Jim Carroll- Futurist, Trends & Innovation Keynote Speaker

Here’s another short video clip about the mindset that you can — and should – carry forward as we continue to work our way through challenging economic times!

Next week, I’ll be in Jacksonville, as the lunch time keynote speaker for the annual meeting of the Materials Handling Association of America. We’ll have about 300 executives in the room, from a broad cross section of North American industry.

My topic? “Moving Beyond the Meltdown: Aligning Yourself for Growth Through Innovation“.

In the last twelve months, I’ve had a unique first hand opportunity to witness what’s happening on the ground throughout corporate North America as companies have grappled with the recession. Throughout this time, I’ve been fortunate enough to speak at a wide variety of leadership meetings, management get-togethers and other corporate events for a fascinating list of Fortune 500 organizations, as well as many prestigious national associations.

And in my own small way, I’ve been busy helping people to understand what they need to do to innovate their way into the “next economy.” That’s because there are an increasing number of CEO’s or other members of senior management who are bringing me in, in order to help place emphasis on their message of the urgency of change.

What’s clear is that we are in the midst of a pretty significant economic transformation. As Mick Fleming at the American Chamber of Commerce put it recently: “It’s going to be this move from a bad economy, to the next economy.”

What is the shape of that next economy? The scope of the change can be seen in the types of deep, transformational change that is underway in many an industry. Consider manufacturing – clearly, we’re moving from a world of mass production, to mass customization and agility-based manufacturing. I often use the example of Honda, as noted in a Bloomberg news article back in 2008:

“Honda’s assembly lines can switch models in as little as 10 days ….. by contrast, it could take months for most rivals to make the same change.”

Clearly, the Detroit based old manufacturing business model was seriously and deeply flawed. The newer model, based on agility and flexibility is the model that will take may manufacturers into the future.

There’s a similar fundamental transformation underway in many other industries — and to understand the link between future trends and innovation, you must get into that mindset. Take health care — 20 years from now, it will look nothing like it does today, as we move to a world of preventative medicine.

And what’s really happening with the global economy are a number of trends that point to growth:

• 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;
• 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 today — and exponential knowledge growth leading to faster discovery of the “next thing”
• Business model innovation continues unabated : I’m seeing revolutionary trends with mobile text message based banking systems, for example
• Small organizations continue to have the advantage of capitalizing on opportunity quicker; today, it’s all about speed, and these are the innovators who often win in big markets. Just look at what’s going on in pharmaceutical research, where the majority of new discoveries are happening in small labs

It’s easy during a time of economic volatility to lose sight of where the global economy is really headed. Yet while stock markets might rock, innovation thrives.

What’s my role? In each and every case, the individuals who have engaged me know that their industry and the world they live in is set for deep, systemic, transformational change. They have a compelling sense of urgency. They know that maybe the rest of their team does not share the sentiment; they’re suffering from organizational sclerosis; their ability to understand the future is clogged up by todays’ short term focus.

Leaders today know that they need to wake their people up, shake them out of their complacency, and give them a clear understanding that they had better start thinking about the future — and fast — in order to keep up with high velocity change.

And perhaps, if they are lucky, stay one step ahead of everyone else.

More information:

• Material Handling Association of America – 2009 annual conference
• Blog post: Are you watching the major transformations, or just the piddly stuff?

Just over a year ago, the global economy changed.

What has it changed to? When I keynoted the Missouri Governor Economic Development conference in St. Louis two weeks ago, I offered this quote from the American Chamber of Commerce: “It’s going to be this move from a bad economy, to the next economy.”

What is that next economy? No one is certain, but what we can be sure of is that many industries will be fundamentally different; business models will continue to evolve at a faster pace; new revenue opportunities will continue to emerge; customer expectations will ramp up in terms of quality and service; we’ll see the ongoing emergence of new competitors; product life-cycles will continue to shorten as innovation speeds up; and a lot of transformative change will occur in markets and industries as really innovative people continue to shake up the fundamentals.

So how are companies adapting to these realities?

Since the events of last year, I’ve been out on the road working with dozens of organizations. I’ve seen and have worked with two different types of organizations and leaders. I’ve seen innovation failures — companies that are stuck in their economic rut, and unable to figure out what to do next. In other cases, I’ve encountered some real pioneers and fast-movers. They are the innovation leaders — they have the same sentiment that I posted in a blog a year ago, in that they know they can’t panic — they have to go forward by innovating, changing and adapting.

