How to anticipate the future for an unfair advantage?

Daniel Burrus advocates the most significant skill shortage in business this decade will be of people who are able to predict the future. We see evidence everywhere of how exponential change is making it harder for all organisations (particularly larger ones) to keep up and in fact many are not. Kodak and Blackberry are well known international companies that failed to anticipate and act on technology disruptors and consumer driven change.
Burrus talks about using hard and soft trends as the key to predicting the future and I agree.

How to anticipate the future “for an unfair advantage” requires someone to do something with the information. As we know, timing is the key to success, but mostly success or failure sits with our desire to embrace or resist the identified changes.
The speed of change has been incredible with some disruptors sweeping through an industry within one or two years and achieving transformational change within less than 4 or 5 years. The food industry is experiencing greater pressure to produce better, more sustainable, nutritionally healthier foods without damaging the environment.

Have you considered the hard and soft trends effecting your business and are you choosing to act or are you burying your head in the sand?

A trend evaluation and SWOT analysis, as part of a business planning process, could be a great start. Get external assistance to challenge your preconceptions.

My Gift to you

Thinking Differently- over 100 idea starters

I have just released my first E book and for your interest I have gifted you the link to access your very own copy - pass it on to your friends!!!
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Normal – what is your normal?

Normal, looks different to us all, this is part of our unique signature and  can take many forms. The pattern of things, of our environment,  experiential behaviour, our rituals, (including our filtered perception) and  beliefs are all part of our “Normal DNA.”

Normal can be flexible and allows for slow evolutionary change. By virtue  of it representing an existing pattern however it doesn’t seem helpful when dealing with dramatic, unprecedented change. Our acceptance of normal seems to be part of our adaptive nature to pass off anything that is  predictable to our subconscious.

Your normal is what you are comfortable with, so the bigger your range of  normal the more confident and calm you will be over a wider range of  activity.  This will mean you will have more emotional energy and time to  create stuff that is exceptional, cutting edge and unique! This is the space  where people intolerant of mediocrity play. People that find “acceptable” as just not good enough are on their way to achieving something  extraordinary.

Do you aspire to achieve something better? Better than good enough?
Make a commitment to your success, right now by sharing this post with a friend who will hold you accountable for that commitment and help you  increase your range of normal!

My Gift to you

Thinking Differently- over 100 idea starters

I have just released my first E book and for your interest I have gifted you the link to access your very own copy - pass it on to your friends!!!
Simply click on the image to access your copy now!

What are we looking for in our outside world?

To be engaged, challenged, friendships, experience differences and diversity, the layers, inclusively and all around all consuming engagement. I experience a fascinating sense of desire and caution, inviting and undesirable, attraction and rejection, continuous flow, available but at the same time elusive and not controllable.

Life needs to be many things to different people but to all of us it needs to come with chance and hope.

My Gift to you

Thinking Differently- over 100 idea starters

I have just released my first E book and for your interest I have gifted you the link to access your very own copy - pass it on to your friends!!!
Simply click on the image to access your copy now!

Capture your customer’s emotional state and take them on a journey.

Recently Tracey, my wife, took me to Chin Chin in Melbourne and there was a  queue of 40 plus people in front of the door. This equated to a 25 min wait and  just as we reached the head of the queue, the 4 people in front of us were told  there was another 1hr 15 min wait for a table and were sent to a lounge bar.

Then just as they were about to tell us two places suddenly appear at the service  bar, which they offered to us. Needless to say we felt very lucky. Add in some drama, engagement, hustle, tension, glasses breaking, pacey (meals with in two  or three minutes of being ordered, friendly positive advice: it was intoxicating!
And the food wasn’t that good.

Restaurants aren’t always about the food and it was fascinating to be reminded of that.

My Gift to you

Thinking Differently- over 100 idea starters

I have just released my first E book and for your interest I have gifted you the link to access your very own copy - pass it on to your friends!!!
Simply click on the image to access your copy now!

When is 80% better than 100%?

When you need to achieve balance as part of your answers for example when  you need to be patiently impatient or strong and compassionate at the same  time.

In our complex and at times contradictory world we need to appreciate the irony  of 100% commitment to achieve 80% or 85% complex yet balanced outcome could yield a result three times more valuable.

My Gift to you

Thinking Differently- over 100 idea starters

I have just released my first E book and for your interest I have gifted you the link to access your very own copy - pass it on to your friends!!!
Simply click on the image to access your copy now!