“I think the biggest problem is that we still need a tremendous amount of education throughout the civil service as to what this is all about….it’s fundamentally changing the way we do business in order to achieve costs savings in the way we do business.” Jim in Summit Magazine: The Business of Public Sector Procurement. Read the full article online.
Can you sell information online?
It’s the holy-grail for many companies. Lots have tried, few have succeeded, since I’ve long argued that people have a relatively small “informatiion budget.” Too many people are used to information that is free. But is there still a market?
But having said that, I just signed up for Accuweather Professional, which involves a monthly/annual fee. As a weather junkie, I’ve long been a fan of the columns by a fellow named Joe Bastardi. His long range predictions are usually spot on.
He has something like 100,000 loyal readers of his daily column. They decided to move him off to a pay site, along with a lot of other specialized information for weather junkies and amateur meteorologists.
And the thing is, it seems to be working. I just signed up. I tried to go a week without, but just couldn’t do it.
Maybe there is a small information budget out there. The information has to be a) extremely popular, b) niche oriented c) unavailable anywhere else d) be very specific in terms of the type of content.
Playtex / Banana Boat: Outdoor Trends
Playtex/Banana Boat engaged Jim to undertake detailed research into the trends affecting their marketplace in the future.
The research evolved into a presentation by Jim that was the cornerstone for a New York PR launch event with the world’s leading fashion magazines. Based upon the success of that event, they then invited him to provide the same insight at their annual sales conference.
MPI Keynote – “Live & Online Partnerships in Today’s Workplace”
I’ve just been booked by a chapter of Meeting Professionals International, to provide a closing keynote on the theme, “Business to Business – Live & Online Partnerships in Today’s Workplace.”
I’ll be doing the keynote in early April ’03. The session description follows.
“Today, in the era of global business, hyper-connectivity, supply chain initiatives, knowledge networks and just-in-time innovation, meeting planner and supplier organizations have learned they have to continually morph into something new — the collaborative organizations of the future. In this keynote, Jim Carroll takes us on a tour of the world of the new organization of today — and puts into perspective the challenges, opportunities and risks of a new world of business that is unlike anything we’ve seen before.”
Things businesses should think about
From The Observer (Sarnia), Jan 17/2003 — they picked up on my “predictions for the future article:” “1. The return of the future – for some: We will see a big disconnect between organizations, as some charge ahead, while their competition remains mired in the mud of their inaction, and the economic impacts of the last few year’s.
The full article follows
Jim Carroll lives five, 10, even 20 years into the future. A leading strategic futurist by trade, Carroll has provided 10 predictions of what every businessperson needs to be thinking about in 2003 and beyond.
“1. The return of the future – for some: We will see a big disconnect between organizations, as some charge ahead, while their competition remains mired in the mud of their inaction, and the economic impacts of the last few year#s.
2. The skills exodus: As baby boomers retire, companies must aggressively pursue knowledge transfer and retention to succeed.
3. Generational dysfunction: The first generation of kids to be nurtured on technology from birth are now of an age that allows them to become active politicians. Smart organizations must understand the political and moral views and perspectives of this generation in order to thrive.
4. Time shifting: Organizations will have to deal with an increase in altered work days due to a greater demand for work/life balance, and the cultural challenges presented.
5. “Normal” is “quaint“: There is no such thing as normal anymore. To deal with the unexpected, companies must plan for multiple scenarios with multiple contingency plans.
6. Hyperconnectivity and uber-computing: Organizations will be able to monitor and control from afar any aspect of their infrastructure. This trend will cause dramatic change, and present unprecedented opportunity for manufacturers and others.
7. Collaborative community control: Organizations that take the time to learn from online communities will discover how their markets, industry and future will evolve through the next five to 10 years.
8. Innovation driven by hyperfeedback: The evolution of knowledge is occurring at an unprecedented pace. By learning to plug into hyperfeedback networks, organizations can prepare for future developments, before these developments come to surprise them.
9. Aggressive indecision – decide later, not now! Uncertainty has created massive indecision for companies, leading to last minute, instant decisions. Organizations must shift their culture to deal with this future in which “just in time decision making” will be the rule.
10. Transaction re-engineering: Organizations will aggressively streamline business transactions to the extent that they cause sweeping job and career change. As a result, managing the cultural aspects of workplace change will be an important focus.”
Techno-rage revisited….
“Fight with computer brings SWAT team – No charges filed after isunderstanding cleared up” – January 9, 2003, Daily Camera, Boulder, CO
Read on — this is quite fascinating!
I often incorporate in my keynotes a bit of discussion on how there are many people who just can’t seem to cope with technology — and often get a good chuckle from the audience when doing so. I call it my Surviving The Information Age topic, based on a book I did of the same title. [ topic page ] [ book ] And I’ve written about the issue extensively over the years — for example, in this article, Tech Stress [ article ]
But this really takes the cake!
A 32-year-old Boulder man who had opened his apartment’s patio door to enjoy Wednesday’s unusually warm weather was later overheard screaming threats and seen waving what appeared to be a handgun, prompting a maintenance worker to call police.
Officers, as a precaution, evacuated the man’s apartment building and called SWAT officers to assist in defusing the situation.
It turned out that the man was simply upset at his computer — which he had called a “bitch” he “wanted to kill,” police said — and the gun was a plastic pellet gun, not the .45-caliber automatic handgun it was made to resemble.
Read the full article at the Daily Camera news site.
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