Keynotes - Trends & innovation expert Jim Carroll

"Recessions provide 'tremendous opportunities"

ENTREPENEURS: Recessions provide 'tremendous opportunities,' trends expert says London Free Press, May 28, 2009

Recession or not, the future belongs to companies willing to adapt to rapid change, Jim Carroll, a trends and innovation expert, said in London yesterday.

Jim Carroll, speaking at the TechAlliance annual meeting yesterday, says smart businesses must look past the recession.

"Recessions provide tremendous opportunities for growth because everyone else is scared to do anything," Carroll said at the annual meeting of TechAlliance.

Carroll, who grew up in London, is an author, columnist and speaker specializing in new trends and technologies affecting the business world.

He said even when the economy is being "pummelled by negativity," smart businesses are looking past the recession for growth opportunities.

"Recessions are cyclical. I've seen this movie before. I know how it ends," he said.

He said at least one billion people in Asia are entering the middle class, providing new markets for agriculture, technology and other sectors.

Carroll said global food production will have to double in the next few decades, boosting opportunities for agricultural areas around London.

He said health care, another major sector in London, would soon undergo a major shift toward preventative care, aided by genetic testing and diagnostics.

"We will know what you are likely to develop in your lifetime and we will treat you before you develop those conditions."

He said medical care will enter an era of "bioconnectivity" in which expensive hospital beds will be replaced by remote technology allowing for care in the community or home.

Carroll said businesses have to adapt to a "high-velocity economy" driven by technological change. He said the shelf life of a digital camera model has shrunk to a few months while most of the sales on a video game are made within the days of release.

Carroll said business is entering an era of "pervasive connectivity" in which all industries will be transformed by smart communications technology."Everything in our lives is plugging into everything else."

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:35 AM...June 4, 2009
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Imagine the hospital of 2020! I certainly can!

I'm at the airport in Austin, Texas, having just delivered the opening keynote for Facilities '09: National Association of Children's Hospitals Design conference.

The room was full of CEO's, board members, architects, and managers responsible for transitioning the physical infrastructure of these facilities into the modern hospital infrastructure of the 21st century.

I've just discovered that someone from NACHRI is live-blogging the event, and they covered my talk. I'll have more to write about this later, but there's a quick summary of the challenges I raised to the crowd here.

Jim Carroll's keynote at NACHRI: So the question becomes: what mindset should we have going forward, and what are we doing for the future?

We need a relentless focus on market growth. There is an unprecedented opportunity for growth through increased efficiencies, cost savings and greening of facilities.
The scope of the problem will drive a lot of innovative thinking, because only innovating thinking can keep pace, or get ahead of, change.
We are reinventing the concept of a hospital. Whe hospital will increasingly become virtual as it extends its reach into everyday life. "The hospital as we know it is coming to an end."
Build up your experiential capital as well as your financial capital. If the world is changing so fast, experience is invaluable in navigating the complicated and ever changing landscape. Be afirmed to try new things.
One of the increasing changes is digital technology moving off the plug and into everyday, everywhere life

"We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the changes that will occur in the next ten years. Don't let yourself be dulled into inaction." -- Bill Gates

You can access the full live blog below.

You can also read where I think we'll be with health care in the future. The key for organizations struggling to get through this economic mess right now is to focus on the huge variety of future trends that will impact you, understand them, and innovate from them!

Think growth!

More information

It's January 15, 2020: Do you know where your health care system is?
Facilities '09: Rethinking the hospital
Live blog updates from Facilities'09:

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:40 PM...May 14, 2009
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Followup to BCAMA conference - Keynote feedback!

Some very nice feedback from my keynote for the BC American Marketing Association Big Ideas conference last week; my theme was "Moving Beyond the Meltdown: Aligning Yourself for Growth Through Innovation."

Susan Kirk blogged about it in her summary, noting:

Futurist Jim Carroll started his presentation with a cool text/sms poll (poll everwhere) asking the audience when they think the economic recovery will happen. No surprise the majority said 1-2 years. He's a great speaker and talked about innovation and the necessity for a relentless focus on growth and continuous improvement. Here's a quote from his website:
"Forget about the concept of innovation as simply involving the design of cool new products. In the high-velocity economy, where faster is the new fast, it's your ability to adapt, change, and evolve, through a constant flood of new ideas, that will define your potential for success." (From the opening chapter of Jim's newest book, Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast) http://www.jimcarroll.com/keynotes.htm

There's a very interesting blog post by Michelle Evans over at her blog, "im.seeking.balance" -- she summarizes the key points of every speaker at the conference in a very comprehensive summary.

Her summary comment from that page on my presentation:

I loved this session. Even thought the key take-aways seem quite simple, it was a very inspiring presentation. It made me feel like I'm on the right track with my goals and philosophies. So here's what I got from this: Now is the time to innovate. Evolve your brand. Move towards mobile. Connect. Engage. Try new things. Keep learning and changing.

It's always tremendously refreshing to see feedback like this; I went out on stage with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm, determined to build a positive message for people who are looking for inspiration in these difficult economic times. With feedback like this -- and with comments made in the #bcama Twitter stream, it proved to be a great success!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:58 AM...May 13, 2009
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"Opportunities 2009" - the workforce of 2020!

I was the opening keynote speaker yesterday for Opportunities 2009, a conference in Ontario, Canada, that was focused on workplace trends to 2015.

The keynote description went like this:

What Comes Next: And What Should We Do About It?
Is there a future out there? Definitely yes, but a constant drumbeat of negative news can cause people and organizations to lose sight of what will happen with careers and jobs in the future. That's where Jim Carroll comes in -- this noted international futurist, trends & innovation expert spends his time with globally innovative leaders. He's gained keen insight into some of the key trends which will impact industries, organizations and careers in the next few years to come, in a wide variety of industries from health care, to technology and manufacturing, to the skilled trades. Jim is a passionate believer in the reality that every career and profession is in the midst of a transition, and that additional, new careers are being born before our very eyes.
Jim Carroll will challenge you to focus on the opportunities of today and tomorrow, rather than the challenges of the past. Jim will provide an outline of how the economy will evolve from this point out -- and how we should be planning and acting in order to innovate in career development ahead of fast-paced events. He'll provide us a look at "what comes next, and what we should do about it."

In the coming weeks and days, I've got a lot to blog about this keynote: I took a good hard look at emerging careers, transitioning careers, and how existing careers are changing as a result of ever-increasing velocity.

The talk was extremely well received -- probably because I focused the 700+ people in the room on the opportunities of the future rather than the current economic muck of today.

What was interesting was that for the first time, one of my keynotes was tweeted from the room - you can read the thread here.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:50 AM...April 28, 2009
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HVAC 2.0 - Thoughts on my Las Vegas keynote

I just came off stage in Las Vegas from an opening keynote for a group of about 500 representatives for Trane / Ingersoll Rand, and their key contractor partners. My keynote was to focus on "7 Things They Should Do Right Now to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast."

Certainly it can be tough in the construction industry right now, and particularly so for contractors. They're witnessing a laundry list of challenges, including:

Project deferment, postponement and cancellation
Prevalence of below-cost bidding
Financing is vanishing
New demands for cost-cutting and project management
A capital spending freeze at many organizations
A looming funding crisis (e.g. university endowment collapse means less college and university construction in the future)

Of course, that's what most people might see if they look at the sector. I look further than the 3 minutes, 3 months or 3 years -- that's what a futurist does. And I see a TREMENDOUS amount of momentum.

First off, there's a lot of fiscal momentum, with the stimulus spending including some:

$6.4 billion for water projects
$50 billion for energy programs (efficiency & renewable energy)
$11 billion on a "smart electrical grid"
$4.5 billion on federal building energy efficiency
$47 billion in state fiscal relief, with permission to use funds for school modernization/repair

All of this will have a direct impact on growth in the industry.

Beyond that though, the future looks tremedously bright for the HVAC industry because of what we might call HVAC 2.0. In a nutshell, the industry is going to play a huge role as we work to fix the big societal problems of energy and the environment.

And that is going to happen with the rapid emergence of highly intelligent building infrastructure; ten years out, most buildings will be smart buildings; the Internet and IP will be the backbone to a system that provides for intelligent energy management, monitoring and usage. Silicon Valley and HVAC are getting married, and the result is going to be remarkable.

The National Institute of Building Sciences comments on the impact of this trend, noting that "...an economic expansion based on emerging green markets would create an estimated 3 million jobs ... and help establish communities with high-performance buildings that are both economically advantageous and environmentally conscious."

The trend is driven by two things that have undeniable monentum: the need for energy savings, and the green building movement. Consider the health care sector. Green specs in health care / hospital building projects has gone from 13.3 percent in 2006, to 37.6 percent in 2007, to an even higher percentage in 2008. There's a bit of pullback in 2009 as projects are deferred, but the increase will continue to come at us with a vengeance.

So as a contractor, how do you innovate? By keeping on top of fast pace trends in your industry in terms of methodology, ideas, technology, new design thinking -- high velocity change!!!!

So what I suggested to them was that, for example, they could get out in front of tenant / building manager needs, with this line of thinking:

when times get tough, quality, service and relationships rule
success is found not by competing on price, but through partnership: ie. 'we've got the latest strategies to help achieve cost savings' (i.e. remote energy management)
key attitude? "we're on top of fast paced developments with building management, so you don't need to!"

I do a tremendous of research when I go in to keynote a group. That's why I've got such a solid, blue chip, global client list. Real innovation takes real thinking, with an alignment of existing and forthcoming trends to innovation opportunities.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:55 PM...April 20, 2009
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The explosion of mobile banking! My upcoming Texas keynote ....

I'm off to Austin, Texas today, where I'll be the closing keynote speaker tomorrow for the annual meeting of the Texas Credit Union League.

My role is to motivate and challenge the audience to continue to focus on applying innovative and creative ideas to their businesses, given that there is constant change within the financial sector. Not just due to the financial crisis, but also due to rapidly shifting consumer behavior, the rapid emergence of new technologies, and the extremely fast development of new business models.

Particularly with the idea of mobile banking!

Take the story of Wizzit (which boasts the slogan, "With Wizzit, you have your bank in your pocket"), based in South Africa. 200,000 South African's have signed up for the service, in which they pay bills, store cash like a debit card, transfer funds, and send remittances. Wizzit is completely text messaging based. Accounts can be opened in 30 seconds via a call center, and are sold via Wizzkids (It's based upon the JetBlue model - with these representatives working at home). Plans are to expand the business model into Eastern Europe, according to Bank Technology News.

Then there is the story of Guaranty Bank in Turkey, which boasts $61 billion in assets. They set up a mobile banking portal -- and in the first two months, saw 1 million page views, 50,000 customers, 30,000 transactions and $24 million in transaction volume.

Today, they've got 1.3 million mobile banking customers, and believe that the service is accessible on 5,100 cellphone models.

Quite clearly, mobile is going to play a huge role in financial services, and it's happening NOW!

On stage, I'll be challenging this group to realize that their future success will come from their ability to respond to rapidly changing products, markets, business models, rapid economic trends, and competitive. In that way, innovation isn't just about new products -- it's about responding to the reality that in every industry, faster is the new fast.

More information

Wizzit Web site
Innovation in the financial sector - related post

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:42 AM...April 16, 2009
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Hunting innovation : I'm keynoting a QSR global leadership conference

There are two types of organizations in the world today: those have retrenched, shut down their idea machines, and are trying to coast through the recession. Then there are those who are making sure that they keep their team focused on the future, opportunities, and the need for innovative thinking.

I've been confirmed to be the opening keynote speaker for next a global leadership/franchise conference for a company in this is industry.

This is really quite an honor, and I think is indicative that my theme that "organizations need to stay on the innovative edge despite the recession" resonates strongly.

Every industry is changing at a furious pace, and the quick service food industry is no exception. We're seeing rapid change in terms of branding and marketing, particularly in terms of outreach and interaction with the new mobile consumer. There's a lot of fast paced change in terms of consumer preferences. If we think about issues of restaurant design and construction, there are fast and furious developments in terms of energy usage and environmental footprint. The list goes on and on - there is no shortage of opportunity for new and innovative thinking.

I'll set the stage by challenging the audience to focus on growth, focus on opportunities, and think about how innovation can become a core component of how they progress into the future.

I wrote about these trends in a previous blog post, High velocity change in the food/consumer products sector.

(p.s. I found the photo on iStockPhoto, and dreamed up the "hunting innovation" title. It seemed kind of fun!)

More information

Read about High velocity change in the food/consumer products sector

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:45 PM...April 8, 2009
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Keynote : Facilities 09: Rethinking the hospital

I've been confirmed as the opening keynote speaker for "Facilities 09", a conference organized by the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions, to be held in Austin, Texas in mid-May.

They're running with my "Moving Beyond the Meltdown: Aligning for Growth Through Innovation" topic. It's another group who finds that in order to move the their association forward, they need to move them beyond their current mindset. They're using the keynote description:

"In the face of widespread economic volatility, organizations have three choices: they can panic, making rash decisions on structure, markets, investments; they can freeze and do nothing; or they can respond to rapid change through innovation, particularly with respect to strategies, structure, capabilities, markets, products, and activities. Jim Carroll, one of the world's leading futurists, trends and innovation experts with clients such as Lincoln Financial, Caterpillar, the Walt Disney Organization and Nestle, will share his insight on the strategies that leading edge organizations are pursuing to stay ahead of the economy."

Look, here's the thing: at some point, whether it's one year, five years, or even ten years, we'll be back into a growth economy. People will be busy rethinking business models ; they will be aggressively transforming business methodologies to achieve cost savings; they'll be partnering in new ways with new partners in order to achieve new goals; they'll be busy implementing a flood of new ideas driven by rapid science.

In terms of the future of health care facility design, there is no shortage of ideas in terms of design momentum: green building concepts, hyperconnected energy management systems, the concept of the virtual hospital with remote patient management, and the need for rapid implementation of new medical treatment capabilities. All of which (and many more) pose the challenge of : how we design in the context of high-velocity change? And how do we get our mindset out of the challenges of the "here-and-now" so that we're focused not just on managing the current challenges, but are fully prepared to attack with zeal the opportunities of the future?

That's the mindset and message that I'll carry into Austin, Texas in two months.

Think growth!

More information

Facilities '09 conference web site
It's January 15, 2020: What Have We Learned About Healthcare in the Last Decade?
Future Medicine: Prescriptions for 21st Century Health Care

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:04 AM...March 24, 2009
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Things You Need to Do Right Now to Focus on the Future!

I've got a tremendous number of keynotes coming up for April through June, ranging from a global leadership meeting for a world QSR company, to meetings with Trane (Ingersoll Rand), Rockwell Collins, the Texas State Credit Union Cooperative, to the National Association of Children's Hospitals (both of the latter events being in Austin, Texas.) Among many others!

I'm also keynoting a group of companies involved in the fast paced senior citizens housing industry. The keynote description just came out in their brochure, and provides a good overview of the types of things I'm focusing on today:

Innovating at high velocity is vital to turning challenge into opportunity. Jim Carroll believes that organizations that focus on staying ahead of fast paced economic trends can "ride this thing out," and can position themselves for growth. It's a fast paced world -- and that's why leading edge organizations are focused on key leadership strategies that provide for a fast paced future.
Innovative organizations succeed by mastering the pace of the new high velocity economy. And in an era of economic challenge, they focus on discovering opportunity! That means learning how to turn ideas into action!
Taking advantage of new continuing care strategies as an opportunity to be pursued rather than a challenge to be overcome. In an era in which boomers will demand more choice in retirement living, customer service strategies become essential, and operational and service excellence become new critical success factors.
As an author, columnist, media commentator, and consultant, Carroll is completely focused on creativity and innovation, insight that is captured in his books, Ready, Set, Done! How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast and What I Learned From Frogs in Texas: Saving Your Skin with Forward Thinking Innovation. In this keynote, noted futurist, trends & innovation expert Jim Carroll will challenge you to focus on the opportunities of today and tomorrow, rather than the challenges of the past. Jim's client list includes the BBC, the Walt Disney Corporation,and Readers Digest Food & Entertainment group, the publisher of Everyday with Rachel Ray.
Jim will bring us customized insight, wisdom, and inspiration to help us achieve breakthrough innovations and absolutely compelling levels of creativity.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:59 AM...March 17, 2009
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Keynote: ".... a whirlwind of a speech...."

Back in November, I had the honor of providing the opening keynote address for the Picture Archive Council of America, at the 13th Annual PACA conference, in November in New York City.

This organization represents stock photographers : the folks who supply the amazing shots and footage used by advertising agencies, publishers, magazines and countless other groups in need of great creative. A vastly diverse group, ranging from global powerhouses like Getty Images and Corbis, to small boutique specialty photographers. They've had a bit of a struggle as of late: advertising is down with the recession; they're impacted by the emergence of new cost competitors; and ongoing challenges with copyright infringement.

I did a tremendous amount of research into their industry, and really walked off stage thinking I hit a home run. That's why it's nice to find this feedback from one of their recent newsletters:

Jim Carroll describes himself as an 'International futurist, trends and innovation expert' (and nice guy) and works with a number of large corporations here in the US and in the UK commenting on media trends and advising organizations on coping with rapid changes in the market place.
He started the session by asking members of the audience NOT to switch off their mobile phones, but to use them to text their responses to an instant SMS poll which was projected onto the screen in real time. The poll covered current issues that might be of most concern to the stock licensing business. However the point of the exercise was not really about the outcome measured onscreen, but more about the current use of interactive technology.
This is the way we can expect to operate in the future: very speedily and using communication methods which might not be familiar to all of us. One statistic, which surprised, was that there are supposedly more text messages sent each day around the globe than the number of people alive. No wonder our childrens’ phone bills are so high.
In a whirlwind of a speech, made while moving constantly around the stage, Jim took us through the 7 key issues he believes we need to focus on to stay not just in the game, but ahead of the pack, at a time when not only is technology moving fast, but product cycles are getting shorter and shorter as customer demands increase.
Jim claims to be hugely optimistic about the state of the world, having witnessed three or four previous recessions. He figures that this one may be over quicker than we might have imagined. That would be nice.
He also pointed out that while ten years ago there might have been a few thousand buyers of images worldwide there are now potentially 3 billion users. So there is cause for us to feel optimistic too. Well, I will—if we can get this great new potential market to understand that images actually belong to creators and that 'copyright' doesn't really mean it's 'right to copy' (editorial aside).
A few observations Jim made which were interesting to hear:

65% of current preschoolers will work in jobs that do not exist today.
Scientific and technical evolution is moving at such a pace that half of what graduate students learn at university in their first year will have changed by the time they graduate.
Product life cycles are being radically shortened.

What do innovators need to do to stay ahead of fast-paced events? Jim gave us 7 (actually 8) ideas which we need to consider in order to meet the challenge of the future:

Focus on growth and opportunity: Listen to your customers and respond to what they want
Think Transformation: New business models, democratization of stock, new concepts, review trends in lifestyles
Check your speed: Am I operating at the speed of the market?
Immerse in fast ideas: Challenge the fundamental thinking that slows you down
Think upside-down: Get the assortment right, configure the merchandise, then market it
Get out in front: Value your quality relationships and work with your clients.
Focus on your strengths: Be a Master of Knowledge. Experiential capital is as important as financial capital

And BANISH the innovation killers in your company who tell you it can never be done, it won't work, and you are crazy.

Noted the executive director of PACA in a followup message: "Thanks so much for an excellent presentation! We are already talking about having you return in a couple of years to re-access what has happened in our industry....... I'm happy to give a rave review to anyone who is considering your services."

Think opportunity. Think growth!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:32 AM...March 11, 2009
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The insurance industry in 2015

Back in January of this year, I was invited to address a meeting of insurance executives on behalf of a global consulting company. It was a small but powerful group; in the room were Chief Operating Officers and Chief Information Officers for some of the world's largest property and casualty insurance companies. (The client that booked me prefers to remain anonymous.)

I was asked to provide my views on the challenges and opportunities that the property & casualty insurance industry might face in 2015. These included a number of issues:

unavailability of niche skills due to increased underwriting complexity. Quite simply, faster change and faster science is leading to unique issues in assessing insurance risk, with the result that skills become far more specialized and unique.
the likely emergence of "social financial widgets" - this is the focus of an upcoming column for one of the publications I write for. Take a look at BestBuy's Remix project, which allows developers to write code that interacts with the online catalog of BestBuy. Extend that thinking to the insurance in the future: the next generation insurance agent will write their own widgets that allow for the quoting, sale and binding coverage of a policy, within their own social-Website page.
the implications of pervasive connectivity upon the insurance marketplace. We're entering the era of smart highway infrastructure, and automobiles that increasingly take over responsibility for navigation. What happens with insurance risk as this occurs?
the impact of computational analytics on risk assessment ; quite simply, we're witnessing the emergence of highly sophisticated analytical programs that can undertake entirely new ways of assessing claims fraud.
the impact of location intelligence and the re-engineering of the underwriting process. I often tell the story of how how some leading edge insurance executives realize that there is an opportunity to link spatial, i.e. Google Maps information, to public databases on crime, education, accidents, health care, income and other factors, in order to come up with new ways of assessing insurance risk.
velocity of brand relevance: any brand today, including insurance products, must be seen to be fresh, up to date, and with the times. The next generation of customer are going to demand insurance products that are interactive, constantly changing to meet new needs, and which keep up to date with fast social and technological change.

We had a wide ranging discussion about opportunities for innovation in the industry, and explored a variety of ideas for distribution channel, underwriting, claims and product innovation. All in all, it was a wonderful event with a lot of unique insight.

Right now, of course, most insurance companies are in a "lock down" mode as they navigate the global recession : but savvy insurance executives know that they need to be planning for these and other key trends soon.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:37 AM...March 3, 2009
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Keynote summary: "Organizations only succeed by risking failure."

I was the opening keynote speaker for CropLife Canada back in December; this article just came in, summarizing my keynote:

Jim Carroll's keynote address on innovation - while offering solid advice for rising above the current economic maelstrom - contained some immutable truths: baby boomers in business could learn a lot from the 'wired generation' who have grown up with computer gear virtually fused to their bodies. Representing more than mere gadgetry, this technological panoply is in fact symbolic of an attitude which unselfconsciously embraces change, promotes exploration and engenders innovation in all possible forms.
The simple, demographic reality, Jim Carroll declared, is that the post-baby boomers "are the folks who are going to play the primary role in moving agriculture forward into the future. This wired generation is taking the reins of power. They inhale change. They breathe by technology." Agri-business can take a cue from their curiosity and fearlessness by scrutinizing existing corporate notions of innovation, intensifying focus and taking deliberate action.
Jim's observations as a trend-spotter lead him to state that the economy, by nature, is volatile. It is transitional. Periods of economic crisis have occurred time and again; as such, there is no need for panic, pessimism or what he terms 'aggressive indecision'.
"My challenge to you is: when do you start to innovate? Are you going to wait until we're out of this thing? What innovation leaders do is to decide, 'Okay, we're in a period of uncertainty, a rough time… but we're not going to be innovation laggers. We are going to focus on innovation as a core strategy right now.'"
The familiar phrase 'rapid change' scarcely hints at today's rate of change in the marketplace, with emergence of new business, new competitors and ever-expanding consumer choice. Highly accelerated changes in the business arena now call for split-second response, so the all-important question is, 'How do we become a high-velocity organization?'
"We're in an era of instant obsolescence," said Jim, citing media mogul Rupert Murdoch's avowal that with the world evolving so rapidly, it isn't necessarily the big organizations that are going to control the future. "It's the fast organizations, the agile organizations - the organizations that can change quickly who will have a leg up. Fast beats big anytime."
Stay focused on opportunity. Set bold short-term goals. Commit immediately to three new ideas. Jim urged his audience to reframe the concept of innovation itself by turning fundamental concepts upside down. "Innovators get ahead by looking at the world around them and realizing there is an absolute ﬂood of new ideas and new ways of doing things. "
'Think about our world today compared to ten years ago. Ten years ago, the pace of scientific advance was really, really slow. But compare it to today. Everybody's plugged in; we're all plugged into this global idea machine. What that's doing is speeding up fundamental science on an exponential basis. So structure for velocity, focus on faster knowledge deployment and partner up to better adapt to what's coming. Think big by focusing on growth. You have to try to do things you haven't done before. Innovation is all about risk."

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:10 PM...March 2, 2009
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Economic keynotes: "7 Things You Need to Do Right Now."

I was in Louisville, Kentucky yesterday, as the closing speaker for the annual conference of the American Nursery and Landscape Association, This was a repeat booking; they had me in for a management clinic in Vail in 2006. I posted a blog entry, found below, on trends impacting commercial horticulture.

This time, I mostly focused on innovation strategies in a challenged economy. The keynote description pretty well captured the essence of my talk.

They are, in and of themselves, a very fascinating and innovative group. There is a lot of information sharing within the industry on issues of store layout and design ; what works in terms of new products and lines; partnership strategies that can help improve yield within the nursery. And they've certainly seen a lot of the economic damage that has occurred through the last year. But overall, I found an upbeat, eager-to-keep-focused-on-the-future crowd.

And I was thrilled to have so many nice comments from people on my talk -- as we all seemed to end up in the airport departing together!

Here's the keynote description from the conference brochure:

7 Things You Need to Do Right Now to Focus on the Future!

Innovating at high velocity is vital to turning challenge into opportunity. Jim Carroll believes that organizations that focus on staying ahead of fast paced economic trends can "ride this thing out," and can position themselves for growth. It's a fast paced world -- and that's why leading edge organizations are focused on key leadership strategies that provide for a fast paced future.
Innovative organizations succeed by mastering the pace of the new high velocity economy. And in an era of economic challenge, they focus on discovering opportunity!
Customer retention strategies become essential, and operational and service excellence is the way to firm up revenue relationships. Watching for, and adapting to, fast-paced consumer trends is critical in order to discover fast moving retail opportunities. Aligning staff towards a common goal of collaboration and insight becomes a key method of keeping in touch with the pulse of the customer base.
In this closing keynote, noted futurist, trends & innovation expert Jim Carroll will challenge you to focus on the opportunities of today and tomorrow, rather than the challenges of the past. Jim will provide an outline of how the economy will evolve from this point out -- and how we should be planning and acting in order to innovate ahead of fast-paced events. He'll provide us a look at "what comes next, and what we should do about it."
Jim's client list includes the BBC, the Walt Disney Corporation, and Readers Digest Food & Entertainment group, the publisher of Everyday with Rachel Ray.

