Futurist Keynote Speaker Jim Carroll: Disruptive Trend & Innovation Expert

Futurist Keynote Speaker,  Author, Innovation Expert. 

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“Opportunities 2009” – the workforce of 2020!

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I was the opening keynote speaker yesterday for Opportunities 2009, a conference in Ontario, Canada, that was focused on workplace trends to 2015.

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The keynote description went like this:

What Comes Next: And What Should We Do About It?

Is there a future out there? Definitely yes, but a constant drumbeat of negative news can cause people and organizations to lose sight of what will happen with careers and jobs in the future. That’s where Jim Carroll comes in — this noted international futurist, trends & innovation expert spends his time with globally innovative leaders. He’s gained keen insight into some of the key trends which will impact industries, organizations and careers in the next few years to come, in a wide variety of industries from health care, to technology and manufacturing, to the skilled trades. Jim is a passionate believer in the reality that every career and profession is in the midst of a transition, and that additional, new careers are being born before our very eyes.

Jim Carroll will challenge you to focus on the opportunities of today and tomorrow, rather than the challenges of the past. Jim will provide an outline of how the economy will evolve from this point out — and how we should be planning and acting in order to innovate in career development ahead of fast-paced events. He’ll provide us a look at “what comes next, and what we should do about it.“

In the coming weeks and days, I’ve got a lot to blog about this keynote: I took a good hard look at emerging careers, transitioning careers, and how existing careers are changing as a result of ever-increasing velocity.

The talk was extremely well received — probably because I focused the 700+ people in the room on the opportunities of the future rather than the current economic muck of today.

 

It’s January 15, 2020 : Do you know where your healthcare system is?

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Grab the PDF by clicking on the image on the right!

The world of healthcare and medicine is on the edge of a period of massive transformation.

Do you have any idea as to how sweeping the forthcoming changes are?

Maybe not — the future of healthcare is often lost in a raging debate that focuses on the current challenges faced by the system.

But if you step back and think about where we’ll be in 2020, then you can appreciate the scope of the trends which are now underway.

Rapid technological development and relentless innovation are the two key trends that will provide for a forthcoming massive
transformation of our health care system.

I’ve learned that sometimes, it is easier to open up the minds of people to big trends by taking a look *back* rather than by taking a look forward. When I was the closing keynote speaker for the 4th Annual World Healthcare Innovation & Technology Congress in Washington DC last December — one of the world’s premier health innovation events at the cusp of innovative healthcare thinking — I took the approach of looking back from 2020, to see what happened in the last 10 years.

It was a great talk — with lots of wonderful feedback. So I wrote it into a research report in a PDF, that you can share around. Maybe this can help you to stir up some creative and innovative thinking!

After all, when it comes to future trends, you’ve got to work to open up the minds of people!

So let’s say it’s the year 2020.

Let’s say you’ve looked at the big changes that occurred in healthcare from 2010 to 2020.

What do you see? Take a look.

The Shed Project – How to Move a Shed 20 feet – Intact?

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So let’s really try out the power of social networking, and see if it can apply to practical, everyday problems.

Our backyard shed needs to move about 20 feet, in order to expand the basketball area. Preferably, we’d like to do it intact, rather than disassembling it and rebuilding it.

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One suggestion was to dig under the corners, shore it up, put some rollers underneath, lay down pipes and “roll it across” — just like the Egyptians did. And as seen here.

But maybe there is a better way. If you are a really smart engineer, or have a great idea, or have done this yourself, please follow me on Twitter and tweet me a suggestion. Or send me an e-mail at [email protected]. (My blog isn’t set up yet for comments, but I’ll post the solutions offered here later…)

(Suggestions to just buy a new shed are welcome, but not terribly innovative.)

Must get back to work now.

Update: We managed to get the shed moved. We essentially jacked it up, put some heavy pipe under it, and rolled it to the new location. The actual heavy-lifting work was coordinated by a friend of mine, who brought in some really big burly guys to do the deed. It worked like a charm!

