10 fundamental trends that don't change with the meltdown

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.

More information:

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

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:11 PM...November 7, 2008

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Rethinking innovation models - from Disney, to tin cans, to automobiles

Here's another video clip from the New York keynote -- actually, this is from the Readers Digest Food & Entertainment (publishers of Everyday with Rachel Ray) keynote.

At this event, I was speaking to an audience of advertising executives, food companies, packaging companies and others about how innovation models are shifting. Today, innovation is much more:

• partnership oriented - think Disney!
• flexible in terms of solutions - think tin-cans!
• faster in terms of market response to rapidly changing consumer demand

The section closes with an overview comparing Honda's capability for rapid change to those of traditional US automakers.

The key point : faster is the new fast -- because consumer choice changes faster than ever before.

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:35 AM...November 5, 2008

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Moving beyond the meltdown - linking opportunity to innovation

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

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

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

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

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

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

More information:

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

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

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:25 AM...

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100 Days of Innovation - #3 : Check your speed

One of the key issues I point out when speaking about innovation strategies, is that organizations need to continually challenge themselves as to whether they can "act fast enough."

In other words, innovative organizations "check their speed." If they aren't responding quickly enough to rapid market, product, competitive and business model change, then they aren't following one of the key traits of successful innovators. If they aren't ensuring they are keeping up with rapid consumer and customer preference, service levels or marketing and branding innovation, they become an innovation laggard rather than a leader. If they can't collaborate and share knowledge as a team, in order to capitalize on new emerging opportunities or respond to threats, then they aren't operating at the right pace.

I was reminded of this point today, when I saw that Workplace Today, an HR focused publication, reprinted my article, Are We Thinking Fast Enough, which was originally published in Broadband magazine in 2006. The article was written for folks working in the telecom and hi-tech industries, and challenged them to "check their speed."

Looking back at the article, you can see the speed of change that has occurred. Take a look at the hi-tech gear that surrounds you, and think about quickly things become obsolete. In one of my cabinets in the home office, I've got about six generations of Blackberry devices. The first one looks absolutely ancient -- and yet, is from about 2001. I've also got an MP3 player from 1998 that could hold about five songs. It seems positively old-fashioned.

Such things are reminders that we live in a fast paced world -- and that innovators MUST check their speed in order to stay ahead in their markets. Here's the clincher -- it doesn't matter what industry I'm speaking too -- I can point people to similar degrees of high velocity change, and challenge them to think faster.

More information on the concept of "checking your speed":

• Read the original article Are we moving fast enough?
• Explore the concept of "thinking fast" in the blog section, "Faster"

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:44 AM...November 4, 2008
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Moving Beyond the Meltdown: Aligning Yourself for Growth Through Innovation

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

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

In the face of widespread economic volatility, organizations have three essential choices: they can panic, making rash decisions on structure, markets, investments; they can freeze and do nothing; or they can respond to rapid change through innovation, particularly with respect to strategies, structure, capabilities, markets, products, and activities.

Jim Carroll, one of the world's leading futurists, trends & innovation experts with clients such as Lincoln Financial, Caterpillar, the Walt Disney Organization and Nestle, shares his insight on the strategies that leading edge organizations are pursuing to stay ahead of the economy.

It's timely and critical insight! Many CEO's and senior executives understand that in addition to managing existing challenges, now is the time to focus on trends and the future. They know that they need to act quickly to establish an innovative mindset to get there intact. Jim provides his unique insight on staying ahead in volatile times, through his signature keynote addresses, after-dinner talks, discussions at small intimate management/Board meetings, or by speaking and participating in senior management and leadership meetings.

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

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:13 AM...October 31, 2008

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What the CEO's are saying: "Six things we need to do"

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

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

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

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

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:36 AM...October 28, 2008

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The economy -- what I'm seeing happen RIGHT NOW

This is quite unreal.

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

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

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

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

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

There are several sources of new business:

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

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

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 2:58 PM...October 23, 2008

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The seven stages of economic grief - when do you innovate?

I was speaking with a client yesterday about an upcoming event in Palo Alto, California. We got to chatting about, obviously, the economic challenges that swirl around us, and the mindset that is quickly enveloping so many organizations.

Here's what I think is going on: there are many organizations entering a state of absolute paralysis. Idea factories are being turned off. The result is that we're not just entering an economic recession -- we're entering another idea recession, similar to what occurred with the last downturn starting in 2001.

What is so different time is the absolute speed with which ideas are shutting down -- the paralysis in some organizations at the leadership level is absolutely stunning. This got me thinking about the fast paced events of the last few weeks in the context of the seven stages of grief.

I came to realize, things have happened so fast that many organizations still find themselves in the "shock" and "denial" phase. They'll be the innovation laggards.

Then there are the innovation leaders. They're prepared to keep the idea factory running, maybe not at full tilt, but running nevertheless. They know that despite the fact that vast sections of the economy are tanking, there are still growth markets; opportunities to step ahead of your competitors. There are opportunities to attack new markets. To streamline operations, build new brands, grab customer mindshare in new ways.

