JimCarroll

2009 Food Industry trends – “hyper-nicheing” is the new reality ….

January 7, 2009 by JimCarroll

There are a lot of hits coming into my web site searching for “food industry trends 2009” or “2009 food trends.”

I’ve spent a fair amount of time through the last few years, focused on trends in the consumer, food and retail sector, talking about some of the unique trends which influence shopping behavior.

Here’s a clip from a major food symposium I keynoted in New York City in September 2008; I spoke to a wide variety of trends impacting the industry. In this short clip, I’m speaking to the issue of market fragmentation, and the need for ever more small niche markets:

The key point: while economic trends are impacting consumer choice, there are still many other trends at play. At the conference, I spoke about a variety of other the “new influencers,” rapid product innovation, fast-paced consumer choice change, and the impact of brand interactivity.

Financial & banking innovation awards for 2009!

January 6, 2009 by JimCarroll

I just finalized my review of the entries for the 2009 Monarch Innovation Awards; for the second year in a row, I’ve been one of the panel of judges for the awards.

The awards are presented by Barlow Associates, a leading banking industry market research organization. As their press release notes, “the awards honor innovation in the financial services industry and seek to recognize financial institutions that provide the most innovative products to business customers and to recognize risk takers who create/promote innovation within their organizations.”

Given all the turbulence in the financial sector, it might seem like an odd time to be focusing on innovation – but it’s not. Cast your mind forward just a few years from now, and think about what we’ll see within the business banking sector:

a good part of our financial infrastructure will have migrated to mobile platforms people will think it normal to conduct banking via SMS transactions; a good chunk of the current credit card infrastructure will have migrated into our cell phones, Blackberries and iPods;

Gen-Y will have a different type of financial relationship, and are likely to use those financial brands that “stay ahead” in terms of technologies, capabilities and other factors;
existing banks will find their markets and brands increasingly challenged by technology companies, particularly mobile platform organizations, as well as disruptors from other industries such as accounting and ERP software companies
we’ll see increasing financial sophistication in the small and medium sized business sector; the ability to scale internationally financially will become an increasingly important success factor, and this trend will be one of the key drivers behind the coming economic recovery

That’s why awards like the Monarch Innovation Awards are important; they celebrate the heroes who are still busy innovating, staying ahead, and positioning their organizations for the future – because they know that trends like these will provide for significant market and business opportunity in the future.

I referred to them before when I wrote my Memo to the CEO some time back, pressing a message that as CEO’s of financial organizations navigate the turbulent water around them, they should ensure they also have a team that is firmly focused on future trends.

Read the Memo to the CEO

Reuters press release: Barlow Research Announces 2nd Annual Monarch Innovation Awards

Think growth! Getting ahead of the economy …

January 5, 2009 by JimCarroll

It’s 2009, and it looks like I’ll be quite busy with a number of organizations who are focused on innovating their way into the future.

A few of the upcoming presentations include:

the College Board — the organization that runs the SAT education testing system among other things. This will involve a keynote for a select audience of 250, including Chancellors, Presidents, and senior admission officers for the largest colleges and universities in the US, including Duke, Cambridge, Harvard, Vanderbilt and the University of Texas, among others.
a global leadership meeting for Yum! Brands (KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut) ; I’ll be providing an opening keynote on the necessity for innovation and creative approaches to branding, marketing, retail design, food and consumer trends, among other issues
a CEO-level strategy session for one of the world’s leading education publishing companies.

a keynote for the the annual conference of the Texas Credit Union League, on innovation strategies in the financial sector (yes, such strategies still exist!)
a keynote for a chapter of the American Marketing Association, examining fast paced branding and consumer change
the closing keynote — and a second booking by — the American Nursery & Landscape Association, on growth strategies and opportunities
a strategy session on behalf of a global consulting firm for leadership from the world’s largest insurance companies

What’s common here is that all of these organizations are in a mindset that despite the vast economic challenges that have occurred, it is critical that they go into 2009 with a mindset that is focused on the opportunities of the future, rather than the challenges of the past.

Here’s a quote to carry you into the year: Steve Jobs once commented, “If you look backward in this business, you’ll be crushed. You have to look forward.”

Think growth.

Think growth! We get mail…..

December 18, 2008 by JimCarroll

I often get mail after speaking on stage to a group of people, or after hosting a small leadership meeting.