So what’s holding the innovation laggards back? I think there are several common attributes:

1. Fear of the unknown: I still see many organizations who are driven by uncertainty. What happens if our market doesn’t recover? What happens if we can’t rebuild the top line? What happens if our customers don’t start spending again? So much fear and uncertainty causes a form of leadership and organization wide paralysis to set in; they’re like deer caught in a headlight, and are frozen in time. Avoid that fate – and fast!
2. Inertia is easy: when confronted by change, many people react by …. doing nothing. When things are uncomfortable, the easiest thing to do to deal with that discomfort is to avoid it. Such thinking causes many organizations and the people within them to fall asleep. They keep doing what they’ve been doing before the recession, hoping that will carry them forward into our next, different economy. Obviously that can’t work, for a whole variety of different reasons.
3. It’s easy to avoid tough decisions : organizations are faced with a lot of change, in terms of business models, customer expectations, cost pressures, new competitors, and countless other challenges. To deal with any one of these issues requires tough decisions, but in many cases, it’s easier to put those decisions off into the future rather than having to deal with them.
4. An unwillingness to confront the truth: your product might be out of date; your brand might not been seen as relevant and keeping up to date with fast paced innovation in your marketplace; your sales force might be wildly out of date in terms of their product knowledge; your competitors might have a more efficient cost structure because they made the heavy IT investments that you did not. I could go on, but the point is this: you might have serious systemic problems, and are simply unable or unwilling to focus on fixing them. Have a reality check, and use that as a catalyst for action.
5. A short term focus: you are still caught up in the economic-downturn hysteria headlines, and don’t think about business trends longer than three months. By doing so, you are missing out on the fascinating transformations occurring in many markets and industries, and don’t see the key drivers for future economic growth, with the result that you aren’t capitalizing on them. Innovative organizations have moved beyond the meltdown, and are already busy positioning themselves for the inevitable long term recovery.
6. A culture that is risk adverse: so far, you’ve survived through cautious, careful manoeuvres. Yet the recession has left you naked with that strategy: going forward now requires trying to do a lot of things you haven’t done before. You’ve got a culture that doesn’t accept such thinking. Change that — now!
7. Paralyzed by the fear of failure: related to your risk aversion is a culture that abhors mistakes. Anyone who errs is shunned; people whisper quietly about what went wrong, and what it might mean. Can that thinking: you should take your failures and put them up on a pedestal. It’s more important that you try things out, and learn about this new fast paced, post-recession world, since what worked for you in the past obviously won’t work for you in the future.
8. Failure to adapt at fast markets : I’m dealing with companies that know that constant innovation with top line revenue — which means product and service innovation — is now all about time to market. You’ve got to have an innovation pipeline that is constantly inventing and reinventing the next revenue driver. What you sold in the past — you might not sell tomorrow. How are you going to fix that? By getting into the mindset of the high velocity economy.
9. A refusal or unwillingness to adapt to new methodologies and ideas: in the manufacturing sector, it’s all about Manufacturing 2.0 or 3.0 or the next phase … in every industry, there is no shortage of new ideas, methodologies, processes, and fundamental change in terms of how to get things done. Maybe you’ve closed your mind off to new ideas, with the result that you fail to see how your competitors are rapidly shifting their structure, capabilities, time to market, product line, and other fundamentals. Wake up — we’re in the era of the global idea machine, and the result is that there is a tremendous amount of transformative thinking out there about how to do things differently. Tune in, turn on, and rethink!
10. A loss of confidence: this economic downturn has had the effect of causing such widespread damage in various industries that some people and organizations and leaders have lost their faith in the future. They aren’t certain they can compete, adapt and change. Perhaps this is the biggest challenge of all to overcome — but you can only overcome it by getting out of your innovation rut and moving forward.

Bill Gates once observed that “We always overestimate the change that will occur in the next two years and underestimate the change that will occur in the next ten. Don’t let yourself be lulled into inaction.”

It couldn’t have been put better. What’s your choice – to be an innovation leader, aware of where we are going in the future, or an innovation laggard, still mired in short term thinking?

Think growth!