More information:

2006 posting Trends Shaping the Future of Commercial Horticulture

Read 7 Things to Do Right Now as the Upturn Begins

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:10 AM...February 10, 2009
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Innovating in the springtime, outdoors, in the sunshine!

In the last week, Europe has suffered through a dreadful cold spell. A huge polar arctic air mass is coming into North America next week. It could very well likely snow in Washington on or around Inauguration day.

My family and I ski every weekend, and I love the cold.

There are many others who don't. And this cold winter, combined with dark economic clouds, provides people with a degree of gloom.

That's why innovation and thinking about future trends is important! And always after winter, there's a springtime!

I'm thrilled that I've been confirmed to be the closing keynote speaker for the American Nursery and Landscape Association annual conference, aka as the 2009 Management Clinic.

The cool thing is that this is a repeat booking; this organization had me in for another event in 2006 in Vail. It's always a thrill to know that you've had such an impact on people that they bring you back for more.

My focus for this closing keynote is how to go forward; innovate; adapt; find new opportunity; and get in the right frame of mind to succeed in tumultuous times.

As spring comes along, people will find solace in the warmth and comfort of the sun. They'll visit their local garden store, and will gaze at their backyard and think about whether some work needs to be done. They might not spend as much as in prior years, and their purchasing patterns will be different. But they will be there, and the key to capitalizing upon this will be to understand the new emerging consumer mindset as it might exist this spring. I'm starting to do some detailed research on that trend now (as I do for every event I go into) and by early February should have a good handle on what comes next in this sector.

Think GROWTH!

More information:

Read the 2009 ANLA Management Clinic

2006 posting Trends Shaping the Future of Commercial Horticulture

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:56 AM...January 9, 2009
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Think growth! Getting ahead of the economy ...

It's 2009, and it looks like I'll be quite busy with a number of organizations who are focused on innovating their way into the future.

A few of the upcoming presentations include:

the College Board -- the organization that runs the SAT education testing system among other things. This will involve a keynote for a select audience of 250, including Chancellors, Presidents, and senior admission officers for the largest colleges and universities in the US, including Duke, Cambridge, Harvard, Vanderbilt and the University of Texas, among others.
a global leadership meeting for Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut) ; I'll be providing an opening keynote on the necessity for innovation and creative approaches to branding, marketing, retail design, food and consumer trends, among other issues
a CEO-level strategy session for one of the world's leading education publishing companies.
a keynote for the the annual conference of the Texas Credit Union League, on innovation strategies in the financial sector (yes, such strategies still exist!)
a keynote for a chapter of the American Marketing Association, examining fast paced branding and consumer change
the closing keynote -- and a second booking by -- the American Nursery & Landscape Association, on growth strategies and opportunities
a strategy session on behalf of a global consulting firm for leadership from the world's largest insurance companies

What's common here is that all of these organizations are in a mindset that despite the vast economic challenges that have occurred, it is critical that they go into 2009 with a mindset that is focused on the opportunities of the future, rather than the challenges of the past.

Here's a quote to carry you into the year: Steve Jobs once commented, "If you look backward in this business, you’ll be crushed. You have to look forward.”

Think growth.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:03 AM...January 5, 2009
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Think growth! We get mail.....

I often get mail after speaking on stage to a group of people, or after hosting a small leadership meeting.

Here's one that just came in...

As one of the behind-the-scenes people working at the conference....I was asked to pass along my feedback/reaction to your presentation. In fact, as part of my responsibilities, I edit/rewrite the speaker biographies and, after the conference, write summaries of the presentations Croplife to post on their website -- so you'll be seeing the results once I've gotten the transcripts from the production company that tapes the speeches.
In the meantime, some immediate feedback: your delivery was energetic and the subject treatment both thorough and fascinating; I especially liked your accompanying photos -- I found some images really stayed with me, such as the photo of the person sitting on a chair in a field, looking out across the landscape, wide blue sky, big clouds, etc. and the graphic image of a person in silhouette stepping from a darkened space across a doorway into the light. Great choice of images that carried a lot of meaning!
I can tell you that from where I sat, your presentation really seized the attention of everyone around me.
Congratulations on an excellent keynote -- considering the spin-off effect that's already occurred, it seems you're 'trending' ever upward for 2009!

That made my day! Think growth!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:42 AM...December 18, 2008
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The plan for 2009? Think growth!

I'm keynoting a lunch tomorrow for a group of about 400 medical professionals. Their executive director saw me keynote a national conference of association executives two months ago.

That particular keynote was on a Friday in late September -- and the executives in the audience had just been pounded by a week of bad economic news. Since then, the drumbeat of negativity has become only more intense.

I got up that morning two months ago, took a look at the news headlines, and went out and did a barnburner of a speech for an audience of 500+, on the theme, "where's the growth, and how do we innovate for the future?" I was hugely upbeat, carried a positive message, and spoke to the audience at a very personal level about the necessity of having a strong personal compass to get through "this thing." I remember coming off stage, and thinking to myself, "wow, that was one helluva talk." As someone who earns a living on stage, you constantly self-assess as to how you've done.

I guess it did really strike a chord, since I'm still getting phone calls from folks who were in the room. So are the speakers bureaus who regularly book me into association events. The talk touched a lot of lives; it gave people an insight into the future that is all too easy to forget in this period of rapid global change.

People are hungering for a message of hope. Tomorrow, in my luncheon keynote, I'll take a good serious look at the current economic pain, but will also challenge the audience to think about the real, long term, substantive trends which provide an opportunity for future growth. A part of my talk is built on my "Where's the Growth?" document, originally released in February 2008. I just re-read the report, and can't think of where any of the fundamental assumptions are incorrect, except for one on "infrastructure." Maybe a company like Caterpillar might not see 30% growth because of overseas infrastructure spending.

But on the other hand, maybe they will! What is becoming increasingly apparent from the new US administration is that infrastructure spending is likely to be one of the key spending priorities to get the economy out of the funk and back into the future. That seems to be the approach of many governments worldwide. And hey, I had a post a few months ago, "Infrastructure is the new plastic." Although the essence of the post might seem a bit jaded given the current spending pullback, put the post into a 5 to 20 year perspective, and it is probably still bang on.

So for tomorrow and 2009, the key message?

Despite the challenges that you might find yourself in : THINK GROWTH!

My keynote tomorrow is titled, "Think Growth! The Good News for 2009"

Despite the relentless news headlines, there are many people out there who have an open mind about the future, and are actively innovating and thinking about how to capitalize upon it. I'm thrilled to be able to help them out.

More information:

Read Where's the growth : global innovation opportunities for the long term
Read Infrastructure is the new plastic
Read 7 Things to Do Right Now as the Upturn Begins

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:03 PM...December 4, 2008
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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.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:41 PM...November 20, 2008
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Moving beyond the meltdown - linking opportunity to innovation

Here's a brief clip from a recent event in New York City; I focused on the need to have a forward-oriented strategy given the recent economic events.

Frame of mind -- and the tone set by senior management -- is a critical factor right now. I wrote about this in Ready, Set, Done, in a chapter titled "Key success factors for innovative organizations."

The first point I made is that innovative organizations have a growth orientation. Quoting from the book:

Growth orientation. They've managed to instill a culture that has everyone thinking about what can be done - they are forward oriented. It's a culture in which people are thinking less about the problems that have occurred, and more about the cool strategies that could be pursued. They don’t run 'change-management workshops': they have strategic sessions on 'growing the business.' It’s not an easy task, but innovative organizations have managed to get their people away from 'right now' to 'our next step'.

They are focused on the opportunities of the future, not the challenges of the past. They are ready to pursue transformative change, built on top of a share vision. They are not busy examining what went wrong and why it happened -- they've already moved on to the next step.

They've moved beyond the "anger and denial" stage of economic grief, and are already busy, focused on innovation and the next steps!

More information:

Grab a copy of Ready, Set Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast

Where are you on the "Seven Stages of Economic Grief?"

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:25 AM...November 5, 2008
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Moving Beyond the Meltdown: Aligning Yourself for Growth Through Innovation

If you study the screen carefully to the right, you'll note that the current slide from my deck states, "Time to market and corporate agility are the new corporate capabilities." In other words, it's your ability to keep an innovation-oriented focus in order to deal with the new challenges that surround you, that will define how well you will get through.

I've had a few recent keynotes that have built on this theme, using the title, "Moving Beyond the Meltdown: Aligning Yourself for Growth Through Innovation." Here's the session description that has been put together:

In the face of widespread economic volatility, organizations have three essential choices: they can panic, making rash decisions on structure, markets, investments; they can freeze and do nothing; or they can respond to rapid change through innovation, particularly with respect to strategies, structure, capabilities, markets, products, and activities.
Jim Carroll, one of the world's leading futurists, trends & innovation experts with clients such as Lincoln Financial, Caterpillar, the Walt Disney Organization and Nestle, shares his insight on the strategies that leading edge organizations are pursuing to stay ahead of the economy.
It's timely and critical insight! Many CEO's and senior executives understand that in addition to managing existing challenges, now is the time to focus on trends and the future. They know that they need to act quickly to establish an innovative mindset to get there intact. Jim provides his unique insight on staying ahead in volatile times, through his signature keynote addresses, after-dinner talks, discussions at small intimate management/Board meetings, or by speaking and participating in senior management and leadership meetings.

It's obvious there are quite a few CEO's and senior management groups who are organizing meetings quite quickly, so that they can share strategy, insight, and concepts on managing their way through the correction. I'm finding it fascinating to be on the receiving end of so many inquiries to participate; obviously, my message is striking a chord.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:13 AM...October 31, 2008
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What the CEO's are saying: "Six things we need to do"

If you want to understand what you should be doing right now, you keep your ears close to the ground, and listen to what others are talking about.

I've had a huge number of events in the last two months, since the economic contraction began. All of my keynotes and leadership sessions have focused on strategies to "stay out in front of this thing." I'm also quite often working with senior management, and get direct insight into what the CEO's are thinking. Here's what one CEO stated as the most important priorities through the next year, given the economic challenges:

staff development and retention: keep the key staff engaged, innovative, and focused on the business.
change leadership: many of my keynotes use a phrase from Rupert Murdoch: "The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow." That's particularly true now: organizations must "check their speed" and be able to evolve strategy, ideas, product and service very fast to keep up. back of the house is critical. In other words, IT is going to help to see us through. We need deep insight into the business; we need to focus on the cost efficiencies it can bring. We have a plan of investment, and we're not backing off now -- it's critical
client retention: absolutely critical. Obsess over the quality of client relationships. This is so important, I've got a separate blog entry on it.
"make plan" -- we have a budget -- we need to meet it. We need to relentlessly focus on closing deals. We've got to be a partner to our customers; they are looking for comfort, and we can provide that to them. If it means we share the risk with them, we do that too.
have fun: wellness, mental and otherwise, is going to be critical to everyone in the organization in getting through these times. Let's focus as a team, have fun, and move forward!

That is a good concise overview of what one CEO is telling his leadership team to concentrate on. There are some powerful lessons here. And it's insight like this that I'm sharing to inspire and encourage others to innovate at the pace required to stay ahead of fast paced economic change.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:36 AM...October 28, 2008
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The economy -- what I'm seeing happen RIGHT NOW

This is quite unreal.

A month ago, I faced a very busy September and early October, and was out on the road keynoting a wide variety of events - a leadership event for a global law firm; an economic development conference; a symposium on consumer trends; a commercial real estate conference; a leadership session for a major bank and another for a telecom company; an event for a life insurance company; a meeting of pharmaceutical marketing executives; a food services company; a tourism conference; and many others -- all as the economic twists and turns evolved at a furious pace. Tomorrow, I'm off to New York to open a conference for professionals in the field of photography. More on that later.

All of these talks were immediately recast on the spot, to provide an outline of how the economy was going to evolve from this point out -- and how executives within these organizations should be thinking about the future in order to innovate ahead of fast-paced events.

The message has resonated in a huge way -- right now, people are clamoring for insight into the idea of "what comes next, and what should we do about it?" I have been stunned by the discussions post-presentation; I think the message of opportunity, and the necessity to quickly get beyond our economic shock and do things, is resonating in a huge way.

Having said that, my original suspicion during the last month of travels was that I was likely to see a slowdown in my own business, as organizations reacted and retrenched in light of the obvious recession around us.

I can now say that my suspicions were quite incorrect. In the last few weeks, I have seen a substantial - and I mean substantial -- number of queries for events, and a significant increase is confirmed bookings, from organizations who have decided that now is the time to focus on trends and the future, and to focus on how to establish an innovative mindset to get there intact.

There are several sources of new business:

CEO's running a leadership session, previously planned or just now being scheduled, and who now realize that they need an expert who can focus on "what's really going on with the global economy, and what do we need to do to stay out in front."
association executives who understand that in 2009, their members need a message of hope and inspiration, with specific, real, concrete guidance on how they can innovate their way out of this thing, and stay ahead of fast paced events
mid-level managers who understand that now is a critical time to change the capabilities, agility, culture, and attitude of their team in order to maintain customer service excellence, customer retention levels, and other critical measures of success.
marketing executives who realize that it is actually a good time to get in front of their customers with a clear, unequivocal message about their value, and how they can assist their customers as a partner.

The list goes on. Suffice it to say, I think this recession is going to be different from all others. The tag line for my Ready, Set, Done book was "how to innovate when faster is the new fast." I think that's why!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:58 PM...October 23, 2008
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How do you innovate in a volatile economy?

When the Readers Digest Food & Entertainment Division, based in New York, went looking for a keynote speaker on marketing and advertising trends within the consumer goods sector, they went with Jim Carroll.

In an event co-sponsored with Advertising Age, the publisher of such innovative titles as Everyday with Rachel Ray wanted to provide a concise, inspirational but challenging overview of the trends impacting innovation, marketing and advertising within the food sector ... and decided that Jim's message on how to innovate at high-velocity was the ideal fit for their symposium.

Ironically, the event fell smack-dab in the middle of one of the wildest economic corrections that we've ever seen, and much of the discussion through the day focused on how to innovate in a fast-paced, ever more challenging economic environment.

I outlined how innovation-oriented organizations will use the economic challenges as an opportunity -- they'll examine the emergence of fast-paced trends, and will adjust their actions, products, services, and brand message accordingly.

Consider a few of the trends we're already seeing:

The food consumer is now shifting their focus -- 71% of consumers are choosing to prepare meals at home instead of eating out as a result of the economic correction, Restaurant trips have decreased from 1.5 times a week in 2006, to 1.2 times today. (Food Marketing Institute US Grocery Shopper Trends 2008). There's a big opportunity to rapidly shift to in-house meals, from a branding and comfort perspective.
Chef Katie-Lee Joel, who also spoke at the event (she's the author of the book The Comfort Table and a Top Chef judge on TV), affirmed this point, speaking of the trend in which "comfort food" -- feel-good food -- will once again take priority as people adjust their spending.
other trends will pick up steam as people think more about their food consumption habits. For example, the trend to "local food" will pick up steam with the recession -- people will want to feel responsible when it comes to food choice and the environmental footprint related to particular food. A study in Australia found that the typical shopping basket of 29 supermarket food items had travelled an astounding 70,803kms! An unbelievable number that certainly causes a pause for thought!

The key issue -- organizations must have the capability to understand how their markets are changing quickly with the recession; how consumer choice is changing; and how their advertising, branding and marketing activities will need to change. It's something I call corporate agility -- it's been covered extensively in this blog, and in my Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast book.

It's a critical concept to think about during these times.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:12 AM...October 15, 2008
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Thinking innovation: The Challenge for Education in the High Velocity World

I'm thrilled to learn that I've been selected as the opening day speaker for the College Board -- and specifically, a chance to speak with some of the leading minds in the university and college scene in the US on the issue of the future of education.

The audience for this invitation only event, to be held in January 2009, includes the Chancellors, Presidents, and senior admission officers for the largest colleges and universities in the US, including Duke, Cambridge, Harvard, Vanderbilt and the University of Texas, among others.

The group gets together annually to examine the challenges and opportunities facing higher education. This year, they determined that it was a good time to take a good, hard look at the education trends that will impact them in the future.

That's where I come in. My session description, recently written, addresses these issues:

The "velocity" of knowledge is leading us to a world of "just-in-time knowledge"; the result being the reality that the relationship between educational institutions and students is set to change; primarily, from a period of short term, concentrated knowledge delivery, to one more related to the lifelong, ongoing replenishment and rejuvenation of knowledge.
The challenge for institutions of higher learning is how to change their ingrained thinking, behavior, structure --and outcomes -- to adapt to this reality.
What's driving the future of education? At a fundamental level, ever more rapid scientific discovery; knowledge fragmentation due to rapid knowledge growth; massive skills specialization and ever more narrow career niches. Knowledge and careers are also being impacted by rapidly changing business models; increased volatility in industry; shortened careers (imagine 18-month micro careers); rapid emergence of new industries; more rapid knowledge obsolescence; and the rapid emergence of new careers.

In the last fifteen years, I've spoken to numerous groups on global education trends. Given that what we do in this area makes or breaks the future success of a nation, it's a critically important issue -- and I am honored that I will be able to share my thoughts with such a senior group of leaders.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:11 AM...October 6, 2008
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Freeze, innovate or panic? Innovation strategies for RIGHT NOW

Given the rapid pace of global economic developments, organizations are faced with a pretty stark choice.

The CEO of a company that is having me speak to an upcoming leadership meeting stated it this way: their choice going forward is to :

Freeze: do nothing
Innovate: respond to rapid market change through innovation, particularly with respect to strategies, struture, capabilities, markets, products, activities
Panic: make rash decisions on structure, markets, investments.

The last choice might seem to be the only response given the velocity of events as they occur, and it will be an unfortunate reality for some as the credit crunch hits.

But for others, panic will truly get you nowhere. And inaction - option 1 -- is not a good choice, because markets, customers behavior, cost inputs and just about everything else will change even faster now, and so you need to change faster.

Option 2 -- continuous innovation -- remains the only thing to focus on. Maybe that's why my phone has been quite busy in the last two weeks. There have already been several confirmed new events in October and November, where I will be coming into a corporate leadership meeting as part of an overall objective of keeping a company ahead in the game.

CEO's and executive staff are working hard to align their current strategies with fast paced economic events. I'm providing grist for the grill, with specific insight on how they might innovate within their particularly industry.

It's interesting that a lot of senior executives are all of a sudden looking for someone to bring their team this type of unique motivational innovation message. Two weeks ago, I helped to clarify for a commercial real estate / building management company leadership group where they could continue to find market opportunity right now, and how they needed to ensure they focus on enhancing existing customer/client relationships as a key strategy for going forward. We defined some strategies that they had not thought of; their team was inspired on focusing on opportunity rather than market upheaval, by thinking differently about what they do.

So what should you be doing from an innovation perspective?

I'll starting putting up quite a few new blog posts starting next week, summarizing the many methods to innovate, particularly through any economic correction or downturn. I'm going to call the series "100 Days of Innovation," and while I won't post each and every day, I do aim to have one hundred concise, succinct posts full of unique innovation insight.

In the meantime, if you need a high level, energetic message to get your leadership in the right frame of mind to deal with high-velocity economic change, call me. The details are on my contact page.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:35 PM...October 1, 2008
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High velocity change in the food/consumer products sector

I'm in Manhattan tomorrow, speaking at an event for food, advertising and packaging companies on behalf of Readers Digest Food & Entertaining Division.

I'll be offering a late morning wrap up of observations about the high-velocity change that continues to envelop the sector, particularly the following trends. Dig through the blog -- particularly, the retail or consumer product categories -- and you'll find a little bit more insight about each of them.

the new consumer is faster -- and innovation isn't just about new product design -- it's about reaching and interacting with the consumer in new and different ways
the new consumer is connected -- and interactivity is the new brand foundation
the new consumer is no longer nuclear -- and hyper-nicheing is the new brand reality
the new consumer is influenced differently -- and social-networks are the new brand influencers
the new consumer is shifting their focus faster -- and faster paced preference change is the new reality
the new product is rapidly re-defined -- and time to market and corporate agility are the new corporate capabilities
the new product is up-side down as innovation changes -- and partnership is the key method to speed things up

Here's one of the statistics in my deck -- 71% of consumers are choosing to prepare meals at home rather than eating out; restaurant trips have declined from 1.5 times a week in 2006 to 1.2 times today.

These statistics, from the Food Marketing 2008 US Grocery Shopper Trends report, came out before the economic challenges of mid-September and the problems on Wall Street.

One of my key messages is that we live in a time when "volatility is the new normal" -- a mantra I've been using for years -- and food companies must learn to innovate faster to capitalize on such fast moving trends.

We'll probably see this particular trend pick up steam -- and there's opportunity for new advertising messages, branding campaigns, not to mention new product offerings!

Faster is the new fast!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:13 PM...September 23, 2008
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Reaching the new travel consumer

I'm off to keynote Tourism Alberta -- and will speak to some 200+ tourism marketing professionals on trends within the sector.

Alberta, located in Canada, has an extremely hot economy -- globally, it stands as the home of the 2nd largest provable oil reserves in the world, just after Saudi Arabia. Most of this is tied up in the 'tar sands,' which costs quite a bit more than traditional oil reserves to bring to market. Hence,there is a flood of infrastructure investment and other spending going on.

Needless to say, even thought it's a hot economy, the economic 'correction' (and certainly volatility in the price of oil), as well as other issues, is providing for a bit of a challenge in the tourism sector.

What am I doing at the conference? Notes the brochure: " Jim will speak to the fact that travel product innovations occur today at such a pace that simply keeping up can be a challenge. A furious pace of technological innovation continues unabated, with the rapid emergence of new technologies that change the way the travel consumer plans theirtravels. The Web continues to make massive inroads into tourism planning and business model change. It's a fast paced world -- and that's whyleading edge organizations are focused on staying ahead of the trends that are impacting the high-velocity economy of today. Join international futurist, trends and innovation expert Jim Carroll as he puts into perspective how the world of tourism is changing -- and how organizations are innovating in order to keep up with it!"

What I am talking about? Quite a few trends:

the new tourist is faster: 1/3 of all leisure travel is now last minute, and the average time for planning a trip is down to 15 days
the new tourist is connected: 86% of all North American's now travel with a cell phone. They have expectations of finding data-heavy local tourism portals when they walk off a cruise ship looking for something to do.
the new tourist is influenced differently: 79% of travelers trust reviews by other tourists over advertisements. Social network tourism sites and stalwarts like TripAdvisor continue to have the biggest impact on tourism decisions.
the new tourism family is no longer nuclear: A grab bag of observations ... only 1 in 4 of the population live in heterosexual, two-parent families .... .one in three people now live alone ......urban Americans remain single for more than half of their adult lives, a radical shift...
the new tourism product is faster to market: WhereI'veBeen started as a Facebook application that allowed people to post where they've travelled to. It exploded to 2 million users in a matter of weeks.
the new tourism product is being rapidly redefined: Online tourist mashups that allow people to combine online maps with travel schedules, destination information, and social networks are redefining the concept of trip planning.
the new tourism marketing is viral: Budget Rent A Car, Southwest Airlines and Sheraton Hotels are examples of 3 companies that are using blogs and Internet video to establish leading edge marketing campaigns.
the new tourist is, well, different a grab bag of trends: we're seeing a lot more shorter term "pressure relievers," themed holidays, adventure, health or well-being vacations, "authenticity" as a new trend, and the "unplugged" vacation. Not to mention an "old" trend from 2007 which involves "debaucherism" as the new travel trend.

My key message? As a tourism marketing professional, you must keep ahead of these trends....build your experiential capital by working with new methods of reaching the market ..... understand that the market is becoming faster, more global, and more challenging.

Bottom line -- innovate!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:43 PM...September 10, 2008
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Keynote: Financial management and high velocity healthcare

I provided the opening keynote yesterday for over 275 CFO's of the Ontario Hospital Association. Collectively, they manage over $15 billion in spending.

My topic was Innovating for Our Future Health: The Strategic Role of Financial Leadership in our Hospitals. The subtext: "A look at the new strategic role that financial professionals must play as health care comes to dominate overall GDP spending. Innovation is no longer just a fashionable phrase -- it's the new leadership focus for executives in the health care sector".

Every keynote carries one core theme, and the message of the day was: "as high velocity change envelopes the health care sector, you must transition from a tactical to a strategic role, to provide the analysis, insight, reporting, decision support tools and financial infrastructure that can help hospital leadership make ever more complex decisions."

A few of the key themes that we explored:

rapid scientific advance is resulting in a flood of new treatments, diagnostic tools, methodologies, pharmaceuticals, and bio-materials. There is an increased need for careful, diligent cost benefit analysis to stay at the leading, but practical, edge
simple demographics suggest that the elusive EHR (electronic health record), which has not yet been quite successful, will emerge as Gen-Connnect comes to increasingly dominate the medical workforce
business model change is coming -- and fast -- as retail environments come to dominate the medical space. A recent Healthcare Financial Management magazine article, in a reader survey, of the "most important people in healthcare", ranked Steve Case first, and Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, second. Steve is involved in several initiatives which involve the opening of retail "health care stores". The survey shows that transformative, IT driven change will continue to have profound impacts in the health care sector.
patient empowerment is leading to faster demand for cutting edge medical services, which increases the complexity of the careful balancing game underway in most hospitals
there continues to be huge opportunity with tech in the sector; it's estimated that one medication mistake can cost a hospital upwards of $2,000 -- and Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital reduced error rates by 55% over an eight month period using computerized order entry

There were a lot of other issues that were explored: but bottom line, in the high velocity economy, the role of the CFO in the hospital is set to undergo a significant tactical-to-strategic transition : one that involves in helping to balance and manage high velocity change!

