Innovation is all about adapting to the future - and if the future is coming at you faster, then you need to innovate faster. Innovation shouldn't be about trying to survive the future - it should be about thriving.

Here's what we know to be true about the future:

• It's incredibly fast: Product life-cycles are collapsing. It's said that half of what students learn in their freshman year about science and technology is obsolete or revised by their senior year. There are furious rates of new scientific discovery. Time is being compressed.
• It involves a huge adaptability gap: Earlier generations - boomers - have had participated in countless "change management workshops," reflecting the reality that many of them have long struggled with change. Gen-Connect - today's 15 and under - will never think of change management issue. They just change.
• It has a huge instantaneity: The average consumer scans 12 feet of shelf space per second. Most news becomes old hat within 36 hours of emerging. We live in the era of the rapid idea-cycle.
• It hits you most when you don't expect it: Every organization must deal with the reality going forward that "volatility is the new normal"
• It's being defined by renegades: Increasingly, the future of many an industry is being defined by industry expatriates. When a real innovator can't innovate within a company, they step outside, form a startup, and spark massive industry change on their own. Before you know, they've reinvented you.
• It involves partnership: Old business models involved asking, "what can we do to run our business better?" The new business model is this: "What can we do to run our customers, suppliers and partners business better?"
• It involves intensity: We must learn to run our business at video-game intensity: in fast paced markets, we need fast paced business capabilities.
• It's bigger than you think: I used to joke about the concept of Google becoming a car company. I don't think it's a joke anymore. Complacency is a dangerous thing, particular when every organization is faced with constant, relentless external innovation from unexpected competitors.
• It involves innovation intensity: With rapid change, everyone in an organization must innovate. Thriving in the future has a leadership that involves everyone in innovation. No idea is too dumb, no opportunity is too small.
• It comes from experiential capital: With a fast future, you've got to learn and relearn. Corporate equity isn't just money: it's the cumulative experience and knowledge of the team.

• Adapt to more challenging customers: customers expectations and needs are changing rapidly, and yet they are more demanding than ever before. Loyalty disappears....at the same time they expect creative perfection from you, they are more fickle, and far less loyal .... I'm not even sure the concept of loyalty exists any more for many brands!
• Costs increase: all this is happening in a world in which producers and retailers are faced with a rapid increase in uncontrollable costs...energy, plastics, you name it! Margins are being squeezed and pressured as a result. Operational excellence is no longer optional!
• Focus on collaborative relationships: The key to innovation in retail today can be found in collaborative relationships and partnerships between packaging companies, consumer products and brands, and retailers. ! Noted Paul Moss, British Bakeries Divisional Marketing Director, "We have more to talk about than price." No one wants to fight in a brand sector that is involved in a race to the bottom, but that's what happens when everyone focuses on price. Shift the equation with your partners, and you'll find a way out.
• Remember -- the package is the brand: Heinz, StarKist and other industry leaders have learned that packaging innovation, driven by new methodologies, ideas and technologies, has become the secret to brand image in many sectors, because it permits a shift of value and customer perception in ways that haven't previously been seen. Think upside-down-Ketchup. If you aren't innovating with packaging, you aren't in the game
• Hyper-innovation is key: Throughout the consumer products world, we are witnessing faster time to market in every single sector. The concept of a product lifecycle is disappearing as products come to market and thrive for but short micro-bursts of time. Make sure you've got the agility on your team you need to cope with this reality, and you might survive
• Get used to rapid change. Consumer desires, needs and demands will continue change at an ever more furious pace, often in ways that won't make sense, particularly with the impact of social networks. Don't despair from it: learn from it. Take the recent race to value-oriented products as a result of the recession. Did you act fast enough? What organizations sclerosis blocked your ability for quick change? And what should you do to fix it?
• Capture the insight of creatively new competitors - constantly: Admit this: there are likely going to be a lot of folks out there who are a lot more creative than you are. They'll beat the pants off you all the time with quick short bursts of tactical success, while you are still busy marshalling your forces. Rather than losing sleep over their success, study them! Learn from them! And then capitalize by doing what they do - and do it better. Rapid creativity in a time of constant change is the name of the game, and you'd do best to work to obtain the same skills and insight that your best competitors have developed.
• Ride the wave of continuous business model innovation: If someone is reinventing your business model, reinvent it faster! In retail, we are seeing constant experimentation with store formats, brand partnering, in-store displays, logistics and tracking studies, and countless other new ways of doing things. 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.

The topic for that keynote will be: Where Do We Go From Here? Why Innovators Will Rule in the Post-Recession Economy - And How You Can Join Them.

Here's an extract from the keynote description:

Jim Carroll has carefully studied what it is that organizations are doing to position themselves for post-recession growth.

