Starbuck's Icarus moment .....
I'm quoted in a Reuters article that has run in the Washington Post, Globe and Mail, and the Sydney MX among a few, that comments on the recent woes of Starbuck's.
Titled "Not everyone's crying in their lattes for Starbucks; There's a schadenfreude among some coffee drinkers who think the java giant got too big too fast," the article looks at how some people seem to be enjoying Starbucks in its Icarus moment.
My comments?The schadenfreude of coffee drinkers drawing satisfaction from another's misfortune is part of the popular culture that enjoys the downfall of companies or celebrities, said Jim Carroll, a Mississauga-based trends and innovation expert. "There are a lot of people out there who take delight in seeing an icon torn down by the masses," he said. Starbucks fell victim to a rapid change in attitude, fuelled by Internet bloggers complaining endlessly about everything from layoffs to its breakfast sandwiches, he said. "Starbucks was a cool brand, and then all of a sudden it's not a cool brand," he said. "There's this new global consciousness that is out there that can suddenly shift."This is exactly what I write about in my book Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast. Indeed, one chapter talks about how in this era of very fast change, a brand can go from "hero to zero" in a matter of months, or even less. That's partially what we are witnessing here. The key thing today is velocity: business is impacted by rapid consumer change, product change, business model change, cost challenges, market change. The phrase I've been using for years is "volatility is the new normal." Realize that, and build your innovation strategy around that, and you'll be set for the types of challenges that will come your way.
This is particularly true with issues of branding : brand perceptions can change very quickly today, and I don't think many organizations are prepared for that. Just look at how quickly any brand equity left attached to the US auto industry has evaporated!
More Information:
- Buy Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast
- Blog post: Your Customers Are High Velocity: Are You?
- Is your brand from the olden days?
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Five secrets for creating a culture of innovation
The April issue of the Advertiser magazine ("The Voice of the Marketing Community") from the Association of National Advertisers features an article, "Five Secrets for Creating a Culture of Innovation."
I'm quoted in the article with two key observations, on the issue of "taking risks and learning from them." My concerns?
- "...he sees too much 'bandwagon innovation" in marketing these days. Consider the rush by brands to launch viral videos on YouTube. 'That's not what innovation is ... it's admitting that everything we do -- how we are marketing to the customer, what the brand means to the customer, and what we do to update uniqueness and freshness of brand -- has to constantly change because everything around us is constantly changing."
- I also talk to the importance of taking risks: "CMO's who aren't afraid to focus on 'experiential capital', as Carroll calls it, or encourage innovative thinking by taking calculated risks, regardless of the outcome, stand a better chance of being successful over the long run.
It's a good article: there's no doubt that the high velocity economy results in rapid change of consumer brand perceptions. Leading edge marketers work hard to beef up their innovation capabilities simply in order to keep up with consumers who are charging forward at a furious pace!
More information
- Read What a great idea!
- Why bandwagon innovation doesn't work
- Is your brand from the olden days?
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Future careers: Knowledge explosion is key
Career issues are hot! And one of my favorite ways to open a keynote or executive session is by quoting from an Australian study, which indicated that sixty-five percent of the kids who are in preschool today will work in jobs or careers that don't yet exist.
I passionately believe this to be true: and I've seen the trend occurring in countless professions and industries.
This week, I keynoted a Career Day event at Capitol One in Richmond, Virginia ; the focus was upon the rapid emergence of new careers, and the rapid evolution of existing skills. My message, in looking at the future career opportunities, was that there's nothing but upside, as long as people keep reinventing their skill set.
The topic of the future of careers is a big one these days; I'm being called into many organizations and events to talk about the issue, particularly in the context of recent economic trends. Some of these events have been local economic development conferences. In one talk in January, I spoke to an audience of executives and educators in an auto-sector city ; a group of people caught up in the throes of economic restructuring and turmoil.
Talk about an audience in the midst of challenge! Yet when you are in that type of economic bubble, it can be hard to see the future career opportunities that do exist. That's why I didn't focus on the short term economic turmoil, but instead, on the real, practical trends that are defining the careers of tomorrow.
Many sectors of the global economy: and in particular, the manufacturing and financial sectors, are being hit hardest by the US recession, the sub-prime meltdown, and global competition.
The auto-town event got covered in the local paper: and the story ended up being reprinted throughout the Canadian press, including in Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa and Montreal. One of the key observations I made in the article: "We have to figure out how we can continue to move up the knowledge ladder because there's going to be a massive shortfall in specialized skills because of the rapid growth of knowledge."