More information

read Future Medicine: Prescriptions for 21st Century Health Care

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:10 AM...September 9, 2008
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A truly staggering, transformative trend yet to unfold

It's been announced that I will be a keynote speaker at the World HealthCare Innovation & Technology Conference, to be held in Washington, DC in December. In particular, I'll be taking a look at the importance of one of the most significant trends that is just starting to unfold.

Twenty years from now, most people will look back and realize that right about now, we had three huge, transformative trends underway: device connectivity, geo-connectivity, and bio-connectivity

Essentially, everything around is about to become linked in -- every device that surrounds your life. My home thermostat is linked to the Internet, and that has changed the scope of how I interact with energy.

Layered on top of device connectivity is spatial intelligence for each device -- vis-a-vis Google Maps types of applications. Think about new forms of energy management built upon sophisticated geographic mapping applications.

Add to this the fact that this type of technology will migrate to devices that will help us better manage complex health circumstances.

I've been writing and speaking about the idea of bio-connectivity and the concept of "hyper-connectivity" for over a decade (before Nortel lamely built a lame marketing campaign around the latter phrase a year ago.) It remains one of the most significant trends that will yet unfold in the health care sector. Our concept of health care delivery will be forever transformed.

Simply put, link the scope of the looming health care crisis to the momentum that will come from Silicon Valley for medical device connectivity, and there are some pretty powerful things happening. Think about what happens as spatial device connectivity comes to everyday things around you -- such as a baseball bat! Read more below. There's a lot going on in this space, and you'd do well to understand it.

Opportunity through the next decade is going to be found by those who will adjust and adapt buisness models, attitudues, structures, methodologies and capabilities to this new reality.

More information:

HealthCare Innovation & Technology Conference
Read about what happens When Thermostats get connected
Read the article about bio-connectivity, The Doctor is in around the clock
Read the article Minds of their own
Read "Bioconnectivity and the rapid emergence of new markets"
Read the article Command and Control - Opportunity Awaits Companies that Master Hyperconnectivity

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:41 AM...September 4, 2008
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Text message polling - on stage with instant interactivity and feedback

Over the last several months, I've been incorporating some live text message polling into my onstage presentations.

Yesterday, at an insurance industry conference, I put up a quick poll, and gave the audience three minutes to text message their answers in. It's quite a bit of fun, because the results begin to appear automatically on screen -- and are constantly, dynamically updated.

Here's what's fascinating : out of a crowd of about 300 people, only about 25 managed to get an answer in! There were a few reasons for this; first, since the A/V screen wasn't great, it was hard to see the text message number, and I actually called out the wrong number for the first minute and a half - until someone pointed out my mistake! But at the same time, it was obvious that a good chunk of the crowd -- baby boomers and up -- had no clue how to send a text message.

I used that observation to point out to the crowd that they're in a pretty dangerous spot if they don't understand some of the tools that are fundamental to the life of their Gen-Y and Gen- Connect customers. Key message: if you are going to innovate, you better make sure you understand your customers. The next generation is going to demand a completely different, highly interactive "insurance experience," and text messaging, Web 2.0 and other tools are going to be a part of that mix.

To do these online polls, I'm using the QuickPoll service from Quickmobile, which offers a number of innovative mobile solutions, including a "text from your Web site" capability. Services like this are at the leading edge of innovation when it comes to linking the Web together with the vast world of text messaging. Recent estimates suggest that every day, there are more text messages sent than their are people on the planet.

The quick polls, incorporated into a keynote on stage, whether with a group of 300 or 3,000 people, provide for a huge degree of interactivity with the audience, and provide for some really exciting dynamics on stage.

More information

Quickmobile Web site

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:47 AM...June 13, 2008
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A new era of "social wealth management?" Innovating banking at high speed!

I'm about to head out the door to keynote a leadership team, business analysts and IT staff for a leading multinational bank. The theme of my luncheon talk is, of course, innovation in the high velocity financial sector.
There's been a tremendous amount of new research undertaken in the last day, so that I can add to the insight that I've already accumulated through the years as to the innovations occuring in this sector.

There are a couple of key observations that I'll share with the crowd. I start out with a list of pretty scary headlines. American banks face financial meltdown if their reforms fail. Mortage Meltdown! Bloody and Bowed --- Money Managers Remain Badly Shaken by the Meltdown. Market Cap Meltdown --- Billions in Blue Chip Stock Values Have Been Blown Away.Congress caught in a bind over bank crisis. Crisis Looming As Realty Slump Becomes Global

Most of these headlines are from 1989-1990.

Key point being, we've been here before. Whenever there is market turmoil, there is also opportunity for growth through innovation.

And that's what I'll concentrate on the talk. How banks are transitioning staff from tactical to strategic roles so that they can provide the consultative services customers are demanding. How bank branches are becoming the "new Internet" as financial institutions rediscover the power of rejuvenated bricks-and-mortar networks. How the new era of Web 2.0 is going to have to drive a new form of "social wealth management," particularly as we witness a massive intergenerational transfer of wealth from baby-boomers to the Twitter generation. And how maintaining brand relevance is critical when products and customer service expectations continue to increase at a furious pace.

Several months ago, I wrote a Memo to the CEO of banks worldwide, imploring that they don't kill innovation it's tracks as they scramble to deal with the subprime mess. It drew quite a bit of attention: and the comments and sentiment are still critical today. It's worth a read.

More information

Read the Memo to the CEO

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:56 AM...June 4, 2008
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Zorbing -- and why it's in to be out!

Seems USA Today ran an article about zorbing, and my web site is being flooded with traffic because it features a picture of zorbing in action.

Here's the thing: Zorbing is part of a trend that I frequently speak about at conferences -- the rapid emergence of new sports, which is part of the overall trend of the more rapid emergence of new trends!

My coverage of Zorbing goes back to 2004, when I keynoted a New York City publicity event, where, I met with the editors of O (Oprah Magazine), Elle, Family Circle, Parenting, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Working Mother, American Baby, Soap Opera Weekly, Woman's Day, Glamor, Teen Vogue, Seventeen, Good Housekeeing, Family Circle and about 40 other national trade magazines.

My focus, on behalf of a consumer products company, was the presentation of my "10 Trends that Will Rock the Outdoor World." In preparing, I undertook detailed research and analysis of leading lifestyle, demographic, social and cultural trends, to put into perspective what we can expect in terms of active, outdoor living in the future.

And one of the trends I talked about? The rapid emergence of new sports -- such as zorbing!

Read 10 Trends that Will Rock the Outdoor World. .

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 4:08 PM...May 27, 2008
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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.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:57 AM...May 22, 2008
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Jim Carroll keynoting Toshiba Global Exchange 2008 in Sydney, Australia

It's been confirmed that I'll be the opening keynote speaker for this large scale annual conference in mid-July.

My topic theme is "Smash that box" -- I'll take a look at the "key strategies and leadership ideas that have assisted some organisations to achieve breakthrough innovations and absolutely compelling levels of productivity." I've done an extensive number of high profile IT / hi-tech events like this - with clients like SAP, IBM, Ingram Micro., Microsoft, Motorola, NCR, the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Verizon, in events that have been internally focus, or are large scale opportunities for executives to rethink the strategic role of IT.

It will be a pleasure to share my insight in Sydney. I'm a big believer that many organizations have barely scratched the innovation-surface when it comes to IT deployment; many organizations are still in basic implementation mode, and haven't learned how to really leverage their investment to provide for significant transformation of their overall organizational capabilities.

More information

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:00 AM...May 20, 2008
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If I ran your company, here's what I would do!

Supertramp -- a band from the 80's -- had a minor hit with the song "On the Long Way Home," which featured the memorable line, the line, "when you're up on the stage, it's so unbelievable."

It is, quite. And when you're up there, you realize how lucky you are to be able to share with the audience the wisdom you've picked up by observing some of the world's top innovators.

Recently, after a presentation to an audience of 3,000 people, I was approached by a CEO who was quite inspired by my remarks. He then asked me a fascinating question: "what would you do if you took over the leadership of my company right now?" We chatted for a while and I believe I provided some pretty succinct insight; but since then, I've been thinking about that question. Here's a part of my answer.

maximize your best revenue opportunities. I'd make sure that any existing revenue relationships remain intact, and then some. I'd work on having my team obsess on growing existing high value customer relationships through service excellence. Let's make sure that we meet their needs. It will likely be easier to keep existing revenue grows flowing rather than finding new ones, particularly through a time of economic challenge.
obsess over time to market. I'd work hard to accelerate product innovation; market life-cycles are collapsing, and I'd make sure every member of the team reoriented themselves to that reality. I'd focus on getting R&D to think in terms of faster cycles; I'd ramp up sales force education so that they were better aware of what's coming next. I'd have the team thinking in terms of 3-6-9-12 : here's what will be doing in the marketplace 3, 6, 9 and 12 months from now. I'd layer on top of that some insight into 1-2-5-10: what we might be doing 1, 2, 5 and 10 years from now.
reduce product costs through process improvement and better project execution: there is no shortage of innovative ideas, structures and concepts involving process and production methodologies. I'd make sure we were looking at finding those who are doing leading edge work in this area, inside or outside our industry, and learn from them.
reduce structural costs through collaboration: at this point in time, in a global world that allows for instant, smart collaboration among teams, there is no reason for massive duplication of skills and talent throughout an organization. I'd start a rethink those silos, and restructure for a new skills deployment approach. Right off the bat, I'd encourage a few cross-organizational collaboration efforts, to get people used to the idea of tackling fast new problems rather than arguing about structure and hierarchy.
focus on the pipeline of talent innovation: I've said it before and I'll say it again. The depth the bench strength is critical to future success. I'd have everyone take a good look at our pipeline, to see if it will meet upcoming needs. If not, I'd get a program in place to fix that fast.
relentlessly and aggressively chase costs: I'm not talking about spontaneous slash and burn spending cuts: I'd refocus on transitioning the role of staff from tactical efforts to a strategic role. I've spent time with the CIO's and CFO's of some pretty major organizations: Hunt Oil, Adobe, J Crew, Under Armor. All of them have provided in-depth insight onstage during customer panels that have focused on the role of IT in the business to run the business better, grow the business and transform the business. There remain countless opportunities for IT oriented innovation to rip unnecessary costs out of the business, and it involves this tactical to strategic transition.
enhance quality and reliability of product: Last year, I spoke to 2,500 global quality professionals on the challenges that the high velocity economy presents to the concept of quality. The fact is, new issues hit us in the marketplace faster than ever before. And the global idea loop means that quality challenges can become a sudden, massive worldwide PR nightmare faster than we've ever been prepared for. That's why avoiding quality problems remains a critical focus. I'd take a look at how well we're dealing with quality issues, and whether we've got the agility to respond in this new world of heightened PR challenges. I'd also have a group prepare an immediate outline of challenges and problems with customer service and satisfaction.
capture new emerging growth markets faster: I'd begin to orient the team so that we knew about which market opportunities might come next, and then spend time aligning ourselves to innovate faster in such markets. I recently spent some time with one client, and the focus of our discussion was how a new market was set to unfold in the next three months. Expectations were that the market -- for a unique consumer product, with potential sales in the billions of dollars -- might last for a period of eighteen months, before being eclipsed by the next stage of development. Essentially, the CEO was looking at a situation where they had to figure out how to jump into this new fast market, and make the most of it in an extremely short period of time. That's a new skill structure to wrap an organization around, and one that every organization must learn to master.

That's a good starting point. The key issue: I'd begin by aligning the organization to the concept of "thriving in the high velocity economy."

Oh, and one of the first things I'd do? I would immediately convene a senior management/leadership meeting, and bring in a futurist and innovation expert to wake my people up to the potential that can come from energizing ourselves towards future opportunities.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:37 PM...May 7, 2008
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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

Maybe the catch phrase is "branding in the high velocity economy." Folks who figure out how to do this will cause significant transformation in their industry, and from that, new and growing business opportunity.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:47 AM...April 29, 2008
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Thinking ahead: knowledge delivery in the high velocity economy

I'm one of the keynote speakers today for the grand opening of Virtualis, which bills itself as "the largest and most meticulously designed convention center in the computer-generated world of Second Life."

Virtualis features ballrooms, breakout rooms, and an extensive trade show floor. I'll be speaking in the Grand Ballroom at 4pm EST; my own "trade show booth" (pictured here) features links to my blog, books, and to streaming video from strategically placed video screens on the wall.

Will such "virtual worlds" come to play a role in the meeting and convention industry? The media seems to have been quite down on Second Life as of late; at one recent digital marketing conference, it was dismissed as a waste of advertisers time, and the biggest project sinkhole in the last year. (See The Client Side blog link below).

Maybe so. Maybe not. I don't know whether that is true or not.

But I do know this. Ten years ago, we didn't have a Google; five years ago, there was no FaceBook. New methods of interacting are emerging at a furious pace. Ten years from now, we'll be in an economy in which organizations will have to figure out how to "deliver knowledge quickly." I think we will see a wide variety of platforms and methods of accomplishing this -- and that's why I'm spending some of my time exploring the opportunity within Virtualis.

I'm a big believer that meetings and events will continue to be a "key strategic component of an organization's success" in the future, because they involve the delivery of knowledge.

And there's going to have to be a lot more of that in the future. Organizations must deal with the fact that their world is becoming faster: they must deal with innovation time compression, the rapid emergence of new markets, fast opportunities for emergence of new product or service branding, increased skills specialization, rapid business model transformation and the emergence of new competitive challengers.

The impact is quite simple: rapid market, business, industry, and skills change leads to a need for faster “knowledge delivery.” We might need to upgrade the knowledge of a sales force for a new emerging market; help a leadership team focus on a new business competitor, or steer a project team towards dealing with a new industry challenge. Whatever the case may be, knowledge delivery is key to success in the future.

I think we'd be fools to think that we won't do a lot more of this online. Hence, the importance of new explorations such as Virtualis : it helps to solve a fundamental purpose, and plays a key strategic role, just as real-world conferences and events do. And so this is a critical and important first step.

It's all about innovation and trying things out. And as Larry Ellison of Oracle stated, “when you innovate, you've got to be prepared for everyone telling you you're nuts.”

More information

Read Meetings.Net report on Virtualis launch
Virtualis advertisement
The Client Side Blog: The Hype Wagon Loses a Virtual Wheel
Jim Carroll digital content solutions

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:50 AM...April 23, 2008
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Innovating in a flat world - the jewelry industry

I keynoted the 2008 Manufacturing Jewelers and Suppliers of America Expo New York yesterday, on the theme of ""How to Unlock Your Potential in the High Velocity Economy." Just about a week from now, Dubai will hold a similar event. The challenge for the AJMA members is that they now find themselves in a world that has gone massively global and is far more competitive; and as the world has flattened, so too have their challenges. They're competing not only against the City of Gold, but countless other highly innovative jewelry centers.

The focus of my keynote: what to do after the world gets flat! How can they innovate to deal with the unique challenges of today? Most certainly, the challenges go far beyond just globalization: rapidly changing consumer attitudes are also playing a key role. I used some recent insight from research firm Mintel UK, which provided a few fascinating nuggets:

only 5% of all the customers surveyed buy jewelry frequently - compare that to the trends with consumer electronics spending - a lot of discretionary spending now goes to the latter, and not the former.
22% compare prices before they buy
15% buy online
17% of women are finding jewelry sold in supermarkets an "increasingly attractive" option

These are all the classic signs of commoditization of an industry -- wherein existing competitors find themselves in a never-ending black hole of being forced to compete on price.

How do you innovate your way out of this? The advice I included in my 75-minute talk covered a vast number of issues; here's a few of the things they should focus on:

faster time to market : fashion happens faster; they need to deal with this. If P-Diddy appears with a new ear-stud and it gets noticed, kids will want it. Agile jewelers align themselves to such instant production, by revamping their process and cost structure.
innovate upside-down. Adopt new design philosophies: rather than innovating, focus on upside down innovation. Work with their retail partners to restart the design process. Innovative organizations recognize they can't do it all. They seek partners with everything they do, recognizing that there are of lot of really wonderful innovative ideas that transcend their organization and their culture. This allows them to discover new innovative ideas they hadn't thought of before; a process I call upside down innovation.
revamp manufacturing capabilities: a lot of these folks manufacture to inventory, and with the high and fluctuating cost of gold and other metals, that's an expensive business model to maintain, particularly in the context of increased global competition. Leading edge manufacturers are using CAD/CAM tech to change their design process and are learning to shift their business model as a result.

These were just a few of the issues I covered ; the key is accepting the fast-change that envelopes the industry, and challenging your assumptions and habits to move forward!

More information

Read the MJSA article Change Your Mind: Staying One Step Ahead
Read What do you do after the world gets flat? Put a ripple in it!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:59 AM...April 14, 2008
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High velocity e-commerce: a keynote for VISA

I'm about off to keynote a conference for Visa. With executives in the room from Apple, Sony, Ticketmaster, HomeDepot and other organizations that are e-commerce heavy hitters, I'll be focusing on the message, "what do high velocity companies do to stay innovative?"

Much of the conference so far will have focused on the high velocity change that swirls around the issue of e-commerce: the rapid emergence of new payment technology (i.e. cell phone payment infrastructure), continued market growth as e-commerce becomes a routine part of daily life, and internationalization of market and opportunity (China now has the largest Internet population, with 250 million users.) There's also a significant platform shift as mobility takes on an increasing role: Investors Business Daily just reported that already, 16% of US cell phone users do online banking with their device, and 25% shop online. Such numbers pale in comparison to even more rapid change in Asia and Europe.

How do you stay innovative in a world of fast change?? I have several messages:

prepare for market / product / infrastructure rapidity: fast innovators make sure they have a collaborative team structure that can assemble into fast-teams, ready to tackle new projects, demands, market shifts and other changes. It's all about corporate agility.
structure for intensity: prepare for the rapid emergence of new technologies, and organize yourself with partners to help you nail implementation. Mobile payment technology is going to have a sweeping impact, and it's rollout will occur in but a few short months. That's the new intensity of business cycles.
empower for quality: if you shop online, you expect operational excellence, no questions asked. You can only do that by empowering staff to act on the ground, making quick decisions so that quality of experience is not compromised. Read my When FedEx Fails post of a few days for an important lesson on today's empowered consumer.
enhance capability from generational diversity: Older generations are still struggling with fast pace change: that's one of the key trends I identified in my most recent Future Trends report. Savvy organizations are learning to implement fast by combining the different talents of different generations; by providing for cross generational collaboration, they are drawing upon a set of unique skills to act even faster, thus managing to stay ahead of the pack.

10 years ago this market didn't exist. Today, it is valued in the hundreds of billions, and growth continues to compound. Anyone in this space is faced with a lot of real, significant change: with technology, customers, expectations, competitors, business models and just about everything.

You stay innovative by structuring yourself to stay just one step ahead of the future.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:23 AM...March 25, 2008
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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"

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:09 AM...March 20, 2008
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Future careers: Knowledge explosion is key

Career issues are hot! And one of my favorite ways to open a keynote or executive session is by quoting from an Australian study, which indicated that sixty-five percent of the kids who are in preschool today will work in jobs or careers that don't yet exist.

I passionately believe this to be true: and I've seen the trend occurring in countless professions and industries.

This week, I keynoted a Career Day event at Capitol One in Richmond, Virginia ; the focus was upon the rapid emergence of new careers, and the rapid evolution of existing skills. My message, in looking at the future career opportunities, was that there's nothing but upside, as long as people keep reinventing their skill set.

The topic of the future of careers is a big one these days; I'm being called into many organizations and events to talk about the issue, particularly in the context of recent economic trends. Some of these events have been local economic development conferences. In one talk in January, I spoke to an audience of executives and educators in an auto-sector city ; a group of people caught up in the throes of economic restructuring and turmoil.

Talk about an audience in the midst of challenge! Yet when you are in that type of economic bubble, it can be hard to see the future career opportunities that do exist. That's why I didn't focus on the short term economic turmoil, but instead, on the real, practical trends that are defining the careers of tomorrow.

Many sectors of the global economy: and in particular, the manufacturing and financial sectors, are being hit hardest by the US recession, the sub-prime meltdown, and global competition.

The auto-town event got covered in the local paper: and the story ended up being reprinted throughout the Canadian press, including in Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal. One of the key observations I made in the article: "We have to figure out how we can continue to move up the knowledge ladder because there's going to be a massive shortfall in specialized skills because of the rapid growth of knowledge."

That's an important issue to think about, and the article is well worth a read.

More information:

Read Knowledge Explosion Key to the Future
Read Global Economic Trends: An Interview with Jim Carroll
The reality of future trends: grab the What Comes Next trends overview

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:45 AM...February 22, 2008
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Innovating locally in a global economy

I spent the day yesterday with management executives and store owners of DoItBest, one of the largest US hardware retailers. It's a fascinating organization, because in the midst of the current economic challenges in the US, it's managed to grow its profit at the same time that it saw a dramatic revenue decline.

As with all the keynotes that I do, I undertook an extensive amount of research into the company and industry before I took to the stage; this is combined with the fact that I have keynoted dozens of retail oriented conferences through the years.

What I found was a really cool, and extremely innovative organization. Their online Web site has seen a sales increase of 60%; they've included an option where shoppers can have orders sent to their local DoItBest store (of which there are 4,000+). The site is price competitive with Target and Amazon. They are doing a lot in terms of supply-chain, online store portals and rebates. They've rolled out three different store designs, and are discovering new micro-markets. All this, while they've seen sales fall to $2.81 billion from $3 billion from the year before -- and yet, they also achieved record profitability.

In my mind, there are a number of innovative strategies that the organization has pursued that any organization can learn from:

rapidly transition challenged product lines: lumber saw price declines of 25%, and panel prices dropped 60% according to an article in Home Channel News. Do It Best stores responded by focusing on all kinds of other lines in hardware and new market opportunities such as home-decord
be relentless on customer service: a search of news articles shows any number of articles in which customers rave about the knowledge that a staff member in a Do It Best store has when it comes to hardware, tools, home renovation and just about everything else. They've maintained a relentless focus on customer service, even as the big-box chains have lost site of its importance. If you need a power tool: these folks know power tools.
recognize that micro-branding works: the new store format design has three components: one for those fully within the DoItBest brand, one that is sort of halfway, and one for those stores that want to maintain a distinct, local, "general store" type of image. The fact is, in this era of homogenized big-box brands, some folks like the feeling they get from a small, local hardware store brand. "Do It Best owners understand the micro-economy" -- that's what Jeff Prupis, of Pomona Paint & Hardware, a Do It Best store in Pomona, NY, stated in another Home Channel News article.
when markets commoditize, specialize: at their trade show yesterday, they were featuring a "Christmas in January" theme; with various vendors showing the unique Christmas offerings they might be thinking about. Everywhere you look, you can see some of their stores learning about and experimenting with new premium markets and service opportunities.
make life easy for customers: We're time compressed. We're in a hurry. We need solutions. We want "fast." That's why the comment from Joe Talor, CEO, Taylor's Do It Center, Virginia Beach, is so appropriate. "We're like the 7-11 of the hardware industry. You can get in, get out, and get back home to enjoy your weekend."

I was there to help take them to the next level, with a keynote theme, "Creating the Future: Leadership in An Era of Innovation and Change." In the talk, I looked at additional ideas that they might pursue to stay on the leading edge.

All in all, a tremendous amount of fun, and a wonderful organization to spend some time with!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:33 AM...January 17, 2008
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Making generations work - Cardboard people and plasma people

Can you innovate across the generations? If you can't -- then you've got a big problem to fix!

I do a tremendous number of keynotes that focus on the issue of "managing millenials," and the complexities of change occurring in the workplace. See, for example, my blog post, "Don't Mess with my Powder, Dude." (below)

Yet organizations need to move beyond the staffing issues that come with new generations: they must also ensure that they can innovate at the rapid rates demanded in our new world, and they need to do that by keeping up with the new ideas and innovations occuring with younger staff.

In this video clip, I take a look at the story of the "plasma people" and the "carboard people." Innovation occurs when different generations -- with different attitudes to change -- can cooperate and see eye to eye, and take advantage of different strengths. In this clip, I tell tjhe story where this clearly wasn't the case!

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 . This story also became the opening chapter in my book, Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast.

Watch the video clip

Related postings:

read Don't Mess with My Powder, Dude!

Can you run your business at video game intensity?

High velocity retail innovation

Creativity, trends and innovation in retail, packaging & consumer goods

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:52 AM...November 27, 2007
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Health care trends and innovation

I was the opening keynote speaker yesterday in Dallas for a get-together of the Strategic Marketplace Initiative. This is a group that represents a variety of health care providers and hospitals, as well as pharmaceutical companies and other health care suppliers. There were some heavy hitters in the room -- even WalMart was there, which is indicative of the role it is seeking to carve out in the pharmaceutical side of things.

The group is devoted to trying to continue to improve the efficiency and quality of the supply-chain within the health care industry. My talk examined the future of health care; I've done such talks recently for the Blue Cross Blue Shield National Office, the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Providence Health Care and the American Society for Health Care Risk Management.

There are certainly some big challenges. Consider these realities:

total health-care spending - by individuals, companies, the government - reached $2.3 trillion in 2005
health care spending is set to double to 20% of GDP within the next 10 years
400,000 nurses are set to retire by 2010
76 million baby boomers will be flooding the system for care
lifestyle diseases wlll continue to drive stress into the system

At the same time, the health care system must innovate at a furious pace to keep up with the trends that are set to impact it in a significant way, such as:

the rapid emergence of new technologies
massive skills challenges (both demographic and scientific!)
new business models and “competition," particularly as retail concepts come to the industry, and "customer" expectations continue to increase
combined with the rapid emergence of new knowledge, methodologies, treatments, pharma, driven by rapid science

The sad thing is that little of the political debate occurring in the US on how to fix the system has to do with the real trends which are occuring; it tends to focus only on the difficult and challenging issue of insurance and coverage.