One thing they are certainly doing is positioning themselves for innovative solutions to complex problems. When it comes to retail store maintenance there is no doubt that we are in the era of fast-paced solutions, whether its related to intelligent building management solutions, the rapid evolution of in-store layout and design principles; innovative environmental and green technology solutions; or new in-store customer engagement methodologies, all of which impact in-store maintenance professionals in new and dramatic ways.

In his keynote, Jim will share his insight into the key trends impacting the retail sector, and how maintenance professionals can take a seat at the "strategy table," providing unique solutions and guidance to the management team by adapting to fast paced trends.

More information:

• PRSM 2010 Conference

We put the clip together for the folks at CNBC Fast Money; they called expressing interest in the possibility of having a series of future trends vignettes that could be used to spark some discussion on the show. Hence, the reference in the clip as to "what does the Fast Money panel think?"

There's been no progress yet on a go-ahead, but I thought it was a great clip anyways!

The clip was produced by David Mitchell, who is a long time snowbaord/skiing video professional; he's currently the producer of the Disney XD show, Shreducation.]]> http://www.jimcarroll.com/blog/2010/03/video-cnbc-fast-money-demo-per.html http://www.jimcarroll.com/blog/2010/03/video-cnbc-fast-money-demo-per.html Trends Video Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:55:40 -0500 Last fall, Microsoft invited me to speak at a series of events related to its Windows 7 launch; I'd be addressing C-level executives on the key business strategies organizations are adopting as we come out of the recession. For the first stop on the tour, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer spoke to the audience, so I went to hear what he had to say. He certainly stoked enthusiasm for the new Windows 7 product in the manner for which he is known, but he also spoke to the broader plans for Microsoft in the future. One comment about mobile devices stood out: that the reason why Apple is selling so many apps for the iPhone is because generally the browser on the phone isn't very user friendly.

That's quite true. I find when I access the Internet on my iPhone the screen resolution seems particularly challenging for these middle-aged eyes. My own website features fonts and a layout that look great on a big monitor but when accessed on an iPhone don't work very well.

So I decided I should have my own app that features a variety of information found on my regular site. Hence, my voyage into the world of iPhone app development. Apparently it's a voyage many people are pursuing, with some 80,000 apps already available on the iTunes store.

As I began looking around, I found quite a few artists and entertainers (which I think my career is increasingly evolving into) were releasing iPhone apps. Heck, I even found an app for Pat Boone. That blew my mind.

It was a timely decision: I had already started down the path toward promoting compatibility with the new world of wireless devices by creating a special version of my website uniquely formatted for small screens. I did this in a matter of hours by setting up a Wordpress blog; I added to it the iPhone/PDA "theme" that reformats pages to fit within the narrow screen size found on a BlackBerry or iPhone. I then added code to my website that figures out if someone is coming in via such a device: when someone does, it redirects him or her to the mobile version.

It was a bit challenging to get the blog section of my website into the iPhone version - until I found Mippin, that is. This nifty free service automatically formats a blog feed for wireless devices in a matter of seconds. If you have a blog and a PDA, try it out; it is quite a magical service.

Voila. I now had a version of my website that worked well for PDAs. But I thought I still should have an app that is available to people in the iTunes App store. Where to start? A friend put me in touch with iEveryware, an app developer based in California. From there, a phone call led to a cost estimate and within hours, I was on the way to having my own app. It was that fast. Until then, I had thought the process of app development would be some deep secret known to a chosen few. The reality is that there are already thousands of developers out there.

One key step in the process was setting myself up as an Apple iPhone Developer, for a fee of US$99. Once that was done, I was able to register the name Futurist for my app. I registered a few other app names for future use; right now, it seems a little bit like the early days of domain name registration. (Hint, hint.)

As I write this column, I'm actively involved in testing daily updates from the development team as they put together the application; it features a variety of videos within the app itself; access to video feeds from YouTube; direct access to my blog and Twitter feeds and some information resources about innovation and trends. We're hoping to submit it to Apple shortly; by the time you read this, it should be out there. The cost to develop my app? Just US$995.

All this from hearing Ballmer suggest the experience of browsing the web on an iPhone sucked.

(This article was written in December 2009. The app was submitted December 21, and was approved for release 10 days later!)

More information:

• iEveryware
• Mippin
• Jim Carroll's iPhone app
• Pat Boone's app

The key premise of my message was that in a world of accelerated innovation and fast paced change, organizations would find that new and more challenging quality issues would appear. The result, I suggested, was that organizations need to pay a new and different type of attention to 'quality', since quality issues could now spiral out of control faster than ever before.

(I've got the entire keynote on tape, with the slide deck, and might put a few clips up).

Fast forward three years, and we've got a situation in which the CEO of Toyota, previously one of the world's most respected organizations when it came to quality, is on the ropes.