That's an important issue to think about, and the article is well worth a read.
More information:
- Read Knowledge Explosion Key to the Future
- Read Global Economic Trends: An Interview with Jim Carroll
- The reality of future trends: grab the What Comes Next trends overview
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Credit Suisse Bulletin: Success Comes to Those Who Evolve
Credit Suisse, headquartered in Zurich, is global financial powerhouse operating in 50 countries; 48,000+ employees, assets of $75 billion US, and net assets under management of $1.345 trillion.
They've just released their 2008 Bulletin magazine, a publication provided to key investment banking, private banking and asset management clients worldwide.
They've include a fairly lengthy Q&A with me, in an article titled Success Comes to Those Who Evolve, in which they wanted wide-ranging views on the word "growth." It came out well: my key message has always been that we must always link the concept of innovation to rapidly emerging trends in order to constantly change what we do -- often simply to keep up, or attain competitive advantage.
Here's the key point: So what's the recipe to kick-start innovative thinking? I think it's about having your entire organization understand everybody is responsible for constantly figuring out how they need to change to keep up with the rapidly changing world. They need leadership that supports and encourages them to be open and share ideas, and that leadership needs to hammer home that message on a regular basis."
More information
- Read: Success Comes to Those Who Evolve
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Which way forward? An economic interview with Jim Carroll
Jim Carroll is frequently approached by global news organizations to comment on economic issues. He was recently interviewed by the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) for his perspective on how the Canadian economy will be impacted by recent global events. This document summarizes key components of the interview.
The interview includes a variety of topics, including this one: How can an economic region discover opportunity? From Jim's perspective, it's through skills transformation. He recently keynoted a community economic development summit in an auto-industry dependent city. He comments about the challenges that exist in the manufacturing sector: and how some regions are turning challenge into opportunity.
You'll also find a news report that ran in newspapers across Canada after this economic development conference; you'll find some unique views on the types of careers that are emerging in the future.
More information
- Read: Which Way Forward: An Economic Interview with Jim Carroll
- Read the news cover: "Knowledge Explosion Key to the Future"
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Speakers 2.0 - The Evolution of the Speaking Industry
The business of speaking has evolved dramatically in the last five years — have you noticed?
It used to be event planners would spend quite a bit of time planning for next years annual conference. A committee would begin a slow, careful, and routine process of planning a program agenda, which would include finding a celebrity speaker or two to fill the agenda. Year in, year out, they’d carefully follow the same old process. Often, they’d end up with the same old conference.
Today, of course, faster is the new fast, and we’re witnessing a different role for both the speakers and the bureaus who represent them. Let’s call it “strategic knowledge delivery” — we’re helping organizations to get the right knowledge in the right place, at the right time, for the right purpose. Events have evolved from, well, events, to critical get-togethers that help a company, association or organization adapt to sudden new realities.
Today, a company might find itself in the midst of a rapid product launch — after all, product lifecycles are collapsing. (Just look at your iPod, and think of the rapid changes occurring in the consumer electronics industry!) There’s now a new requirement for fast knowledge — they need to pull together their sales force quickly, update them on the forthcoming marketing plans and sales strategy, and give them a strong motivational push out the door. They call a speakers bureau, and quickly line up a retail expert, an expert on selling strategies, and a top motivational speaker to boot.
Oh — and they need these people in two weeks!
That’s the new reality of the speaking business today. It has now evolved into a highly specialized industry, in which knowledge-brokers (formerly known as “speakers bureaus”) provide their highly specialized insight into who-knows-what, to provide their clients with the key knowledge-experts that they need. By doing so, they’re helping the client to quickly solve new business challenges, adapt to new markets, stay competitive, and deal with the reality of all the circumstances that come with our fast-paced world of today.
Every organization on the planet today is working hard to ensure that it can “keep-up.” I’ve certainly witnessed the trend first hand through the last five years, doing exactly this type of thing with some of the largest organizations in the world.
When you end up advising companies like Disney as to how to be creative, you get a different perspective of the world. Disney, for all of its vaunted reputation as a cauldron of creative genius, is like every other organization out there: it finds itself immersed in a whirlwind of rapid change, whether with its’ business model, product line, or rapidly changing consumer demand. (Anyone with pre-teen kids has seen the huge and sudden take-off of the hit High School Musical, or the explosive growth of the Hanna Montanna franchise, knows what I am talking about!)