My talk stirred a lot of debate, and was very well received. There's an overview of some of the trends that I covered in my FUTURE MEDICINE Prescriptions for 21st Century Healthcare trends summary.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:23 AM...November 15, 2007
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Future trend - The Future of Governance

I was in Colorado Springs yesterday, as the opening keynote of the Leadership Institute for Directors for FCCServices -- they're the business services arm of the US federal Farm Credit System.

In attendance were members of the Boards of Directors for a wide variety of state and community farm credit co-ops; these folks are the backbone of the US farm lending infrastructure. The Directors are local farmers, community leaders and business executives, and hence, need to be aware of the trends impacting the local and global agricultural industries, so that they can plan accordingly, assess risk, and make sound business decisions with respect to their co-ops.

My keynote took a look at "what comes next in the agricultural sector" - it's one of many talks I do within the industry. And agriculture is certainly subject to high velocity change: there's rapid evolution in science (bio-crops); new markets (bio-fuel) ; rapidly changing skills; new direct to consumer market opportunities; globalization (current food production must double in the next 30 years to keep up with global population growth.) All of which could spell opportunity if approached correctly -- or turmoil and challenge if ignored.

The intent of the talk -- and the overall theme of the leadership conference -- was to ensure that these folks have the insight to direct their organizations into the future. That's an important and critical role for Boards; and FCC Services is an example of an organization that has made sure that the "future" is closely linked to the issue of "governance."

I think there are too many organizations that don't do this. Sadly, with all the current focus on "compliance," I've come to believe that there is a critical lack of future planning on many other corporate boards around the world. The result is that potential risks are often ignored; then things go wrong; then the company gets sued for significant sums of money. Is this Board negligence? That's an interesting question, isn't it!

Here's an example: years ago, I wrote an article indicating that one of the critical CEO/Board level issues that must be addressed had to do with network security; certainly, everyone knows that organizations should properly secure their information assets. Yet in the article, I suggested that I believe that many Boards aren't dealing with the issue, and that it was an area ripe for future exposure, noting that:

"If I were a tort lawyer, I'd be licking my lips in anticipation of the opportunities to come in the next few years."

Boards and CEO's should ensure -- as they are required to do with financial controls -- that the information assets of the organization are properly locked down. They must understand obvious future trends, and ensure that management has planned accordingly. I strongly believe this to be the next wave in Board responsibility.

Do many Boards of Directors ensure that the organization is properly preparing for the rapidity of trends? Not many. Witness the shenanigans with the TJX Group, which had its corporate network hacked and millions of credit card numbers stolen. (The company runs HomeGoods, Marshalls, A.J. Wright, Bob's Stores and The Maxx stores; in Canada the chain consists of Winners and HomeSense.) Now comes news that a group of banks want to sue the company with respect to the issue.

I can only imagine the questions that the Board of TJX is now asking!

Currently, much of the focus of board governance has to do with "compliance" -- how well are boards, and the companies they are responsible for, dealing with the new realities of the post-Enron era.

I believe that within the next decade, we will see Board responsbility quickly evolve into a new and much more complex era than simply making sure that "i's are dotted and the t's are crossed.' All we need are a few savvy lawyers to launch a few negligence suits against a few public companies, alleging that a Board failed to develop a plan for and respond to obvious future trends.

It's a trend worth watching.

More information

Next governance grenade - Jim Carroll, August 2004

More than 94 Million Credit Card Accounts Compromised by TJX Theft

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:53 AM...November 12, 2007
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High velocity trends in the pharmaceutical industry

I'm here in Las Vegas today, about to provide the opening keynote for Pharmalink 2007.

This is an annual meeting of senior executives -- mostly C-Level, Sr. VP's -- from major pharmaceutical companies. It's a forum where they can examine the challenges, issues and opportunities that come from a greater integration of the supply chain within the world of health care.

It's a tough issue to crack -- there are a lot of vested interests, long-standing business models, inertia towards change, and built-in routines. There's a lot of sophisticated technology that is and can be used ; and yet, there still remains a tremendous amount of inefficiency in the U.S. health care system.

My keynote will focus on the theme, "what do innovative organizations do", and will play into several trends:

concentrate on adaptability: in the longer term, change resistance retires out of the economy. The current generation of 35 and under staff in the health care system will rapidly adopt EHR (electronic health records) and all other forms of technology. Initiatives to date have been held back because of slow-to-act, change resistant boomers; however, as they leave the system, the rate of adoption of new ways of working will soar.
prepare for intensity: business cycles are getting faster, and R&D is too. It's the ability to adapt to the sudden emergence of new markets and products that is critical
attitude with agility: business models are set to change; any industry that has a lot of wholesalers and distributors will find massive, fundamental, structural change to be a given on a 10 year horizon. Understand that, accept it, and work with it.
massive connectivity changes everything: pharma will be impacted in a huge way as everything, including drugs themselves, has sensor, location and intelligence awareness built in. Innovative around that -- and the concept of bioconnectivity, and big opportunities can be found
structure with flexibility: volatility is the new normal. Think how quickly China and quality became linked; build a team and structure that can act fast, think fast, and react fast.

There's an entire theme on these issues in my Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast book -- so it ties in nicely!
More information

read Future Medicine: Prescriptions for 21st Century Health Care

read "Are you watching the major transformations, or just the piddly stuff?"

Watch the "transformations" video

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:57 AM...November 5, 2007
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Innovating at high-velocity

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.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 12:51 PM...November 1, 2007
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Major trend - the future of the organization

Take a look at this kid.

He's your next employee. How are you going to recruit, retain, manage, interest and amuse this fellow? What's your workforce going to look like in 2012, 2020, or beyond?

There's quite a bit of focus on trends relating to the future of the organization -- and organizations are seeing innovative strategies to cope with the world of high velocity change that we find ourselves in.

Last week I was the opening keynote speaker, and a panelist later in the day, for an offsite of one of the world's largest professional services firms. Tomorrow, I keynote a get-together of key clients of a multi-billion insurance/financial services company. A few months ago, I ran a Board of Directors/CEO level meeting on the issue for a major industrial company.

If you don't have this issue figured out yet, you'd better start thinking about it in a hurry.

There are certain things we know for a fact that relate to the future of the organization.

there is a huge amount of expertise walking out of the economy. In 2010, 3 people will leave the economy for every person that enters it; by 2012, 4. By 2016, 6 people will leave for every new worker that joins. Those are staggering realities.
the current generation entering the workforce is completely rejecting the concept of a traditional career. More than 50% of young people in a US survey indicated they believe self-employment to be more secure than a full time job. They don't want to work for big organizations. They'll be nomadic, contingent workers, entrepreneurial and global.
skills are fragmenting and specializing at a furious pace. Knowledge half-lives in most industries are compressing to a matter of just a few years. Knowledge extinction is real, and massive skills fragmentation is occurring at an extreme velocity. The result is that most organizations will find future failure will come from an inability to get specialized skills. A strategy that is focused on global access to extremely specialized skills will be a transformative factor for winning.

The whole issue is massive, and is one of the areas in which innovative thinking is needed now. It's a CEO / Board level issue. It's transformative. It's urgent.

More information

What's Happening with Our Workforce: Achieving Competitive Advantage Through Skills
Critical Trends: 10 Unique Characteristics of 21st Century Skills

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 4:16 PM...October 15, 2007
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"He prowled the stage like a preacher"

An interesting article in InformationWeek, covering my Sunday night keynote for the Society for Information Managementa annual conference in Memphis.

First time I ever had to follow Elvis on stage : and maybe that's what had me fired up!

Noted InformationWeek: "Carroll, the author of "What I Learned from Frogs in Texas: Saving Your Skin with Forward Thinking Innovation," seemed to embrace the atmosphere of secular spiritualism. He prowled the stage like a preacher, exhorting the assembled crowd to take the message of hyper cultural and economic change fueled by information technology back to their companies and use it to force a closer examination of the role of their own technology efforts in new business models, management structure, and collaboration."

You can read the full article, In the High Velocity Economy, IT is the Engine, here.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 6:39 AM...October 10, 2007
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The disappearance of change management?

I'm off today to Montreal, to keynote the 2007 International Financial Leaders Forum. This is a gathering of several hundred senior financial leaders from throughout the private and government sector.

One of my key messages in my opening keynote today is that as CFO's and CEO's, they must ensure that they are putting in place a culture of agility and flexibility, such that their staff are able to deal with rapid change that comes with the high-velocity economy.

Enter the new boarding pass bar code, as seen on the right: I'm using this Blackberry enabled boarding pass on my flight to Montreal. This is an initiative set-up by Air Canada -- you check in online with your mobile device. You are then sent a text message/SMS that contains a 2-dimensional barcode. At the airport, ostensibly, it will be wanded at security, at the gate, and I'll be on the plane. (The bar code shown will have expired by the time you read this.)

The reaction of my 14 year old when he saw it? "It will never work dad! I don't have good feelings about this."

His reaction, he explained, comes from his belief that the security people won't know what to do with it; that I will get some cranky gate agent who wasn't aware of the new technology; that simply, from what he has learned while travelling with us, is that this simply represents too much change, too fast.

I promised to text him along the way with any updates!

He does have a valid point though : today, we live in a world in which change management is a big issue. I've run (and continue to do) workshops or keynotes where I am addressing issues of how to cope with change. It's a big issue that I cover off in my new Ready, Set, Done: How to Innnovate When Faster is the New Fast book.

Yet a big question looming on my mind these days is this: what happens when the need for change management goes away? Twenty years out, we will have a generation in charge which has embraced technological change from their birth. They are attracted to new ideas, innovation, and new ways of thinking, like bugs drawn to a light. Their world will continue to involve a flood of new technologies, new ways of working, constantly shifting work structures, rapid micro-careers, and all kinds of other things that involve what we would consider to be rapid change.

What happens when change management disappears, and change occurs even faster than it happens today?

The airline involved in today's flight is quite focused on innovation. The big issue to watch is whether they are keeping the change-process up-to-date with their innovation process. Or whether the issue of change-management is starting to disappear and go away....

Nov 5 update

the security people knew about it, but
the first gate agent freaked out, muttered about management and new technology, and printed me a paper boarding pass
the flight attendant didn't like it, and wanted the paper pass
returning, it took 3 minutes for them to get the security line guy who had the bar code wand
the gate agent flatly refused to accept it. She complained, complained...

Just about what I expected!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 6:43 AM...October 3, 2007
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Quality, skills and the high-velocity economy

Back in May, I keynoted the World Congress on Quality / American Society for Quality, a fairly massive conference with about 3,000 attendees.

I focused, as I often do, on the need for rapid action in the high-velocity economy. At that time, just a few months ago, we had just seen the recall of various pet food products as a result of production quality issues at the Chinese manufacturer.

I noted -- and these words are verbatim from the tape - "What do we do with quality in terms of velocity?" I went on to note that with we might soon see the issue of quality and China merge together ... to such a degree that companies might have to scramble to deal with quality issues that were completely unexpected just a few months ago.

Fast forward, and we've got toy manufacturers testifying to Congress about quality concerns as a result of offshore production.

It used to be that when it came to quality, you'd plan --> execute -- > evaluate ---> innovate. But now, with high-velocity change, sudden new issues can appear, and you've simply got to execute before you plan.

What's the point? In my new book, Ready, Set, Done, I argue that talent and project agility -- that is, the ability to rapidly refocus your organization and team to deal with the rapid emergence of new issues -- will be a key cornerstone for future success.

This week, I'll be doing a keynote for Tenrox, a company that specializes in software that helps an organization with resource management and optimization: in other words, deploying the right skills at the right time for the right purpose. Exactly what I talk about in the new book.

The CEO, Rudolf Melik, has written a book, The Rise of the Project Workforce: Managing People and Projects in a Flat World. I contributed the foreword for the book, focusing on the theme of skills agility. It's an important issue that you need to be thinking about, particularly given the new urgency for planning on the fly.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:25 AM...September 25, 2007
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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

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:18 AM...June 27, 2007
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The future of the legal profession

Some weeks back, I spent a full day with about 40 senior lawyers with a major government agency, with the main focus both on the rapidity of change of legal skills, as well as rapid change with legal issues.

We took a look at the future of the profession, and had a workshop that examined issues of agility, rapid response and complexity of skills.

I put together a summary, based on a previous post here, that outlines both the challenges and opportunities faced by the profession.

The highlights of the document, available as a PDF, takes a look at such issues as generational warfare, evidentiary challenges, rapid change and specialization, and risk minimization, to name but a few.

Of the latter, I write that "One side impact of generational warfare is that “going underground” will become more acceptable. In the last few years we saw a fascinating battle between music companies and Kazaa, the music sharing organization, which used extra-territorial jurisdictional issues to provide itself some shelter against legal action. That type of activity is going to become the norm, not the exception, in the future. Indeed, going legal-underground is about to go mainstream."

read 10 Big Trends for the Legal Profession: High-Velocity Change Providing Challenges and Opportunities

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:28 AM...June 12, 2007
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Innovation and the new workforce

I'm keynoting the annual IHRIM (International Human Resource Information Management) professional association in about an hour here in Houston, TX; I'll have an audience of about 1,000 or so.

My talk today broadly revolves around the issue of "what's happening with our workforce." I'm taking the audience on a tour of the key drivers which impact organizations today, whether business or government,

velocity: business is just plain fast, and our workforce must cope with that
change capacity: there's a big disconnect in how quickly some people can deal with rapid change compared to others
idea instantaneity: we're in a new world in which ideas or issues can quickly speed out of control, or work to our advantage
knowledgeability: in which global insight is increasing at a furious pace, leading to ever larger pools of knowledge
innovation opportunity: such rates of discovery lead to massive new opportunities with bringing new products and services to market
idea discovery: our interconnected world now allows unique ideas to gain a global audience in a flash
consumer spontaneity: the low attention span consumer is fleeting when it comes to loyalty to brand
business intensity: operational excellence is the name of the game, given an economy which simply runs "fast"
skills availability: all these trends that it is going to be more difficult to access skills

My key point for the audience: When we are thinking about deployment of skills , we must be thinking about:

Attracting the right skills ...... at the right time ... for the right purpose
Providing for business flexibility in a time of rapid change
Establishing a constantly shifting, evolving "workforce on demand"
Enabling this with sophisticated tools, infrastructure and skills access capabilities - managed by folks such as the IHRIM

These are issues I've covered extensively in my analysis, Critical Trends: 10 Unique Characteristics of 21st Century Skills here

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:38 AM...May 21, 2007
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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

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!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:58 AM...May 9, 2007
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Banking and furniture industries -- coping at high velocity!

It's been a busy week, with keynotes for the American Community Bankers Association and the National Home Furnishings Association. This gave me an audience of several hundred CEO's and senior marketing/sales VP's of some pretty big organizations.

And I can tell you this: the undercurrent of the mood within both conferences was one of being "overwhelmed" by high velocity change! New methods of marketing, a constantly higher bar of expectations from customers, a need for relentless customer oriented innovation to meet those expectations, an accelerated product innovation cycle with a need for a faster time to market. Web 2.0, collaborative networks, social networking, new media spending, YouTube, Google! What the heck does one do!?

The mindset of many senior executives today is "where do we start? My keynotes approached this by indicating the three organizational capabilities they must adjust for:

velocity: they must evolve their organizations so that they can operate at the very fast pace that today's market demands
instantaneity: they must be prepared for rapid shifts in market, style, demand, fashion, product, service, and just about everything else!
short term spontaneity: the consumer has no attention span left; they must learn to market, support and sell to the “continuous partial attention customer."

My advice to them for the short term? I suggested to both audiences:

focus on upside down innovation: turn existing innovation models around, by learning customer focused innovation. I've written about that on this blog before; it is a trend that is sweeping the world of retail, and is coming to impact financial services
use the “new influencers” : some people are overwhelmed with product/service decision making : what should I get? What should I buy? They are increasingly turning to someone to help; in the case of furniture, parents seeking a home theater are turning to their kids for help! Re-steer your markeitng campaign to get the kids to get the parents in the door!
develop knowledge agility: sales staff are overwhelmed too. Help them cope, by focusing on just-in-time knowledge on new products, services, campaigns and other customer focused efforts.
focus on location-intelligence capabilities: online search increasingly drives customer decisions. It's become extremely narrow and specific in the last year: you need to boost your ability to make sure you show up with very specific location information.
build your experiential capital: take risks. Make mistakes! Do things! Learn from it -- that's your experiential capital, and it is the most important asset in the high velocity economy! You can't just sit around and hope this rapid change will go away. It won't -- and it's going to get faster.

I think the feeling of being overwhelmed is a common one. Based on the comments post-keynote last night, I think I hit the right mark with the observations, and the guidance.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:22 AM...April 26, 2007
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Video - innovation and education

Some weeks ago, I spoke at the University of Oklahoma, on the role of innovation in education.

There's a brief video clip here.

The biggest area for any educational institution in the future is in the area of "just-in-time knowledge." Whether we are dealing with medical, scientific, financial and business, mechanical or engineering issues, one thing is clear: the knowledge that people need to know to do their job today is becoming infinitely more complex every minute, with a constant, relentless flood of that which is new. In such an environment:

the ability of obtaining rapid, instant knowledge generation is becoming an urgent necessity in almost every field of endeavor;
the ability to quickly digest, understand and assess new knowledge is an increasingly important skill – one that not a lot of individuals have mastered;
the ability to reformulate our thinking, assumptions and capabilities to respond to the constant change being thrust upon us is of increasing importance
That’s where the concept of “just in time knowledge” comes in, as it best describes the nexus of these realities.

And from an innovation perspective, there is plenty of opportunity for meeting the demands of our fast-paced world through just in time knowledge.

This video is linked to the post I originally made when visiting the folks in Oklahoma; you can read that post, What's happening with our workforce here

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:00 AM...March 29, 2007
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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.

In a follow article that I wrote for the conference, which will come out in June, I summarized my guidance to the audience: "Get on board the tornado of change in retail and ride it for all it is worth! You should develop a team that has a finely-tuned radar for unique trends, experiments, success stories and innovations. They're swirling around you continuously, they are constantly reinventing the world of retail on a minute by minute basis - and you've got to understand them and capitalize upon them."

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:56 AM...March 27, 2007
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The Future of Risk: Achieving Skills Agility in the High Velocity Economy

Back to work, and I'm off to San Antonio, Texas, to keynote the Property and Casualty Insurers Association of America Joint Underwriting/Marketing conference.

I'll be speaking to them on the broad theme of the "future of risk;" what unique new risks might we face in society as we go forward. I look at technological, social, demographic, international, bio/health care issues, and a wide variety of other trends that are changing our ideas about risk.

The session description reads:

In today's high velocity economy, it's all about rapid time to market balanced by appropriate underwriting caution. The insurance industry today is immersed in a period of unprecedented, relentless change; impacted by hyper-innovation, fast-paced technological evolution, the rapid emergence of new forms of risk, and increasing business market turmoil. Permanence has been torn asunder, as customers and business organizations empower themselves with information, and as underwriting decisions become ever more complex. In an era such as this, every insurance organization needs to ensure that they are are focused on the concepts of "agility, insight and execution." The way to the future is clear: it's no longer about simple risk management: it's about having the flexibilty to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances; the insight to spot emerging new forms of before they impact the bottom line; and operational excellence in deployment of new insurance products based on sound, reliable underwriting. Join international futurist, trends and innovation expert Jim Carroll, as he shares his insight into the how organizations are focused on management strategies that focus on agility, insight, and execution.

I've done this talk for quite a number of organizations. What's with the zorbing ball? One thing I talk about is how global connectivity is resulting in the more rapid emergence of extreme sports and extreme ideas, and we are witnessing a society that simply seems to take on new forms of risk quicker!

Zorbing is a sport in which you place yourself in a big plastic ball, and roll down a hill! The sport has gone global because of global connectivity: blogs, mailing lists, and web sites.....more connectivity means more rapid sharing of strange ideas!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:00 AM...March 19, 2007
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Innovation? Do things you've never done before!

Several people who have read this blog for a long time have commented that I seem to be a bit obsessed with skiing. I am!

And here's the thing -- I only took up sking at the age of 40! I decided at that point that it would be a pretty smart thing to do. And it is likely the smartest decision I have ever made: rather than a time of dark gloom, winter is now a time of bright opportunity! There's hills to be had!

I've gone from being barely able to get down a to skiing some of the world's largest resorts; last year, I was able to ski the Swiss Alps -- and even blended that into a quirky little, self-absorbed video that you can watch here. I think that there is an important innovation message here: you can only innovate if you do things you've never done before!

For the March break, I'm off to Big White, BC. When I'm not on the hills, I plan on reading the book The Story of Modern Skiing by John Fry. I found out about this book after being called by a reporter in Colorado for my views on the future of skiing; the article that resulted ended up in newspapers in San Francisco, Colorado, Alaska and elsewhere. The article covers John's insight and my own.

I will probably learn quite a bit more than I profess to know once I get through John's book -- he is the former editor of SKI, America's oldest ski magazine, and is someone who has truly helped to define the sport. I also expect that I will continue to learn quite a bit more about how to ski -- it is an adventure in which a rank-beginner-turned-intermediate can never stop learning!

If you really, really need to reach me, then send an e-mail!

I can't promise you that you'll get a rapid response; I'm not taking my Blackberry onto the hill! You will get a response within the day, though!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:11 PM...March 9, 2007
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Corporate banking at high velocity

I spoke last week at a senior level banking conference; in attendance were C and VP level executives from such major banks as JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Harris NA, Wells Fargo, RBC, HSBC Bank USA, MasterCard Worldwide, Bank of America, Citibank, and SunTrust Bank. The conference, sponsored by global banking research firm Barlow Associates, was built around the broad theme of "Just in time business banking," and focused on trends and innovation within the corporate banking sector.

My keynote took a look at the major trends that will impact corporate banking relationships in the years to come. I also hosted a panel discussion featuring senior executives from Merrill Lynch, Zurich North America and US Bank, examining the broad theme of "how do we innovate in a world of high velocity change?"

What's going on in this sector of the economy mirrors so many others, as we are seeing:

Demographic driven velocity. Huge change is coming about in the ‘corner office’ as a generation of change-adverse boomers' is set to retire…Gen-connect as bankers embrace velocity, are born innovative, and are fundamentally impatient with the "rest of us!"
Gen-connect as business bankers? The YouTube / IM generation will demand a different type of “customer interaction” in corporate banking. Rapid adoption of new business models, structure, methods, markets, products, ideas……. and constant new forms of service delivery / interaction will emerge!
Will they even “do” banks, or is their banking future around PayPal?
Rapid idea cycle = rapid market shift. The bar of expectations is constantly rising. The skin to stay in the game is volatile, increasing, and instant. Customer expectations are evolving at high velocity.
Rapid product / service development. Time to market is the key operational focus; the ability to respond to massive, sudden market / product shifts is now key the success factor. Awareness of emerging challenges / opportunities is critical.
Externally focused innovation. Partnership oriented collaborative efforts goes critical (“what can we do to run your business better?”). Rethinking the real strategic role of IT from a different perspective -- tactical to strategic transitions are the magic!
War for talent goes supernova. Skills access becomes the next corporate battle ground – those can get it and lock it up are the winners. Complexity partnerships, infrastructure offloading, next wave outsourcing (“core competencies, not cost”) provide opportunity. Innovative retention, attraction and engagement strategies becomes critical.
Rapid emergence of fundamental change. Complacency is a dangerous thing…Constant, relentless external innovation from unexpected competitors – “as goes Ford and GM, so too go I….” There are *no* barriers to entry and no loyalty beyond this generation to the concept of a bank?

This event comes on the heels of my recent talk in the Cayman Islands, on the broad theme of globalization of the financial services industry. You can read more about that event here.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:03 PM...March 5, 2007
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Innovation and the future of education

What's happening with our worforce? That is increasingly the focus of many of my recent talks.
Yesterday I spoke to the staff and faculty of the University of Oklahoma College of Continuing Education / College of Liberal Studies.

The overall theme was "innovation in the world of high velocity education."

Broadly, my talk was based around one of my favorite quotes: that of educator Lewis Perelman: "Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century."

There's a lot of opportunity for innovation in any educational institution: innovating with the methodology of education upgrading, new knowledge opportunities, and innovation in the overall administration and delivery of education. Beyond that, there's the overall issue of ensuring that in a high-velocity world, educators are delivering the right knowledge at the right time for the right purpose.

To that end, I outlined what I believe to be the primary areas for innovation:

the rapid emergence of new educational opportunities, with foundation knowledge, and with knowledge refreshment
a need for constant change and upgrading of core skills
more partnership opportunities due to complexity – as organizations offload knowledge refreshing / upgrading requirements
greater specialization of knowledge topics – and bigger opportunities for academic centres to focus as world class leader in specific niches
instant, just in time knowledge takes on a unique role and opportunity

There's more to be found in my list of "10 big trends for educators," and many of my assumptions as to where we are going in the world of education is based upon my listing of "10 Unique Characteristics of 21st Century Skills."

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:05 AM...February 20, 2007
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Velocity, Agility, Complexity, and Flexibility......

I'm doing a private conference call today with more than a hundred executives in the life sciences industry, on behalf of my client, SAP.

The theme, "Velocity, Agility, Complexity, and Flexibility: The Four Key Drivers for Competitive Advantage," drives directly from the key theme in my trends overview: Future Medicine: Prescriptions for 21st Century Health Care.