Let's revisit what I said three years ago; here's an interview from Quality Progress Magazine in April 2007:

Jim Carroll has been working as a futurist and innovation expert for 18 years.

A lot of people probably don't know what a futurist is. Explain what you do.

Essentially, I spend a lot of time examining what is happening with different industries, with different professions, with different skills, and put that into perspective for people so they can think about what might be coming next in their industry.

What is coining next in quality?

I think it's going to be managing quality in a period of high velocity change. We are in a very high velocity economy. Business models are changing at a furious pace. Products are coming to market faster than ever before. We are seeing faster rates of innovation. We have to ask ourselves, "What will the impact of that be on the concept of quality? And how do we rethink what we've been doing in an era of ever more rapid change?"

It doesn't matter if we're thinking of that from a product perspective or professional skills perspective or process perspective. The fact is things are happening faster, and that has implications on quality. One of the words I like to use is "agility." How do we develop agility so that we can respond quickly to changes?

How can one ASQ member who is trying to bring innovation to an organization make a difference?

The quality guy or lady is probably a lonely individual because he or she can be perceived as getting in the way of the rush to market. But the risk of screwing up that comes with a high velocity market is magnified. We're in the YouTube era, where somebody can take a video of your product screwing up and post it online. Then you're in trouble.

Quality people probably aren't getting as much respect or attention as they used to, so I think it's important that they heighten the importance of quality and get the word out there, because the consequences of things going wrong are potentially so much worse. They have to get across to their bosses that all a company needs is one video clip of something bad happening, and it will do millions of dollars in brand damage. That's the reality.

After the event, I went on to write a blog post, which looks spot on given the recent events with Toyota:

My 2nd Orlando event was the Day 2 Keynote for about 2,000 people at the 7th Annual World Congress on Quality and Improvement. I focused on the issue, "how do we ensure we can maintain quality, and the very concept of quality, in the high-velocity world we now find ourselves within?" One of my opening slides led with this observation: "Velocity drives rapid (consumer / customer / business) change, increases their expectations, which requires faster innovation and a faster more complex economy - which perhaps requires a rethink of quality methodology." Some of my major observations through the talk:

• 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!

It's easy to sympathize with Toyota.

On the other hand, any organization could find where they are, because we've known for quite some time that quality challenges were simply going to become bigger, faster, and more complex!]]> http://www.jimcarroll.com/blog/2010/02/toyota-quality-and-what-we-kne.html http://www.jimcarroll.com/blog/2010/02/toyota-quality-and-what-we-kne.html Branding & marketing Faster Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:07:14 -0500 Here's a blog post that ran over at the >Chicago Hospitality Insider blog with a report on my keynote last week. "

Moving Beyond The Meltdown" with Jim Carroll Posted on February 18th, 2010 by Jody Robbins

How is the tourism business impacted by a world where information is passed feverishly around the globe? Immediately and directly; that's how, says Jim Carroll (Futurist and Trends & Innovation Expert!), today's lunch-time speaker at the 2010 Illinois Governor's Conference on Tourism.

"The future happens faster than you think," said Carroll. "The likelihood is that seven out of ten kindergartners today will work in jobs that don't exist today.

"[It's also] estimated that half of what college students learn in their first year is obsolete by the time you graduate," he continued. "The typical digital camera today has a shelf life of three to four months before it's behind current technology."

How can a company or a government entity make that change happen? Look for experienced people that know what they're doing; i.e. build experiential capital and stay nimble.

"It's not necessarily big corporations that will own the market, but those who innovate -- try things they haven't done before in order to stay in front of a very fast pace."

How? Accelerate your innovation cycle, Carroll says. "It's not, 'We'll get you in our brochure next year; it's what can we do to partner with you right now?'

Other important factors: faster time to market and continuous reinvention to meet rapid consumer preference shifts. Again, how to do this? Go online, go mobile and use your staff and outside resources to find your customer and sell them your product when and where they want it.

Carroll's Pertinent Points:

• *1/3 of all leisure travel is booked last-minute
• * Average planning time down to 15 days
• * 36% of last-minute vacations 3-4 nights in duration
• * 30% are 1-2 nights
• *"More than 147-million people interact globally on social networks via their mobile phones - expect one-billion (!!!) within five years," says Carroll.

In other words, to use a cliche, THE TIME IS NOW!

It was a great talk, and I'll have more to post on some of the observations from my keynote in the weeks to come! ]]> http://www.jimcarroll.com/blog/2010/02/report-on-my-keynote-for-the-i.html http://www.jimcarroll.com/blog/2010/02/report-on-my-keynote-for-the-i.html Keynotes Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:29:40 -0500 I've been doing a tremendous number of small, intimate CEO level leadership meetings; I'll work with the CEO or other senior management team member to pull together a talk that will highlight the key opportunities for growth through innovation within an industry.

