Article and Video: 5 Things to Know About the Connected Future

    Back in May, I participated in a key customer event for GE Lighting in New York City. Here’s a quick little article summary, and video, which captured my thoughts on the future of intelligent lighting and connected infrasucture. 5 Things to Know About the Connected Future By Jim Carroll When it comes to […]

What Will Golf Do With the Arrival of The Drones?

Sometime in the next few years, someone is going to arrive at a golf course, and have their entire round filmed by a drone up in the air overhead. It will follow them around via a GPS link ; their fellow players might be annoyed at first, but with the ultra silent motor, they’ll soon […]

Keynote: HP Mexico, Miami – Key Customer CIO Summit

HP Mexico brought customers of key client companies to Miami for a CIO Summit. The overall agenda was to provide them with the insight to launch into a future of disruptive opportunity. My keynote, “Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast”, took them on a tour of the major global, technological and business model trends that […]

Everybody likes firetrucks! The lessons of upside-down innovation …

Of course everyone does, particularly young kids. And as you age, you still marvel at these roaring machines and the brave firefighters who command them. A few weeks ago, I was thrilled to be the opening keynote speaker for the Fire Apparatus Manufacturers’ Association annual conference in St. Augustine, Florida. In the room were key executives […]

Article: 5 Things World Class Innovators Do that Others Do Not

I just found this article, which ran on the ERA blog after my keynote on the future of real estate, for their 2013 conference. It’s a good read! —— 5 Things World Class Innovators Do that Others Do Not, by Tara Reid, from Owning the Fence, ERA Real Estate Blog Consider this: 65 percent of […]

“Everybody knows…..: : Why companies fail at innovation

I spend a LOT of time doing talks at corporate meetings; often, a CEO or CxO leadership event for a Fortune 1000 company. Through 20 years of doing this, I’ve come to learn what it is that kills innovation in many an organization. Here’s a post of 10 things that happen all too often: everybody […]

Being Agile: How Innovators Thrive in the High Velocity Economy

I did a keynote a few weeks back for a leading North American food company. It was a highly customized keynote, built around the theme, “Being Agile: How Innovators Thrive in the High Velocity Economy.” I think it took about 5 or 6 conference calls with senior executives at the client as I worked to […]

Trend: Mobile is Eating Retail

25 Trends for 2025 (Can you imagine how different your future might be ten years from now?)

This post was written in 2014 – and now, in 2025, it’s trending! As you read it, keep in mind that it’s 11 years old! On January 3, 2025, Jim wrote a post that looks at the accuracy – and lack thereof – of the 25 predictions he made in this post in 2014 about […]

Are you suffering from ‘Aggressive Indecision?’

Here’s one from the vaults — from a keynote for SAP way back in 2003! Lots of organizations still suffering from this dread disease 11 years later! C’mon folks – make a decision! You might find you like it!

10 Questions to Assess Your Future Readiness!

Are you in the right frame of mind to cope with the future? Are you really ready? Here’s a few questions you can challenge yourself with: Are your prepared for hyper-innovation and rapid time to market? Do you actually know what major trends will affect your industry, profession and career in the next five years? […]

Video: “A blistering page of innovation…”

Back in June, I was invited to open The BigM, a major manufacturing conference held in Detroit; I followed President Obama’s Treasury Secretary, Penny Pritzker on stage. There were about 1,000 folks in the room – this is a pretty significant conference that is focused on the renaissance that is North American manufacturing. This is […]

FutureVision’s Day-One Visionaries: Carroll, Thompson, Stone

A week ago, I had the pleasure to open the FutureVision, “an invitation-only event designed for the industry’s retail leaders, is an exclusive relationship-building event packed with industry insights.” I shared the stage with some pretty impressive visionaries! It’s a small, intimate 50 CEO level event held in Sonoma County, California, with the focus being […]

Trend : The impact of crowdfunding / crowdsourcing on R&D

GE is running an article, A Fresh Perspective from Many Minds, that explores the impact of crowdfunding on the world of R&D. I’ve long been pointing out that such efforts are accelerating R&D in countless industries, and in many cases, are challenging incumbent ‘owners of the industry.’ For example, I recently spent time with a company […]

Article: “Will You Be Ranching Like The Jetsons In 10 Years?”

I recently spoke at the Cattle Feeders Business Summit in Denver. Turns out the folks at Beef Magazine were in the audience, and here’s their report on my keynote! —– Will You Be Ranching Like The Jetsons In 10 Years? – Beef Magazine (link to article) “What will the beef industry look like in 10 years?” […]

Wall Street Journal Production: Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast!

Back at the end of March, I worked on a custom video project with the Wall Street Journal Custom Digital Studios Team on behalf of CapitolOne; it involved  a small, invitation only panel discussion with a follow up custom video production. The latter is now running through out the WSJ.Com digital network. It took place at […]

Whoah! Dude! What Happened?

Ask yourself this question: do you work in an organization that just simply doesn’t get it? Who is oblivious, blind, completely unaware of just how much business model change is occurring out there? Who you know that one day, wake up and discover that the business model it operated under is forever gone; that new […]

Two Types of Farmers: What We Can Learn from the World’s Oldest Profession!

Caught your attention, didn’t I, and you obviously want to point something out to me! But now that I have your attention, think about the honorable profession of farming — it’s been around almost since the beginning of time. And it’s a profession that has involved a lot of trial and error; failure and success; […]

“Some people see a trend and see a threat – Innovators see the same trend, and see opportunity”

A quick clip focused on ‘the velocity of change …. based on one of the best phrases that I think frames the mindset of those who are relentlessly focused on the opportunity for innovation by riding future trends!

“Business Mantra for the Future … Think Fast. Act Faster!”

Back in February, I was the opening keynote speaker for 2014 Ameriquest National Symposium, speaking about trends related to transportation, infrastructure, fleet management, business model disruption — you name it! Bridget Fediuk is the Marketing Manager for NationaLease, and is responsible for overseeing the marketing of NationaLease meetings and events, the NationaLease NEWS, Webinars, and […]

Trends: Restaurants – “…we’ll be processing payments from our car dashboards…”

A few weeks ago, I was the opening keynote speaker in Las Vegas for the 2014 Multi-Unit Restaurant Technology Conference (MURTEC). In the room were folks responsible for the technology investments of a vast number of major fast-casual and quick-service restaurant companies. The attendee list featured some of the largest such organizations in the world, as […]

Trend: When Every Company Has to Innovate As Fast as Apple Does!

The CEO’s are starting to notice. That is, a lot of my clients (I do a lot of private, corporate off sites with major companies in addition to my conference and association keynotes) that the speed of change in their industry is increasingly being dictated by the speed of innovation of companies in the technology […]

Keynote: Wall Street Journal, New York – The Disruptive, Transformative Trends of Our Time

One of the world’s most respected business news sources had me in to lead a discussion about the sweeping, transformative trends of our time. I covered the entire range of big thinking visionaries, fast innovate startups, edge based innovation, the acceleration of R&D and the impact of micro-group thinking – and what today’s leaders must […]

Observations on a keynote!

A few weeks ago, I was the opening keynote speaker for the annual  Ameriquest Symposium. It’s always fun to look and see how people have reacted. In this case, I came across a blog post by Anita Alvaré  of Alvaré Associates. I thought it was a great and fun little post, and I hope she doesn’t […]