Together, the panel will discuss the challenges they face every business day in the high-velocity pharmaceutical industry, and how innovation plays a core role in how they approach to tackling the challenges and opportunities that exist. In the call, we'll talk to these executives as to what they have been doing within the pharmaceutical and health care industry to:

Increase their agility and flexibility
Forge innovative partnerships
Achieve improved business visibility
Pursue relentless customer-oriented innovation
Establish forward-oriented leadership
Leverage technology to meet your business objectives

Over the last few years, I've spent time with dozens of these types of panels with companies in every industry sector, and there is a huge amount of innovative insight that I've studied. In the case of today's panelists, they've discovered such unique areas for innovation in manufacturing/planning; streamlining the "chain of custody" process in manufacturing, and how they have provided for innovation in how they manage volume discounts. As one panelist noted, "we get a few big wins and a lot of small wins, but the small wins really add up!"

That's a key point about innovation: it isn't just about hitting home runs. You can be innovative as heck by hitting doubles, singles, and triples, and getting the runs in.

For further background, read Future Medicine: Prescriptions for 21st Century Health Care

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:13 PM...February 14, 2007
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What happens when light stops?

Well, for one thing, when light stops, velocity picks up!

A few weeks ago, I keynoted a crowd of 3,000 telecom professionals in Florida. One of the comments I made was this: when it comes to the velocity of change in the "big media universe," we can only expect that the bandwidth and computing power in our lives will become ever more plentiful, and ever faster, because scientists are figuring out how to slow light to a crawl.

That's important, because it migrates us from a world of "electronics based computing" to "photonics computing." The difference in speed, capacity, processing power and everything else will be simply staggering. Think optical-chips based on light, not today's model-T's based on electrons.

This trend will make the electronic computers of today look like Cro-Magnon tools compared to the optical computers of tomorrow.

Last week, I caught an article in which the folks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) predicted that optical chips will be here within 5 years.

A year ago, at another telecom event in Florida, I made the then bold prediction that as scientists learn to stop light, we'll see bandwidth improvements of a huge degree. Some industry folks in the room were taken aback: it's kind of interesting to read the article that was printed at the time (found below.)

It's awful nice to see predictions of the past become mainstream quicker than you might have expected!

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Optical Futures: Another ET Look at Light
24 January 2006
CT's Pipeline

Among the many intriguing observations and reports shared by the SCTE Conference on Emerging Technologies keynoter Jim Carroll in Tampa two weeks ago was the progress that optical researchers were making on the question of how to slow down light.

In our ET report in last week's Pipeline, we'd written on how it might have been interesting to have one of the industry's many optical experts comment on "when, where and how this could happen." Since then, we've heard back from the futurist Carroll and checked in with one of those experts.

"The slowing of light is nothing new," Carroll wrote, referring to New York Times article from last November that cited Harvard researchers who in 1999 who were able to slow light drastically and two years later were able to bring light to a stop.

Of most interest to Carroll about this science project, which already was well under way six years ago, is its new scale. Whereas the Harvard researchers required a roomful of equipment, according to the Times, IBM scientists now have created a tiny silicon device to slow down light from its usual 186,000 miles per second to 600 miles per second--or to about 0.3 percent of ordinary light speed.

"Heck, I could have a little light-stop-chip in my laptop some time in the future, plug into my optical-wall-plug, and access the yottabit universe," Carroll wrote.

There's no quibbling with ability of a wide-ranging, connect-the-dots futurist such as Carroll in getting those (trade journalists included) who may be stuck in a particular niche to drop the blinders and look around, and ahead. His talk certainly was an effective way to jolt ET attendees into a forward- leaning frame of mind.

New optical thinking

For input from one of the industry's optical experts, we turned to OpVista CTO Dr. Winston Way, who noted up front how thinking about optical networking already is undergoing a shift.

"Before, people only thought that you could manage packets, frames or bytes, but I think right now people have just started to think about the fact that light, or colors, can be managed also," Way said. One of OpVista's calling cards is its novel approach to reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs).

As for not simply managing, but arresting lightwaves, Way said: "I think that is really out-of-the-box thinking. It's interesting. Slow it down so you can see what's inside, then let it go again."

Way said this project reminded him of work done at AT&T Bell Labs in the late 1980s and early 1990s on optical signal processing, which sidestepped the physical limitations of the electronics domain. "I'm not sure it's practical today," he said.

What Carroll was talking about, of course, was not today but tomorrow, or rather the day or year (or decade?) after. "I don't make my stuff up," Carroll wrote. "The future surrounds us, is being developed all around us and all the (technologies) that people work on eventually come into our lives. I just think...that it is going to come into our lives quicker than we might think."

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:24 AM...February 13, 2007
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High velocity customers!

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!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:54 AM...January 26, 2007
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The Globalization of Financial Services in the High Velocity Economy

I'm now in Grand Cayman, one of the top five financial centers in the world, where I'll be speaking to the Cayman Business Outlook this morning.

I'll be taking a look at the rapid rate of change in the global financial industry -- which is really going from fast to furious, given the confluence of a number of factors:

New business models in the financial services sector are emerging faster than ever before. There is an increasing volatility with global money. Witness the rush to private equity: those organizations who were able to quickly respond and come up with innovative new financial products were the ones who benefited most from the private equity boom.
Unique challenges are emerging in the world of global finance from a skills perspective. As the financial services world becomes faster and more complex, the skill set of those involved in high end banking services is becoming ever more precious and scarce.
The unique attitudes and perspectives of Gen-Connect will further challenge the industry. Those aged 25 and under now becoming actively engaged in the workforce, albeit in an entirely different way: in that they work really hard to not have to get a career. Instead, they focus on a multiple set of skills and careers over a short period of time.
Offshoring is going strategic: It's not just about saving money any more. Outsourcing activities will increase, because it will become one of the key ways to establish a competitive advantage: if you can get the right skills at the right time for the right purpose in a financial marketplace, you might survive the challenges of the future.
Existing financial centers will be impacted by the rapid emergence of new competitors: Asia is afloat on buckets of cash. Continued political uncertainty means that volatility remains with oil, with the resulting massive excess oil wealth in the Middle East. Barron's indicates that Asian and OPEC countries accumulated about $1 trillion in reserves in '06. That's a huge amount of surplus monies that will be put to active use, and we can expect to see both Dubai and Singapore taking on an aggressive role, working to establish themselves as the global financial powerhouses of 2010.

Suffice it to say, there's a lot of high velocity out there: and the trick to thriving is riding these trends to success, by being open change, by innovating as a country, and by innovating as a financial community.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 6:17 AM...January 18, 2007
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Jump on board for 2007!

Innovation and the future are at the top of mind for a wide ranging group of associations and organizations for 2007.

Here's a brief list of a few of the organizations who have confirmed me as their keynote speaker for their upcoming '07 conferences:

2007 World Conference on Quality and Improvement, sponsored by the American Society for Quality, in Orlando, Florida
Fidelity Bank (Bahamas) for a keynote in Grand Cayman
National Blue Cross Blue Shield Association annual conference in Hollywood, Florida
Health Care Industry Distributors Association annual meeting in Austin, Texas
Property Casualty Insurers Association of America's Marketing and Underwriting Seminar in Austin, Texas
Direct Marketing Association, Toronto, Canada
American Community Bankers Association in Orlando, Florida
National Home Furnishings Association annual conference in Boca Raton, Florida
Canadian Tourism Commission annual meeting in Vancouver, BC
International Assn. for Human Resource Information Management 2007 conference in Houston, Texas
Association of Organ Procurement Organizations in Dallas, Texas
National Association of College Bookstores in Tampa, Florida
US Department of Agriculture in Savannah, Georgia
2007 BICSI Winter Conference, Orlando, FL

These are just a few of the organizations who have signed on and are bringing me in during 2007 to inspire their members and staff to be creative and innovative in a world of high velocity!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:28 PM...January 3, 2007
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Accounting beyond accountability...

I'm off to Halifax, Nova Scotia today; tomorrow, I'll be the luncheon keynote speaker for an annual get together of Certified Management Accountants.

The overall conference theme is "accountability" : the profession is immersed in the throes of the Enron fallout, as companies wrestle with the new focus on corporate ethics and responsibility. Kurt Eichenwald, author of Conspiracy of Fools, a fabulous saga of the Enron story, is the opening speaker.

The entire conference is focused around the "accountability" theme. I take them in a different direction -- what do we do after we deal with the accountability issue? Accountability is critical, but I think what is even more important is that accounting professionals need to a new set of responsibilities in the high velocity economy.

I captured some of those requirements in my post on "The New Face of Manufacturing: Agility, Insight and Execution." If you extend the thinking there, you can see that the real strategic opportunity for accounting professionals is to provide, manage and actively be involved in the critical insight needed to take an organization forward.

The key message: accountability is important, but I think everyone understands that. We need to start preparing for the next step.

(Did I say "we"? I did. My secret, as a fellow who focuses on innovation and creativity, is that I'm actually a professional accountant (and still am) ... going back some 20+ years......)

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:13 PM...November 15, 2006
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The impact of globalization

At the Swiss Innovation Forum in Zurich, I took a look at the real impact of globalization -- the new consumer, market commoditization, rapid emergence of new business models, shortened product lifecycles.....

The bottom line? "We need to shake ourselves out of any complacency that we can continue doing tomorrow what we did today."

That's why innovation is critical : organizations today are in a situation in which everything around them is fluid, constantly changing and evolving. Permanence has been torn asunder.

It is only by focusing on continual, rapid change that an organization can adapt to today's new global realities.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:29 AM...November 12, 2006
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The innovation killers

At the Swiss Innovation Forum in Zurich, I took a look at the attitudes, ideas and cultures which always manage to stifle -- and kill -- any hope for innovation within an organization.

Key point? "Organizations fail, because their have failure engrained in their corporate culture!"

This clip is based on an article I wrote a few years ago about the innovation killers. I often tell a joke on stage that it sometimes seems that there are groups of people who wake up every morning and ask themselves, "what I am going to do today to kill off new ideas?"

Take a look at the list of innovation killer phrases. Take it into your next meeting, and start to take score of how often these phrases are used. That will give you a sense as to whether you are slowly dying from organizational sclerosis, or if you do have a corporate culture that permits innovation to thrive.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:19 AM...November 10, 2006
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The new face of manufacturing : agility, insight and execution...

Yesterday I gave the opening keynote for the annual manufacturers meeting of the Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association. Most of the folks in attendance were CEO's and senior management with a wide variety of companies, and they were keen for insight into what they should be doing beyond knowing that the world is flat.

There was quite a bit of information to share with them. In the last few years, I have hosted a dozen or more sessions on behalf of the global computer giant SAP. I've interviewed the CFOs and CIO's of a wide range of major manufacturing companies such as Purdue Pharma, Hunt Oil, J Crew, Fossil Watches, Lennox Furnaces, Endo Pharmaceuticals, Adaptec and more. I've studied and analyzed what it is that these companies are doing to ensure that they can thrive in a world of rapidly changing markets.

Several key themes have emerged.

Concentrate on rapid replenishment: smart supply chains are the bare minimum for today's manufacturers. What you really need to do is build an information-partnership with your suppliers and customers, ensuring that you stay lean and mean at the same time that you meet very tight delivery expectations. It's not about building-to-inventory -- it's about building to demand and build-to-order.
Meet the raised bar of expectations : The new math is easy: that purchasing manager you are dealing with is often dealing with the best and the brightest companies on the planet. They will expect and demand the same level of service from you. The bar of expectations is pretty high, and it gets higher every day. At the very least, you've got to be able to provide instant, 110% service with everything you do -- support, order status, bid prices, dispute resolution. If you don't, you are increasingly out of the game. Today's customer has options, and they won't hang around waiting for you to fix your problems.
Focus on planning agility: Gone are the days of sitting back and figuring out how to crank out a production run of 700,000 items. Markets and demand are changing so rapidly that you might need to retool, rework and redo your production capabilities, so that you can respond to something new that is going to happen next week. That's why you've got to ensure that you make agility -- the ability to change your own goalposts -- the cornerstone of your manufacturing capability.
Go maximum on flexibility: Here's your new production mantra: volatility is the new normal. The last five years have taught us that unpredictability now comes at us in regular waves. If you are a food manufacturer and can't instantly respond to sudden, new food traceability requirements, you'll be faced with whopping, new, unmanageable excess costs. If you can't provide detailed new logistics information to respond to some sudden new security concern, you don't have the right flexibility. Today's manufacturers live with the new unknown, and plan for it.
Transition single source labor to multi-source skills: Old line manufacturers have different workers that do different stuff. The new guys have transitioned themselves with an investment in training and attitude so that their production team members can take on multiple different projects and assignments. It's not about single-sourced skills -- it's about ingrained capabilities to instantly shift skills and resources to meet sudden new demands.
Have deep insight into rapidity: With the collapse of product lifecycles and wildly fluctuating consumer / customer attitudes, you've got to stay on top of how quickly demand might change. All of the manufacturers I've studied with have ensured that they have the systems and technology that provide them deep, deep insight into how quickly their markets are changing. This includes CEO's and executive management who can access real time, high-level snapshots of all kinds of key operating metrics. Sales force and marketing and production teams who know exactly what is going on in the marketplace, minute by minute by minute, and plan accordingly.
Concentrate on commonality of business / manufacturing processes: Most manufacturing companies of any scope and scale have had multiple, independently operated plants and facilities, with countless numbers of different production control, manufacturing, planning, logistics and supply chain systems. Anyone with any degree of smarts today has ripped out the junk, and has gone to one, single, comprehensive system to do it all. Time should not be spent on trying to make different bits of code work -- time needs to be spent in focusing on the competitive challenges in the marketplace!
Implement flexible, just in time processes: What will your customers be buying six months from now? What new products might come out that will blow away your market position? If you don't know, you should -- and you should have the capability to quickly revamp, refocus and redo your business and manufacturing processes on an on-demand basis. The companies I've studied have pursued two key goals: ensuring that they can quickly redirect their manufacturing process, and in addition, having an IT staff that can quickly roll out sophisticated new business applications at the drop of a hat. Hand in hand, these two factors allow the organization to respond to the rapidity of market change that is a reality today.
Develop better bid or service costing: Forget flying by the seat of your pants when you are putting out a bid on a contract. With margins so tight and with everyone becoming religious on cost management, that's a surefire way of ensuring that you'll lose money. Smart manufacturers have put in place the intelligent information backbones that let them bid and cost with a precision that matches the quality of their manufacturing process.
Work to become the “supplier of choice: Your key goal today? You want to make it as easy as possible for your customers -- whether they are wholesalers, retailers, distributors, end users or other manufacturers -- to do business with you. Think of instilling "electronic glue" in your relationship -- it's all about partnering with them and putting in place business processes that makes it so easy for them to do business with you, that they will be unlikely to take their business elsewhere.
Be relentless on operational excellence: Globalization means that being great is no longer enough -- you have to be even greater. That's why pursuing and achieving absolutely pure excellence within every aspect of the manufacturing operation is critical -- you've got to go beyond greatness, to excellence, in order to compete in the massively global, increasingly flat, ever more rapid, customer-empowered marketplace that is today. It's only by aiming for the highest that you can begin to hope to do what needs to be done.

All of the CFO's and CIO's and senior management teams at the companies I've studied have concentrated their efforts on three key words: agility, insight and execution. Pretty cool stuff!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:45 PM...November 6, 2006
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What's your future-attitude?

There are two types of people in the world -- those who view the future with fear, worry and concern -- and the rest of the people who look at the future as an opportunity.

The latter group are the innovators; the former group will do everything they can do dismiss the idea of doing anything differently. (They use the "innovation killer phrases" which I often use on stage.....)

I just grabbed a quick video clip from a talk I did for the Cedar Rapids, Iowa Chamber of Commerce earlier this fall (which drew a standing room only crowd of 800 people), in which I'm talking about the attitudes of farmers towards the future. I spent a bit of time talking about the 10 Big Trends for Agriculture, and put into perspective that we really need to focus on the opportunity of the upside.

It might be worth a watch, because it really puts these two camps into perspective. Take a look at it here

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:37 AM...November 2, 2006
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The future of sporting goods in a world of high velocity....

I'm off today to give the dinner keynote for the Sporting Goods Manucturers Association Sports and Technology Convergence Conference in San Diego.

Take a look at the comments I made back in July about the essence of my keynote tonight.

When it comes to the future of sporting goods, it's all being the fact that the future is being redefined by the next generation. As I observe: "...these kids live, breathe, learn, teach, talk, listen, create and innovate through a widely networked world that facilitates feedback so quickly it's rapidly changing how this generation will expect results and satisfaction from new products."

That's the focus of my talk tonight for several hundred CEO's, senior executives and others involved in the global sporting industry. Here are some of the key points I will be making:

It's happening faster than you think: As with all my talks, my key word for the dinnner keynote tonight is VELOCITY. The rate of change in the world of sports -- by which everyday sporting goods are being connected, redeveloped, redefined and redeployed -- is nothing short of astounding.
It's about much more than iPods: Everyone seems to be focused on the fact that Nike has linked a shoe to an iPod, and Burton has placed iPod controls on a snowboard jacket. That's cool stuff. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. If you want a sense of what is really going on, read my blog post from last June, The Future of Snowboarding and Skiing.
It's not about accessorizing: It's about re-defining the product : Imagine a baseball bat that has been chip-empowered; it now links into your home network data cloud, so that your kids can get instant analysis of their swing practice as they do it. Far-fetched? Scientifically, not at all. Freaks you out? Of course it does -- but what is happening here is that empowering sporting gear with intelligence will completely re-define existing products, so that they end up doing new and different things.
We might not get it, but they do!: A chip-linked baseball bat might not make sense to you, but it does to Gen-Connect! A lot of senior executives have a hard time believing that hyper-connectivity is really coming to the sporting world. Maybe it's just a fad. What's wrong with those kids anyways, they think?
It's happening because Gen-Connect expects stuff to do stuff: There's the nub of the issue: while senior management baby boomers might not get it, the generation of young kids today do. They're wired, hyper-connected, and are expecting a world in which they can easily link and interact with the stuff that surrounds them. To them, a baseball bat with a chip is as normal as is a movie with popcorn. Things link. That's what they do. And when they link, they become a part of their massively interlinked world.
It's happening in the infinite global innovation idea loop: Leading sports innovators have come to realize that when it comes to the future, it's often their customers who are defining the future before they do. Innovation is happening out in the infinite global idea loop, and it is by learning to tap into the loop that sports goods executives will discover the next wave of innovation that will affect their product.
It's about extensibility: Smart sports goods manufacturers won't build a product and release to market. They will build a platform that customers can tinker with, add on to, modify and enhance. If I'm bringing a new set of skis to market that provide for all kinds of interactivity, I want to build into those skiis a set of capabilities that will let the customers develop things -- that I might not even imagine is possible, let alone be able to imagine!

It's going to be a great dinner, and a lot of fun!!!!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:48 AM...October 25, 2006
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Healthcare and medical trends

Get ready for bio-connectivity, skills wars, knowledge obsolesence and bio-informatics, not to forget healthcare stores.

Those are just of the few trends I've been covering in some recent health care keynotes, both within the health care, medical, pharmaceutical and insurance industries.

I find that a lot of people simply don't understand the massive depth of change that is set to sweep the industry; people are focused on the current big issues (and there are big issues); but they aren't really thinking just how far more challenging things are set to become.

The health care sector desperately needs some creative thinking as to where we are headed, and this page of trends that I've compiled tries to help that process along by stirring up imaginations as to what comes next in the world of health care.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:30 PM...October 6, 2006
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Sporting Goods Business: "Trend Expert Will Keynote SGMA Conference"

This press release came out mid-August while I was off busy building sandcastles....

Trend Expert Will Keynote SGMA Conference; (3:15) Today's teens and pre-teens live, breathe, learn, teach, talk, listen, create, and innovate through a widely networked world that facilitates feedback so quickly that it's rapidly changing how this generation will expect results and satisfaction from new products. Those are the preliminary thoughts of futurist and trends expert Jim Carroll who refers to today's teens and pre-teens as "GenConnect."

Carroll will focus on “GenConnect” when he delivers a keynote speech, “The Velocity of Change," at SGMA’s Sports + Technology Convergence this fall (October 24-26; Estancia Resort & Spa; La Jolla, CA).
Carroll estimates, partly from research and partly from the sociological observations of his own two young techies at home, that “GenConnect” is so wired and multi-tasked that it’s rapidly lowering their attention spans and dramatically raising their expectations for product performance.

For “GenConnect,” return on investment is all about the customer experience. As they become more technologically involved, their expectations for product innovations revolve around interactivity and connectivity. And as technology advances, their patience diminishes.

“GenConnect” is the beneficiary of super-fast, on-demand technology – and companies building products would do well to remember this. With this principle in mind, Carroll finds sporting goods a great place to capture the attention of this young consumer. According to Carroll, “every sport thing we know has become wired.”

It’s apparent that the sporting goods industry seems to have found many applications of technology in building a new user experience. From the integration of monitoring devices and athletic shoes comes smart feedback for fitness buffs. For a real thrill, Carroll points to the snowboard and ski industry. From Burton’s deal with Motorola for BlueTooth integration to on-board motion analysis to smart-goggles for maps/trail conditions to on-hill marketing opportunities through ski and snowboard connectivity, there’s “a lot going on with sticks and planks,” noted Carroll.

Jim will address The Velocity of Change and the keys to more agile innovation in the product lifecycle process.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:03 PM...August 21, 2006
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10 major health care / pharmaceutical trends

I'm off to do a half day session with a major player in the pharmaceutical industry; I've compiled a list of the 10 key pharmaceutical / health care trends that they should be thinking about.

I'll be walking through these issues, and will then lead a workshop focused on the question: how do we ensure we have the agility, insight and execution in order to survive and thrive in this period of rapid change?

I've done extensive work within the healthcare sector over the last many years; this is one industry where the rapidity of scientific driven change is simply unprecedented. Think about what is really happening around us, and think about what needs to be done:

A transformative shift - Personalized medicine drives the agenda: the big picture item is that we are in the midst of a fundamental, significant shift in healthcare philosophy and medical research: from a world in which we “react” to disease and illness after it has happened, to one in which we will be doing far more to “prevent” health care problems through highly personalized medicine.

This is primarily coming about because of furious rates of discovery related to genomics. This more than anything will dominate the health care / pharmaceutical research / delivery agenda through the next years.
Knowledge growth becomes exponential; pace of innovation / discovery picks up: medical knowledge is now doubling every eight years. Expect it to be doubling every two years by 2010 -- with the result that medical professionals will be struggling to an even greater degree in keeping up than they are today. Research taps out practical results faster than ever before. The key for everyone is tapping into global collaborative discoveries / keeping up / developing agility for rapid innovation, response, development, and implementation. For pharmaceutical and health care suppliers, it's about rapid development and rapid time to market.
Discovery moves offshore: for a good chunk of the pharmaceutical industry, the proces of R&D, approval and application will increasingly move offshore, particularly to China / India, due to different regulatory requirements (or lack thereof). Also, such things as stem-cell research limitations, US visa policies and other factors play a factor in the diminishing role of the US as a pharmaceutical industry hub. The pharmaceutical industry will continue to spend a huge amount of time learning to work within the new shifting zones of influence in the world of research.
Theory into practice becomes the primary focus; operational excellence is key: already, health care can’t keep up with the rate of scientific discovery: “Because of the rapid discovery of new medical knowledge, you'll get the most up to date treatment today only 50% of the time” is one key stat to remember. Tomorrow, the prime focus in the medical community will be how to ingest and incorporate this new knowledge into practice. In terms of the pharmaceutical industry, the key goal will be “operational excellence,” i.e. ….from the Financial Times 6 Jun article on Roche, “…the Avastin story also highlights a central issue for innovation-led companies: how to make sure advances in the laboratory are brought to market quickly and efficiently.” There’s a whole line of thinking emerging in that article and elsewhere that puts into perspective that collaborative excellence in managing complex teams is quickly becoming a key and critical success factor.
Skills fragment and a battle for skills drives decisions: hyper-growth in knowledge and new medical discoveries means that every medical profession is becoming more specialized, leading to a greater degree of niche-oriented medical skills than we see today. In the pharmaceutical industry, small biotech companies will continue to dominate the research agenda over big-pharma, by focusing on ever tighter niche markets, as well as by discovering disease-oriented drugs based on specific genetic markers. Skills fragmentation results in challenges, but so does the looming baby boomer retirement wave. A war for medical talent drives much of the agenda of the industry by 2010, and the battleground is global in scope.
Complexity partnerships take on an increasing role: because of the skills crisis, rapid discovery, need for operational excellence, knowledge growth and discovery, big/medium the pharmaceutical industry will continue to look to shed additional component pieces of the discovery / regulatory approval process; outsourcing takes on a whole new meaning.
Bio-informatics emerges, core competence becomes critical: Microsoft estimates that at least 50,000 people worldwide are working in the field of bio-informatics – the folks who are developing the highly sophisticated computer databases and computational methodologies that can do the billions of measurements on an individual patient that is leading us into the era of personalized medicine.
Bio-connectivity becomes the next big thing: a new generation of intelligent, Internet-connected medical devices flood the industry, providing new opportunities for monitoring and management of difficult health care conditions. Furious pace of innovation occurs here as consumer tech trends (collapsing product lifecycles) come to medical devices and medical technology.
Hospitals get “de-physical”, customer service comes to the industry: today, a health care institution is thought of as the building or campus that makes up its constituent parts. Tomorrow, it will be defined by the reach of its virtual network, and the hospital will be thought of as the extended community network by which a good portion of its services are provided. Walmart is coming to health care; the Minute-Clinic business model and others like it mean that we are seeing a revolution in customer service come to the industry.
Generational attitude transforms the system: the entrance of Gen-Y -- kids who are in 2005 aged 15 -- into the health care system -- will bring a flood of new ideas, innovation and new ways of thinking helping to break some of the organizational sclerosis that has clogged up the opportunity for change in the world of health care.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:43 AM...July 25, 2006
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What's Next? Trends Shaping the Future of Commercial Horticulture

I've just returned from Vail after doing a keynote and workshop for the American Nursery and Landscape Association.