Good jobs in Bad Times – I’m interviewed on PBS on future career trends

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GoodJobsBadTimes.pngWKSU, the PBS affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio, has been running a series this week titled “Good Jobs in Bad Times.” It’s a serious look at current and future job and career trends. Topics include “high-paying tech jobs, careers that don’t need a four-year degree, the re-growth of agriculture as industry, working part-time full-time, career makeovers, the truth about healthcare, bridge jobs after graduation and the future of the NE Ohio employment outlook.”

I’m interviewed in the final segment, “What’s next:Jobs of the future will likely refine the jobs of today.”

Here’s an extract: you can visit the site and listen to the series at the links below. I’m on at 2:58 on the timeline.

Jim Carroll of Toronto is a futurist who studies trends and tries to predict what lies ahead. He believes the growing interest in alternative energy and “green” products will generate new jobs in coming years, but not just in obvious ways such as building wind turbines and solar panels.

For example, “there’s a lot of very unique research and development occurring out there having to do with packaging,” Carroll said. “And what that leads to is new products coming to market. It involves new companies, it involves new growth industries. …So, what you’re going to have is the emergence of new companies with a new mind set developing these new products to meet new societal demands. And when you look at that, that’s where some of the job growth is going to occur.”

Carroll said companies must closely watch for trends that can be turned into new jobs. But, not everyone has the resources of a big company to find and capitalize on the next big thing. For individuals planning to train for new careers, Carroll advises they pursue jobs that are evolving in areas like health care. “Patient navigators,” for example, are increasing in demand.

“It’s a doctor or a nurse or a medical professional or someone with specific training who simply steers the patient through the complexity of the increasingly complex health care system,” Carroll said. “It’s estimated there’s about 18,000 of these people in the US health care system today. It’s estimated that number will grow to about 180,000 by the year 2015. That’s the emergence of a new career.

“And if you’re thinking, ‘Where are the jobs going to be in the future?’ It’s in things like that.”

It’s a timely series and interview, because on Monday I do a keynote for a group of HR professionals, community leaders, social innovators, career development and employment preparation practitioners, labour market experts and employers, on the theme of “Careers 2015.” It will be a real, practical look at what we can expect in terms of career transitions, new careers and job opportunities a half decade out.

Think growth!

  • Go to the Good Jobs in Bad Times site
  • Go to the What’s next:Jobs of the future will likely refine the jobs of today section

You need to have a relentless focus on growth — RELENTLESS!

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2009LeadershipGrowth.jpgI was interviewed sometime last month by FoodProcessing.com – this was related to their discovery of the keynote I did for the Readers Digest / EveryDay with Rachel Ray team food industry summit in New York last fall.

They ran a short article, “March of the New Machines: The Future of Food Processing” — and ran my comment on what I’ve seen in terms of CEOs who have a relentless focus on growth. Many of my recent keynotes — several in Las Vegas, Austin, Miami, and New York — have been focused on how to maintain growth strategies during an economic contraction.

Here’s an extract from the interview. Some good food for thought on the need to be RELENTLESS on the future and opportunities.

In a tough economy like this, it’s time to hold the line on spending and to be especially cautious of leading-edge technology. Right?

History’s full of companies that leapt ahead of competitors by increasing spending, especially on innovation, during down times. Jim Carroll, author and innovation consultant, recalled a speaking engagement in which he followed the CEO of a global restaurant chain, who spoke for a brief but powerful 20 minutes.

“For the first minute, he spoke about the global economy and the meltdown. He then spent the next 19 minutes identifying eight growth opportunities and how this organization could do great things if they relentlessly obsessed over them.

“How cool is that?” asks Carroll. “All these other companies are retrenching, pulling back, and here’s a guy who’s saying to his team, ‘Let’s focus on growth.’ “

He says growth plans and strategic if judicious spending is mandatory for managing during a downturn. Companies that aren’t paralyzed by total spending freezes can get the jump on those competitors who are. And when the economy is back on track a year or whatever from now, Carroll says only then will we be able to point to companies and say which ones lagged and failed and which ones “took risks and did great things.“

The article at FoodProcessing.com itself takes a look at the technologies, production platforms, processes, ideas and methodologies which can provide for innovation in terms of market growth, product development, cost management and other areas. There’s no shortage of opportunity for innovation in the food and consumer product sector – or any other industry.

