JIM’S INSIGHTS

Futurist Jim Carroll has quickly become recognized as your ‘go-to source’ for effective insight on what comes next, the strategies that you consider, and the leadership path you need to follow.

All about growth!

Decoding Tomorrow: Daily Inspiration – Global Economy: "Stability. Reliability. Predictability. Clarity. This is now the foundation of the new 21st-century economy."

"Stability. Reliability. Predictability. Clarity. This is now the foundation of the new 21st-century economy." - Futurist Jim Carroll It's been fascinating to watch the speed…

Decoding Tomorrow: Mastering 2026 – #24 Trust Capital: "In an era of synthetic perfection, your flaws are now the ultimate watermark of your authenticity."

"In an era of synthetic perfection, your flaws are now the ultimate watermark of your authenticity." - Futurist Jim Carroll I'm back! And we're on…

Decoding Tomorrow: Your Daily Future Inspiration – Innovating in Uncertainty: "Every good moment of uncertainty demands the certainty of action!"

"Every good moment of uncertainty demands the certainty of action!" - Futurist Jim Carroll You can pre-order Dancing in the Rain effective today! I've got…

Decoding Tomorrow: Your Daily Future Inspiration – “There is no shortage of big opportunities.. There is a shortage of bold leadership!"

"There is no shortage of big opportunities.. There is a shortage of bold leadership!" = Futurist Jim Carroll One of my fellow futurists recently included…

Daily Inspiration: The Economy and Innovation - "Markets are not trends!"

"Markets are not trends!" - Futurist Jim Carroll Some wild headlines yesterday: In that context, I shared this image with one of my sons yesterday;…

Daily Inspiration: Retail, Supply Chain, Logistics - "Bring on tomorrow!"

"Bring on tomorrow!" - Futurist Jim Carroll Like the sign says. Bring on tomorrow - because if you don't, your tomorrow might not work out…

Daily Inspiration: Economic Outlook - "The US consumer seems to have entered into a state of perpetual economic gloom. Some companies seem all too eager to follow them into the abyss"

"The US consumer seems to have entered into a state of perpetual economic gloom. Some companies seem all too eager to follow them into the…

Daily Inspiration: Volatility & Trends - "You'll never find your opportunity in the depths of your despair!"

"You'll never find your opportunity in the depths of your despair!" - Futurist Jim Carroll I'm down in Silicon Valley in California today, where I've…

Daily Inspiration: Leadership and Growth - "Real leaders don't try to cost cut their way into the future! (They reinvent!)"

"Real leaders don't try to cost cut their way into the future! (They reinvent!)" - Futurist Jim Carroll Really? Are we going to do this…

Daily Inspiration: Transformative Thinking - "If you are surrounded by transformative trends that are so big, why do you continue to think so small?"

Daily Inspiration: Industry Transformation - "A bold future abhors a timid mind!"

"A bold future abhors a timid mind!" - Futurist Jim Carroll The old automotive industry is disappearing; a new one is being born. The old…

Daily Inspiration: Economic Growth - "At what point will you realize you've wasted time preparing for an economic downturn that never happened?"

"At what point will you realize you've wasted time preparing for an economic downturn that never happened?" - Futurist Jim Carroll Have you noticed that…

Daily Inspiration: Business Transformation - "At some moment in time, you will come to realize that the future you thought had no longer exists!"

"At some moment in time, you will come to realize that the future you thought had no longer exists!" - Futurist Jim Carroll If you…

Leadership and Volatility: It's What You Do Right Now That Matters

History teaches us that those who move forward, fast, during periods of relentless uncertainty, are those who win. Futurist Jim Carroll on stage in London,…

Scary News Headlines?

Have a history lesson! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIbjbwez6pM&feature=youtu.be

Daily Inspiration: "The future of work? It's the skills you don't know about that you need to be planning for!"

"The future of work? It's the skills you don't know about that you need to be planning for!" - Futurist Jim Carroll What can the…

Daily Inspiration: "If you are letting all this recession talk defer your plans for growth, you're doing it all wrong!"

"If you are letting all this recession talk defer your plans for growth, you're doing it all wrong!" - Futurist Jim Carroll History has taught…

Video: Achieving Optimism - Learning from the Two Different Types of Farmers!

One of my favorite bits of insight I like to share from the stage concerns the story of the 'two types of framers.' Which one…

Keynote Topics 2023: Growth, Innovation & Creativity, Megatrends, Leadership and Acceleration

I just sent out my February update to all my speaker bureau partners - I'm represented by most of the major ones in the world…

Daily Inspiration: "If only the paranoid survive, it's also true that it's the chameleons who will thrive!"

Video: “What You Do Right Now Defines Your Future”

The day Lehman Brothers went down in 2008, at an event where I was on stage, a CEO spoke to his team on how to react. The guidance was vivid, to the point, and spot on. It profoundly impacted what I did that day and every day going forward. I filmed this clip 5 minutes after […]

Leadership Keynote: 9 Things You Need To Do Right Now: Rediscovering Growth, Opportunity and the Future When Volatility is the New Normal!