As the session description for the afternoon workshop commented: "Your mind is spinning from the morning's trends discussion. Now it's time to turn those trends and challenges into a tangible business opportunity! After 100 years, StarKist finally got rid of its tin-can, replacing it with a new resealable plastic tuna pouch. $200 million of new revenue later, they've realized the benefit of aggressive change and innovation. StarKist looked at the trend toward convenience, and modified their product accordingly.... Jim Carroll will roll up his sleeves and work with you to discover what your business' tin can is...and help you see that opportunity comes from your ability to innovate and change, adapt and evolve, as the very foundation of the industry continues to evolve."

(The full session description is here)

Like every industry, horticulture and garden retailing is being influenced by a wide variety of trends; some of the issues I spoke about included:

hyper-science, including the rapid evolution of new species for particular markets and hardiness zones based on plant genomics. But it's not just that: the global infinite idea loop is also seeing the emergence of new plant strains, which fuels new consumer desire, once they see the new things they can do in their garden that they could not do before .... imagine hydrangeas that bloom all summer long....
marketing to the zero-attention span customer, who now scans shelf-space at an average rate of 12 feet per second! Gardening stores and others in the industry need to focus not on selling plants, but on selling brands and solutions. The customer isn't looking for a plant by a Latin name -- they want branding and design! Some growers are doing exactly that, such as with the "Tropical Splendor" design which involves cool brand names such as "Exotic Tahiti" or "Fiesta Cozumel"
the emergence of pre-packaged life, a time in which today's gardener doesn't want to do the work -- they want an outdoor living room solution, of but which flowers and plants are but a part of an overall design. I identified the outdoor living room trend in 2003 -- and today, already, the outdoor living product market is now estimated at $15.7 billion, or 37% of total lawn and garden spending....
the rapid emergence of new markets: all of the above means that retailers in this sector are witnessing new products and markets appearing faster than ever before, with the result that their team agility -- the ability to respond to rapid market change -- is critical to their fuuture success
upside down retail -- as with every aspect of innovation, the retailer is now in charge of the design process, and producers must learn to listen and follow, rather than mandate and dictate.
and programmable plants: yup, that's right! Pretty soon, many garden plants will have the intelligence and connectivity to signal to the home irrigation network when they need water. With water being the oil of the 21st century, the home gardening industry is faced with some pretty big challenges -- and science is quickly bringing us some pretty unique developments!
Change acceptance is a challenge: I think one of the most challenging issues occurring is that traditional florists/nurseries and gardeneres are having a really tough time dealing with the new consumer. A fellow name Eliot Wadsworth of White Flower Farm commented in the May 11, 2006 issue of Greenhouse Grower that as gardeners, "we were selling a process and a way of life" but that all they are selling now "a canned and instantaneous-gratification product. " That's exactly what many consumers are looking for; and even so, many traditional gardeners and florists will remain. Innovation is all about understanding change -- as difficult and sad as it might be from an emotional perspective.

All in all, it was a great day and a great session -- although I'll be the first to admit that my energy was seriously drained by the 8,000 foot elevation at Vail combined with 95F temperatures....! That was some heat wave!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:11 AM...July 18, 2006
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Bio-engineered body parts, the Cold Store and personalized medicine....

I'm doing a very futuristic talk tomorrow for a major health care company; I'll be talking from the year 2030, taking a look at where we are in the world of health care some 25 short years from now.

A couple of the bullets from the presentation:

"There was now a huge industry of personally engineered bio-body parts – and the never disappearing group of baby boomers like me was certainly taking advantage of this stuff to continue living an active lifestyle!"
"I was taking a little pill that would directly attack the virus I had picked up -- it was based on my own particular gene profile and would target the darned condition pretty directly."
"The pill bottle linked into my home network grid in order to interact with the prescription drug company. They had specifically engineered this medicine the day before for my own bio-code, based on a quick sampling of my blood and sinus condition that was done at the local Cold Store."

Far fetched stuff? Not at all -- as I note later in the keynote, when I take a look back to today: "In 2006 we were right at the edge of what would prove to be the biggest change ever to hit the world of health care ..... a shift in medical philosophy from “reacting” to disease and illness, to doing far more to “prevent” health care problems through highly personalized medicine."

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 4:31 PM...June 27, 2006
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Swiss Innovation forum keynote now online

You can now watch the full 35 minute keynote I gave in Zurich earlier this year to the Swiss Innovation Forum.

I cover off innovation methodologies; the global innovation loop; the rapidity of change and other issues. Enjoy!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:33 AM...June 17, 2006
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How do you sell the future to people who have no interest in it?

There have been dozens of keynotes through the last few months. All kinds of industries; executives; professionals; markets; challenges.

There's a lot of change going on out there, and the brutal reality is that some get it -- and a lot do not.

Each and every keynote has involved a lot of research, plenty of discussions, and a fair bit of time spent understanding how an industry or profession is changing. You learn some amazing things -- farmers and funeral homes, for example, are some of the most change-capable people out there. Both are innovative, realistic, practical, and open to new ways of thinking. (Maybe this has to do with the fact that global food production has to double in the next few decades to keep up with global food consumption, and that most of those people will become customers of the latter at some point. Ok, there is room for optimism....!)

Through all the discussions and all the preparation and all the time spent on stage, there's been enough material to write a dozen new books, but I'm going to distill it into The Masters of Business Imagination Handbook (the "current" new working title) which will go to the think-factory in a few weeks.

Suffice it to say, there was a crystallizing slide that I pulled together when I keynoted a PWC conference a week or so ago, in which I outlined to a number of executives how they could best segment their customer base in order to determine where to best find opportunity.

The more I think about it, that slide probably contained some really cool insight into how to sell into today’s economy.

I suggested to the audience that they should look at a company / client / industry, and undertake a measure of their change-quotient. If it is low -- if people / executives / an industry can't cope with reality -- if they are hopelessly mired in "today" – and hence, they;ve got a pretty low change-quotient – then bail out. If they are thinking that tomorrow's market / strategy / products / skills / capabilities will be fulfilled by what they have in place today, their change-quotient is hopelessly low.

Worse than low – they simply can’t deal with change.

And you can use that measure – the change-quotient -- to segment your client / customer / industry base, and determine where you should best focus your energies.

How do you determine the change-quotient? I suggested a few factors:

velocity ratio : what is the rate of change within the industry? What’s the velocity of business model change? How many new competitors are there, are how quickly is the industry blurring? What’s the staff turnover rate? How quickly do new products come to market? Pick high-velocity ratio targets, since they are more likely to be focused on making change work.
rising tides: how quickly are customer expectations changing? If you’ve got an industry in which there are rapidly rising tides in terms of minimum service delivery, you’ve got an industry in which there are countless opportunities for innovative, future oriented products,
innovation index: is the industry widely innovative, or are there only a few scattered folks who dare buck the current reality? Is it an industry stuck in 2003, or are they somewhere that is just about right now and a bit more of tomorrow? I’ve met a lot of industries who are sleepwalking into the future; on the other hand, I’ve met many who are awake and ready to go.
creativity capability. Gosh, just who runs the industry? Who are the CxO's? Is it mostly a lot of folks who really good at just running things? Then run away – that’s why I coined the phrase “Masters of Business Imagination” in the first place!
retirement rate: Not to be crude, but how many boomers are there hanging around who want the benefits, want the salary, and want the executive responsibility, but don’t want to have to do anything to confront change? This, more than anything, can be one of the key measures for change.
generational tolerance: At the age of 47, I've realized I've been meeting thousands of Gen-X and Gen-Connecters in a lot of industries who scream in silent frustration each and every day. They’re stuck in organizations with management who actively work to kill new ideas. They’re full of innovation, but they have no outlet for it. On the other hand, there are other industries where the frustration doesn’t boil away, but instead, is tapped for opportunity. Spot those industries -- where "young people" are welcomed as a source for ideas -- and you’ve got an industry with massive agility.
wisdom wealth: Boomers need not be change-barriers; indeed, there are some who understand where change is occurring, and who are using their years of experience – often with devastating effect – to spot and capitalize on opportunity. These are some of the most powerful organizations on the planet. They've merged the generations, and are change-masters.

It comes to this: if you are a company that is selling the future, don't even try to deal with those who don't want to deal with it.

There seems to be an entire generation of CxO's with the fundamental strategy of not seeing the future, don't hear the future, and don't do the future. You can discover this by studying the change-quotient of the industry and of the company.

Focus on the high-change-quotient targets -- on those who get where we are going -- and you'll do much better with your strategy, and have way more fun.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:55 PM...June 7, 2006
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Racine County, Wisconsin -- something big is happening here....

I did a keynote the other night for the Racine County Economic Development Corporate, located in, of course, Racine County, Wisconsin.

There is something *really cool* happening here ; when I get a chance I'm going to pull my thoughts together and summarize what I see. Suffice it to say, it is a community focused on opportunity, not threat; agility, not challenge.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran an article in advance of my talk, below.

'Agility' called key asset for Racine's future
Business needs to be flexible in thinking, working, says author
Posted: May 27, 2006

Jim Carroll, a futurist and innovation and trends expert, wants Racine County business leaders to learn and to live one word.

Agility.

Carroll isn't talking about the physical ability to scale a wall or touch one's toes. He's talking about agility in thinking, managing and manufacturing methods.

"One great word is agility. That's what we need, that's the trend, the capital we need. How do we develop the agility to deal with the future that is coming at us faster than ever before so that we can shift on a dime?" Carroll said.

Carroll will speak at the 21st anniversary celebration of the Racine County Economic Development Corp.

The event will be held starting at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Racine Marriott Hotel, 7111 Washington Ave., Mount Pleasant.

An example of agility is General Motors' plan to use a more flexible manufacturing model, said Carroll, author of "What I Learned From Frogs in Texas: Saving Your Skin with Forward-Thinking Innovation."

"That's a trend that impacts every manufacturer," Carroll said. "Consumers are coming to expect more choice."

Racine County is like many other communities that have found the old ways of doing business are no longer lucrative.

"Everywhere has been through a huge amount of complex and difficult change," Carroll said. "Too many of us sit back and say how we wish we could get things back to the way it was. It won't."

Communities like Racine have to continue to look ahead and to build on the community's attributes, he said. For Racine County, the attributes include things such as location, easy transportation, lifestyle and workforce, he said.

Carroll, who is from of Toronto, said communities need to recapture the spirit and the passion they once had.

"There was a perfect storm in 2000-2001, with the dot-com collapse, 9-11 and the war in Iraq," Carroll said. "If you look at the excitement that existed in the business community in the 1990s, there was a tremendous belief there was a lot of potential. That went away. A lot of folks stopped looking at the future. They have been getting too dispirited by what's happening in the context of globalization."

Recapture that positive attitude, Carroll said. See where the opportunities are, he said.

Specialized manufacturing, for example, is a growth area.

"To take on some of these higher skilled manufacturing jobs that won't go to China, we need to specialize, we need to upgrade skills," Carroll said.

"There is no easy answer and no easy solution other than a community saying it's not gong to continue sliding back, but it will have the spirit and momentum that will move it forward."

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:19 AM...June 2, 2006
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Fiber to the home keynote

Industry Luminaries Keynote the 2006 FTTH Conference & Expo in October

This release has just gone out; I'll be keynoting this event for this fast paced industry this fall. Here's an excerpt; the full press release is here

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. - (BUSINESS WIRE) - May 30, 2006 - The Fiber-to-the-Home Council today announced the keynote speaker lineup for its fifth annual conference on October 2 - 5, 2006 at the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas. Innovations in Fiber to the Home: What's Next? will be the premier event for advancing residential and community broadband access in North America. Sprint North Supply, Alcatel and Hitachi are platinum sponsors for the conference.

Keynote speakers include:

Hiromichi Shinohara, Director of NTT Access Network Service Systems Labs, will open the conference on October 3rd. Mr. Shinohara has been engaged in research and development of fiber optic cables, broadband networks and optical access systems since joining NTT Laboratories in 1978.

Robert (Bob) Ingalls, President of Verizon's Retail Markets Group, will address the conference on Wednesday, October 4th. Mr. Ingalls is responsible for the launch of the company's new FIOS Internet and FIOS TV products which are at the forefront of Verizon's transformation into a leading broadband company.

Jeffrey Weber, Vice President, Product & Strategy, AT&T, is responsible for the new data and video product lines under Project Lightspeed and will speak on October 5th. Project Lightspeed is the initiative to expand AT&T's fiber-optics network deeper into neighborhoods to deliver AT&T's U-verse-TV, voice and high-speed Internet access services.

Featured speaker Jim Carroll, futurist, trends and innovation expert is the author of What I Learned from Frogs in Texas: Saving Your Skin with Forward-Thinking Innovation. He is a frequent speaker at global events, with a client list that includes Motorola, Verizon, Daimler Chrysler, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the National Rural Telecom Cooperative among others.

......

FTTH Conference Brent Moore & Associates Inc Ms. Laurie Poole, 514-923-6229 Email: lauriep@brentmoore.com

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:11 AM...
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Hyper-boomers, Gen-Connect and Manure Managers

One of the most pressing challenges yet to come will the massive workplace and skills issues that organizations are going to have to manage -- a widely age-diverse workplace, completely different career expectations, and a significant skills shortage due to rapid knowledge growth.

There are a bunch of upcoming keynotes where I'm focusing on these issues for major clients. This morning, I wrote up the session description for one conference brochure.

It's a fascinating topic, full of challenges -- and I have quite a bit of fun with my audiences on this one!

-------

Join international futurist, trends & innovation expert Jim Carroll as he explores some of the biggest challenges facing organizations today. With the coming "end of retirement," most companies will come to realize they'll need a lot of telephones with big buttons for members the 70+ folks who are still a part of their workforce -- and a lot of innovative workplace practices as well. That's but one challenge -- the arrival of "Gen-Connect" -- the kids who have been wired with a mouse since birth -- will lead to the question of whether "good luck" will be the only possible response to the question of "Managing Gen-Y." This workplace weirdness will only be compounded by the ongoing rapid evolution of knowledge and skills, such that most organizations will find it impossible to find the highly specialized skills needed in the economy of the future. Are we really in an economy in which there is an emerging profession of folks known as "manure managers?" You bet -- and it's all part of the unique issues that companies must begin thinking about today. Jim's recent clients include such global organizations as Disney, the BBC, DaimlerChrylser, Nestle, Caterpillar, and the US Army Corps of Engineers. Join Jim as he shares his insight into the trends that you already faced with, and the innovative and creative ways that you can come to grips with the depth of the challenges ahead.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:22 AM...April 27, 2006
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What's your agility

I spent the day in Pasadena with, and did a keynote for the Disney Consumer Products group; this is "the business segment of The Walt Disney Company that extends the Disney brand to merchandise ranging from apparel, toys, home décor and books to interactive games, food and beverages, stationery, electronics and animation art.

We had a good, long look at future trends in retail, the emerging consumer of the future, and how agility, insight and execution are critical leadership capabilities that are needed in a time of rapid change. This is one of many talks I've done with consumer product or entertainment companies in the last while; folks are realizing that the rapid challenges emerging in the retail sector globally need to be met head on.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:16 AM...April 26, 2006
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Why the world is becoming faster!

I've put up a new video clip from my keynote for the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers ; this short clip focuses on the issue of why the rate of change around us is going to accelerate, because of simple demographic realities.

I find that a lot of people think about the future in terms of what they see around them today. In this clip, I try to help people realize just how quickly business models and everything else are set to change as the next generation takes over.

Watch the clip

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:59 AM...February 28, 2006
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"Agility key to survival"

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.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:29 AM...February 23, 2006
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Farmers, producers, ranchers and innovation...

It's agriculture week! At least, it seems that way -- on Friday, I keynoted the Alberta Beef Industry Conference; for three days this week, I'm speaking to a select group of growers who are customers of Syngenta, one of the world's leading agribusinesses; on Friday, I keynote the Ontarion Farm Equipment Association, and two weeks hence, an association of soybean farmers!

I'm focusing on my trends for agriculture. What is fascinating with this group of people is that they tend to be some of the most innovative individuals on the planet. They've been regularly buffetted by the ups and downs of the agricultural cycle, the vagaries of weather, the unrelability of commodity markets, and a flood of new science, methodologies, treatments and seed varieties.

The typical city-dweller has an image of someone who complains and runs to the government for subsidies; the reality is that the typical farmer is an astute business person with a fine ear for innovation, someone who thrives by the exhiliaration and challenge of an extremely complex business; someone who it optimistic about the future and the potential profitability of their industry. The groups I have been dealing with relish learning about the new science surrounding the industry, and are eager to learn what needs to be done to continue going forward with a focus on opportunity.

Key fact: global food consumption is going to double in the next 20 years due to population growth. There is little new arable land coming on stream. This means existing producers will play a key role. Good thing, since their attitudes are certainly there!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:02 AM...February 21, 2006
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Don't repeat the mistakes of the music industry....

Yet more coverage of my keynote for the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers in Tampa last month:

"In his breathless keynote address kicking off the conference, Carroll warned cable officials against making the same kinds of mistakes that the music industry made when it fought tooth-and-nail against unauthorized MP3 downloads from the Internet. Instead, Carroll called on cable executives to embrace such new products and services as portable media players, peer-to-peer file-sharing and Internet-delivered telephony. Contending that "the geeks will always win because they can always rewrite the code," he urged cable officials to view the new technologies as market opportunities to be exploited rather than competitive threats to be squashed.

Read the full article over at the Cable Digital News site

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:14 PM...February 6, 2006
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Swiss Innovation Forum keynote this Friday!

I'm off tomorrow night to Zurich; on Friday I will do a closing keynote for about 800 senior executives at the Swiss Innovation Forum. It's a wonderful forum in which individuals will be exchanging ideas and views on how to cope in a world which is changing at a furious pace.

Details about the conference can be found here:

I can't not go to Zurich and not ski the Alps, and so from Saturday to Monday, I'll be skiing in the Grindelwald region south of Zurich.

It should be an experience!

In my talk in Zurich, I'll be taking a look at the "innovation killers" that so many companies have in place -- but I'll also be taking a broader look at the types of innovation that companies can pursue.

Innovation isn't just about new product development -- it is all about looking at the way you operate, the business models you pursue, the markets you work within, the partners you seek, and the agility you put in place. I'll share with the audience some innovation success stories that define different types of innovation, including:

Operational agility
Market shift innovation
Change acceptance innovation
Service/partnership innovation
Innovation through mission refocusing
Sparking innovation through external relationships
innovation that can come from cultural restructuring
challenge changing innovation
change embracement innovation
design partnerships
and complexity partnering innovation

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 4:22 PM...January 24, 2006
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"...what lies ahead three-to-five years from now?"

SCTE SLATES FUTURIST JIM CARROLL AS ET 2006 KEYNOTE SPEAKER

DEC. 13, 2005 (Exton, PA)—The Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) is pleased to announce that the keynote speaker for the SCTE Conference on Emerging Technologies® (ET) 2006 will be Jim Carroll, international futurist, trends and innovation expert.

ET 2006 is set for Tuesday through Thursday, Jan. 10-12 in Tampa, Fla. The keynote address, set for Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 9 a.m., is sponsored by BelAir Networks.

SCTE’s ET, which offers the cable telecommunications industry’s leading engineers and technologists a look at what lies ahead three-to-five years from now, includes four hard-hitting technical sessions and an array of networking opportunities, including the Thursday, Jan. 12 second-day keynote luncheon, sponsored by Scientific-Atlanta and featuring speaker Gary Traver, senior vice president and COO, Comcast Media Center.

Carroll’s Wednesday morning keynote address early in the conference’s first full day promises to help get ET attendees focused on future possibilities for the industry. Based on highly original research, Carroll provides a unique blend of demographic, lifestyle, and technological insight into global economic trends. He sets the stage for organizations to become more competitive, innovative, and adaptable—and more open to the opportunities of the future. His past client list includes the likes of DaimlerChrysler, the U.S Army Corps of Engineers, and Motorola.

For more about Carroll, visit http://et.scte.org/keynote.htm. For more about ET 2006, including registration details, visit http://et.scte.org/.

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:29 PM...December 15, 2005
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"Volatility is the new normal"

I recently keynoted the Furniture Today 2005 Leadership conference in Miami. This article reports on my talk.

Futurist: Changes will present new opportunities
Furniture Today, 12/14/2005 .

MIAMI -- If you aren't comfortable with change, you probably won't like Jim Carroll's vision of the future.

"Everything is changing so fast, you don't know what is going to happen next," he told the Furniture/Today Leadership Conference here. "Volatility is the new normal."

Carroll should know. The "futurist" has observed trends for nearly 20 years. He can't predict exactly what will happen, but understands how quickly things are changing and how that could affect business.

Technology and ease of communication are among the key factors influencing the spread of new ideas and products. For instance, there are now 19 million known chemical substances, he said. Thanks to online capabilities that allow scientists to share information quickly, this number is expected to grow to 80 million by 2025 and 5 billion by 2100.

Carroll cited a study that said 65% of today's preschool children will work in jobs that don't exist now. And half of what students learn in their freshman year about science and technology is obsolete by their senior year.

Such rapid change, he said, will have broad impact on the furniture industry. "The way ideas are generated has changed in a fundamental way," he said. "All ideas are shared faster than ever before, and that is what is impacting your industry."

Carroll wants people to embrace change, the future and the opportunities they present. "Most people approach the future as something to be feared," he said. "To me, the future is full of opportunity."

Aging baby boomers are one opportunity as they seek home health care service, a factor that will influence the type of furniture in peoples' homes, he said.

"Dealing with the future with the right mindset is critical," Carroll said. "When we are bemoaning the challenges, we need to think of the next waves of opportunity."

He urged his audience to better understand customers in the context of a rapidly changing world. Customer expectations and needs are changing rapidly, and many are more demanding, he said, and brand or product loyalty "tends to go out the window with customer empowerment." Also, customers view more and more products as commodities, which influences buying decisions.

He advised furniture companies to remain focused on core areas such as style, selection and service to best serve a demanding customer, and suggested they partner with industries such as electronics and health care to deliver in all three areas.

Most importantly, Carroll urged his listeners to keep an open mind to what is happening around them and the possibilities that presents for their businesses.

"You can become your own futurists," he said. "You can discover your own trends simply by looking at what's happening in the world."

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:38 PM...
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A Keynote for the Swiss Innovation Forum

It has been confirmed -- I'm one of the keynote speakers for the upcoming Swiss Innovation Forum, to be held in Baden, Switzerland (outside of Zurich) on January 24, 2006 ....

Details can be found on the Website (German only)

You can also try a Google translation of the page

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:05 AM...November 1, 2005
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Government Finance Officers Association 2005 in San Antonio, Texas

I'll be keynoting the Government Finance Officers Association annual conference later this month, addressing a few thousand financial officials for state and municipal governments from throughout the US and Canada.

There's plenty of opportunity for innovation in this sector -- if folks can get engaged, creative and are willing to effect change. Much of it involves getting people in government to think differently about their role -- we have an opportunity to "run the business better," "grow the business" and "transform the business," through innovative ways of working, collaboration, information sharing. Not to mention the opportunities for policy transformation and renewal that responds to the rapid economic, global, demographic and workforce change occurring all around us.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:04 PM...June 7, 2005
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Nestle keynote

Back in January, the Chairman of Nestle observed that "private label is for me the expression of the industry's failure to create value." There's certainly a lot of huge trends hammering the retail sector today -- the continuous appearance of new competitors being just one of them -- and so I'm off to keynote a leadership meeting for the organization.

I'll be taking a look at the key trends that will 'rock the retail world,' and put into perspective how forward-oriented organizations are developing collaborative cultures that helps them respond to the rapid change swirling around them.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:32 AM...May 3, 2005
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Keynote: US Army Corps of Engineers

On Tuesday, I will be doing a keynote on behalf of the CIO of the US Army Corps of Engineers in San Diego; I'll be taking a look at the trends and issues that will impact the organization, and how innovative and rapid-forward-oriented thinking will become critical to its ongoing role in support of the US military worldwide.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:51 PM...April 20, 2005
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Keynote - The skills crisis

Some months back, I wrote in a column that "one of the most challenging issues that you will face through the next decade will be an increasing inability to access the staff and skills necessary to effectively run your business. Blame it on retiring babyboomers, Generation Y and hyper-innovation."

Today I will be doing a keynote on the issues and challenges with hiring a skilled workforce, spending about an hour looking at the future....

You can read the original article here

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:39 AM...March 31, 2005
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Techvibes Massive Tech Conference and Expo - Vancouver

I've been asked to keynote this event on March 30th. My session description: "We live in an era of unprecedented and relentless change. The emergence of China as a super-power; hyper-innovation and business market turmoil; constant career change and rapid scientific advances. Competition is changing overnight, and product lifecycles often last for just a few months. Permanence has been torn asunder. We are in a time that demands a new agility and flexibility: leaders must have the skill and insight to prepare for a future that is rushing at them faster than ever before. Join international futurist, trends and innovation expert Jim Carroll, as he shares his insight into the key methods by which organizations are leveraging technology in order to compete effectively in the rapidly changing economy of the 21st century."

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 6:22 AM...February 24, 2005
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Avoiding the race to the bottom - Keynotes on challenges in the global economy

Upcoming this week are a couple of keynote talks that have a common theme -- in an era of massive globalization, offshoring and the rapid impact of China on the global economy -- how do organizations innovate and restructure to survive?

I'll be talking to the leadership meeting of a major transportation company, providing my strategic insight on how they might avoid the price commoditization that is ravaging their industry; then I'll be talking to a major global food manufacturer, on the reality of "the China price" -- that's the lowest price offerred by a company which has offshored manufacturing processes to China -- and it's always the lowest price in any market!

Both of these talks draw upon issues of innovation, trends and the future of the economy, and provide critical leadership insight on some pretty challenging issues. They are roughly based on two of my core themes

What Comes Next....And What Should You Do About It? link
Leading the Future: Leadership in an Era of Innovation and Change link

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:48 AM...October 13, 2004
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Business trends, health care, skills crisis -- and more!

Where did September go?

In a hectic month, I gave keynote presentations in London, Montreal, New York, Chicago and Stockholm. I'm back on the ground now, but certainly "covered a lot of ground," so to speak.