Like any organization, Disney is constantly working to ensure that they can remain on top, by understanding the trends that will continue to impact them, and by ensuring they keep their creative spark fresh by seeking to learn what other innovative organizations are doing. For Disney, it’s almost as if they are beyond faster-is-the-new-fast : they’re in an industry in which tomorrow is simply today’s urgent problem. And that's why they call in outside experts -- someone like me.
The changes in the speaking industry — and the role that bureaus and speakers play — mirror the changes occurring in the fast paced world of business today. It’s all about just-in-time knowledge delivery. Understand that, and you’ll understand the context of the solutions that this industry and speakers bureaus can provide you.
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Ready, Set, Done: Jim Carroll's latest book
We've got a cover, and have the first draft of my newest book in for design/edit.
Titled Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast takes a look at
- the factors that place us in a high-velocity economy
- the core innovative capabilties that we must put in place to turn rapid change into opportunity
- the key issue of how skills access and talent access will be critical to future success
- concrete ideas for becoming a more innovative, agile organization.
We're targetting late fall for release.
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CNBC - The Business of Innovation
The week before last, I taped an appearance with CNBC on an upcoming prime time five part show, "The Business of Innovation," hosted by Maria Bartiromo.
The show is set to aiir, as I understand it, February 25th at 9pm EST March 4, at 9PM EST, and again at midnight. It will air in Europe and Asia subsequent to that. on March 1st.
I was part of a three person "panel of innovation experts" for the third part of the show. The first segments featured the insight of such folks as Vinod Khosla co-founder of Sun Microsystems; Cathleen Black, President of Hearst Magazines, and Arkadi Kuhlmann, CEO of ING Direct.
After thinking about it for a a while, my thoughts that have resulted from doing the show are this:
- when it comes to innovation, there too many people limit their thinking to innovation as being 'all about new product'
- some people think that only 'special people' with 'special skills' can "do innovation."
- worse yet, some people who are "innovators" actually have attitudes that would, from my humble perspective, dissuade any common folk from even thinking about innovation
- the high velocity economy demands that every person in every organization be as innovative as heck
I told my wife after the taping that I'll either end up looking like a complete idiot, or a genius, or perhaps an idiotic genius. It will be interesting to watch.
The phrase that formed in my mind, both during and after the show, are that there are too many "innovation elitists" out there. And that's just quite wrong: I've often explained that innovation of any sort is set to fail, as soon as we make it special.
In any event, I'm sure that I'll be posting more on my thoughts on this closer to air date.
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"Flexibility defining careers, workplace"
An article on my perspectives on the future of the career has run in a wide variety of papers across the country.
The full article can be found here in Adobe Acrobat format.
Some of my key observations, as quoted within the article:
- Recognizing the disappearance of a one-job career, workers will need to be flexible, capable of instantly adapting to new processes and able to absorb stunning amounts of new information and knowledge.....
- the next generation of workers will be far different than any which has gone before. They will be far more entrepreneurial because many already think self-employment is more secure than a corporate job.
- one segment of the workforce will be expected to be far more specialized to deal with this explosion of new information
- others will be expected to be flexible enough to shift between careers and jobs
- there will also be those who help people deal with the complexities of everyday life and their workplace.
The article caught my comments on this particular trend:
- "One of the hot new jobs created by the fact that medical knowledge is doubling every eight years is the "hospitalist" -- someone who not only helps patients navigate their way through the medical system ......
- While the term didn't exist before 1996, there are now more than 10,000 hospitalists in the United States."
All of these observations tie into my Trends Analysis, "10 Unique Characteristics of 21st Century Skills," posted a few weeks back, and also available here. There are massive changes underway within the global workforce, which makes talent, not money, the new corporate battlefront.
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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.
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Denmark TV interview -- Brand image in a low cost economy
Wow! Where did May go?
I had keynotes for a huge number of different companies and associations, ranging from appraisers to broadcasters to motor vehicle dealers ....
Somewhere along the way, I did an interview on the national news for Denmarks's TV2 on the issue of how companies might survive the global low cost economy.
There's a short snippet of the interview you can watch online ; just click the picture above!
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More coverage, from Communications Engineering magazine, on my SCTE keynote last month.
"If you think your customers are a challenge now, wait until 2010, said futurist and ET keynoter Jim Carroll at Wednesday's opening session.
Tomorrow's customers will be "far more demanding, will expect more from you, will be constantly pushing you, and will have far less loyalty to you as a brand," Carroll predicted.