Two weeks ago, I was featured as the closing speaker at the 2009 Governor’s Conference on Economic Development, the 51st annual event of this type. Governor Jay Nixon addressed the crowd on Thursday, Sept 10th, noting in his keynote that:

To compete – and win — in the 21st century, we must encourage entrepreneurship and small-business growth; enhance our workforce; and embrace emerging science and technology as critical industries of tomorrow.

I followed up with a closing keynote on Friday that took a look at the trends occurring with small business, workforce trends, and the rapid pace of innovation in various markets : particularly, energy, the environment, and what I’ve come to call “manufacturing 2.0.” Here’s the session description:

What Comes Next: And What Should We Do About It?

Is there a future out there? Definitely yes, but a constant drumbeat of negative news can cause people to lose sight of what will happen as we return to a period of economic growth.

That’s where Jim Carroll comes in — this noted international futurist, trends & innovation expert spends his time with globally innovative leaders. He’s gained keen insight into some of the key trends which will impact industries, organizations and careers in the next few years to come, in a wide variety of industries from health care, to technology and manufacturing, to the skilled trades.

Jim is a passionate believer that we live in transformative times — and in five or ten years, will look back at this time with awe at the new industries, products, careers, and opportunities that were developed.

Jim Carroll will challenge you to focus on the opportunities of today and tomorrow, rather than the challenges of the past.

There have been quite a few economic development related talks as of late ; it’s my belief that with the downturn, a lot of people have lost sight of the transformational change that is occurring in many industries, particularly with leading edge innovation and future trends, and what local economic development officers might be doing to capitalize on those trends.

Area Development Magazine, a publication that focuses on this area, noted recently that “it’s impossible to succeed at economic development and be a pessimist.”

What I’ve been doing is to help to bring a sense of optimism to those in the room.

One year ago today, I was on stage in Sydney, Australia, opening the 2008 Toshiba Mobility Exchange Conference.

Part of my talk focused on the issue of “innovation in the high velocity economy.”

Looking back at a clip from the talk, one year after the global economic meltdown, some key points continue to remain extremely valid going forward as the economic recovery begins.

In a summary, my point then, and my point now, is that innovative organizations concentrate on:

• an accelerated innovation cycle
• rapid ingestion of new technologies / methodologies
• faster time to market
• rapid re-focusing of resources for opportunity or threat
• rabid focus on operational excellence
• innovating for rapid customer change
• nomadic workforce
• rapid response to volatility

If you can nail those things, you are well positioned to deal with what the global economy tosses your way.

Looking back at my slide deck, I concluded with the observation that high-velocity innovators concentrate on “global scalability, rapid assembly of teams, and hierarchy destroyed, because of a relentless focus on fast, emerging opportunity.”

I don’t think any of that has changed despite everything that has gone in the last year, and it still provides a good framework for innovative thinking.

I’m doing a keynote for a leading global loyalty management company on Thursday; I’ll be incorporating several live text message polls into the talk, in order to have a truly interactive experience on the stage — this is something I do quite often.

In advance, I’m running a brief test of the polling service I use. Please participate in this poll to help me ensure I’ve got things scaled correctly.

POLL NOW CLOSED; THESE ARE THE FINAL RESULTS!

Simply use your cell phone to send in a text message to 99503, with the text response (i.e. ONEYEAR) in the body of your message (no charge for the poll from me!) or go to http://poll4.com on your Web browser and type in the one word response.

Keep an eye on this blog entry, as the results should update dynamically.

N.B. The chart is small; we’ve contacted tech support to see if we can scale it!

Enough said. Get over it. Get out and innovate.

Think growth!

I led a small workshop last week after an event, focused on the issue of “how can we establish opportunities for growth during an economic downturn.”

The cover of my handout was titled, “It’s January 15, 2020: What did we do to move through the great recession of 2009.” Inside, I presented a number of scenarios that challenged the participants to think about innovation strategies that could be pursued right now, in order to provide that growth.

The concept resonated extremely strongly. All around me, I see opportunities for growth in a wide variety of industries. And what is becoming obvious is that some organizations are aggressively adopting strategies that involve “aggressive innovation” to change their direction now, rather than later.

Since last year, when the recession began, I’ve seen some of the best and worst approaches to how organizations are dealing with the challenges in the economy. And I go back to a previous blog post, in which I identified a list of 10 more things that smart, innovative companies do to create an overall sense of innovation-purpose. It’s still a great list, and is worth repeating.