My talks covered a broad range of issues:

the future of health care: what trends will impact us 5, 10, 20 years out? This in two breakout sessions at a major US health care conference;
the emerging skills crisis, and the challenges in recruiting and retaining Gen-Y staff, in a three hour presentation/workshop examining future trends for the annual partners conference of a major accounting firm;
how to innovate and thrive in a time of constant change, in a keynote talk for senior staff of the BBC;
and a keynote on the future of business and leisure travel in New York for the huge international HSMAI association
not to mention an address of "The keys to innovation" for SAP in Stockholm

My keynotes these days are covering a huge range of issues, including lifestyle, corporate, workplace, demographic, social, technological and other trends.

They are striking a chord -- Hospitality.Net wrote an article featuring highlights from what they called a "thought provoking keynote."

I'm in the office for the week, working away to get "What I Learned from Frogs in Texas" finished off an in to print.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 12:37 PM...October 4, 2004
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Chicago to London

I'm in Chicago today, doing a talk on "The future of healthcare" for a large health care buying group.

Tomorrow I'm off to London for a talk for senior management folks within the BBC, on trends affecting their industry.

Busy week!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:44 PM...September 28, 2004
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The future of business and leisure travel

"Thought leaders and industry experts in both the business and leisure travel sectors will address major changes in traveling consumers, their behavior and travel patterns during the Fourth Annual HSMAI/NYU Industry Strategy Conference .... in New York on Sept. 23, 2004 at the New York Marriott Marquis ...... Jim Carroll, a leading international futurist, trends and innovation expert, will deliver the keynote address at the opening lunch entitled: “What Comes Next with Business and Leisure Travel, and What Should You Do About It?” [link ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:04 AM...September 2, 2004
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Keynote in Stockholm

I'll be doing a keynote for SAP in Stockholm in September. Details here.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 4:06 PM...August 27, 2004
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"Igniting Growth Through Innovation"

Next week - August 25th -- I'll be doing an online Web conference for SAP, on the topic of "Creating a Growth Culture through Innovation." Ties in nicely to all the work I've been doing in writing Frogs in Texas through the summer. Have a look at the details here.
SAP is also having me keynote an upcoming client conference in Stockholm, September 15th.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:13 AM...August 17, 2004
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"The Future of Manufacturing"

Through the years, I've spoken to several manufacturing groups about the change coming to their industry. I wrote the attached proposal a few weeks back for one client, and it makes sense to post it here as well; it provides siome useful insight into some of the key trends affecting manufacturing into the future. [ link ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:35 PM...August 13, 2004
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"The Future of Agriculture"

I'm off to Drake, Saskatchewan for a Friday night dinner talk; I'll be speaking to 250+ farmers, agricultural suppliers and other folks about the future, trends, and coping with change. I've done many such talks, including keynotes for groups such as the MidWest America Crop Protection Association.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:34 AM...August 4, 2004
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A keynote for HSMAI

It has just been confirmed that I will be opening keynote speaker for the HSMAI/NYU (Hospital Sales and Marketing International and New York University) Industry Strategy Conference in September. THe conference was started in the wake of the September 11, 2001, tragedy, as a way to bring industry leaders together. I'll be providing insight into the future of business and leisure travel, based upon my "What Comes Next? (And What Should You Do About it?)" presentation.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:54 AM...July 22, 2004
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Leading the Future: Leadership In An Era of Innovation and Change

We live in an era of unprecedented, relentless, rapid change.

An era in which competition changes overnight, and where new products and services come to market faster than ever before. A time in which rapid innovation has led to compressed product lifecycles that are now measured in a matter of weeks and months instead of years. A business environment in which distribution channels, business models, market trends and corporate structure changes on a regular basis. Where ongoing cost challenges and the need for revenue growth have created new challenges in meeting shareholder expectations. Corporate accountability issues which have caused many organizations to focus on the challenges of the “here and now,” rather than thinking about what is yet to come.

We live in a time in which permanence has been torn asunder; a time that demands a new agility and flexibility for every organization; an era that requires leaders who have the skills to prepare their organizations for a future that is rushing at us faster than ever before.

That’s why many of the keynotes that I have been providing have focused on how to develop on how to develop and engender the leadership skills of the 21st century. I've put information on the presentation: "Leading the Future: Leadership In An Era of Innovation and Change", up on my site today.

Take a look (PDF)

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:33 PM...July 14, 2004
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What comes next?

Straight from Dallas and on to Ontario -- I'll be talking later in the week on the theme, "What comes next?" -- taking a look at trends involving hyper competition - constant, relentless change - rapid innovation - increasing market risk - the emerging skills shortage - and the exit of 'boomers' -- for clients of Fibrewired, a leading provider of hi-end data and networking services. [ link ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 6:25 AM...June 15, 2004
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Upcoming keynote in Dallas -- Keys to Innovation

I'll be doing a short keynote and running a panel of customers of SAP, on the theme "Keys to Innovation" in Dallas, TX next Tuesday. I'll be helping the panelists put into perspective the critical business strategies and governance issues that they have used to prepare their organizations for business in the 21st century.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:17 AM...June 11, 2004
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What's the future for intelligence?

I'll be keynoting the closing lunch tomorrow at the 14th Annual Canadian Conference on Intelligent Systems. It's a very august crowd of PhD's, researchers, academics and scientists. I can't tell them much about the future that they don't already know -- so I will talk about this:

"In his keynote presentation, futurist, innovation and trends expert Jim Carroll provides critical insight into the deep relationship between the "big issues" of the next 10 years and intelligent systems. He'll provide a clear link between the major demographic, social, business, cultural, economic, mployment and technological trends that come next -- and will relate these to the practical intelligent system research and development occurring today. He
will deliver unique insight into the challenges that face the industry as it goes moves from an era of research and development to a time of implementation -- and what the industry must do to address the potentially significant cultural, social and political barriers that can stand in the way of success."

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 12:58 PM...June 7, 2004
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Keynote overview - "Bridging a Path to the Future"

"If you're not taking risks in your company and career, you probably aren't adding much value. That was the bottom-line message of futurist Jim Carroll, who delivered the closing general session address on Wednesday to the Spring 2004 Professional Forum of the Industrial Asset Management Council ..... Carroll discussed 10 trends that are shaping the future of the global economy." Take a look at the unique insight I provided to this global conference earlier this spring. (PDF)

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:17 AM...June 1, 2004
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VOIP Keynote

On Monday, I'll be doing a keynote for a group of telecom executives.

The session is described as such:

"After 100 years, StarKist got rid of its tin-can, replacing it with a resealable plastic pouch. $200 million of new revenue later, they've realized the benefit of aggressive change. So it is with the telecom industry -- it is now in the midst of the largest seismic shift to have ever occurred, as VoIP comes to dominate the agenda, the architecture, and the future. Noted futurist, innovation and trends expert Jim Carroll comes straight from presentations to the US National Rural Telecom Association, the Texas State Rural Telephone Coop, SaskTel and MTS with a key message -- VoIP is real, it has momentum, and it’s not going away. It's time to innovate and change, adapt and evolve as the very foundation of what you know as "telecom" becomes a tin can. Jim will cover the trends, the opportunities, the challenges and threats -- and leave you well positioned to realize the vast dimensions of what we will be faced with through the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years ... and beyond."

More info on my telecom oriented keynotes here.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 12:56 PM...May 28, 2004
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BPM Keynote in Las Vegas

I'm keynoting the annual user conference for Handysoft today in Las Vegas. The focus is on "business process management" -- that is, developing more efficient business processes in order to ensure survival in the real-time economy. Most organizations have a long way to go. HealthCare Financial Management Magazine estimates that it costs about $150 to process each health care supply order order, and that only 10-15% are electronic. Best's Review, the bible of the insurance industry, estimates that some $59 billion is wasted each year on inefficient paper processes. The list goes on -- there's lot of opportunity, and lots of change yet to come to the economy.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:03 AM...May 19, 2004
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Reinsurance and the future of risk

This week, I'm keynoting the Canadian Reinsurance Conference in Toronto. This is the third insurance event for me this month, after previous talks to senior management of Towers Perrin Reinsurance, and an opening adddress for the annual meeting of The Cooperators, a multi-billion dollar insurance company. A common theme in all of these talks is my unique insight into "the future of risk," a look at the complex, surprising, new and challenging types of risks that society might be faced with in the future. It's a good example of the type of customized talk that can come from my "What Comes Next? (and What Should You Do About It?)" keynote. (PDF, 800k)

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 6:02 AM...April 27, 2004
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Comments in Small Market Meetings magazine

I'm featured on the cover of this months Small Market Meetings magazine, reporting on my comments in my keynote at the MPI MidAmerica session last March in Cincinatti. My belief? Based on the rapid rate of change and innovation in the economy, "there's an even greater need than ever to bring people together, to share the passion, and build relationships." You can read the article online. (PDF, 800k)

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 12:59 PM...April 15, 2004
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I'm a panelist for Meetings World 2004

I've been added as a panelist for the opening general session for Meeting World 2004 one of the world's premiere meeting industry events -- in July in New York City. I'm honored to participate on a panel with the well-known experts Joan Eisenstodt, Laila Rach and one other panelist to be named, focusing on the theme of "Creating meetings in a changing world."

The session description: "The way meetings are present is a reflection of a society we live in. In this highly facilitated discussion, we'll explore how shifting demographic, generational, multicultural and gender trends, as well as an aging population, are influencing the needs and wants of meeting attendees."

I've long been a proponent of the view that a world of changing complexity, rapid innovation and change, new business models, and everything else, is leading to an increase in the need for just-in-time-knowledge, just-in-time-training, and just-in-time-strategy application -- and that corporate and association meetings and events are a key cornerstone by which organizations can prepare themselves for the future.

Should be a fun, and fascinating panel!

Check out the conference site and learn more. [ details ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 12:24 PM...April 12, 2004
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My plans - and destiny!

In several keynotes last week, I noted how everyone is now faced with a life of constant and regular career change. Today I'm writing an article about why many people need to ensure they make a transition with their job and career from one that is tactical to one that is strategic -- in order to survive the current transformation of the global workforce.

Career change today is a reality -- in my case, I'm probably on my 4th or 5th career, and likely have a few more to go!

The funny thing: when I spoke to the BBC in London Friday, I noted that in high school, my plan was to become a DJ! I was the station manager for CKWR, our high school radio station. That plan went no where once the idealism of being a teenager was replaced with the reality of university life and a looming career.

At the opening of my talk, I showed a scan from my high school year book of the radio station team. And that's me -- the long haired fellow above!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:34 AM...April 5, 2004
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Towers Perrin and the BBC - The future of risk -- and the future of broadcast!

Today, I'm off to West Palm Beach, where I'll provide a keynote for the Towers Perrin reinsurance division, with the theme being "the future of risk." I'll take a look at some of the new and potential emerging risks, hazards and challenges that we will be faced with throughout society in the years to come -- and thoughts on how to develop an innovative culture to watch for and respond to these challenges far in advance of their occurrrence.

Then I'm off to London, England, for a talk the next day to address the BBC Technology leadership forum; I'll provide insight into issues of convergence, digital broadcast, the future of media, amid a discussion of issues of innovation and issues of change.

Both these presentations are highly customized, and draw upon three key topic areas: What comes next? (and what should we do about it?), and Thriving on Change: How to Create an Innovation Culture, Take a look at the topic list here.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:44 AM...March 31, 2004
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"....an outstanding presentation..."

I've had a very busy few weeks -- keynote presentations for SAP in New York City, the International Asset Management Council in Tuscon, the Health Care Industry Distributors Association in Jacksonville, Urban Systems in Sun Peaks, SAP in Calgary -- and a few more things! These organizations have sought my insight on trends, the future, innovation and change, either for their management meetings, client events or for corporate strategy sessions.

Are the presentations effective? Read this recent letter from a credit union client, after I provided a full day workshop that looked at future trends, and how financial services might be impacted by a wide variety of issues (PDF)

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:55 AM...March 23, 2004
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Oil & gas, real estate, entitlement, infrastructure and risk management!

I explained to a client today that when I'm preparing for a keynote or workshop, I often end up putting 30-40 hours of research into each talk. I'm well immersed in that process for about six upcoming presentations between now and mid-March. This morning, I've been taking an in-depth look at:

key business trends in the oil and gas sector, including concepts such as BP's "Field of the Future" effort and Shell's "Smart Fields" programs, both of which involve significicant change throughout the exploration and development process, for an upcoming session for SAP
issues of real estate management, and the strategic role and value of the real estate function within organizations, for my upcoming keynote for the International Asset Management Conference in Tucson
and an examination of the "culture of entitlement" that pervades society and what it means when it comes to emerging global infrastructure risk, whcih I'll be speaking about at an upcoming annual meeting for a major insurance company

Whew! And the fascinating thing is, all of these topics tie together .... and it's a good example of the different types of issues I delve into.

Back to the books....

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:50 PM...February 17, 2004
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What comes next?

We live in a world of hyper-competition, constant, relentless change, rapid innovation and increasing market risk. People can choose to watch as their world passes them by, or they can choose to become futurepreneurs, able to spot the trends, analyze what it means, and determine an action plan that let’s them master their future. That's the focus of the presentation/workshop that quite a few organizations have been engaging me for -- take a look at the detaisl, "What Comes Next? (....and What Should You Do About It?)" (PDF)

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:12 AM...February 16, 2004
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Telecom market disruption

Every industry reaches a point where new technologies, business models, a critical mass of user readiness and customer demands suddenly brings it to the point where everything begins to change -- in a big way.

Such is the case with the telecom industry -- Voice-over-IP is a hugely disruptive technology, and it is now starting to wreak its' havoc. We're only seeing the tip of the iceberg -- jobs and careers will change, competition will increase, business models will be ripped apart, skill sets will undergo a massive evolution, innovation will dominate for the smart ones who figure out what's going on -- and the pace of change will increase to the point where it's horrifically difficult to deal with.

I'm doing a keynote next week out west that is looking at VoIP business issues, implementation realities and market trends, as well as the necessity for strategic planning in this area. This is one of several keynotes I've done in this area -- see my list of hi-tech and telecom clients for an idea of who is seeking my insight.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:42 AM...February 6, 2004
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Revisiting the future

For a while, it wasn't trendy to think about the future. Now that's over -- I'm noticing that companies are scrambling to try to understand the trends and issues that will affect them into the future.

That's good -- because we continue to function in a world in which the rate of change is speeding up, not slowing down. Organizations can't afford to take their eyes off the change occurring within their markets, with their customers, with their industry, and with the world around them.

That's where I fit in -- I've become widely recognized by groups such as the US Department of Defense, the American Federation of Teachers, SAP, the American Payroll Association, the North American Newsprint Papers Association, CBS/Infinity Broadcasting, Nortel and many others as someone who can effectively relate existing trends to future opportunities and challenges.

A few weeks back I undertook an exhaustive full day workshop with a major credit union in New York State, taking a look at how future trends will affect financial services, and leading an interactive discussion with the Board of Directors as to the business strategies they should be thinking about.

During the session, I took an indepth look at a wide variety of trends and issues -- demographic trends; ethnic cultural trends; social/cultural issues; political issues; the future of the workforce and corporate structure; geographic and "smart community" trends; technology and other trends....and put it all into a story as to how financial services will be impacted well into the future.

The session was a good example of how I've become a noted futurist and trends expert -- how I relate current trends to future opportunities. I provide detailed insight into current trends using statistics, reports, studies and hard data, as well as formal and informal observation, and then use that to paint a picture of competitive challenges, opportunity, market change and other realities of the future. There's a tremendous amount of original research and fresh thinking that goes into every presentation and workshop.

A very good example had to do with the discussion that I led concerning the ongoing Latinization of society --- and a survey I used which indicated that while most Hispanics (now 13% of the population, soon to be 18%) are comfortable speaking English for most day to day activities, they are not when it comes to financial services. Closely related to this is that Hispanics are by and large outside the traditional financial system -- only 65% have bank accounts, and they remit some $30 billion per month to relatives in their home countries -- outside of traditional financial networks.

Trend? We are already starting to see a massive focus in the financial sector related to the ongoing ethnicization of society. Consider this -- the Bank of America stated at their recent annual meeting that 80% of their growth is going to come from ethnic markets/marketing -- think about that! The future? Expect massive focus within financial services -- among other markets -- on niche marketing activities related to the ethnicization of society, moreso than we have already seen today. The Hispanic market is but one example of where a major ethnic change is sweeping society.

Another trend I spoke about -- the "boomerang generation." These are the kids of today who have gone off to school, graduated, and have come back home. One British survey shows that 1 in 4 parents now expects that they will be supporting their kids into their 40's. Not the parents 40's -- their kids! Another study out of Australia demonstrated that the family unit has changed to such a degree -- mom, dad, grown kids *and* grandparents all within the same area, that the marketing of financial services is changing to recognize that. Fact is, the kids ain't leaving -- the family is becoming more extended than ever before -- and there are customer marketing, service, loan and transaction opportunities here ... particularly as the baby boom generation continues to age, and as the largest wealth transfer in history occurs, with $30 trillion passing from one generation to the next.

My days are spent thinking and harvesting through a huge amount of research material, all of which feeds into my presentation and workshops. This one was a fascinating presentation/workshop and is indicative of the future, trend and innovation presentations that I've become known for. [ link ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 6:58 AM...January 30, 2004
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Interactive workshops and corporate strategy sessions

A client asked this week if I only do keynotes at conferences -- to which I responded with a resounding NO. I do quite a few workshops and interactive group discussions focussing on trends, innovation issues, the future, affecting your industry or organization. I've pulled together a summary into this document which outlines how I go about doing this, as well as a few examples of but a few of the interactive workshops I've done to date. Look at it here

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 5:05 PM...December 17, 2003
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Win me!

Monster.Ca is running a new direct mail campaign with respect to a new resume management tool, and one of the prizes for entering is --- me!

Actually, it's a full-fledged one hour keynote with me that you could win, based on one of my many topic areas.

I asked my kids if they would want to win me. They asked what they would get -- and I explained that they could could listen to me for an hour.

They said they'd pass......

Details at monster.ca.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:20 AM...November 4, 2003
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Video clips on change, innovation, the future, trends

I've put up a variety of new video clips from various keynotes
-- Macromedia flash version
Or watch some of the newest video clips
-- "What I Learned From Frogs in Texas"
-- "Things from the olden days"
-- "Coping with ketchup: thoughts on innovation"

There's also this link on some of my recent predictions on trends.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:09 AM...October 30, 2003
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Feedback from my recent keynote for SAP America

From the VP of Marketing

SAP could not have been happier with Jim Carroll's performance at our two recent events, the SAP Business Forums held in Toronto and Chicago.

When we saw the passion and excitement that he brought to the audience in Toronto, we simply knew that we needed to change our plans and have him at our next event.

In Chicago, the home run that he hit was even bigger.

I can think of no greater keynote speaker presentation through which I've sat, and I am confident that we will be looking to use him again at future conferences.

The thought leadership and action provoking sentiments that he evokes are truly remarkable.

Without question, his insights are what many companies need as numerous organizations begin their climb out of some of the troubling days of late and into the revitalized times ahead.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:49 PM...October 27, 2003
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SAP keynote online

The full keynote from a few weeks back, in which I address the challenge of innovation; how too many organizations are stuck in a rut; how "smart frogs" are pursuing a variety of business strategies -- and more. You can now watch the entire keynote here.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 6:53 AM...October 24, 2003
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Department of Defense keynote

Next week, I'll provide the opening keynote for the US Department of Defense DoD Maintenance Symposium & Exhibition, being held in
King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, hosted by the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense (Logisitcs and Material Readiness.) These are the folks who contribute and manage effective DoD maintenance operations; build and manage one of the most sophsiticated supply chains in the world; and who played a significant role in Iraq. In the face of great challenge, they've done a tremendous job -- but it is always a challenge to continue to improve. They are being swept by new initiatives involving logistics and maintenance management -- and hence are faced with a need for dramatic transformation. I'll focus on the issues of change, innovation and mindset in a motivational keynote that will kick-off this conference, attended by 600+ representatives from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:58 PM...October 20, 2003
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A keynote for the American Federation of Teachers

I'll be keynoting the semi-annual American Federation of Teachers technology conference in Washington on Friday, December 5th in Washington. The theme of the conference is "Leaders: Energize to Organize & Mobilize--Let IT Empower YOU!" My keynote will focus on unionism in the digital age -- how can unions empower themselves, reach out to the grass roots, mobilize members and the public -- in effecting how to transform a union into a real-time, collaborative organization of the future!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:13 AM...October 16, 2003
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Another keynote for SAP -- next week in Chicago

I received an e-mail from SAP this morning: "...thank you very much for the excellent presentation that you delivered for us last week at the SAP Business Forum in Toronto. I heard tremendous compliments from many of those in attendance, SAP Canada employees and customer/prospect participants alike. You really helped make the day a memorable experience for all who came, and for that, we are truly appreciative." And with that, the fellow proceeded to ask if I might be able to keynote their next Business Forum meeting -- in Chicago next week. (The answer was yes)

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 6:38 PM...October 14, 2003
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Smart frogs ....

Today is my keynote at the SAP Business forum ... with the key message being that it is the "smart frogs" who are continuing to streamline and re-engineer their internal and external processes using the 'Net. These organizations, who are the true success stories of the 21st century, have realized that what has come together in the last decade are a wide variety of technologies and systems that permit rapid advances in business strategy. I'll outline tons of examples of smart frogs.

The SAP event today is but one of many such events I've done Read on.

For example, Coles Myer (Australia) is investing $650 million in its supply chain through the next five years, which includes $351 million capital spending, and $315 million in systems and software; they'll consolidate some 600 applications and 4,500 interfaces. All this to improve the efficiency of the manner by which they do transactions with their suppliers.

I'll talk about Southwire - a building wire and utility cable provider - which has a customized customer portal that includes pricing, ordering, delivery/order status and online orders -- which is now seeing online transactions totalling $200 million, up from $14 million in 2000. They're business re-engineering their customer relationship, to obvious advantage.

I'll also talk about AVIS, which in an innovative self-service move, allows you to look up details of your rental contract transaction online -- such that they now see that while it costs $7 for a typical call center call, or $2.25 when the Internet is used with human intervention to provide this information -- it costs but $0.50 through this online automated self-service.

And I'll talk about Malee Sampran Plc of Thailand, a food grower / processor which is using handhelds, GIS and GPS to track farm produce. The information feeds into their "FoodTrace" and "ShipTrace" systems, and their business strategies for the use of this technology includes yield management and supply chain management.

Smart frogs are busy exploitiing the opportunity in front of them. Dumb frogs still think that it is the year 2000, and that the dot.com collapse has meant that the Internet was just a joke.

Back in 1999, I wrote in one of my books the following, which is a point that many should ponder today:

Even as a media circus claims the public’s attention over the crash of high-flying Internet stocks, smart business executives will continue to embrace the Internet, and will integrate it into everything they do. After all, they will recognize the real opportunities and challenges of the Internet such as we have described in this book.
Over time, the Internet will insinuate itself into every industry, and will become a core part of the way in which a company does business.

What will differentiate the successful from the unsuccessful organization? The former will be those who clearly and unequivocally outline how they hope to use the technology, business practices, and opportunity of the Internet to help in the achievement of the business objectives of the organization in the short, medium and longer term

Right on. Squish.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 5:51 AM...October 9, 2003
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I'll keynote the American Federation of Teachers conference

Just in ... I'll keynote their annual I/T conference this December, examining a number of leading edge trends ... in Washington, DC

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:07 AM...October 6, 2003
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"thought leadership discussions"

A press release is up on Canada Newswire about my keynote at the SAP Business Forum '03 next week.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:55 PM...October 2, 2003
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Easing the digital divide...

I'll be addressing the annual meeting of Computers for Schools Ontario tomorrow. This is an organization that helps to find new life for retired corporate computers within the school system -- a very admirable and laudable project.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:15 AM...
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What I learned from frogs in Texas

Notes the Chicago Tribune in an article about the global networked economy, on September 23, in what it refers to as hypercompetition"..... a global market in which an ever increasing portion of the developing world acquires the education and opportunity to provide skilled-labor, including professional services of almost every kind at a world class level....."It is becoming clear that CPAs, management consultants, attorneys and health professionals who have traditionally been insulated from global market forces will be faced with competition as they have never seen before: bright, driven people capable of offering comparable-quality service at perhaps a tenth the cost of their developed world counterparts." Years ago I was predicting that increasingly, the location of where work was performed would become irrelevant as the global networked economy took hold. Global outsourcing trends are now making this true -- in spades.

What's this have to do with frogs? Last week, I watched a number of them getting squished -- they were focused on the birds that were flying in front of them, and didn't notice the cars driving up behind them from the parking lot. Too focused on one perceived threat, they were missing the bigger picture all together......

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:26 AM...September 30, 2003
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What's next? ... A Keynote at a chamber of commerce event

Today I address the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. I'm offering up my "10 lessons learned from those who didn't give up" -- outlining how I think some businesses have managed to enhance their competitiveness, open new markets and develop new things, despite the failings of the technology economy over the last few years. I'll publish the list later.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 5:22 AM...
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IP to outsell traditional PBX this year

I'm keynoting an event next week for a group of IT executives/CIO's of major companies, in participation with Nortel. While preparing, I came across this stunning statistic -- "2003 will be the year when IP station shipments first exceed traditional private-branch-exchange (PBX) stations. " (Source: In-Stat MDR) In other words, the global telephony network is migrating to an Internet-type backbone quicker than you might think. This bears huge implications for the future, in terms of workspace, the future of the office, the way we communicate, and countless other major trends. It's something I've been talking about for years.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:37 PM...September 24, 2003
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This week -- Dynamic Meetings in Houston

I'll be the opening keynote speaker, this Friday for this event in Houston which is "an educational experience to empower the professional meeting planner to launch their entire meeting preparation process to the next level." Details at the Dynamic Meetings site. [ site ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 6:42 AM...
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"Innovation in schools" keynote

It's been confirmed that I will be keynoting the Network of Innovative Schools conference in Calgary, AB in October.

