Daily Inspiration: “The best way to succeed at the future? Create one!”

“The best way to succeed at the future? Create one!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Somehow the world seems to have a little more clarity this week compared to last, even while the delusional try to avoid falling into the status of ‘loser’ by clinging to a false reality!

With that in mind, I’ve also got a sense that organizations are also coming to a moment of clarity: many seem to be finally realizing they are stuck in this new, complex, and very different world for quite some time to come; and that there is no magic bullet that pulls us back from the challenges of a global pandemic.

Tomorrow I will be doing a talk for several hundred retail executives about the future of their industry. I’ll be painting a picture of the massive behavioral, structural, and technology-driven changes which will guide their world for quite some time to come – and the opportunities these trends might provide.

The session description for my keynote at tomorrow’s P2PX Expo?

Long before the pandemic hit the global economy, the world of retail was already in the midst of profound, systemic disruption, with the acceleration of on-line business models, the arrival of sophisticated last-mile delivery infrastructure, collapsing consumer attention spans and massive business model disruption. Now begins the process of a complex new return to some semblance of ‘routine,’ what happens to the concept of in-store interaction, promotion and more? Join us for our virtual keynote, as acclaimed Futurist Jim Carroll takes a look at old assumptions, new realities, fast moving events and ingrained behaviors. While some might think we are operating under a mantra that states “we don’t know where we are going but we are making great time,” Jim will offer up some clarity on how the trends that will impact us going forward, and how we might leverage these into opportunity. Acclaimed futurist Jim Carroll will present his vision for the future of retail and shopper engagement in a post-pandemic world.

What are some of those trends? Consider the significant behavioral change that we’ve witnessed with consumer behavior in just over six months – in this video, a clip from a recent custom keynote I delivered for Salesforce at a global insurance conference:

There are massive disruptive trends around every single industry, and it is by understanding them and then innovating within the context of those trends that the future is discovered!

In other words – creating the future you desire, not the one you might have imposed upon you!