• Heighten the importance of innovation. One major client with several billons in revenue has 8 senior VP’s who are responsible for innovation. And the fact is, they don’t just walk the talk — they do it. The message to the rest of the company? Innovation is critical — get involved.
• Create a compelling sense of urgency. With product lifecycles compressing and markets witnessing fierce competition, now is not the time for studies, committee meetings and reports. It’s time for action. Simply do things. Now. Get it done. Analyze it later to figure out how to do it better next time.
• Ignite each spark. Innovative leaders know that everyone in the organization has some type of unique creativity and talent. They know how to find it, harness it, and use it to advantage.
• Re-evaluate the mission. You might have been selling widgets five years ago, but the market doesn’t want widgets anymore. If the world has moved on, and you haven’t, it is time to re-evaluate your purpose, goals and strategies. Rethink the fundamentals in light of changing circumstances.
• Build up experiential capital. Innovation comes from risk, and risk comes from experience. The most important asset today isn’t found on your balance sheet — it is found in the accumulated wisdom from the many risks that you’ve taken. The more experiential capital you have, the more you’ll succeed.
• Shift from threat to opportunity. Innovative organizations don’t have management and staff who quiver from the fear at what might be coming next. Instead, they’re alive from breathing the oxygen of opportunity.
• Banish complacency and skepticism. It’s all too easy for an organization, bound by a history of inaction, to develop a defeatist culture. Innovative leaders turn this around by motivating everyone to realize that in an era of rapid change, anything is possible..
• Innovation osmosis. If you don’t have it, get it — that’s a good rule of thumb for innovation culture. One client lit a fuse in their innovation culture by buying up small, aggressive, young innovative companies in their industry. They then spent the time to carefully nurture their ideas and harness their creativity.
• Stop selling product, and sell results. The word solution is overused and overdone, but let’s face it — in a world in which everything is becoming a commodity and everyone is focused on price, change the rules of the game. Refuse to play — by thinking about how to play in a completely new game.
• Create excitement. I don’t know how many surveys I saw this year which indicated that the majority of most people in most jobs are bored, unhappy, and ready to bolt. Not at innovative companies! The opportunity for creativity, initiative and purpose results in a different attitude. Where might your organization be on a “corporate happiness index?” If it’s low, then you don’t have the right environment. Fix that problem — and fix it quick.

What are you doing right now to make sure that when you look back from January 15, 2020, you’re happy with the fact that you developed the right sense of purpose?

I wrote this PDF report last spring, before the recession set in. Yet I still think it makes for a lot of powerful arguments as to where we will see industrial and market growth in the future.

From the introduction: Gloom has set in on global markets. Volatility rages. Some organizations have gone into a mode of “aggressive indecision,” deferring action while they try to figure out “what comes next.” A pretty lousy strategy that is doomed to fail in the longer term.

Future oriented leaders understand the reality of growth. They know that we live in a time in which opportunities for growth abound. They’ve aligned the mission of the organization so that they are capitalizing on real opportunity, not short term economic challenges.

Growth is everywhere

It’s easy during a time of economic volatility to lose sight of where the global economy is really headed. Yet while stock markets might rock, innovation thrives.

New ideas continue to be explored, markets grow, and industries emerge. A variety of trends indicate that opportunities for growth continue to surround us.

• Global food production must double in the next twenty years to match
  population growth. There’s nothing but upside in agriculture!
• New industries and markets continue to emerge as advancements in the
  science behind energy, infrastructure, connectivity and health care drive fascinating new areas of growth.
• Many simple and obvious trends drive growth. Generational growth drives the rapid emergence of new markets: by 2020, 17% of the global population will be 65 years or older. Someone will sell a lot of phones with really big buttons!

Think growth. Think opportunity. Innovate for future, don’t stagnate with the past.

More information:

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

From my May CAMagazine column.

As we worry and wonder about the state of the global economy, we should remind ourselves that one thing is certain. At some point in the future,newspapers will run banner headlines featuring the words “Economic Recovery.”

The challenge with this particular downturn is that every single event — downsizing, layoff, missed earnings target or corporate bankruptcy — is now repeatedly examined in depth on 24-hour news channels. As a result, it’s easy to lose sight of the following key trends, which will help lead us into economic recovery.