That's because the customers of 2010 are today's youth - many of whom don't remember film cameras, and who view "television" as video that comes to them in the car, on the laptop, or on the back of the airplane seat.
"By 2020, we'll be witnessing the retirement of the change-averse," Carroll said, referring to baby-boomer and older generations. "What will emerge into purchasing power, and into your customer base, is this generation that thinks differently, is wired differently."
As for products and services, Carroll frequently referenced last week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as an example of "furiously rapid rates of change." Product lifecycles, such as those traditionally taught in marketing courses," are fundamentally disappearing," he said.
To compete, cable needs to focus on being agile. "Re-skilling the folks who are instrumental in your architecture is just critical," he said.
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I don't think the current corporate structure will last 20 years; it might be difficult to see it lasting even 10 years. In the meantime, companies are trying all kinds of band-aid solutions to try to attract and retain the first Internet-generation. Over at The Repository of Canton, Ohio, in an article about unique workplaces, I'm quoted as saying: "Companies are struggling to figure out: OK, what do we need to do to attract and retain and create a work environment for this generation who is just so totally unique and different and rejects 9-to-5 and rejects the concept of a cubicle office and completely rejects all the traditional corporate structure that we've had in place for so long."
Read the full article Is Your Work Like This?
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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 
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Should you go to war with your customers?
Based on the email response and media coverage, my keynote at the SCTE in Tampa yesterday caused a bit of a buzz. There's an article from MultiChannel News (see below) that takes a look at my remarks.
A key message seems to be sticking: cable companies should not go to war with their customers.
Recently, exectives in some cable companies have suggested that they should be able to put a speed cap on emerging Internet services such as VoIP. Dumb: those who don't understand history are doomed to repeat it. Look at what this strategy did for music companies.
No industry, including any company in telecom, entertainment, broadcast or tech, should choose to do battle with their customers. It's a losing strategy. Plain and simple.
Read the MultiChannel report :
Futurist: Cable Needs ‘Agility’
MultiChannel News
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By Matt Stump 1/11/2006 5:27:00 PM, Tampa, Fla. --
Author and futurist Jim Carroll urged engineers at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers’ Emerging Technologies conference here to watch consumer behavior in order to determine the future direction of cable-technology implementation.
Whether telcos or cable will win market share in the future, he said, is the wrong question. Rather: How well will cable adapt and deliver platforms and services consumer want?
“You need to develop agility,” Carroll -- author of What I Learned from Frogs in Texas: Saving Your Skin with Forward-Thinking Innovation (Oblio Press, 2004) -- told an audience. “Innovation and invention has moved from the labs to the collective,” he added, citing consumer usage of portable music, video players and digital cameras.
He urged cable companies not to make the mistake the music industry did and go to war with their own consumers over how they obtain content.
“Customers will be pushing you for more choice,” he said, adding that future generations will want access to their video and audio content on many different devices. “TV is not a single-source medium,” he said. “There are multiple ubiquitous devices.”
Cable can provide those connections and help consumers to move content from one device to another, he added. At the same time, “the complexity of what you’re dealing with is increasing. No one cable engineer can know everything,” he said.
Carroll urged cable companies to develop partners for new and different technologies, as several top operators have with their recent joint venture with Sprint Nextel Corp. for wireless services.
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Here's a quickl list of what I think were some of the best posts to this often sporadic blog through the year.
- Change: Deal with it: this little fellow still cracks me up.
- The infinite idea loop: the future is faster. Even Fortune covered this posting. A compelling 3 minute watch, if you really want to understand how the future is evolving.
- The Masters of Business Imagination Manifesto: FastCompany picked up on my MBI Manifesto found in this post. It got so much attention, it has become the focus of my next book, due out in 2006.
- It's in to be out!": Too much fun earlier this year when I met with the editors of O (Oprah Magazine), Elle, Family Circle, Parenting, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Working Mother, American Baby, Soap Opera Weekly, Woman's Day, Glamor, Teen Vogue, Seventeen, Good Housekeeing, Family Circle and about 40 other national trade magazines, in New York City! Covering off my list of outdoor trends.....on behalf of a major client.
- Frogs in Texas reviews: After all that work in bringing out a new book, it gets some great reviews and momentum throughout 2005.
- The Tiniest Warrior of All: My wife and I published, through out publishing company Oblio Press, a very important, powerful and emotional book.
- 10 Signs You've Got an Innovation Dysfunction: How can you tell if you've got problems? Read the list .... Fortune covered this one.
