Jim Carroll: The Futurist Who Knows Your Industry

The Futurist Who Knows Your Industry. 

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Minds of their own

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One of my regular columns focused this month on the issue of “hyperconnectivity.”

Quite simply, we’re entering an era in which almost everything is becoming plugged into everything else. For example, consider what is happening in the world of sports:

    highwaycones.jpg“I recently spoke to a group of CEOs of some of the world’s largest sporting goods manufacturers and challenged them to think 20 years down the road. I suggested they imagine a baseball bat — would it still be a simple, shaped piece of wood? 

    The bat of the future, I suggested, would have intelligence and connectivity embedded into it. The young uber-wired kids of 2025 could use that technology to analyze their swing. A backyard virtual sensor net could even feed the details to a virtual catcher 20 miles away, allowing them to carry on a dynamic, if somewhat impersonal, game of virtual baseball.

    Far-fetched? Not at all. Scary? Definitely. The trend toward such embedded intelligence is extremely real. And, as I said to the CEOs, the future “isn’t bad, it’s just different.”

As this future unfolds, there will be tremendous opportunities for innovation: from the development of new products and services, through the redefinition of existing models, as well as innovative strategies to avoid market commoditization. If you want one trend to watch for the next twenty years, this is probably the one.

You should even consider what is happening with intelligent highway cones. …… which I also cover in the article….

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Corporate banking at high velocity

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corporatebanking.gifI spoke last week at a senior level banking conference; in attendance were C and VP level executives from such major banks as JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch, Harris NA, Wells Fargo, RBC, HSBC Bank USA, MasterCard Worldwide, Bank of America, Citibank, and SunTrust Bank. The conference, sponsored by global banking research firm Barlow Associates, was built around the broad theme of “Just in time business banking,” and focused on trends and innovation within the corporate banking sector.

My keynote took a look at the major trends that will impact corporate banking relationships in the years to come. I also hosted a panel discussion featuring senior executives from Merrill Lynch, Zurich North America and US Bank, examining the broad theme of “how do we innovate in a world of high velocity change?”

What’s going on in this sector of the economy mirrors so many others, as we are seeing:

  • Demographic driven velocity. Huge change is coming about in the ‘corner office’ as a generation of change-adverse boomers’ is set to retire…Gen-connect as bankers embrace velocity, are born innovative, and are fundamentally impatient with the “rest of us!”
  • Gen-connect as business bankers? The YouTube / IM generation will demand a different type of “customer interaction” in corporate banking. Rapid adoption of new business models, structure, methods, markets, products, ideas……. and constant new forms of service delivery / interaction will emerge!
    Will they even “do” banks, or is their banking future around PayPal?
  • Rapid idea cycle = rapid market shift. The bar of expectations is constantly rising. The skin to stay in the game is volatile, increasing, and instant. Customer expectations are evolving at high velocity.
  • Rapid product / service development. Time to market is the key operational focus; the ability to respond to massive, sudden market / product shifts is now key the success factor. Awareness of emerging challenges / opportunities is critical.
  • Externally focused innovation. Partnership oriented collaborative efforts goes critical (“what can we do to run your business better?”). Rethinking the real strategic role of IT from a different perspective — tactical to strategic transitions are the magic!
  • War for talent goes supernova. Skills access becomes the next corporate battle ground – those can get it and lock it up are the winners. Complexity partnerships, infrastructure offloading, next wave outsourcing (“core competencies, not cost”) provide opportunity. Innovative retention, attraction and engagement strategies becomes critical.
  • Rapid emergence of fundamental change. Complacency is a dangerous thing…Constant, relentless external innovation from unexpected competitors – “as goes Ford and GM, so too go I….” There are *no* barriers to entry and no loyalty beyond this generation to the concept of a bank?

This event comes on the heels of my recent talk in the Cayman Islands, on the broad theme of globalization of the financial services industry.

Fast to innovate. Fast to build. Fast to market.

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innovation-ont.jpgThough I spend my time travelling the world with my innovation message, it’s nice to find some recognition at home. I’ve been living in Ontario, Canada, for the last 22 years, a region that has long been an economic powerhouse.

The economy here, like many others, has its ups and downs; and in going forward into an economy of rapid change, it’s the innovation capability that will make the difference.