There are plenty of opportunities to turn ideas into innovation. It all depends on where you want to place yourself on the scale of the seven stages of economic grief.

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 1:50 PM...October 17, 2008

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It's back! Aggressive indecision! Here's how to kick it out!

It's back!

Aggressive indecision! With all the economic turmoil, leaders, executives and staff have the "deer in the headlights" syndrome.

I spoke about this trend extensively on stage during the last recession in 2001-2002. People got into the message, and it restored their enthusiasm for the future and innovation.

In that spirit, I've resurrected the original clip on YouTube.

I actually wrote about "aggressive indecision" in my book, What I Learned From Frogs in Texas: Saving Your Skin with Forward Thinking Innovation. Ask yourself if you are seeing these signs:

Take a look around you - at yourself, your co-workers, your organization, and the business world at large. What do you see? People mired in the thick mud of aggressive indecision. They tend to wait for absolutely perfect information which will help convince them that the time is right to make a decision, rather than making decisions based on imperfect information as they had done in the past. They'll take a look at the information they have, decide that it's just too darn risky to make a decision on what they see, and do nothing.

The result is an economy in which everyone seems to be stuck in a rut, unwilling and unable to move forward. The fact is, our confidence in the future has been shattered. Corporate nervousness has become the watchword, with the result that everyone is taking the easy way out: deal with uncertainty by doing nothing.

An era of "aggressive indecision:" a very dangerous attitude to have, given that organizations must be in a state of continuous innovation in order to cope with the rate of change that now surrounds us.

Look, organizations that innovate and adapt at high speed, while trying to deal with the harsh new realities that surround them, have a good chance coming out the other side of this thing. On the other hand, if you let aggressive indecision rule your corporate culture, you are probably not going to do well.

Share the video, and the original article around. Get out of your funk! Innovate!

More information:

• Read the original article Paralyzed by indecision: Just Do It
• Read Jim's blog entries on the global economy

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:59 PM...October 15, 2008

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How do you innovate in a volatile economy?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:12 AM...

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Do you really need an innovation spark? How about a custom edition of Ready, Set, Done?

Since Ready, Set, Done: How to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast was published a year ago this week, it proved to be a book that has provided unique innovation guidance to thousands of people.

And in many cases, the book has been purchased in bulk, with copies distributed to those in attendance at one of many keynote presentations or workshops through the year.

Many CEO's and event organizers have indicated that it would be great if they could tie their innovation message to that found within the book. To that end, we've done a few custom print runs during the year. We've now decided to formalize the process.

Effectively immediately, with an order of as small as 250 copies, we can offer you a custom edition of the book.

What you get:

• Prominent mention of the name of your CEO or sponsor on the cover of the book
• Four pages (2 pages, 2 sides) for a custom Foreword right at the front of the book, bound into the book

Contact Jim Carroll for details, to explore this fascinating new opportunity.

The cost for a custom print run will range from $16-18 depending on volume, plus shipping costs. For a group of 250, that's a cost of just $4,000 to put in front of your staff, customers or association, a customized message with a very special book about innovation.

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 8:04 AM...

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Video clip -- where's the opportunity? Where's the growth?

Given the rapid pace of global economic developments in the fall of 2008, it's interesting that the number of organizations bringing me in for a leadership or management event has increased.

That's because, despite perilous economic times, CEO's in a variety of industries are working hard to ensure that their organization stays focused on growth.

At these leadership meetings, I'm offering insight on growth markets and opportunities; innovation strategies to stay ahead in the downturn; and unique insight on how organizations are working hard to re-align their strategies and structure with fast paced market change.

If you need to get your staff and team mindset in the right frame of mind for moving forward in this high velocity, rapidly changing economy, you might need this type of high level, energetic message.

To help you get in the right frame of mind, here's a little motivational video clip from a recent keynote I did on stage in Sydney, Australia.

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:46 AM...October 14, 2008

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100 Days of Innovation - #2 - Go Upside Down

When thinking about new product or service development, don't do it in isolation. Seek advice and guidance from your business partners -- or, even let them drive the innovation agenda.

This is the lesson I learned from a large company in the consumer goods/entertainment space. They had traditionally been responsible for an innovation plan that went like this:

• Get the assortment right, i.e. in terms of new product
• Figure out the merchandising plan
• Then do the marketing

They then realized that trends and consumer choice was evolving so fast, that they no longer had a truly good grasp on the innovation agenda that they should be pursuing. They also came to realize they were taking product to retailers -- but the depth of insight from retailers meant that they saw entirely different product and market opportunities.

So what did they do? They went out side -- and learned how to work with the retailers, by having the retailers do much of the product innovation. Soon, the innovation pipeline worked like this:

• Figure out the marketing plan, what unique ideas could be pursued in terms of consumer choice, attitude, brands
• From that, determine what merchandise, packaging and products to produce
• And then get the assortment right

Going upside-down is a powerful innovation concept -- it challenges you to do things differently. More important, it pushes you into a mindset where you are pursuing partnership oriented innovation, with the result that have better, fresh, unique, external insight.