- Creativity, trends and innovation in retail, packaging and consumer goods ...: I've done a huge number of talks in almost every industry and profession in the last decade, talking as a futurist about future trends. I've got a huge number of trends floating around in my head and in my materials, and I'm trying to use the blog to capture alot of them after a major keynote. This post is a good example.
- "The concept of going to school for knowledge is kind of quaint...": A quick article that stirred up a fair bit of controversy. I don't believe anything I said here to be untrue.
- 10 More Ways to Instill Innovation: A followup to the innovation dysfunction post above.
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Fortune Magazine and the infinite idea loop
i>Fortune Magazine's Business Innovation blog linked to my "infinite idea loop" video clip, and the traffic has been pretty heavy from right around the world.
They had this to say of my clip on how innovation has forever changed in the context of what I call "the infinite idea loop: "It's hard to discuss all of these trends succinctly within a brief 3-minute period, but Jim does a great job - it was like watching a motivational speaker up on stage exhorting companies to embrace open collaboration and global connectivity."
Cool -- and thank you for the compliment!
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Does your organization use these innovation killers?
The Globe & Mail published my article on "innovation killers" today -- " ...in a world of rapid and constant change, many people still manage to think that they can get away with routine. That's why I'd suggest you undertake an "attitude inventory" during your next staff, board or executive meeting."[ Read the article ]
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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
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At 6:15am this morning, I finally started writing my book, "What I Learned From Frogs in Texas: Simple Steps to Thrive in a World of Constant Change and Innovation." I'm mostly off for the summer; I have a keynote at Meetings World in New York next week, but will devote the rest of my time to both downtime, and to getting this book written.
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Article - "We Can't Make Up Our Minds"
My comments about the indecision that is driving the economy made the cover of Meetings World, in this article. "People have decided not to make decisions -- and they like it -- because it mitigates their fear". Read the article 
(PDF)
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"...soon hundreds of people were using Mr. Carroll's machine to surf anonymously"
In today's Globe: "Jim Carroll was stunned when Rogers Cable told him it had received a complaint that a hacker was using his Internet address." (PDF)
I wrote about this situation earlier here. And a year ago, my Profit magazine column noted that there were some big board/insurance issues emerging.
An upcoming column of mine notes that infrastructure issues are probably the next corporate Sarbanes-Oxley
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A year ago this month, my Profit article noted that "unfortunately, most entrepreneurs continue to ignore computer security shortfalls that leave them vulnerable to system crashes, hacker attacks, virus outbreaks and even internal sabotage. My point? Companies better pay attention to security issues, or they'll find things getting increasingly ugly.
Fast forward a year. Wow! Today I got an e-mail from Rogers Communications -- they're my high speed provider -- notifying me that an attempt had been made to break into a computer -- and that the attempt came from my Internet address.
Whoah! Obviously, I don't spend my time hanging around trying to hack into systems; indeed, I've long been warning companies about the risks of neglecting security.
Not only that, but through the years, I've taken the time to understand security from both a high-level and very-technical level. Given the complexity of my home system, I don' take security lightly.
Needless to say, the message struck my immediate interest ... and so I sent it on to the head of PR for Rogers, asking what's up!
A short time later, the answer came back -- it looked like my Web server on my inbound connection, which I use to access e-mail while on the road, had been compromised -- it appeared on a list of "public proxy servers" on several Russian sites. Sure enough -- I've been hacked.....
I'm digging into it further, and I'm really none too amused. What this involves is less any type of sophisticated "hacking' and more simple negligence on my part -- it looks like someone took advantage of what is known as an "open proxy server" on a Web server I run here. That allowed people to travel to other Web sites anonymously, using my Web server as the launch point. I could have sworn I took the time to ensure that all such features were turned off ... but somehow did not.
Needless to say, there was all kinds of nefarious activity underway, I'm red in the face, and there are some big lessons learned.
I imagine I'll have quite a bit to say about this -- quite a bit more to learn -- quite a few articles to write -- and quite a bit of guidance for those who might be overly confident about their own security!
Harrumphh!
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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)
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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 ]
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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!
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" I don't think the marketing world has figured it out yet"
I'm quoted in a ComputerWorld artilce this week, Blogs Bubble Into Business. The points I raise were discussed in an earlier article I wrote about the topic. As I comment in ComputerWorld, "....everyone out there is too darned terrified to try anything new right now..." which is a shame, because weblog software can have big impact in terms of marketing, sales and customer support and loyalty. [ link ]
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Interview on significance of VoIP (Voice over Internet protocol)
You can catch a clip with me on the CBC National Business show talking about Voice-over-IP and what it means. Interestingly enough, this call was done through an Internet phone, using the Vonage service. here, in RealAudio format. [ link ]
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Traditional offices -- Boring as sin!