Infrastructure: There is no doubt there will be a significant national economic stimulus due to infrastructure spending, but I believe we’re entering the era of smart infrastructure, which will involve more than shovels and buckets. For example, roadworks projects will use smart-highway technology, such as the linkage of spatial databases (think Google Maps) to GPS technology embedded in cars. It won’t be long before you can put your car on autopilot, so to speak, carefully keeping up with traffic flow as measured by highway-embedded sensors. Science fiction? I don’t think so. Put it this way: every bit of new infrastructure will be integrated with the Internet, and that will provide for some fascinating opportunities.

Healthcare: The ramp-up in healthcare spending that will occur as boomers age will be staggering, and this will perversely drive job growth at the same time it strains the budget. In the US, healthcare spending could equal 60% of gross domestic product in some states within 10 years. Such stark realities are driving furious rates of business model, technological, structural and other innovations in healthcare, much of which will involve sophisticated Internet technologies. For years, I’ve been talking about the potential for bio-connectivity devices: smart home-based medical monitoring technologies doctors can use, via the Internet, to monitor noncritical-care patients. Such innovations will drive a variety of growth-oriented markets.

Environment: Despite the slowdown, there is no pullback in major efforts to deal with challenging issues, which means ecological spending will continue to drive growth markets. McDonald’s is investing in a new company-wide intelligent energy infrastructure management system to deal with annual energy costs of US$1 billion. It expects to reduce overall costs by 20% by having the ability to remotely manage and monitor fryers, air conditioning, water usage and other devices throughout thousands of its restaurants. This will involve using the Internet as a backbone to a sophisticated global energy management system.

Industry reinvention: Similarly, connectivity will play a key role in the reinvention of products and industries. There is a lot of talk about the concept of Car 2.0, which involves a fundamental reinvention of current transportation mind-sets. There is a strong belief that we will see a reinvention of the auto industry, particularly as Silicon Valley begins to laser-aim its focus at the next generation of automotive business model. The next-generation automobile, if it emerges from the land of high-tech, will have “connectivity” as its middle name.

The change agenda of Generation Y: As I described in last month’s column (“They’ll spice up your systems,” p. 14),the members of this technologically aggressive, entrepreneurial generation will completely reshape the fundamentals of every industry, driving economic growth.

All in all, my view is that beyond a three- to six-month horizon, we will start to realize areas of economic growth, and the Internet will continue to play a key role.

Business Week ran an article in January, “10 Worst Innovation Mistakes in a Recession.”

It’s easy to point out mistakes. It can be harder to indicate what you should be doing.

I’ve been out speaking to organizations about trends, the future, innovation and creativity for fifteen years. Since last year, when the meltdown began, I’ve been keynoting events worldwide, rapidly adjusting my theme to one of “how you can innovate during a recession.” I’ve had the opportunity of seeing first hand quite a few very innovative strategies from CEO’s and others in a wide variety of events, and I keep modifying my message at rapid speed to incorporate a vast variety of ideas.

So I just took a few minutes to post a comment to the Business Week site, and I’ll post my quick thoughts here too. Here’s a list of 10 off the top of my head:

1. Focus your team — relentlessly — on growth. I keynoted a global organization in Las Vegas in February. The CEO got on stage before me — and spoke about the recession for one minute. He then spent 19 minutes speaking to the growth opportunities that the organization could pursue. That’s what everyone needs to do right now. There are growth opportunities in every industry. Focus on them!

2. Respond faster. When I keynoted a food industry summit in New York, we spoke of the need to respond faster to the fact that consumer preferences were changing more rapidly than ever before. More people eating at home, sensitive to dollars, looking for food-comfort. Reformulate new brand and product options faster. Just do it. Don’t study — do.

3. Invest in the brand. Brands can become weaker in a recession, particularly as consumers scramble for value. Decide where you want to reposition your product/brand, and act fast to do it rather than studying it to death.

4. Mix it up. Don’t assume that worked before the recession will work now. Try out a lot of ideas, particularly around value. “I’m experimenting rapidly with price points and product mix.”

5. Invest in experience. Lots of your staff will be down in the dumps, and are spinning their wheels. Get a message out that NOW is the time to invest in experience. Try things out, to build up the collective experience of your team.