My approach to the issue of innovation in education today? In a matter of but a few years, we've got from euphoria to gloom when it comes to innovation in the educational sector.

Consider how quickly things have changed -- in the 1990's, many educators came to see a blossoming in the potential for innovative learning methods, online collaboration and new methods of school and education management. Yet, with the spectacular collapse of the dot.com era, the lingering technology meltdown and general economic uncertainty, it now seems that innovation in the education sector has come to a screeching halt - particularly when it comes to technology. Skeptics who in the past have decried the role of technology in education have found a new resonance to their voice, once again encouraging doubt and sowing seeds of discontent in the minds of many.

That's where my keynote will come in. I believe that teachers need to eawaken themselves for a renaissance of innovation. I believe that educators must bring back the courage to innovate on a day to day basis. In exploring new methods for collaboration as a unique method of dealing with an educational and business world that becomes more complex by the day. Examining methods of providing students with knowledge assessment skills, so they can learn how to cope in the data-swamp in which they are enveloped. A continual examination of leading edge technologies and their role in education, such as Weblogs, wirelesss technologies and personal knowledge archives. Methods of fostering a successful whole-school change program through innovative use of technology and an innovative mindset.

I'll also take a look at how successful educators are removing the background noise lingering from the 90's, and are continuing to charge ahead with exploring the potential for new methods of learning, teaching and managing, in a world in which the future continues to rush at us with dizzying speed......

Should be fun!

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:08 PM...September 16, 2003
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"Career planning in the 21st century"

"By understanding what is going to happen in the future, you can prepare yourself to maintain your career — and hence your income — through a period of unprecedented change.” A comment in my book, “Surviving the Information Age." Now, a new career planning workshop. designed for organizations eager to grapple with the complexities of change in the workplace.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:15 AM...
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My upcoming SAP keynote

Details now online at the SAP Business Forum Web site.

My perspective? I'm convinced that a new competitive disconnect is opening up -- one in which companies with an innovative and lets-go-for-it mindset are gaining a significant edge over their aggressively-indecisive compatriots. In my keynote, I'll outline that there are countless real success stories of companies successfully leveraging IT to transform their operations, streamline their processes and establish new market opportunities -- not in some weird retro-90's dot.com way, but with real strategies, real efforts, and real success. It's time that companies wake up to what is going on -- now.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:42 PM...September 15, 2003
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"Jim's material is powerfully relevant"

Feedback in already on my career planning workshop this past weekend. "Jim really walks his talk! His commitment to preparatory research for our presentation was most impressive. Jim's material is powerfully
relevant, practical and actionable. He engages the audience with humour, sharing of personal experiences and unfailing courtesy and respect for his audience." Helga Iliadis, V.P Customer Care, Rogers Communications Inc.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:08 AM...
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This week -- from the interactive future to the meetings of today

I'll be doing a talk tomorrow at Sheridan College on the topic of "Multimedia Pioneering" and entrepreneurialism for a group of post-graduate students in a small, informal get together. Then, at the end of the week, I'll be in San Antonio, Texas, keynoting the Dynamic Meetings conference.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:03 AM...
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Making a career from ketchup!

It's getting habit forming, talking about ketchup bottles on stage. Here I am during the start of my keynote for the American Payroll Association Conference.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:24 PM...September 11, 2003
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Three years and nine months of worry ... over work!

"Men spend two and a half hours of their free time every day thinking about work .... In a career stretching over 40 years, this adds up to three years and nine months fretting over work." Daily Mail, June 2003. That's one stat I'm using for this weeks career planning workshop I've been putting together -- since it outlines the need for people to take over responsibility for their own career management.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:41 PM...
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Keynote : From Innovation to Execution

I'm off today to Bolton Landing, NY, to keynote the annual user group meeting for Syscom, a high-end systems integrator. I'll be speaking to CIO's and I/T heads for major Fortune 500 organizations, mostly banks and financial institutions. I'll be concentrating my message on the fact that through the next decade, "piano tuning" is going to be the focus of our efforts with technology in business -- in other words, making work better what we already have. [ link ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:41 AM...September 9, 2003
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Later this week - a career planning workshop

I'll be helping to launch a career development program for Rogers Communications. The program will be designed to "help people determine where they want to go in their careers and how to get there."

Key point -- the only thing certain about career planning today -- is that you've got to plan. Every industry continues to be swept by dramatic and relentless innovation, new customer demands, new products and services, and much more -- with the result that jobs and careers are continually undergoing change. To help plan, people need to understand future trends and issues, and think about innovative approaches to career change. It will be a three hour keynote/workshop that will covera variety of issues, including:

unique insight into how careers withn the organization and industry will evolve
concrete action plans that people can use to take them forward
career self assessment -- how do we determine the nature of the skills that we possess?
career planning -- what do we do to maximize our potential?

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:23 AM...September 8, 2003
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Texas State Telephone Coop keynote : "He gave everyone a lot to think about"

A newsletter is now up on the site with a short report about my keynote in Tahoe last month for this group. [ link ] Here's what it had to say:
"The sessions started up early the next morning. The first speaker was futurist Jim Carroll, who discussed Innovation and Strategies for the Future of Rural Telcos. He gave everyone a lot to think about with a number of insights into our generation, the next generation and innovation. Read more...

He pointed out that the attendees were part of the only generation not to grow up with computers at birth, but to have to deal with them. He discussed the fact that our faith in the future has been shaken by the challenges we have experienced in the telecom industry. We’re no longer excited about developments like distance education and telemedicine. It’s difficult to have the courage to go forward in today’s business climate.

This has led to new business realities:' Aggressive indecision – it’s easier not to make any decisions than to worry about making the wrong one; ' Shorter payback expectations and short lead times to alleviate the risk ; ' Rapid product evolution (like Wi-Fi); ' Hyperinnovation (shorter product life cycles)

All of this has led to a corporate innovation gap. People are no longer willing to stick their necks out with innovative ideas. Carroll emphasized that it’s important to bring back the courage to innovate and think strategically about our companies and communities. The telcos are the folks defining the future of the community by virtue of the infrastructure they put into place. They need to be innovative to provide the best opportunities for our kids and for our community economic development. He noted, “Communities that don’t solve
the broadband divide will find increasingly negative implications.”

He suggested the following steps:

#1 Manage Your Attitude, #2 Accept Inevitability, #3 Anticipate – don’t react, #4 Experiment (again), #5 Take risks (step outside your comfort zone and plan to make a reasonable number of mistakes), #6 Restore your courage, #7 Take it one step at a time, #8 Innovate, #9 Make do and #10 “Just do it.”

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:12 AM...August 27, 2003
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This week - a closing keynote for the Global Payroll Management Conference

I'm the closing speaker for the American Payroll/Canadian Payroll Assn sponsored conference in San Francisco. From the session description: "In this era of global business, new business models, hyper-connectivity, rapidly transformed business practices, and constant business restructuring, payroll professionals have learned that change is constant. In this dynamic closing keynote, futurist Jim Carroll takes us on a tour of the issues that surround our attitudes toward technology and our methods of dealing with change. He outlines why it is critical that we put ourselves in a frame of mind in which we can excel - not rebel - in our approach to the future." [ link ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:56 PM...August 25, 2003
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Comments on my keynote to the Texas Statewide Telephone Cooperative, Inc.

Just received this message from the meeting planner who brought me in for a talk on the future of the telecom industry ....

"Thanks again for coming all of the way out to Lake Tahoe to share your insights with the TSTCI group at their Futures Retreat. Your presentation was rated very highly on the Speaker Evaluation section of the evaluation form. There was also a great comment I thought you would like that someone added:

"At first I thought Jim Carroll's talk a little generic but began to realize it had the most effect."

I thought of you yesterday when I was in the supermarket and saw an upside down bottle of salad dressing."

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:44 AM...August 18, 2003
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Keynote for the Dynamic Meetings conference, San Antonio/Houston

I'll be the opening keynote speaker, for this event which is "an educational experience to empower the professional meeting planner to launch their entire meeting preparation process to the next level." San Antonio, TX, Sept. 19 and Houston, Sept. 26. Details at the Dynamic Meetings site. [ site ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:42 PM...August 4, 2003
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Keynote for Syscom's Business Process and Content Management conference

It's been confirmed that I'll be keynoting this event in early September. [ link ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:31 AM...July 30, 2003
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Flash video format

Over the weekend, I discovered a new video compression tool that turns digital video into Flash files; there's a new flash-format video library over at my main site as a result. [ link ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:47 AM...July 15, 2003
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'Coping with ketchup"

A video clip from a recent keynote presentation I did focussing on change -- have you noticed the new ketchup bottles? [ video ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:29 AM...July 2, 2003
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Notes from my SAP e-government keynote

"Nowhere is the opportunity more crystal clear than within the government sector. While many corporate organizations continue to spin their wheels when it comes to the strategic use of technology, I find that the public sector has a completely different attitude." Read my article, distributed to clients of SAP, with my thoughts on e-government. This is from my keynote at a May SAP event. [ article ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:41 AM...June 25, 2003
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"Life inside the data cloud"

Off tomorrow for a series of three luncheon keynotes -- focussing on how wireless will affect business and society in the years to come. Needless to say, I'll be plugging in on the road using a combination of Wi-Fi hotspots and 1X systems, as well as my Blackberry. Travel is quite different today from ten years ago![ brochure ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:45 PM...June 8, 2003
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Keynote - the future of broadcasting

Tomorrow I'm off to the CBC for a luncheon keynote for the radio and TV plant managers on a variety of topics -- the future of broadcasting, and issues of change and innovation that the broadcasting industry needs to cope with in the future. This is one of many such events I've done within the industry over the years. [ link ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:20 AM...June 5, 2003
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What's in store for the meetings and conference industry? Video now online

Re my previous posting about my keynote to Meeting Professionals International on the future of the meeting industry -- you can now view the keynote online. [ video]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:14 PM...May 30, 2003
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Microsoft keynote presentation -- revisiting the digital business opportunity

I was recently retained by Microsoft to provide a series of cross-country keynote presentations and workshops for the CEO’s, CFO’s and CIO’s of key clients. I was asked to provide my insight and observations on the future of digital business. In addition, my customized presentation examined issues of corporate portals and business intelligence, as two distinct examples of effective technology use. I wrote the attached article subsequent to the event, which was distributed to Microsoft’s clients. [ article

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:25 PM...May 29, 2003
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What's in store for the meetings and conference industry?

I recently gave the closing keynote at a chapter of Meeting Professionals International (MPI); the theme was "Partnership". I was asked to provide, as an expert on innovation and trends, my thoughts and observations on the future of the meeting industry, and my perspectives on how partnerships could play a key role in the future of the industry. You can read a summary report of the presentation online. [ link ]

Many meeting planners have requested a video copy of the presentation, and it is now in the final stages of editing. If you are interested in a copy, please contact me.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:52 AM...May 28, 2003
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Most failing at innovation

I'm currently researching various issues on innovation for an upcoming talk, and came across this stat -- while the majority of American CEO's place innovation and creativity at the top of their agenda, only 6% believe that they are actually effective in achieving it. That's a pretty damning indictment of many initiatives to evolve corporate culture to an innovatie mindset. [ link ]

I've placed online today a new presentation topic -- "Innovating For the Upturn:
Unleashing Your Potential In the Era of the 'New Normal' -- take a look. [ link ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 4:25 PM...May 21, 2003
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New video - "Why short term predictions are usually wrong"

Right after September 11, a wide variety of pundits and experts made predictions as to the impact. In this clip, from a keynote to the International Newspaper Marketing Association, Jim Carroll offers a few of those predictions, and indicates what really happened. This was based on a keynote address he provided to the association, on the theme, "How Advertising and Consumer Markets will be Impacted by 9/11" [ video ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:56 PM...April 22, 2003
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Keynote - "The Power of Partnerships"

The Packaging Machinery Manufacturing Institute is having me mid-May to talk to them about the theme, “The Power of Partnerships: Innovative Thinking for the Packaging Sector.” In this industry-tailored presentation, I'll be offering new ways of looking at working with and selling to other businesses to create growth and profits .... through innovative thinking as to how to partner with customers and suppliers. More info about the conference here.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:28 AM...April 21, 2003
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"I'm an accountant"

I put up a new video today from a recent keynote .... making light of the fact that I'm actually an accountant by background ... kind of a short, humorous clip. You can get to it here. --

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:41 PM...March 31, 2003
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A keynote for the IT Strategies for Global Markets, Harrisburg, PA

I'll be the opening keynote speaker for this conference to be held in Harrisburg, PA, April 28-29, 2003. It's billed as the "premier conference for IT and Marketing Professionals working in today's global environment" in the Harrisburg region. [ link ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:09 AM...March 20, 2003
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Keynoting the Nebraska Technology Celebration and Awards Banquet

On April 8, I'll be the keynote dinner speaker for this annual event which celebrates the accomplishments within the hi-tech industry in the state of Nebraska. [ link ] I'll speak on the topic of thriving in an era of hi-tech uncertainty, how the future will continue to unfold, and the opportunites that are yet to come.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:06 AM...March 19, 2003
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#1, #2, #1, #1

Back from March break .... and an interesting discovery here today. My primary line of business happens to be that I'm a frequent keynote speaker at conferences. Today, a search for "keynote speaker" in a variety of search engines places me at the following spots (ignoring the paid listings):

Google - 1
Altavista - 2
Yahoo - 1
Teoma - 1
AOL - 1

I've worked long and hard to get the right balance of keywords/meta tags in my Web pages, and this goes to prove that search engine marketing is a strategy that can work

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:09 PM...March 18, 2003
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"We’re Witnessing the Destruction of Corporate Value"

I've just put together an outline of a keynote presentation I'll provide to corproations and associations eager to understand what the heck is going on with all these security and privacy challenges.

"Hackers, Crackers and Crashes : What Companies Must Do to Master Today’s Security and Privacy Challenges" takes a look at how actual corporate value is being destroyed as a result of as a result of inadequate oversight of key business network and infrastructure issues. Concerns related to security and privacy are no longer something that can be dismissed out of hand as “something that happens to everyone else” — it is obvious now that every type of organization is being affected. The result? This is now a critical business issue that must be dealt with by the CEO, senior management and the Board of Directors. They must be prepared to ask themselves this question: Are we doing everything necessary to protect our corporate value in an era in which one seemingly small technology problem can spiral out of
control?

Take a look at the Acrobat page for more information. [ brochure ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:09 AM...February 10, 2003
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A lack of courage in I/T?

I spoke at the first of a series of 10 Microsoft events yesterday; a workshop and customer session focussing on the opportunities of business intelligence/corporate portals. One of my points when talking with people is suggesting that when it comes to the world of I/T, a lot of people have lost their motivation to try something new. A wide variety of very sophisticated technology has emerged in the last few years, but few folks seem to be willing to stick their necks out to implement it. It's a point that I alluded to in my brochure topic on "innovation." Read the quote below.

"A lot of people stuck their neck out in the 1990’s and tried out new ways of doing business, new technologies, and innovative methods of dealing with markets and customers. Yet many of those efforts have collapsed in spectacular fashion due to the dot.com/technology meltdown. A dangerous new sense of complacency has set in. Innovators must now hang their head in shame, and the nervous nellies who dared not innovate reign supreme! Organizations must bring back the courage to innovate – otherwise, current attitudes will settle in like a wet sponge, smothering any chance for new innovation. Innovators need to be put back on a pedestal – and should be encouraged to help analyze what actually went right during the crazy 90’s!

[ Jim's "innovation" brochure ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 5:26 AM...February 5, 2003
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"Hacker insurance.....is expected to explode from a $100 million sideshow into a $2.5 billion behemoth by 2005" - Yahoo article

"The computer worm that clogged Internet traffic and shut down vulnerable corporate networks this weekend also provided another boost to the emerging market for hacker insurance....also known as 'network risk insurance.'" [ link to Yahoo article ]

I've spent quite some time within the corporate sector alerting them to the issues with my "Business Network and Infrastructure Security" topic, coining the phrase "electronic joyriding" to describe what is going on. [ link ]

Insurance companies would find a presentation that melds insurance issues with network security issues to be of particular value. Here's a document that outlines how I'd approach this area.[ brochure ]

There are a number of older articles I've written over the years that can be of use to those trying to figure out what is going on. [ link ]

The key thing is that if the Yahoo! article is true, then insurance companies need to step up to the plate to understand the market; the types of customers that are being impacted; how to sell into those markets (how many insurance companies have direct experience with I/T departments?) and other issues. I've spent quite some time in the insurance industry [ link ] so it would make for a perfect marriage of topics.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 5:18 PM...January 28, 2003
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The culture of innovation

I put up a new video yesterday from a recent keynote that focusses on the issue of innovation in the workplace. You can get to it here -- from the pull down menu in the "broadcast center", choose the Innovation item.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:59 PM...January 23, 2003
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MPI Keynote - "Live & Online Partnerships in Today's Workplace"

I've just been booked by a chapter of Meeting Professionals International, to provide a closing keynote on the theme, "Business to Business - Live & Online Partnerships in Today's Workplace."

I'll be doing the keynote in early April '03. The session description follows.

"Today, in the era of global business, hyper-connectivity, supply chain initiatives, knowledge networks and just-in-time innovation, meeting planner and supplier organizations have learned they have to continually morph into something new -- the collaborative organizations of the future. In this keynote, Jim Carroll takes us on a tour of the world of the new organization of today -- and puts into perspective the challenges, opportunities and risks of a new world of business that is unlike anything we've seen before."

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:35 AM...January 21, 2003
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Techno-rage revisited....

"Fight with computer brings SWAT team - No charges filed after isunderstanding cleared up" - January 9, 2003, Daily Camera, Boulder, CO

Read on -- this is quite fascinating!

I often incorporate in my keynotes a bit of discussion on how there are many people who just can't seem to cope with technology -- and often get a good chuckle from the audience when doing so. I call it my Surviving The Information Age topic, based on a book I did of the same title. [ topic page ] [ book ] And I've written about the issue extensively over the years -- for example, in this article, Tech Stress [ article ]

But this really takes the cake!

A 32-year-old Boulder man who had opened his apartment's patio door to enjoy Wednesday's unusually warm weather was later overheard screaming threats and seen waving what appeared to be a handgun, prompting a maintenance worker to call police.

Officers, as a precaution, evacuated the man's apartment building and called SWAT officers to assist in defusing the situation.

It turned out that the man was simply upset at his computer — which he had called a "bitch" he "wanted to kill," police said — and the gun was a plastic pellet gun, not the .45-caliber automatic handgun it was made to resemble.

Read the full article at the Daily Camera news site.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 3:02 PM...January 16, 2003
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Microsoft books me for 10 client events

I'll be doing a series of events in 10-cities; a morning workshop on business strategy for CEO/CIO/CFO, and an afternoon session on business intelligence and corporate portals, through February into early March.......

[ Acrobat pdf ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:42 PM...January 15, 2003
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The future of online shopping

I'm speaking at a VISA event today about the future of online shopping and security. Two key points -- online shopping was up significantly this Christmas compared to last. Yet there are still many people who hold themselves back due to security concerns. VISA's introducing a new technology -- VbV or Verified-By-VISA, which in essence places a secure password over every transaction, which should go a long way to helping improve consumer confidence.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:37 AM...January 13, 2003
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Jim Carroll on the future of broadcasting

Last week I spoke to a group from CBS/Infinity Broadcasting.....about innovation and the future of broadcasting. It went quite well -- they commented after the fact that "everyone thought that you completely underscored the importance of creativity and innovation with a presentation full of energy and compelling information."

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:38 AM...December 18, 2002
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Corporate digital divide grows bigger

Cyber-skepticism is rooted deep....it's going to take a ton of work to bring people in the business world back

I just got back from Orlando, where I did a few sessions on my Thriving on Change! How to Create an Innovation Culture theme at the PLUS International conference. [ link ]

PLUS stands for Professional Liability Underwriting Society -- in other words, the folks who underwrite liability policies for doctors, dentists, architects, lawyers and accountants. Given the year of scandal, its an industry in quite a bit of turmoil.

My focus was to talk about how emerging business systems will cause quite a bit of change within the industry. I once said that "the truth is that many insurance companies are using 1950s methods to deal with customers who deal with other financial institutions using 21st century methods." [ link ]

Fact is, it's not an industry that has been successful at leveraging technology -- a 2000 Deloitte & Touche survey indicated that more than 90% of agent-carrier communications go by phone, paper and fax. Paper-intense! Did you know that there are 70 million pre-printed insurance forms floating around out there??? Imagine the cost-inefficiencies in the business.

Fortunately, the big carriers seem to have finally figured the Internet out, after a lot of false starts. Indicative of what is happening is Lloyd's of London Project Blue Mountain initiative. Simply put, the objective is all about "creating efficiencies for both brokers and underwriters to get more reliable data on which to base their decisions." In other words, streamline business processes and transactions -- the paper! -- in order to achieve cost savings between the providers and the brokers and underwriters in the business chain. [ link ]

The industry is slowly moving to a world where brokers and agents can bind policies on behalf of their clients online, and can access all kinds of other policy and transactional detail. In other words -- ebiz in the insurance industry isn't about having customers buy policies online -- its about using technology to help the broker and agent do their job better.

OK, so the insurance companies have figured it out. But from every session I do for insurance companies and industry events such as this, I get the feeling that a) the staff is really in the dark ages about what is going on and that b) they're skeptical of anything technology related overall.

We can fix a) -- there simply needs to be better communication of the strategies that are driving this.

But b) is a big problem, and the fact that they think like that isn't surprising. In their industry, they've seen futurists come along and predict "distintermediation. "It was said that all the brokers would disappear, as insurance companies began to sell direct. That didn't happen, and won't happen, because insurance is a fear-based product, and is sold, not bought.

Then they were told that there would be vast new insurance marketplaces online that would forever change the industry. That didn't happen either.

The fact is, they've seen a lot of things come and go from the technology world, and the result of all these "big changes" that have never come about is that the typical employee in any insurance company -- whether it be life, property and casualty, medical benefits or professional liability -- is skeptical of any pronouncement made these days about new technology directions. There's sort of an attitude there of "yeah, we've heard it all before, and it's just another story. It won't happen."

Which means that insurance companies are going to have a real tough time making their new systems work. After all, how can they do so in a culture which has become so darned skeptical?

Food for thought. The terrible thing is that this is a reality in almost every industry. The lingering hangover effect of the dot.com years lingers on.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:18 AM...November 12, 2002
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E-government not suffering from the dot.com hangover.....

Yesterday was spent doing a workshop for a bunch of senior executives from various departments for a government body....on the broad theme of e-government. What is e-government? The best description that I've seen is that it is "...an electronic government framework that will result in an order of magnitude improvement in the governments' value to the citizen..." That quote comes from a speech made by Sean O'Keefe - Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget for the United States Government.

It's actually quite fascinating as you examine what is going on with government. While much of the corporate sector seems to be stuck in the hangover of the dot.com collapse, and have put most major business re-engineering efforts on the back burner, government everywhere is charging ahead doing stuff of real substance. I was blown away in dealing with one massive government organization -- countless numbers of different departments covering hundreds of thousands of square miles and 10million+ people, with 40,000+ employees -- working to migrate to a common financial system. Forget the silos, forget the politics of independent departments fighting for their turf -- they recognize that technology demands of them a new way of organizing themselves in order to work better -- and so they are doing.

Man, what the corporate sector could learn from government. We live in interesting times.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 5:09 PM...November 6, 2002
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"Culture change involves changing the dynamics of how we work" - Miriam Browning, US Army Director for Enterprise Integration

Spending the day preparing for an e-government workshop tomorrow...

I've running a full morning workshop tomorrow for about 40 senior government executives, on the topic of e-government. I've plowed through about 300 articles about e-government to get the latest best practices and examples. The quote above suggests that increasingly, government agencies know that this isn't about "putting up a Web site," but that instead, they are dealing with a fundamental transformation of government.

Related to that -- the video of mid-October keynote speech to a government oriented conference is now online. [ Quicktime ] [ Realvideo ]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:54 AM...November 4, 2002
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The imperative for change...

"No major software implementation is about the software. It's about change management." CIO of Nestle

I'm off today to Ste-Adele in the Laurentions; I'll be doing a dinner talk for a medical company. They're in the final stages of a big SAP implementation, and like all large scale IT projects, there have been some bumps along the way. I'm talking to senior management, accounts, controllers about the change underway in the economy, and why companies are building the type of ERP foundation that they are putting in place.

The CIO quote above is perfect -- I'll use it, since so many of these projects are dependent upon communication, change, and motivation.

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:41 PM...October 28, 2002
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Is wireless real?

At this point the proof is in the pudding....

This week, I'm out west doing two keynotes for Telus Mobility -- a wireless company -- on the future of wireless and the business case of wireless. A key point I'll be raising is that companies are investing -- heavily -- in wireless but they aren't doing so with a cohesive corporate plan, strategy and management. The result is that their efforts are all over the place, and they had better start realizing they are creating quite a mess. Related to this is that in the last month, I've been able to use the Telus Velocity service -- it's their 1XRTT (as it is known) wireless data service. Plug a card into your laptop, flip the lid, press Connect -- and you are online, from anywhere at any time. It actually works really, really well.....it has changed what I can do while on the road. [ link]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:16 PM...October 26, 2002
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Reboot Awards

Government *can* do intelligent things with tech

This week, I was out to Victoria to keynote the awards show for the annual Strategies for Public Sector Transformation Conference. The fascinating thing is that this is a good indication of what is going on out there -- while corporations are reluctant to spend on tech these days, governments are, and have clear e-biz strategies and ideas. They realize its about more than putting up a web site. In my dinner keynote, I spoke to them about the issue of "innovation" -- how they can continue to ensure they have a culture that allows them to approach things differently.[link]

Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:14 PM...
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