This agricultural company is the largest global supplier of French fries to McDonalds and other food companies, as well as being very active in other aspects of the industry. This was a team leadership meeting as well, with individuals from throughout the organization – marketing, product development, legal, finance and accounting, supply chain and more. They invited me in to speak to over 400 executives about key trends that will impact them in the future, including the accelerated pace of agricultural science, changing consumer behaviour, faster marketing and brand challenges, and other similar topics.
Archives for July 2017
Daily Inspiration: “Innovation is a team sport. The playbook is collaboration!”
“Innovation is a team sport. The playbook is collaboration!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
Keynote: Legrand, Connecticut – Manufacturing: Trends and Disruption
It was a busy year for keynotes in the manufacturing space! This talk was for Legrands North American leadership meeting, where the CEO and his team fine tune strategies and plans for the coming year. They’re big in the global tech industry, manufacturing a wide variety of component parts and cabling. My talk took a look at key trends providing opportunity in the manufacturing process, including the factory of the future, the Internet of Things, digitization, 3D printing, accelerated supply chains and much more.
Daily Inspiration: “Focus. Faster.”
“Focus. Faster.” – Futurist Jim Carroll
My personal trainer got mad at me last week during a workout.
First time. I forgive her.
She was trying to get me to do some routine to fire some muscles in some sequence that would have me in a certain position to get me to …… I drifted off. There was something going on, over on the other side of the gym. She had to get my attention back. Sometimes, we need to be certain in our method.
Have I lost your attention already? Look here – I’m typing to you!
One of the most challenging issues in the era of acceleration is that we have no attention span left. When I was preparing for two talks for Godiva on the future of retail, I dug out research that suggests that the typical goldfish has a longer attention span than a human. Go figure. Everywhere in the world of business, we are having to struggle simply to get 5 seconds of attention from a potential customer.
The lack of focus doesn’t occur just with attention spans – it can occur with our strategies, which in the era of disruption, can become muddied, scattershot, without clarity. I’ve seen too many organizaitons with innovation strategies that are all over the place – when they should just be trying to do one thing.
Focus is also a challenge with any sport. Today, I will do one thing – I will find a spot on the golf ball. I will stare at it. I will be relentless in my focus on it. And you know what will happen? I’ll hit it well. It will go straight. It will be razor like in its accuracy. Or, maybe not.
At my home golf course, one of our Pros operates under the name “Focus Golf Group.” The choice of the name has more to do than simply staring at a golf ball – his entire life has been spent in the pursuit of focus. He’s pretty darned good at it. Being relentlessly focused has its benefits.
Squirrel!
Daily Inspiration: “Every failure has a winner!”
“Every failure has a winner!” – Futurist Jim Carroll
‘’ Start your day by reading my blog post, “What Will You Do Today to Encourage Failure?” I was inspired to write it when I was thinking about the Apple Newton I owned — one of the biggest tech failures of all time, but which laid the foundation for the iPad and iPhone
#Innovation? Take risks, and be willing to fail!
Daily Inspiration: “Your car will evolve to become a personal-concierge-robot, undertaking various activities and actions at your command.”
“Your car will evolve to become a personal-concierge-robot, undertaking various activities and actions at your command” – Futurist Jim Carroll
‘’ We’re in the midst of a 100 year change, and the trends with #selfdrivingcars and #electricvehicles are pretty profound. The blog post offers up a list of a whole bunch of things you didn’t know was happening – intelligent light poles, data wars, rapid battery advances, outsourced driving and so much more. Entire new industries are being born, and established companies will disappear.
Consider this: “One day, a kid will be born who will be the first to never use a steering wheel, and will never know how to ‘drive’ in the context of driving today. The concept of telling a car what to do will simply seem silly. Maybe that kid is already alive. They’ll only ever know a world in which a car drives itself.” That’s happening right now. Read the post!’’
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