6. Kill off the innovation killers. Reframe your team, so that they are thinking “what a great idea,” rather than viewing with suspicion any new ideas. Remember — everyone is worried about being laid off, and paranoia sucks the life out of innovation faster than anything else.

7. Collaborate within the industry. When I keynoted the American Nursery and Landscape Association recently, I stood in awe of the blog they were running that was offering practical, on the ground, easy to implement ideas that retailers could put into their stores NOW.

8. Seek ideas. Go knowledge farming once a day, looking for ideas on customer service, operations, IT strategies, and just about anything else. There’s a flood of ideas out there — now’s a great time to chase them down and do things.

9. Partner up. Sure, resources are scarcer during a recession. That’s why you can speed up innovation with anything — from advertising, to customer service, business model implementation, IT strategy, opportunities for operational excellence or just about anything else — by seeking partners to help you out. That will help you achieve key goals faster.

10. Get over it. Lots of organizations are still stuck in the anger and denial phase of the Seven Steps of Economic Grief. Make a decision to get into the acceptance stage, and move on. This will recession will pass, just like every other one.

There are dozens more…..

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

The keynote description went like this:

What Comes Next: And What Should We Do About It?

Is there a future out there? Definitely yes, but a constant drumbeat of negative news can cause people and organizations to lose sight of what will happen with careers and jobs in the future. That’s where Jim Carroll comes in — this noted international futurist, trends & innovation expert spends his time with globally innovative leaders. He’s gained keen insight into some of the key trends which will impact industries, organizations and careers in the next few years to come, in a wide variety of industries from health care, to technology and manufacturing, to the skilled trades. Jim is a passionate believer in the reality that every career and profession is in the midst of a transition, and that additional, new careers are being born before our very eyes.

Jim Carroll will challenge you to focus on the opportunities of today and tomorrow, rather than the challenges of the past. Jim will provide an outline of how the economy will evolve from this point out — and how we should be planning and acting in order to innovate in career development ahead of fast-paced events. He’ll provide us a look at “what comes next, and what we should do about it.“

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

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

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

The New Yorker has a great article out, “Hanging tough,” about how some companies choose to ensure that they stay innovative in recessionary times.

That’s the theme I’ve been focused on for the last 8 months on stage. Here’s a clip from a recent Las Vegas event for a global organization, addressing the theme, “Innovators get out in front of the recession”

People seem to be catching on to the idea that now is not the time to hunker down, but to push forward, innovate, change and adapt.
More information

• New Yorker article, “Hanging tough”

On stage in Las Vegas, Jim challenges his audience to think about the importance of innovating in order to stay out in front of the recession.

IBM’s Cognos division has put up an interview with me on their BIRadio site, which focuses on business intelligence.

The key theme of the interview: “Author and Innovation Consultant Jim Carroll explains how to avoid “aggressive indecision” and why now is the perfect time to forge ahead with new ideas”.

Here’s an excerpt:

Kelsey Howarth: You write that the danger is an idea recession, or innovation paralysis. Do you think companies are still in that shock phase?

Jim Carroll: They’re like deer in the headlights. They’re so focused on the headlines, they’re so focused on every single twist and turn of what’s going on with the economy and if you sit back and you think about the industry you’re in, there’s probably lots of potential for growth. What we’ve got to do is we’ve got to get people beyond this paralysis and get them focused on the future again. You know, I coined the phrase a few years ago when we had the last downturn after, the dotcom collapse. I said that people were going into a state of aggressive indecision. You know, they just decided to not to make decisions about anything. You know, they just, sort of everybody went on pause and I think we have to recognize we’ve got to get beyond the pause button. We’ve got to press the play button and start doing things. We have to keep moving forward.”

More information

• Access the BI Radio show: Thriving in turbulent times

I received the DVD of my closing keynote for the World Healthcare Innovation & Technology Congress today. It was a barnburner of a speech!

The attendees had just encountered three wonderful days covering all the fascinating new ideas, technologies, methodologies and change that is coming to the world of health care.

I spoke to them on how to ensure that they pursued all the innovative ideas they heard about. There’s a number of clips that I’ll put up.

In this particular clip, I’m providing a bit of guidance on “setting bold short term goals” and avoiding “aggressive indecision” ; I talk about the seven stages of economic grief — and how you need to move beyond anger and denial to innovation.

More information:

• Innovation and the “Seven Stages of Economic Grief?”