I often point out that there are significant innovation and revenue growth opportunities when an organization concentrates on mastering the rapid emergence of new knowledge within a specific sector.

Take the world of construction; I've recently spoken at quite a few building management, construction and real estate conferences, and have focused on the fact that we are now witnessing very fast knowledge exponentiation with "green" design concepts.

What's happening is that we are seeing:

• the rapid emergence of new building methodologies, design concepts, materials, eco-design principles, all of which have the goal of reducing the overall energy footprint of the building, or reducing its environmental impact
• the result is that green building methodology is continuing to evolve at a furious pace
• there is so much new knowledge emerging that a new profession of "energy engineers" is beginning to emerge
• their skill and role is simply to keep on top of furious rates of change in terms of new energy management solutions within the building and construction sector
• developments are occurring so quickly that these individuals possess three key skills: how to rapidly ingest new knowledge and new ideas; awareness of where this new knowledge is emerging; and the ability to tap into other specialized skill sets and form rapid skills partnerships in order to tackle growth opportunities

This is pretty significant stuff: after all, some 40% of total US energy consumption can be attributed to operating buildings: the heat, light, cooling, hot water and other systems. Another 8% of energy use is related to the materials used. All the SUV's in North America? Three percent!

Clearly, there are BIG opportunities for growth through innovation, through the mastery of fast knowledge.

That's why I always challenge a CEO and senior management team to challenge themselves with workforce innovation.

That involves innovation with different workplace policies, career paths, workforce structure, experiential oriented job descriptions, skills banks for specialized skills, and a rapid focus on growth through the rapid emergence of new knowledge within that workforce. ]]> http://www.jimcarroll.com/blog/2010/02/finding-growth-with-knowledge.html http://www.jimcarroll.com/blog/2010/02/finding-growth-with-knowledge.html How to be innovative Human capital issues Leadership Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:11:19 -0500 "most people overestimate the amount of change that will occur in two years and underestimate the change that will occur over ten years."

In this video, I challenge an audience to think longer term -- and utilize a 10 to 20 year trend perspective to really understand how a particular industry might change. In this case, the health care transformation, as we move from a world of reactive to preventative health care.

]]> http://www.jimcarroll.com/blog/2010/02/video-thinking-about-long-term.html http://www.jimcarroll.com/blog/2010/02/video-thinking-about-long-term.html Industry - Health Care Video Tue, 16 Feb 2010 10:04:51 -0500 Here's an article that I wrote for Food Manufacturing on trends in the consumer, food and packaging sector.

I spend a huge amount of my time as a keynote speaker at countless conferences and events, many of them within and to the food, packaging, retail and restaurant sector. I also spend quite a bit of time with smaller, strategy-oriented leadership session designed around the theme of 'how to innovate in a high velocity economy.'

And I do know that while volatility rocks the economy, some fundamental truths about that velocity remain: the food, packaging and retail industries continue to be subject to dramatic rates of change--and innovative organizations succeed by mastering the pace of this new high-velocity economy.

Think about what is going on out there: customer mindset has become increasingly difficult to capture as we become a society with massive attention deficits--the Twitter era is having a profound impact on brand image. Marketing and advertising dollars are fleeing traditional media and moving online at a pace that surprises even the more hard-core technology-evangelists. Faster innovation means faster in-store format change. New digital signage technologies and other innovations march forward at a furious pace, providing yet another new influencer in the retail space.

And in the midst of all this change, business models are subject to upheaval due to economic turmoil, commoditization of product and the rapid emergence of new competitors.

It's a fast paced world--and that's why cutting-edge organizations are focused on key leadership strategies that provide for a fast-paced future. So what should you do to confront the "big trends" that have so much velocity--and what you should be doing right now?

I approached this very question as the opening keynote speaker for an audience of 5,000 at a recent Las Vegas event. The client organization certainly finds itself in the midst of high-velocity change. There are fast paced trends in terms of new branding challenges and marketing methodologies (think Web 2.0), consumer behavior, and many other issues. Yet, there are tremendous opportunities for growth through innovation.