The Premier of the province, Dalton McGuinty, has just issued his first Ontario Innovates newsletter; I’m interviewed within it. The Premier notes that “we’re living in an exciting era where ideas are springing to life faster than we can blink.” He goes on to note that “in today’s hyper-competitive global economy, “it’s not about the big overtaking the small. It’s about the fast overtaking the slow.”

I agree, commenting “We can be wide open to the world and participate in global opportunities, or we can retreat and hide away from it ….. I sense folks are dispirited, especially in smaller communities. It’s like they feel they tried it and it didn’t work. We need to remind people of what is possible.”

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What’s happening with our workforce?

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workforce.gifLast week, there was a common theme to my keynotes for the University of Oklahoma and for the national Blue Cross Blue Shield Association: “what’s happening with our workforce?”

There is an intense degree of interest amongst executives as to the extent of the looming skills shortage, how to retain and attract critical skill sets, and how to deal with the challenges of the next generation.

I’ve rolled this into an overall keynote topic: “What’s Happening With Our Workforce: Achieving Competitive Advantage Through Skills Agility.” In these types of talks, I’ve been taking a look at a wide variety of trends:

  • every organization is faced with an increasingly complex, restless, age-diverse disloyal, and highly specialized workforce — and a workforce that will have the longest life span ever, from hyperactive 15-year-olds to wizened, not-ready-to-quit 85-year-olds.
  • with the coming “end of retirement,” most companies will come to realize they’ll need a lot of telephones with big buttons for members of the 70+ folks who are still a part of their workforce — and a lot of innovative workplace practices as well
  • the arrival of “Gen-Connect” — the kids who have been wired with a mouse since birth — will lead to the question of whether “good luck” will be the only possible response to the question of “Managing Gen-Y.”
  • this workplace weirdness will only be compounded by the ongoing rapid evolution of knowledge and skills, such that most organizations will find it impossible to find the highly specialized skills needed in the economy of the future
  • The “War for Talent” will be the new competitive battleground, and organizations that can attract, engage, retain and amuse an increasingly complex workforce will be the ones who find success in the rapidly evolving global economy.
  • in an era such as this, firms are faced with a future that requires a new form of human capital agility: the ability to deploy the right skills at the right time for the right purpose — regardless of where the skill might be required, or where the skill is sourced
  • at the same time, organizations are faced with an increasingly global talent base, a reality that demands new forms of collaboration, insightful project management, and deep insight into the effective utilization of those skills. The way to the future is clear: it’s no longer about managing time: it’s about successful skills deployment

I’ve captured these thoughts on the workplace challenges of the future in a recent Trends Overview: 21st Unique Characteristics of 21st Centuries Skills, available here.

Given the number of calls that I receive, this is certainly one of the hottest topics for 2007!

CNBC : The Business of Innovation

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BOI_Logo.jpgThe air date for the five part CNBC series, “The Business of Innovation,” hosted by Maria Bartiromo, has finally been set: it will air March 4, at 9PM EST, and again at midnight. It will air in Europe and Asia subsequent to that.

I’m a featured guest expert on the show, chatting about what companies must do to instill a culture of innovation.

Innovation and the future of education

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What’s happening with our worforce? That is increasingly the focus of many of my recent talks.
oku.jpgYesterday I spoke to the staff and faculty of the University of Oklahoma College of Continuing Education / College of Liberal Studies.

The overall theme was “innovation in the world of high velocity education.”

Broadly, my talk was based around one of my favorite quotes: that of educator Lewis Perelman: “Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century.”

There’s a lot of opportunity for innovation in any educational institution: innovating with the methodology of education upgrading, new knowledge opportunities, and innovation in the overall administration and delivery of education. Beyond that, there’s the overall issue of ensuring that in a high-velocity world, educators are delivering the right knowledge at the right time for the right purpose.

To that end, I outlined what I believe to be the primary areas for innovation:

  • the rapid emergence of new educational opportunities, with foundation knowledge, and with knowledge refreshment
  • a need for constant change and upgrading of core skills
  • more partnership opportunities due to complexity – as organizations offload knowledge refreshing / upgrading requirements
  • greater specialization of knowledge topics – and bigger opportunities for academic centres to focus as world class leader in specific niches
  • instant, just in time knowledge takes on a unique role and opportunity

There’s more to be found in my list of “10 big trends for educators,” and many of my assumptions as to where we are going in the world of education is based upon my listing of “10 Unique Characteristics of 21st Century Skills.”

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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.

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Series: 2026 • Megatrends • Forward • Tomorrow