What is missing right now for many organizations is the COURAGE TO TAKE RISKS and INVEST!

Innovators focus on the future, they focus on growth, and they focus their team on opportunity. That’s a key message, and you’d do well to obsess over it.

Think growth!

  • Read March of the New Machines: The Future of Food Processing
  • Read the RDA Food & Entertainings Consumer Food Symposium summary (PDF)

HVAC 2.0 – Thoughts on my Las Vegas keynote

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2009HVAC.jpgI just came off stage in Las Vegas from an opening keynote for a group of about 500 representatives for Trane / Ingersoll Rand, and their key contractor partners. My keynote was to focus on “7 Things They Should Do Right Now to Innovate When Faster is the New Fast.”

Certainly it can be tough in the construction industry right now, and particularly so for contractors. They’re witnessing a laundry list of challenges, including:

  • Project deferment, postponement and cancellation
  • Prevalence of below-cost bidding
  • Financing is vanishing
  • New demands for cost-cutting and project management
  • A capital spending freeze at many organizations
  • A looming funding crisis (e.g. university endowment collapse means less college and university construction in the future)

Of course, that’s what most people might see if they look at the sector. I look further than the 3 minutes, 3 months or 3 years — that’s what a futurist does. And I see a TREMENDOUS amount of momentum.

First off, there’s a lot of fiscal momentum, with the stimulus spending including some:

  • $6.4 billion for water projects
  • $50 billion for energy programs (efficiency & renewable energy)
  • $11 billion on a “smart electrical grid”
  • $4.5 billion on federal building energy efficiency
  • $47 billion in state fiscal relief, with permission to use funds for school modernization/repair

All of this will have a direct impact on growth in the industry.

Beyond that though, the future looks tremedously bright for the HVAC industry because of what we might call HVAC 2.0. In a nutshell, the industry is going to play a huge role as we work to fix the big societal problems of energy and the environment.

And that is going to happen with the rapid emergence of highly intelligent building infrastructure; ten years out, most buildings will be smart buildings; the Internet and IP will be the backbone to a system that provides for intelligent energy management, monitoring and usage. Silicon Valley and HVAC are getting married, and the result is going to be remarkable.

The National Institute of Building Sciences comments on the impact of this trend, noting that “…an economic expansion based on emerging green markets would create an estimated 3 million jobs … and help establish communities with high-performance buildings that are both economically advantageous and environmentally conscious.”

The trend is driven by two things that have undeniable monentum: the need for energy savings, and the green building movement. Consider the health care sector. Green specs in health care / hospital building projects has gone from 13.3 percent in 2006, to 37.6 percent in 2007, to an even higher percentage in 2008. There’s a bit of pullback in 2009 as projects are deferred, but the increase will continue to come at us with a vengeance.

So as a contractor, how do you innovate? By keeping on top of fast pace trends in your industry in terms of methodology, ideas, technology, new design thinking — high velocity change!!!!

So what I suggested to them was that, for example, they could get out in front of tenant / building manager needs, with this line of thinking:

  • when times get tough, quality, service and relationships rule
  • success is found not by competing on price, but through partnership: ie. ‘we’ve got the latest strategies to help achieve cost savings’ (i.e. remote energy management)
  • key attitude? “we’re on top of fast paced developments with building management, so you don’t need to!”

I do a tremendous amount of research when I go in to keynote a group. That’s why I’ve got such a solid, blue chip, global client list. Real innovation takes real thinking, with an alignment of existing and forthcoming trends to innovation opportunities.

GET IN TOUCH

THE FUTURE BELONGS TO THOSE WHO ARE FAST features the best of the insight from Jim Carroll’s blog, in which he
covers issues related to creativity, innovation and future trends.

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Definitions: Core • Deep Dive I • Deep Dive II
Series: 2026 • Megatrends • Forward • Tomorrow