10 Phrases to Think About for 2010

The chance that your company, markets, competitors will be the same in ten years is virtually zero – so what do you do about that?

Here’s 10 phrases I often use to challenge my clients — often CEO’s of large, multinational organizations — to think differently about our fast paced future:

• experiential capital: it’s the cumulative experience you gain by trying to do new things. Do you have enough of it?
• momentum management: is this a core capability that your organization possesses – can you steer your team through ever more fast paced change?
• chameleon revenue: is your revenue stream capable of it? Can you keep generating new streams of revenue as old streams disappear?

• global idea cycles: do you tap into the global R&D mind for innovation insight, or is your thinking stale, old, out of date, based on the same old sources?
• idea intensity: can you turn the ideas that are out there into reality quickly enough, or do you lose the opportunities to others?
• energy of engagement: is your brand boring and dull, or edgy and interactive?
• ingestion capability: can you ingest new trends, technologies, concepts, business models … before they’re obsolete … or are you stuck in a hopeless rut of indecision?
• fast teams: can you form them as quickly as necessary to get the faster things done?
• massive incrementalism: the oil industry currently retrieves only 1 out of 3 barrels per well on average. A 1% improvement represents huge revenue gains. Every industry I am dealing with sees small marginal wins adding up to huge tactical advantage.
• depth of boldness: are you still thinking small wins, or large, massive tactical manoeuvres?

In other words, when it comes to the future, are you with it, or are you going to wimp out?