Daily Inspiration: ““It’s not the size of the stage. It’s the effective delivery of insight on future trends that matters!”

“It’s not the size of the stage. It’s the effective delivery of insight on future trends that matters!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

I have certain friends who no doubt will use this as an opportunity to display their adolescent humour – I will choose to ignore them!

The global economic meltdown of 2008 began in October; it took about 6 months before I was on stage again, and then, business exploded. Leading organizations decided to move beyond the shock, anger and denial stage of the ‘7 stages of economic grief,’ and decided they needed some good, concise insight on how to move into the next economy. I was brought in by global icons such as Yum! Brands, Burger King, Compass Foods, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and so many more.

The same thing happened with the 2001 dot.com downturn / post 9-11 era. It took about 6 months before companies moved out of their depressive funk and decided they needed to really gain insight for the opportunity of the next 10 years, and that a futurist would best provide them some innovative insight on those trends.

I’m starting to see the same small signs at this time. But the future is clouded – the uncertainty of an election in just over 5 months has many in a state of inaction. The brutal murder of George Floyd in the US, and the subsequent and justified social upheaval has drawn more uncertainty into our world. The fact that there are 40 million unemployed in North America and tens of millions more worldwide casts a great shadow over our future – many will not find that there is a job to return to as the global economy slowly comes back. The inevitability of the presence of Covid-19 is derailing the agenda of those who would just wish it away as if this was possible and talk of a ‘post Covid-19 future.’ (Hint: there isn’t one until a vaccine appears.)

The stock market? Driven to record highs, it seems to be guided by some sort of weird Mayan calendar and astrological divination rather than any real economic fundamentals.

With all that uncertainty, many organizations are still frozen into a state of suspended indecision.

But as in the past, there are those who are starting to realize they need to think about real opportunities of the next ten years, in order to get out of their current state of disbelief and shock.

I’ve got the trends if you want the opportunity!