All too often an organization loses its ability to innovate because it becomes very internally focused -- it can't see beyond its' own walls. People become narrow in their focus, and fail to see big opportunities.

Going upside-down changes this, in so many ways, and it's one of the most important innovation ideas that you can pursue.

More information:

• Can we talk - upside-down innovation?

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 7:46 AM...October 10, 2008

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Innovation - act fast - empower people!

Empowering staff and partners to make quick decisions is an essential component of innovating in the high-velocity economy.

Particularly given that right now, optics are really important.

RBC Plaza's Grand Opening is on, but, Um, About Those Sky Divers ...

(from iStockAnalyst)

Oct. 2--RALEIGH -- A big building calls for a big celebration. But when the building is a bank -- and its grand opening comes amid a banking meltdown -- falling bodies send the wrong message.

Therefore, the sky divers at today's RBC Plaza opening are canceled. Once again: The fabulous parachuting display is off.

"Given the recent market activities, we just didn't think it was an appropriate time to have people jumping off of a bank building," said Jamie Averette Mitchell, a spokeswoman for RBC Bank, which is dedicating its downtown Raleigh headquarters, the 33-story RBC Plaza, today.

The parachuters were to be part of a series of grand-opening events. They were to draw attention to the tower --the region's tallest -- at Fayetteville and Martin streets.

But RBC nixed the jumpers after a week of Wall Street turbulence, which included the worst drop ever in the Dow Jones Industrial average and the sale of Charlotte banking giant Wachovia to Citigroup for a mere $2.1 billion. The celebratory leap might have reminded some of the bankers and stockbrokers who jumped from buildings during the Depression. They didn't wear parachutes.

Mitchell said, "We wanted to be very respectful of our financial partners and Wachovia" -- a name emblazoned on another Fayetteville Street tower.

Part of my consistent innovation message through the last several years -- "faster is the new fast" -- challenges organizations to think whether they can move at the fast pace required of them in today's high velocity world. Innovation isn't just about new products and design -- it's about challenging yourself as to how you operate, act, compete, change and do things differently to keep up with rapid trends.

In this case, what could have been a PR disaster has turned into a smallish news story barely covered anywhere. That's great innovation.

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 10:26 AM...October 9, 2008

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100 Days of Innovation - Get Out in Front

The last few weeks have seen a variety of keynotes for leadership meetings -- for a telecom company, food services organization, commercial real estate & property management firm, among others. These have involved audiences from 250+ to 800+ executives.

Obviously, the economy weighs heavily into my observations on stage, and in the questions in the Q&A.

The keynotes have been built around my theme of 7 Things You Need to Do Right Now: Aligning The Fast Future to Your Current Strategy.

One of the 7 Things that has stood out - in common with all these organizations -- focuses on the reality that with an economic correction underway, it is critical to keep existing customer/client relationships intact. Indeed, the CEO at the event yesterday noted that "customer retention" was one of the top 6 priorities for 2009.

What's the innovation issue here? There is a big opportunity in solidifying existing relationships by solving customer/client problems before they know they have them. This is BIG.

Think about these issues, and innovate from them in terms of what you do with your customers / clients:

• when times get tough, quality, service and relationships rule: operational excellence is more important than ever.
• focus on a new partnership with the customer, for example: "we've got the latest strategies to help achieve cost savings"
• stay ahead of fast paced change that you can utilize for the customer -- with the attitude being, "we're on top of fast paced developments that impact you, so you don't need to be!"
• make sure your customer understands that you are ahead of the pack in solving their problems.

Staying in front of the trends, and solving your customers problems faster, will be a key method of providing for retention, which is going to prove to be critical during the correction. It's a critical innovation strategy right now!

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 11:07 AM...October 8, 2008

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Thinking innovation: The Challenge for Education in the High Velocity World

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

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

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

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

The "velocity" of knowledge is leading us to a world of "just-in-time knowledge"; the result being the reality that the relationship between educational institutions and students is set to change; primarily, from a period of short term, concentrated knowledge delivery, to one more related to the lifelong, ongoing replenishment and rejuvenation of knowledge.

The challenge for institutions of higher learning is how to change their ingrained thinking, behavior, structure --and outcomes -- to adapt to this reality.

What's driving the future of education? At a fundamental level, ever more rapid scientific discovery; knowledge fragmentation due to rapid knowledge growth; massive skills specialization and ever more narrow career niches. Knowledge and careers are also being impacted by rapidly changing business models; increased volatility in industry; shortened careers (imagine 18-month micro careers); rapid emergence of new industries; more rapid knowledge obsolescence; and the rapid emergence of new careers.

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

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Permanent link to this item ...posted at 9:11 AM...October 6, 2008

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Freeze, innovate or panic? Innovation strategies for RIGHT NOW

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So what should you be doing from an innovation perspective?

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

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

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