that you'll be sourcing your communications service from an offshore supplier, perhaps in China, Russia or South Africa. The entire industry will have defragmented and disappeared, as technological change drives many of the current business models into absolute obsolescence.
- Eyedrops. The trend towards hyperconnectivity will impact medical products in a big way. The packaging in which the eyedrops are purchased will "connect" to the global data grid that surrounds us, automatically pulling up a short interactive video on whatever screen that happens to be handy, with instructions on use and precautions. In effect, the role of product packaging will have been transformed from being that of a "container of product" to an intelligent tool that will help us with use of the product.
- The view outside. For more of us, it won't be of office towers and concrete jungles, but rather, our yards, the lake we cottage at, or the beach we play on. Ten years out, the concept of "what do you do for a living" will have changed completely to the idea of "what do you like to do?" as the itinerant career begins to dominate. (It's estimated that in just a few years, some 60% of engineering professionals will be self-employed, providing their skills on a part time basis to the global economy.) You'll be increasingly engaged in active life-design, carving out a series of activities that blend your personal interests with the need to go out and earn some funds. You'll work at a regular series of short term, highly stimulating, frequently changing project assignments. You might not have a job, but you'll certainly have some demand for your time.
Is all of this science fiction? It might seem like it, but most, if not all of the scenarios above are entirely plausible, based on science, technology and trends that exist today.
The challenge in thinking about the future is that it can be difficult to comprehend the sheer velocity by which trends are occurring. That's why the "10 Things Test" can be such a valuable method of putting into perspective the velocity of change.
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Can you run your business at video-game intensity?
Video game business intensity is coming to all industries.
This provides some important food for thought -- can you run your business at the high degree of intensity that occurs within the high-tech gaming (not gambling) industry? Remember -- the key words today are rapid time to market, agility, and execution.
One of the most innovative companies I've met in the last few years is a distributor of computer/console video games - they operate between the video game manufacturers and the retailers. They have one core mission -- they make sure that new games get to the store and to the shelf on time.
The CIO of this organization indicated that 45-60% of the total life revenue stream of a typical video game is made within the first four days of its release.
That's why this company is relentlessly, aggressive focused on operational excellence - their entire culture, information system, management structure and organizational responsibilities are completely focused on this market reality.
Tie this observation into the fact that accelerated innovation and rapid time to market is becoming a key trend in every industry today. With that comes short, sharp shocks of revenue hits, with a good chunk of total lifecycle revenue happening in just a few short days.
That's why to thrive in the high-velocity economy, you've got to think about business intensity, and the concept of short-term, rapid operational and market excellence.
Can you do it? If not, you'd better look at your innovation mindset, and begin to adjust accordingly.
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Lots of people don't understand the massive rate of change which is occurring within every industry, profession, business model and product / service models.
Here's a neat trick -- go dig out your old marketing textbook, and look at the chapter on product lifecycles.
Sit back and think about just how ridiculously old-fashioned such a concept is.
There are no product lifecycles -- there is just 'agility in time to market.'
Do you have that?
Maybe not. That's why I've come to use the word "velocity" to put this into perspective. When thinking about innovation and the future, and your ability to stay ahead of the innovation curve when it comes to what you do, and how you do it, ask yourself these questions:
- do you know the rate of change -- the velocity of change -- that impacts you, your industry, your products?
- are you meeting the requirement for operational excellence that your customers, suppliers, business partners and everyone else expects of you?
- are you properly positioned for velocity, in terms of your agility to do things at the pace required?
- does your culture support high-velocty change, or are you almost keeling over from organizational sclerosis?
- do you have the feedback and innovation mechanisms in place to deal with high-velocity change, and can you learn from them?
- are you planning at the leading edge, or are you still reviewing what you were planning last week?
- are you evolving markets/products at the pace required, or are your customers marching on because you are stuck in a slow time-to-market rut?
- are you at the curve of expectations of customers needs -- do they think you've got the right stuff when it comes to velocity?
- are you anticipating customer solutions before they know they need them?
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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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More coverage, from Communications Engineering magazine, on my SCTE keynote last month.
"If you think your customers are a challenge now, wait until 2010, said futurist and ET keynoter Jim Carroll at Wednesday's opening session.
Tomorrow's customers will be "far more demanding, will expect more from you, will be constantly pushing you, and will have far less loyalty to you as a brand," Carroll predicted.