My keynote addressed a variety of trends that impact every aspect of the food, packaging and retail sector today. For example, to be a leading edge innovator, you must confront and have a strategy that deals with a variety of fast-paced trends:

• Rapid emergence of new methods of customer interaction. For example, in the next few years, we will likely see the emergence of contact-less payment technology, as our credit card infrastructure migrates to Blackberry, iPhone, and smart phones. This presents new opportunities in terms of customer contact.
• New methods of brand and product promotion. Organizations must be able to scale to meet the demands of new intelligent infrastructure, and that will require a tremendous amount of innovation. Consider text messaging: technologies that provide for the remote retrieval of mobile coupon offers will define the future of brand interaction. With 147 million people already interacting globally on social networks via their mobile phone--and up to 1 billion in but five years--there are tremendous opportunities for new methods of achieving brand and product awareness.
• Rapid change in consumer choice. Take the issue of health concerns and balanced diet. Fresh-cut snack foods grew from $6.8 billion in to $10.5 billion in a short time, according to the International Fresh-Cut Produce Association. Innovation comes from changing product mix to keep up with fast-changing consumers.
• Rapidly emerging new menus and taste trends. It's estimated that new flavors now move from upscale kitchens to chain restaurants in 12 months, compared to 36 months 5 years ago. This means that faster innovation is not a luxury--it's a necessity. Change faster, and you'll yeild new growth-based products.
• Fast emerging issues involving green strategies. The Grille Zone, a restaurant chain in Boston, generates about 15 pounds of waste per restaurant, compared to an industry average of 275 pounds. The Green Restaurant Association took 14 years to go to 90 restaurants; it's now at close to 1,000, with thousands more going through the certification program. Growth can come from evolving a brand so that it matches the social desires of the customer base.

Innovation today is moving from more than just "products" to process, structure, capability, and speed.

Here's the thing: in my keynotes, I focus on growth opportunities. There are enough people out there who are so focused on the doom and gloom of the economy, that they lose sight of the fact that if they focus on fast innovation--and keeping up with rapid trends--they can discover all kinds of new ways to grow the business.

Faster is the new fast. Think growth. Think innovation.

--------- Convene Magazine, January 2010 by Maureen Littlejohn

During 2009, many organizations battened down the hatches and waited for the recession to pass. As we enter the new year - and a new decade - the time for waiting is over. It's the organizations that keep their eyes peeled for budding opportunities - and are prepared to pounce on them - that will succeed. Convene asked futurist and trends and innovation expert Jim Carroll to identify five emerging megatrends of particular interest to the meetings industry.

1. Faster business-model reinvention - Industries need to listen to what clients want and be able to change without getting bogged down in traditional, time-consuming approval stages or administrative red tape. In the meetings industry, according to Carroll, this means that organizations need to watch for members' shifting needs and respond quickly. For example, delegates might want more customized options during online registration, or more room to make last-minute confirmations. "The newer model, based on agility and flexibility, is the model that will take many businesses into the future," Carroll said. "To understand the link between future trends and innovation, you must get into that mindset."

   Since the economic meltdown, some business procedures have been turned upside-down. Carroll points to the American automobile industry: "The big automakers used to build up their assembly lines to produce 700,000 cars in a year and hope to sell them. Then they would tear the assembly line down a year later and rebuild for the next year's model. That formula is broken. Honda looks at this week's consumer demands, sees what is working, and can tear down and rebuild the assembly line in 10 days."

   Carroll said that organizations seeking an edge over their competitors are motivated to mess up their rivals' business models. "Before that happens [to you], you should mess it up yourself, so that you better control the endgame. Technology has and will play a huge role in business-model transformation, and your infrastructure has to be up to the task," he said.

2. Rapid ingestion of new technologies - Companies must stay current with technology, especially in the delivery of services, Carroll said. "There's going to be a huge amount of adaptation as the tsunami of technology continues unabated," he said. "An example would be in retail, where there will be a rapid transition to cell-phone-based payment technology. Credit-card companies need to stay on top of this. Winners will be able to transition at the speed of Silicon Valley. The leaders will be those who continue to find operational innovation in ways they had not thought of before."

   The lesson for meeting planners? Integrate the latest technologies into the meeting's infrastructure by partnering with technologically up-to-the-minute companies, Carroll said. Planners need to be early adopters of technologies at every stage of the meeting - prior to, during, and after the face-to-face event. This includes everything from promoting the meeting to Web sites, to offering the latest technology-enabled services to delegates on site, to gathering metrics and following up after the event.

3. Faster knowledge requirements - Carroll believes that "the future belongs to those who are fast." Organizations need to get smart quicker. "There are a tremendous number of new companies and new industries being built around the high velocity of ideas that surround us - which is increasing the pace of business startups," Carroll said. "New ideas continue to be explored, markets grow, and industries emerge as rapid innovation occurs in health care, agriculture, and countless other fields. It's all about rapid science - and exponential knowledge growth - leading to faster discovery of the next thing."

   That translates into the need for meetings to deliver more education, to be seen as "knowledge events." Carroll said: "This can take the form of short-term, high-level management meetings where the intent is to do things differently. Rapid ingestion of knowledge is needed by sales forces, management, and associations. Face-to-face education, done off site, will continue to be very effective. Networking is important for relationships and learning, especially human bonding with beer at 5 p.m. That's when participants are willing to share tips and ideas."