Some day, the graph at the right wont’ seem like something weird.

Maybe today it does seem out of place.

Yet I continue to notice that there are a significant number of executives out there who are “moving beyond the meltdown” stage and are pursuing active strategies to keep their team or group focused on innovating and opportunity. They keep phoning me, and bookings continue to be very strong well into 2009.

My role in many of these events: get people beyond the “anger and denial stage”; see opportunities from a longer term perspective; and start thinking about actions that we can begin now to transition out of the mindset which has settled in.

I just concluded a keynote in Washington, DC, and spoke to this trend and the need for action. My advice to this particular crowd included a slide:

SET BOLD SHORT TERM GOALS

Think about that. The economic news can literally smother the drive and enthusiasm of a team. Every day, folks are being beaten down by a surreal swarm of negative headlines. There’s a smothering cloud of economic doom out there. People are dispirited, demoralized, and frankly, are coming in to work every day without any drive, initiative, and inclination to change.

Yet, we will one day be returning to a period of economic growth, and the graph seen here will make sense once again. Maybe it is already beginning to happen in some sectors. Maybe it might take some time yet.

Yet you can’t let this attitude of pervasive negativity begin to clog up the arteries of your team. That’s why you get out in front of this thing and SET BOLD SHORT TERM GOALS, That gives your team concise actions that can be pursued, and goals to achieve.

And it will leave your team well positioned for the economy as it does, inevitably, emerge from this current period of contraction.

I was in a conference call yesterday with the CEO of a global organization; I’ll be doing a leadership session with them this winter. It’s one of several pre-planning calls that I’ll do with this client as I shape my remarks for their meeting.

I love the clarity of the CEO mind. At one point early in the call, he stated how quickly they’re transitioning through fast-paced economic events.

“We established three strategic priorities. Number one, survive. Number two, innovate. Number three, grow. We’ve got the survival thing down. Now we’re into phase two.”

Phase two is the reason why they are having this leadership meeting, which has just been pulled together over the last several weeks. My role is that I’ll provide them with an overview of key trends to think about; how I see other organizations dealing with fast paced economic change, not to mention my fundamental insight on “innovating in the high velocity economy.”

The comments of this particular CEO certainly outlines the stark reality of the speed of the global economic pullback.

Yet, it also offers up some evidence to my theory that some organizations are going to come out of “this thing” quicker than most people think. Organizations that focus on innovation can act faster than they did in previous recessions. They’ve learned how to be more collaborative; they can share ideas and insight faster; they can react and re-react based on fast paced trends. The result is that they can try out a variety of strategies to re-align their business for new realities.

That’s the new value proposition for today, and you’ll do well to think about the phrase as you look to grow or maintain your top line.

The number one concern for many organizations today (beyond mere survival for some) is cost reduction.

If you can give them the chance to do this quickly, they’ll be willing to pay you a premium to do so.

This line of thinking came to line when I spent time two weeks ago in Silicon Vally. I was there to speak to a group of CIO’s from throughout the hi-tech industry.

I met a client from a few years back in the hotel lobby while checking in. He’s now involved in a different IT venture. While catching up on things, I realized that this was the exact value proposition that his new organization was selling.

They’ve got a solution that, when implemented, can help organizations save quite a bit of money on their overall technology spending. Given the scope of the potential savings, and the fact that this company has maintained growth despite economic turmoil, they’ve got a key innovation strategy nailed.

You can learn from this line of thinking. The key things to think about:

• how can you partner up with your customers to help them achieve cost savings with what they do?
• how can you help them quickly achieve those cost savings : faster, say, than in the alternate economy of a few months past? Remember, faster is better.
• are there changes that you might make to your product/service line that can help to accelerate cost savings?
• can you innovate like mad — thinking about what you do and how you do it — to generate cost savings for those who rely upon you?
  you do it — to generate cost savings for those who rely upon you?

Think about it in the context of any industry. If you are in travel/hospitality, and you offer cost savings with what you are selling, you’ve got a leg up on the competition. If you are selling a service, get the potential cost savings that the service provides out front, and clearly defined — highlight them. If you are selling an industry solution, re-examine the cost savings that your solution provides — and see what you can do to make them bigger.

Think about the phrase, and look for opportunity in it.

You and I know that the headline on the left is going to run in newspapers and mainstream media one day. The BIG question is when.

