Last week:

…to the day before today:
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC): The Future of Media
The BBC had Jim in for two keynotes focused on the future of broadcasting and media.
Article – “Get on top of rapid change”
From my most recent ProfitGuide article: “If your company culture doesn’t embrace agility, innovation and flawless execution, you could be headed for trouble.”
It’s interesting to see that BusinessWeek ran this theme as a cover story last week; I’ve had it as the main focus of much of what I’ve been advising my clients through the last five years!
Article – “Are we thinking fast enough?”
After my keynote for the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers, I was asked to provide a guest column for the prestigious Broadband Library.
I open the article with the line: “If there are three key words that should carry broadband organizations and the people within them into the future, it is these: agility, innovation and execution.”
I then focus on the major trends impacting companies today, including hyperinnovation: “Innovation has moved from the corporate to the collective, a trend that is causing absolutely furious rates of discovery. Fifteen years ago, the exchange of new ideas, research and scientific advance in the world of cable, technology and telecom occurred at a rather leisurely pace, through conferences, journals and publications. Today, we find ourselves in the midst of a global infinite idea loop, in which new ideas, inventions and innovations are shared faster than ever before in countless numbers of online forums, discussions, blogs and other collaborative efforts. The pace of R&D and discovery has forever changed at this global collaborative network, as has an eternal discussion about what comes next. The result is that no one can hope to define the future anymore — the best you can do is simply to plug into the future that is being developed all around you, and learn how to profit from it.”
Article – “Are You Prepared for the New Role Associations Will Play?”
An “association of association executives” has just printed my article that takes a look at how the role of associations will change in the future — with the major focus being on the need for “just in time knowledge,” a phrase I’ve been using for over a decade.
From the intro: “If you want to understand the future role of your association, you might want to spend some time staring at an iPod Nano.
Arguably the hottest consumer technology in a marketplace that astounds everyone with a furious rate of technological innovation, it’s more than just a cool piece of electronic hardware that plays music. It’s a good barometer of the fact that we live and work in a world in which massive, sudden, wrenching change will become the norm, not the exception.
And it will be by helping your members cope with, adjust to, and prepare for this rate of change that you will find the evolution of your new role.”
“Agility key to survival”
More coverage, from Communications Engineering magazine, on my SCTE keynote last month.
“If you think your customers are a challenge now, wait until 2010, said futurist and ET keynoter Jim Carroll at Wednesday’s opening session.
Tomorrow’s customers will be “far more demanding, will expect more from you, will be constantly pushing you, and will have far less loyalty to you as a brand,” Carroll predicted.
That’s because the customers of 2010 are today’s youth – many of whom don’t remember film cameras, and who view “television” as video that comes to them in the car, on the laptop, or on the back of the airplane seat.
“By 2020, we’ll be witnessing the retirement of the change-averse,” Carroll said, referring to baby-boomer and older generations. “What will emerge into purchasing power, and into your customer base, is this generation that thinks differently, is wired differently.”
As for products and services, Carroll frequently referenced last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as an example of “furiously rapid rates of change.” Product lifecycles, such as those traditionally taught in marketing courses,” are fundamentally disappearing,” he said.
To compete, cable needs to focus on being agile. “Re-skilling the folks who are instrumental in your architecture is just critical,” he said.




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