4. Rapid partnerships - Social networking is the best way to form more successful partnerships in a short amount of time, according to Carroll. "This way, people with expertise can be brought in to help work out the problems on new projects," he said. "Teams that are gathered rapidly and work quickly are critical to solving problems and achieving success."
5. End of the "AIG effect" - This, Carroll believes, is the biggest trend. "It is silly to think we shouldn't go to meetings," he said. "It's time to beat back the hysteria. In Las Vegas, where so many workers were laid off, it's had an effect. Politicians are paying attention and realizing they were shooting themselves in the foot by discouraging meetings."

   Carroll predicts that 2010 will usher in a return to long-term thinking. "Companies and associations will be making plans and strategizing how to reach goals in the next two to 10 years," he said, adding, "To that end, I've noticed an increased demand in my services as a futurist. We're all coming back with a vengeance."

More information:

• Blog post Is your brand from the olden days?

These talks are often aimed at the idea of "how do we need to transition our advisory services -- financial planners, investment advisors, insurance agents and brokers -- to keep up with fast paced change?"

Here's a laundry list of some of the strategies that I've been talking about:

1. Focus on growth:

   With so much volatility in the financial sector, it's all too easy to take your eye off of the opportunity -ball. As I noted in my remarks for a recent keynote to a group of senior bankers:

   "Never before has the need for financial advice for Australians been greater; only 20% of Australians are currently getting professional advice."

   That means there are tremendous opportunities for growth! For many, access to financial advice is still too hard and complicated - that's why its' a great time to innovate, in order to build market share!!!!

2. Structure for fast paced change: There are several certainties in the financial sector:

   • more business model change
   • more sophisticated competition
   • continuous business model disruption with new, young upstarts
   • continual shifts in consumer behaviour
   • technology-driven fast change, such as with the impact of mobile technologies

   Quite simply, an innovative financial organization concentrates on aligning its structure and capabilities so that it can change quickly

3. Reshape brand messages faster: Clearly there's a lot of fast-paced change in financial services with the rapid economic pullback, and it's critical that financial institutions continue to reshape their brand at the pace of rapidly changing consumer perception.

   Noted Jim Buchanan, Senior VP of Consumer Marketing at the Bank of America in an article in Advertising Age, October 2009:

   "Six months ago, we were trying to re-assure the market and consumers that we are safe and secure....now consumers are telling us they're not worried about those things anymore.....What they are interested in is 'How can you help me manage my finances?'"

   Innovative organizations ensure that the brand message evolves at the pace of a world in which volatility is the new normal.

4. Adapt to momentum of financial consumer change: Quite simply, the new financial client is online in a big way, and smart financial organizations will evolve their service and support message to these platforms. The number are staggering; in the case of my Australian keynote, I emphasized that:

   • 147 million people interact globally on social networks via their mobile phones - we can expect 1 billion within five years!
   • there are 1.6 million Twitter users in Australia - up 1,000% from last year
   • Australian's now spend 16.1 hours a week on the Internet, compared to 12.9 hours watching TV
   • 25% of that time is spent on Facebook

   The impact is clear: as noted by Mondaq Business Briefing in November 2009: "Australians visit social networking sites more often than financial services sites."

   The bottom line for financial and investment advisors is that social networks are an extremely effective tool to keep core clients in the loop; as an outreach tool, they're fast, effective, unique, quirky, and certainly the story of the day. The bottom line is that financial advisors have to go where the client is going, and should be thinking about how to become socially-networked oriented advisors.

5. Adjust platforms to this changing behaviour: I continue to emphasize with my global financial clients that the impact of mobile technologies on financial services is absolutely massive. Think about Wizzit, a South African service that is essentially a text message based banking system.

   The reality is that the new financial consumer expects to be served on new platforms: as noted by Thomas Kunz, Senior VP at PNC Financial:

   "Gen-Y doesn't reconcile checkbooks, and they don't believe in float. For them, their balance is their balance."

   That's why PNC has released a "virtual wallet app" available for iPhones. They're reaching out to this new financial consumer in a big way.

   Aggressive change with business platforms provides big opportunity for business model disruption. A key factor here has to do with new client acquisition: what's happening is the point of origination of the relationship might change as people transition their banking to mobile devices. Opportunity can come from continuing to build the advisor and distribution channel into these new platforms.

   And that's not a threat - that's a huge opportunity!

6. Leverage off of new peer-to-peer behaviour trends: The new financial consumer relies more than ever before for advice from their social networks.

   Peer-to-peer social driven advice through sites such as TradeKing is coming to the forefront: it's a service that allows people to share stock tips and research through extended social networks.

   Does this diminish the role of advisory services -- not at all, if you dive in and become a part of the peer-to-peer conversation!

7. Re-orient distribution channels : Here's another key point: I've emphasized to my insurance and other financial clients that the next-generation advisor/broker/agent expects ever more sophisticated technology platforms to help support their role.