So what are the trends that will drive future growth? Off the top of my head, there are several:

• growth markets will continue to emerge. Back in the 19th century, the head of the US Patent Office stated that “everything that can be invented has been invented.” Such silliness. Right now, there are hundreds of thousands of new products, markets, industries and ideas being built and explored. The future isn’t over. It’s arrival has just slowed to a degree.

• leaders in existing markets will grow through innovation. My own gut feel is that there are a lot of organizations out there approaching this recession differently. They’re innovating in their markets; they’re working on customer retention; they’re investing in customer service in order to keep competitive; they’re talking about how to grow in a down market. I’m certainly seeing this given my advance bookings going forward. People want to talk about innovation and the future. That’s a great sign that the recovery is underway.
• health care will see significant transformation, not to mention spending: health care is transitioning to a system of predictive medicine. This is a huge, long term, 20 year trend, but has big implications with the emergence of new careers, industries, professions, and companies — DNA based medicine is a massive change. On top of that, the mere level of spending that is going to occur in managing the looming health care crisis will drive all kinds of growth, though the funding part of the equation will remain a big problem. The result? Lots of innovative thinking as to how to solve huge problems with unique solutions.
• green and energy will continue have more momentum. Some argue that the meltdown will defer everything having to do with these two efforts. I disagree; I think the corporate sector has discovered the cost benefit that comes from green projects, and so they will continue to invest, which will drive innovation. And I think globally, we’ve passed the point where people and their leaders believe that doing the same old thing as the past is going to continue in the future. I don’t see leading edge research into solar, wind, and other alternatives slowing down any time soon. And the fascinating thing is that there is a lot of backyard, garage tinkering going on right now, and that’s where the next product/market breakthroughs will come from.
• technology will continue to hyper-innovate: I’ve got six generations of Blackberry’s that span about six years or less. They’ve got a slew of new products coming out just this month : they’ve got a very fast innovation culture. Likewise, iPhone’s have become the coolest fashion statement on the planet for the younger demographic. The Internet-enabled thermostat I have in my home and chalet is the first step in a huge wave of pervasive connectivity. I don’t see hi-tech innovation and R&D slowing down. Indeed, during the last recession, some of the biggest innovations — the iPod — emerged from the minds of those inventing the future. There are a lot more billion-dollar markets still to emerge.
• agility and flexibility will dominate: In the next several years, the manufacturing industry — globally and locally — will learn to do what Honda has done: focus on the rapid assembly and reassembly of capabilities, so as to more quickly change models and products to respond to fast paced consumer demand. As they do so, they’ll undergo a fundamental transformation in their thinking, structure and capabilities that will ensure their success.
• the global idea machine will continue to influence innovation. Look, the Internet continues to have a profound impact on everything we do. Scientific discovery is speeding up; new discoveries continue to go forward at a furious pace. Eco-building design concepts are debated, shared, and then go global in an instant. From the global mind comes unprecedented innovation, new products, new companies and new industries.
• the next generation takes over. The boomers are a dispirited bunch right now; there’s not a lot of passion and enthusiasm with some of them to change the future, particularly given the status of their 401K’s. Some in the younger generation are witnessing their first ever generation, and its’ probably pretty terrifying. (This is my 4th, so I’m an old hand at this.) Yet, they’re a hardy, entrepreneurial bunch, who have grown up with a mindset that inhales change, pursues multiple different opportunities, and collaborates like nothing we’ve ever seen before. I think they’ll shake things up pretty quickly.
• A faster world happens, well, faster. Simply put, faster news cycles means that people get through difficult periods faster, at least in terms of mindset. Re-read my post about the ’7 stages of economic grief’ and share it around. Think about whether you think people are moving to the acceptance phase quicker. I believe they are, and I think this faster attitude shift, compared to a slower pace of acceptance in previous recessions, means that innovation will drive us out of this faster than we expect.
• transformative thinking drives growth. Last but not least, we can’t discount the impact of a new American mindset upon the global economy. It seems clear that a decisive mandate has been delivered by the American populace that they want to rejoin the global economy, and want to work hard and fast to fix the problems that have resulted. Big change comes from big ideas sponsored by leaders with big dreams. Right now, we live in transformation times.

I dunno, I’m hugely optimistic. How about you?

More information:

Where are you on the “Seven Stages of Economic Grief?”