I'm quoted in the Edmonton Journal today in an article about an innovative, new, cooperative office space. No link to the full article yet, but I'm working on it.
Jim Carroll, a futurist, agrees that workplace co-operatives like Digital North are a trend likely to continue. "Young people in particular don't want to work in the big, standard, cubicle-based world. They had their taste of cool office spaces during the dot-com years and they don't want to go back."While executive suites, mobile offices and rent-an-office have been around for years, they are "boring as sin," says Carroll. These spaces lack character and the ability to individualize to your needs and tastes.
Of course, my situation is unique, having worked in a home office for 14 years.
See also my 10 Rules for Working at Home.
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"We've gone from irrational exuberance to irrational pessimism"
"Jim Carroll suggests business owners should pop a few Advils, drink lots of water and get over their dot-com hangover already". -- from " Tech 'guru' says business is gripped by indecision , Sat Sep 20 2003, Winnipeg Free Press
Get over the dot-com hangover
Tech 'guru' says business is gripped by indecision
Sat Sep 20 2003
By Geoff Kirbyson
Jim Carroll suggests business owners should pop a few Advils, drink lots of water and get over their dot-com hangover already.
The man who made his mark in the mid-1990s advising people how to drive their business's profitability through the Internet has changed his tune. Sure, he still thinks there are countless opportunities to be had for firms in the wired world, but corporate cultures that used to breed new ideas like rabbits have gone platonic.
"We've gone from irrational exuberance to irrational pessimism," he said in a recent telephone interview from his home office in Mississauga, Ont. "Everybody went to a party in the '90s, they did a lot of dumb things, they bought stocks that were outrageously overvalued, they drank the dot-com Kool-Aid and after it all came crashing down, they woke up and said, 'Oh my God, what did I do?'."
Carroll is one of eight keynote speakers headlining the bill at the Business Connections Trade Show to be held at the Winnipeg Convention Centre on Sept. 30.
Carroll said far too many senior executives and managers are too focused on cost cutting, or "panic cutting" as he calls it, that people with good ideas within an organization don't dare open their mouths.
"We've reached the stage of aggressive indecision. I'm hearing from marketing and advertising agencies that are making proposals to companies that fit a good strategic purpose and the companies are sitting on (the proposals) for six months, a year or two years," he said. "We need to learn to act aggressively again. We've had an absolute disappearance of the attitude that we can improve our business or discover new opportunities by taking a risk."
Carroll said the corporate equivalent of the deer-caught-in-the-headlights phenomena can't be blamed solely on the dot-com collapse. The ongoing war on terror, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the accounting scandals of 2002 still resonate in the business world.
But once people have shaken out the cobwebs and cured their hangovers, they should chart a course for innovation once again, he said.
"There's so much we can do not just with technology but with product development and the ways we interact with our customers. A lot of the ideas we talked about in the '90s, they weren't bad ideas, it's just the execution was all wrong and greed took over," he said.
Carol-Ann Borody-Siemens, chair of the trade show, now in its third year, called Carroll a guru in the tech field, citing his prediction of the dot-com downfall during the height of Internet mania in the late '90s.
"He's down to earth and realistic about what the Internet can do (for businesses). He'll tell people they need to make some common-sense decisions how they're going to use the Internet to enhance their business," she said in a recent interview. Borody-Siemens said much of the day's agenda will centre on the pending privacy act that will come into effect next January, legislation she said will affect "every business in Canada."
"It's an act which determines how we deal with private information, what you can legally collect, how to disseminate it, who can look at it and what recourse your clients have if they don't like how their personal material is being handled," she said.
The trade show itself is geared towards the business to business sector, she noted, and will feature booths that touch on topics such as financial tools, marketing information and insurance.
Other speakers include Mark Chipman, president of Megill-Stephenson Company Ltd. but perhaps best known as the majority owner of the American Hockey League's Manitoba Moose, Chuck Loewen, founder and chief strategy officer for Online Business Systems, Lori Mitchell, director of National Learning & Development and Barbara Bowes, president of Bowes Leadership Group Inc. and a Free Press columnist.
geoff.kirbyson@freepress.mb.ca
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Two banks were victiims of a long-running 'fake web site scam' -- I've done about 10 radio interviews about it this morning. The CBC story is here, BMO's warning here, and a news story about the same type of thing happening with Paypal here. It's a long running scam -- bottom line, never respond to emails that purport to ask you for PIN or other personal information.