   You've got to make sure you are keeping up with their needs. In one survey in the insurance sector, 80% of brokers indicated that the sophistication of the technology platform of the provider would influence who they would choose to do business with.

   According to Kevin Murray, EVP and CIO at New York-based AXA Equitable:

   "The younger generation of financial professional will almost demand online self-service....they will want to text any questions they have in to the service centre or self-service from their mobile device. We're going to have to be able to provide that capability. It's how they will operate."

8. Build your own peer-to-peer collaborative knowledge networks: The new financial advisor is also thinking socially, and is actively looking for peer-to-peer collaborative knowledge.

   Imagine building a financial advisory team that is collaborative for ideas, shares insight on market wins, constantly leverages insight from new branding campaigns that work in unique ways, and constantly shares great ideas on new methods of converting leads into clients -- that's how this next generation works!

   Back to Kevin Murray:

   "They will also want an online collaboration tool to ...find answers concerning product or questions from their customers. The X and Y generations are going to demand a different way of selling and servicing their customers.”

   What it's really all about? Freeing up their time to build opportunity, make sales, close deals.

9. Reduce churn through electronic relationships: Here's something else to think about according to Chief Marketer (October 2009),

   "The average brand saw one third of highly loyal consumers in 2007 completely defect to another brand in 2008".

   People are far less loyal, and far more likely to jump ship at the drop of a hat. That's why continuous innovation in terms of the relationship is critical -- and that's maybe why continually transitioning to new technology platforms such as an iPhone app might reduce that churn

10. Better, more focused niche marketing: We're in the new era of analytics and analysis, which provides new opportunities for advisors to reach out to markets previously unattainable. As noted by Money Management Executive in October 2009:

    "Financial advisers generally prefer to manage a small number of high-net-worth clients rather than a large number of small accounts, but recent advances in automation technology could change this dynamic."

11. Innovate hard with the next generation: one of the biggest trends going forward is that right now, we are witnessing the early stages of a massive transition of wealth from one generation to another. The numbers are staggering: we'll see $12 to $18 trillion in intergenerational wealth transfer In the next 12 years (US GDP is $12 trillion); and by 2053, some $130 trillion will have moved from one generation to another. That's a lot of money sloshing around -- and much of it is going to this new, tech-savvy financial consumer.

12. At the same time, rethink importance of boomer market: It's easy with all of these points to think that new markets will come from new, uber-hip young people and hot new technologies. But don't stop with innovating with that market -- also realize that there continues to be huge growth potential with the boomer market. In Australia, baby boomers will control 51% of the nations wealth. Put that in the context of the reality that there is a huge adoption by Boomers of Facebook. They continue to more aggressively integrate technology into their lives; they're busy researching health care, insurance, retirement planning and investment advice. Online makes more sense than ever before -- get your advisors there!

13. Evolve the approach: Insurance and financial services are products that are always sold based on fear -- they aren't bought. This reality doesn't go away because of new technologies. What does change is that technology is a powerful enabler that frees advisors from having to focus on the mundane, routine, time wasting stuff, in order to focus on providing the advice & guidance that advisors can provide. Focus on the core role!

14. Enact change: Many advisors will be in comfortable, established routines. Change is not easy. That's why organizations in the financial sector that are trying to be innovative need to help existing advisors focus on the opportunity and the benefits that come with rapid change, rather than being fearful of the change that technology is bringing to the industry.

They've had some challenges with the economic downturn; they're also likely to see a resurgence as infrastructure spending kicks in.

But they're thinking beyond what happens after that -- they're positioning themselves for long term growth -- and so they brought me in to stir up some creative thinking as to what they need to do.

The focus on my keynote was on the theme: "What is it that world class innovators do that other organizations don't do?" Here's some of the insight that I cover.