Here’s one that just came in…

As one of the behind-the-scenes people working at the conference….I was asked to pass along my feedback/reaction to your presentation. In fact, as part of my responsibilities, I edit/rewrite the speaker biographies and, after the conference, write summaries of the presentations Croplife to post on their website — so you’ll be seeing the results once I’ve gotten the transcripts from the production company that tapes the speeches.

In the meantime, some immediate feedback: your delivery was energetic and the subject treatment both thorough and fascinating; I especially liked your accompanying photos — I found some images really stayed with me, such as the photo of the person sitting on a chair in a field, looking out across the landscape, wide blue sky, big clouds, etc. and the graphic image of a person in silhouette stepping from a darkened space across a doorway into the light. Great choice of images that carried a lot of meaning!

I can tell you that from where I sat, your presentation really seized the attention of everyone around me.

Congratulations on an excellent keynote — considering the spin-off effect that’s already occurred, it seems you’re ‘trending’ ever upward for 2009!

That made my day! Think growth!

What does 2008 look like on January 1, 2015?

December 18, 2008 by JimCarroll

Ask yourself that question. The year 2008 will look like this: it was the year that a global economic tsunami caused massive change — but it was also the year that saw the start of some pretty significant transformations.

As we go forward from 2008, it’s important to appreciate that we’re about to see a lot of big turns in the years to come in a wide variety of industries. Really, really big turns.

The word I like to use is “transformation.”

I’m a big believer that we live in truly transformative times, and that the next decade is going to witness some pretty staggering changes. Much of this transformation will come about because of the scope of potential problems that loom.

Staggering challenges eventually lead to equally staggering solutions. Think of a few:

Health care is an obvious huge problem, and the World Healthcare Innovation & Technology forum that I keynoted last week featured hundreds of innovative ideas. In 12 years, the health care system will look nothing what it looks like today. If you want a sense of what that is, read the healthcare trends post I did a few weeks ago.

The manufacturing sector is in a transformative period. We’ll see significant change because many of the assumptions of slow-paced manufacturing are dead; We’ll see fundamental business model change — think GoogleCar, a concept I’ve been speaking and writing about for some time.
Energy and the environment. The linkage of these two issues is a great big step, and this will speed up the pace of scientific discovery, spawn new industry, and nurture growth.
Pervasive connectivity. Device and location intelligence are at the tipping point. Think smart highway infrastructure, and other fascinating mass-connectivity infrastructure.

I could go on. The point is, take any of these issues or dozens of others, and we’ll look back in ten years and think to ourselves, “wow, there was suddenly a whole lot of innovative thinking going on.”

That’s why innovation will be a core focus for organizations as they go forward into 2009. Innovation leads to growth. Growth is the only way out of this mess.

I was just quoted in an article for Farm & Dairy magazine: Keep your farm above water in 2009: Think change, noting:

“Growers who focus on innovation as a core value will find success,” says futurist Jim Carroll. “Their innovation will focus on the triple-feature need for growth, efficiency and ingestion of new science.”

Think growth!

Strategy for early 09 – Set bold short term goals

December 10, 2008 by JimCarroll

Some day, the graph at the right wont’ seem like something weird.

Maybe today it does seem out of place.

Yet I continue to notice that there are a significant number of executives out there who are “moving beyond the meltdown” stage and are pursuing active strategies to keep their team or group focused on innovating and opportunity. They keep phoning me, and bookings continue to be very strong well into 2009.

My role in many of these events: get people beyond the “anger and denial stage”; see opportunities from a longer term perspective; and start thinking about actions that we can begin now to transition out of the mindset which has settled in.

I just concluded a keynote in Washington, DC, and spoke to this trend and the need for action. My advice to this particular crowd included a slide:

SET BOLD SHORT TERM GOALS

Think about that. The economic news can literally smother the drive and enthusiasm of a team. Every day, folks are being beaten down by a surreal swarm of negative headlines. There’s a smothering cloud of economic doom out there. People are dispirited, demoralized, and frankly, are coming in to work every day without any drive, initiative, and inclination to change.

Yet, we will one day be returning to a period of economic growth, and the graph seen here will make sense once again. Maybe it is already beginning to happen in some sectors. Maybe it might take some time yet.

Yet you can’t let this attitude of pervasive negativity begin to clog up the arteries of your team. That’s why you get out in front of this thing and SET BOLD SHORT TERM GOALS, That gives your team concise actions that can be pursued, and goals to achieve.

And it will leave your team well positioned for the economy as it does, inevitably, emerge from this current period of contraction.

JimCarroll

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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.

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.