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Should the Internet be used in a courtroom?
My August CAMagazine article is about the issue of whether the Internet should -- and could -- be used as an evidentiary tool in court. This is a significant trend and will become a major issue through the next decade.
Read the Adobe Acrobat version [ article ]
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Cool! There's a bit of a description of my home network in PCMagazine and on the PCMagazine site. [ link ]
There was also a description some time back in Link! magazine [ article ]
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I've just been profiled in the most recent alumni magazine of my university, Dalhousie. "...sometimes, a chosen academic direction leads to a different career path. For at least three Dalhousie grads, rather traditional academic studies have led to very non-traditional careers. All three detoured in ways that transformed them into internationally recognized and widely sought advisers in Canada and around the world." [ article ]
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Security has to start at the top!
Enough is enough. Consider these headlines from the last few days:
There is a common theme here -- companies continue to ignore security issues, and the result is significant business damage. And to be frank, this isn't just a small issue anymore -- we are witnessing the actual destruction of corporate value due to negligence! THIS IS A CEO LEVEL ISSUE NOW, FOLKS!
Consider Air Canada Jazz. Yesterday, the CEO announced they would like to sell that division in a bid to raise money. Who would possibly be interested in buying an airline that saw its entire ability to provide service grind to a halt -- because a single hard drive on a single computer failed? They had no redundant backup system in place! Absolutely appalling, massive negligence with resultant destruction in corporate value. This is no small issue – at a time of critical business strategy, the organization has managed to effectively destroy significant value at the time they need it most.
ISM, a subsidiary of IBM, had a hard drive stolen due to lax security. What company might ever entrust their business to this organization again? Regardless of the spin that we will see, my guess is that ISM is finished, kaput, done. Computer services are all about confidence, and this company has truly destroyed any confidence customers might have. Through one fatal security mistake, it is likely that the company has been forever destroyed.
Slammer? Companies can't complain -- they've ignored security for so long.
The point is this -- what more evidence do we need that SENIOR EXECUTIVES are security-negligent?
Security is a CEO-level issue – it isn't just some small-fry geek thing that needs to be taken care of.
Until senior management wakes up and realizes that without action, they can see their corporate value destroyed over night, we'll see more of this.
If I was on a board of any company, I would be demanding to know, from the CEO, today, right now, what the corporate attitude is towards security. If I didn't get the answers, I'd suggest that I get them -- damned quick.
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A serious look at e-government issues
"I think the biggest problem is that we still need a tremendous amount of education throughout the civil service as to what this is all about....it's fundamentally changing the way we do business in order to achieve costs savings in the way we do business." Jim in Summit Magazine: The Business of Public Sector Procurement. Read the full article online.
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10 predictions business people can't avoid
The Hamilton Spectator ran a short column on my list of issues for the coming years. You can read it online here. You can also read my Adobe Acrobat column, which goes into a bit more depth on these issues, here.
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My book "Get a (Digital) Life" published in India -- and I just found out....!
I awoke this morning to an item from my newsclipping service -- seems that my book "Get a (Digital) Life" just got a glowing review in the Financial Express.
Problem is, I'd never heard of the publication. Turns out it is based in India. Turns out they were reviewing the Indian edition of my book. Turns out that this is one of a few reviews done of the book in India.
Turns out I never even knew that it has been published in India!
It appears that somewhere along the way, my now bankrupt publisher Stoddart did a foreign-rights sale to MacMillan UK, who then licenced it to MacMillan India. Of course, no one ever thought to tell us (nor will we ever see a dime due to the Stoddart bankruptcy... see this item for that story!)
But hey -- at least I can now honestly say that I'm a published author in India.....
681 words
4 January 2003
Financial Express
English
Financial Times Information Ltd - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, All
Material Subject to Copyright Financial Express (c) 2003 : All Rights
Reserved
The Internet hype is dead, long live the Internet. That seems to be
the message that keeps flashing through Get A Digital Life: An
Internet Reality Check, like popup windows that keep re-appearing on your
screen as soon as you close them down. But whether you are a retailer,
manufacturer or in the service industry, ignore this message at your own
peril. For, far from running down the power of the World Wide Web, authors
Jim Carroll and Rick Broadhead are passionate believers in the power it
holds to transform your world. After all, the passion that went out of
fashion after the dotcom disaster (that made megabillions look like small
change and actually turned them into it), the pendulum swung to the other
extreme. The same media that had made heroes out of idea-millionaires who
"created" virtual wealth and destroyed real money in "Internet time"
(another concept that the authors delight in debunking), were now
declaring that the Internet was finished.