1. World class innovators possess a relentless focus on growth: I deal with a lot of CEO's at a lot of organizations, and in almost every instance, they've engaged me because my message of future growth opportunities resonates with their own attitude. In my view, there are unprecedented opportunities for growth in almost every industry. Spend some time on this blog; read my Where's the Growth overview and other information, and you'll come away convinced we live in transformative times that offer tremendous opportunities for growth through innovation.
2. World class innovators continually transition their revenue source: they're focused on 'chameleon revenue'. They know that have to evolve from being a commodity product competing on price, to one that offers a more complex, revenue rich solution. They're aware that they need to have continuous, relentless product innovation in order to keep their new revenue pipeline full.
3. World class innovators solve customers problems - before the customer knows it's a problem: They excel at anticipatory thinking: where do we need to go with our customers to ensure that we continue to have a strong revenue relationship? What key trends can we ride to maximum advantage that will allow us to provide a constant flood of new, irresistible innovations for our customer base?
4. World class innovators source innovation ideas through their customers.: Simply put, they derive new innovation ideas by observing what their customers are doing with their products or services. They know that they aren't fully in control of the innovation agenda anymore, and that some of the most brilliant ideas are coming from a new source. Notes John Hanks, vice-president, industrial and embedded products for National Instruments: "We have the advantage of working with some of the most innovative people in the world. For example, we could find a customer who is using one of our products in an unexpected and innovative way. It's then possible for us to take that and add value for another customer, which is one of the ways we can help the innovation process as a whole."
5. World class innovators focus on ingesting fast ideas: there are new technologies, business models, customer trends, product developments, scientific advances and countless other things that are increasing the pace of change. Innovators know that if they plug into the global idea machine, they can constantly discover a tremendous number of insights that help them to move forward.
6. Innovators check their speed and focus on corporate agility: they know that to keep up with fast paced trends, it's their ability to quickly act, react and do that will allow their future success. There's not a lot of time for debate, studying; inertia is abhorred. They simply DO.
7. World class innovators focus on long term wins through constant incremental improvements: they know that some pretty big growth can come from continual small wins and improvement on margins. For example, 7% of power on transmission and distribution lines are lost as heat. Reduce that loss by 10% - and that would equal all the new wind power installed in the US in 2006. That's why 'smart grids' are such a hot topic. Take the auto industry: todays' typical automotive system uses only 25% of the energy in the tank -- the balance is lost to waste, heat, inefficiency. Work on increasing that on a year over year basis, and there are some pretty solid gains through innovation.
8. World class innovators focus on skills partnerships as a key success factor: they know that with rapid change, knowledge is becoming an ever more precious commodity, particularly niche oriented knowledge. If they are entering a fascinating new, fast paced market, they realize that there might be but a few individuals or organizations in the world who could help them tackle that new market. They focus on forming fast teams and fast partnerships, drawing a lot of innovation oxygen from that external insight.
9. World class innovators focus on pervasive connectivity for next generation product: they know that one of the key trends out to 2020 is that everything around us is plugging together. Soon, every device on the planet will have an IP address on the Internet; we'll be able to access it's status and its location. This is transformative stuff, and is one of the primary sources for the next new billions of dollars of revenue in countless industries. Consider the world of HVAC -- industrial heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment: as it is transitioned to the world of "HVAC 2.0", an intelligent, interlinked, fascinating new world of massive connectivity.
10. World class innovators aren't afraid to back away from big ideas: they know that right now it's a great time to made bold decisions, and take decisive advantage to forge aggressive new paths against their competitors. While everyone else wallows in aggressive indecision and organizational sclerosis, world class innovators know that it is a great time to do great things.

You know what?

World class innovators win!

Did my keynote go well? Here's what the client had to say: "Thanks again for your first class presentation! It really hit home and was right on the money!"

More information:

• Where's the Growth? (PDF)
• Blog post HVAC 2.0

"... a solid turn-out of nearly 6,000 park professionals and advocates made the 45th edition of Congress a resounding success. .... The theme, "Looking to the Future," permeated nearly every facet of the event held at the Salt Center Convention Center.

In keeping with the Congress theme, Looking to the Future, opening session keynote speaker Jim Carroll did not disappoint. The Canada-based futurist built his address around key themes and issues likely to confront the field of parks and recreation in the next 10 to 15 years.

Carroll encouraged the packed convention hall to think in terms of transformation. Other trends Carroll advised attendees to be aware of included:

• healthcare (we'll be treated for the conditions we're likely to have before they set in)
• hyper connectivity (mapping, body sensors, and sports equipment)
• Next-Gen re-engagement
• fragmentation (the result of a faster, more connected world that will shape sports, recreation, and hobbies)
• re-defined communities (society's big problems will be solved locally)
• water/energy/environmental conservation issues
• demographics (think baseball diamonds that evolve into cricket pitches)
• workforce trends (Gen Y has a radically different set of job expectations than its predecessors)
• gaps in expectations (expect a disconnect between what the public wants and what it can afford)

If someone today were to ask me what the most challenging trend will be for first-world nations to deal with -- it would have to the last issue.

I've got a lot to write and say about the "expectation gap" issue, and have been covering this in dozens of speeches over the last while.

The "expectation gap" is a trend that will define both the opportunity for innovation, as well as distinct perils for standards of living should it not be carefully managed. And to a huge degree, it relates to the political and social maturity that a country can display as it tries to deal with and manage the gap.

More to come!]]> http://www.jimcarroll.com/blog/2010/01/the-future-think-in-terms-of-t.html http://www.jimcarroll.com/blog/2010/01/the-future-think-in-terms-of-t.html Keynotes Leadership Trends Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:15:49 -0500