That's because the customers of 2010 are today's youth - many of whom don't remember film cameras, and who view "television" as video that comes to them in the car, on the laptop, or on the back of the airplane seat.
"By 2020, we'll be witnessing the retirement of the change-averse," Carroll said, referring to baby-boomer and older generations. "What will emerge into purchasing power, and into your customer base, is this generation that thinks differently, is wired differently."
As for products and services, Carroll frequently referenced last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as an example of "furiously rapid rates of change." Product lifecycles, such as those traditionally taught in marketing courses," are fundamentally disappearing," he said.
To compete, cable needs to focus on being agile. "Re-skilling the folks who are instrumental in your architecture is just critical," he said.
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"...the rapid rate of change in cable telecommunications is going from fast to furious ..."
Read the full SCTE press release here
Shortly after my keynote in Tampa today to open the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers Emerging Technologies conference, the SCTE put out this press release:
"Jim Carroll, international futurist, trends, and innovation expert, said the rapid rate of change in cable telecommunications is going from fast to furious in a stirring keynote address today to a sold-out Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Conference on Emerging Technologies® 2006 in Tampa.
Carroll was a perfect fit for the forward-focused ET, with a high-energy speech that entertainingly challenged attendees to embrace constant change and see it as rife with opportunity as opposed to a threat."
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: 800-542-5040
Kimberly Maki, SCTE VP Marketing & Business Development, ext. 221, kmaki@scte.org
Joe Madagan, SCTE Editor Marketing & Communications, ext. 212, jmadagan@scte.org.
Visit SCTE online at www.scte.org.
SCTE ET KEYNOTE CARROLL HAILS COMPELLING CALL TO ACTION
JAN. 11, 2006 (Exton, PA)--Jim Carroll, international futurist, trends, and innovation expert, said the rapid rate of change in cable telecommunications is going from fast to furious in a stirring keynote address today to a sold-out Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) Conference on Emerging Technologies® 2006 in Tampa.
Carroll was a perfect fit for the forward-focused ET, with a high-energy speech that entertainingly challenged attendees to embrace constant change and see it as rife with opportunity as opposed to a threat.
"Furious rates of scientific advance will make the last 10 years of rapid technology development seem like a slow train ride," said Carroll. "Optical researchers are learning how to slow the speed of light to 30 miles a second, in order to develop the next generation of optical router. Next-generation storage companies are dealing with concepts that involve storing three data bits in every single molecule. It's only a matter of time before VoIP is built into every laptop at the chip level. How do we ensure that we've hitched our train to everything that is going on?"
Carroll told the audience that bandwidth demand is set to explode. "With digital cameras having just entered our world, we are already taking 80 billion pictures a year and are sharing them online. Once we all start sharing video, bandwidth will take off in ways that are unimaginable." Carroll challenged the audience members to ask themselves if they are thinking big enough.
"Everyone is focusing on 100 MBPS or 300 MBPS as being the key question for the year 2010," he said. "I think we should be thinking about yottabits and zetabits when it comes to capacity."
Carroll affirmed his audience members for their presence at a conference like ET, which, with its myriad networking opportunities, helps to meet the need to develop what he calls "complexity partners," other companies that are specialists in their particular technical niche of the industry. "No one cable engineer, no one cable company, can possibly do it all," he said.
The keynoter said that new competitors will continue to emerge at a furious pace overnight--and learning to tap into the global innovation mind is critical.
"We are now witnessing a sort of infinite idea loop, in which new ideas, inventions, and innovations occur faster than ever before," he said. "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."
Carroll said that, fueled by the Internet, what took four years to discover in years past can now take about four hours.
Carroll's speech kicked off two full days of ET, which is featuring four hard-hitting sessions focused on what cable's future will look like in three-to-five years.
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The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers is a non-profit professional organization committed to advancing the careers of cable telecommunications professionals and serving the industry through excellence in professional development, information and standards. SCTE currently has more than 15,000 members from the U.S. and 70 countries worldwide and offers a variety of programs and services for the industry's educational benefit. SCTE has more than 70 chapters and meeting groups and has technically certified more than 3,000 employees of the cable telecommunications industry. SCTE is an ANSI-accredited standards development organization. Visit SCTE online at www.scte.org.
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