What makes the book an interesting read is the clinically
dispassionate manner in which the duo conduct the post-mortem of the boom
and doom years of the Net without making villains or heroes out of the
characters that played questionable roles in pumping up the bubble.
Clearly a product of long hours of painstaking research spread over more
than a year, the book is liberally peppered with interesting statistics,
facts and samples of fiction that were taken for fact while the "idea
virus" was on a rampage. The authors also conferenced with groups of
businessmen most likely to have been impacted by online businesses. An
interesting illustration comes from their meeting with a bunch of marina
operators. "These are folks who manage small-to large-scale marinas on
lakes in Canada, many of which could be characterised as 'mom-and- pop'
operations. Some of their income is derived from renting or leasing marina
slips to boat owners and from winter storage of boats, but most of their
profit comes from the sale of boats, boating equipment and supplies... One
marina operator stood up and told us he was quite experienced with the
Internet... He knew there were plenty of threats to his business on the
horizon-particularly when it comes to product sales-because of e-
commerce..." The authors write of how the marina operator was familiar
with his web-based competitors, online boating supply sites and the
potential threat of his own suppliers deciding to compete directly against
him in the new world of "disintermediation". "In other words, he had
plenty of reasons to be worried. But then he told us that in spite of such
threats, he had seen barely any impact." Beyond analysing what went wrong
and how, the utility of the book lies in the strategy it offers to
businesses that seek to leverage the edge of the Internet. Both Canadian
writers are authorities in their fields. Mr Carroll is a chartered
accountant, who offers consultancy to Fortune 500 clients on doing
business in the new economy. Mr Broadhead is considered a leading
e-commerce expert and has co-authored 30 books on the Internet, e-
commerce and e-business. Apart from strategy, what the book offers is hope
for those who have come to believe that the Net was only about hype. The
authors say the Net and what it can do is very real. Only the pace of
change will be gradual and the road ahead not predictable. If you overlook
the occasional, banal sound byte they borrow, ostensibly in a needless
attempt to spice up their effort (Sample this: "Never look back-the road
is forward. If you spend too much time reflecting on what's been done,
you're not spending enough time on what could be done..."), the book is
well worth the "Internet time" you will invest in it. Get A Digital Life-
An Internet Reality Check by Jim Carrol & Rick Broadhead; Macmillan India;
Rs 198; Pp 221.
Financial Times Information Ltd - Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
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E-government spending toppping some $5 billion
Interesting news release this AM, indicating that US "federal government spending on electronic government systems and services will increase at a compound annual growth rate of 12% from $2.9 billion in fiscal year 2002 to more than $5 billion in FY 2007 according to a report ....
[link]
The same thing is happening worldwide. I'm a member of the Canadian federal "Government Online" initiative, and we've just released our report on what we think needs to happen to ensure e-government success. Bottom line -- without top leadership, it won't work. [ Government Online report Acrobat PDF ]
[link]
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I have my new RIM Blackberry 6710 .... which should be interesting for someone who has been focusing on issues related to "work/life balance in the digital age"....
I received it yesterday, and activated it today. I took it to the gym at 3pm, and was reading e-mail while on the exercise bike. Weird experience.
There will be a process of finding the utility in the device while keeping a health balance. I've been writing and speaking for quite some time about the challenges that such technology -- plugging you in 24/7 -- can have. I've had to deal with the issue for some 12 years, what with 25 computing devices scattered about the home.....but have managed.
But this is a new challenge perhaps to deal with -- I can certainly see the benefit, but can also understand the downside.
There's a grab bag of previous articles I've written about the issue:
- Arghhh! Too Much Technology! - Salespeople find a need to take back their personal life (Contact Magazine) [ article ]
- Life vest needed for technology gone overboard, Globe & Mail[ article ]
- How to create work/life balance in the digital age [ article ]
- Age of Leisure : Ah Yes, The Six-Hour Work Week - Canadian Magazine [ article ]
- How one consultant is winning the burn-out war - Tech Republic (Adobe Acrobat) [ article ]
- 10 Rules for Working at Home [ weblog entry ]
- Work/Life Balance in the Digital Age [ promo brochure - speech topic ]
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