Speaker bureau, event and meeting planner friends – leadership folks – clients…. My 2020-21 Recession keynote topic was just published. “9 Things You Need to Do Right Now: Rediscovering Growth, Opportunity and the Future When Volatility is the New Normal!” Right now, it’s crisis mode. But I want you to know I’M READY when your […]

Leadership Today : “Accelerating Through Uncertainty” -> Fixing the Question / Answer Imbalance Through Action!

Right now, people have too many questions, and not enough answers. This upsets the traditional balance that people base decisions upon. The result? They stop making decisions. Organizations freeze up. Here’s what I learned in previous economic downturns…. Stay tuned to this blog! When you don’t have a stage in which to share the future, […]

What Will You Do To Create Your Future in This Downturn? Here’s I Told the Wall Street Journal!

It’s pretty certain that we are going to have an economic recession. The downturn is going to be swift, ugly, unpredictable. So what are you going to do as you move through the seven stages of economic grief? Here’s a clip from a panel discussion I did for the Wall Street Journal after our last downturn. […]

Freeze, innovate or panic? Innovation strategies for RIGHT NOW!

Given the rapid pace of global economic developments with Covad-19, organizations are faced with a pretty stark choice! What I’ve learned over 25 years is that it is our ability to keep focused on the future in the face of massive uncertainty is that our ability to move forward defines our success. With that in […]

Revisiting the 7 Stages of Economic Grief: When Do You Innovate?

Back in 2009, Business Week ran an article, “10 Worst Innovation Mistakes in a Recession.” At the time, I was busy with a number of global companies helping them to focus on strategies to accelerate through the downturn. With that in mind, I wrote in the comments section of their article: “It’s easy to point out […]

Video From the Vaults: “Aggressive Indecision” and “Committing to It!”

So, this morning I went and retrieved a video from the vault, and cut a little section out of it – around the theme of aggressive indecision. Based on my previous post today, the story of aggressive indecision originated at the height of the US-Iraq Persian Gulf War (round 2) in 2002-03. What I noticed […]

What World Class Leadership Looked Like in 2019: A Focus on Big Ideas, Transformation, Disruption, Velocity and Risk!

This year marks 25 years that I’ve appeared on stage speaking about the future, trends, disruption, transformation, innovation. And what a year it was! I always emphasize to my global client base that they’ll find I can take on any number of highly customized topics for their leadership meeting – you’ll learn more about that by […]

Keynote: International Finance Corporation – A Member of the World Bank Group, Marrakesh, Morocco

Jim was the opening keynote speaker at the 2nd Global Manufacturing Conference for the International Finance Corporation, a part of of the World Bank Group, held in Marrakesh, Morocco. The conference saw the attendance of government ministers, business executives, development experts and other officials, with al focus on the economic development opportunities that can come from the […]

Your Future: Is it Logic or Emotion Driven? (The Idiocy of the NAFTA ‘Replacement’ Story)

Guess what! Facts matter! (Oh, and science is real too, but that’s another story). With that in mind, consider this: a year ago, NAFTA was very much in the news. People thought it was either dead, dying, being replaced – and that the negotiations by some old, illogical guy was going to see it replaced […]

19 Trends for 2019: #16 Innovating In the Face of Relentless Volatility

A futurist must always be a relentless optimist, particularly on stage. We’ve been engaged to provide a tour of the future that provides our audience a sense of hope and opportunity. As I will often joke, I can’t go in front of a 1,000 people and start out by saying, “Guess what! Your future sucks!” […]

Daily Inspiration: “Think growth! Think optimism! Think like a farmer!”

“Think growth! Think optimism! Think like a farmer!” – Futurist Jim Carroll Obviously my keynote this morning is for the agricultural industry – I’m headlining the DTN Ag Summit in Chicago for about 700 farmers, agricultural specialists, ag companies and crop consultants. It’s a fascinating industry – my theme is ‘Agriculture 2045”, or what the industry […]

Keynote: Mississippi Economic Development Council, Biloxi, MI – Where’s the Growth? Economic Development in Our Faster Future!

Over the years, I’ve done a lot of talks for groups of economic developers on the overall theme, “Where’s the growth?” I cover a wide variety of trends that are driving future economic growth, both from a US-centric but also a global perspective. Regions need to work harder to draw industry and to do that, […]

Keynote: Town of Blue Mountains Chamber of Commerce, Ontario : Growth Opportunities in the Next Economy

Last but not least – this one was a huge amount of fun – it’s the community where my ski chalet is located, 2 hours north of Toronto, Ontario! They were having their AGM – I wasn’t booked that particular date – and agreed to come in and speak about the global trends that will […]

The Story Behind the Picture: 20 Big Rules for Economic Development in the Era of Acceleration!

You know you are doing something right when an organization brings you back for the 3rd time! The International Asset Management Council is an organization relentlessly focused on economic trends, and represent two distinct groups – economic development representatives from government organizations, including states, provinces and cities, as well as individuals in many Fortune 1000 […]

What Nevada Learned from The Jetsons and the Flintstones: The Future of Economic Development

On stage, I have a little bit of fun pointing out that the cartoon below seems to summarize the state of the political situation in the US today. I used it a few weeks ago when I keynoted the Nevada Economic Development Conference, with a talk that look a look at the opportunities for growth […]

Keynote: Global Economic Growth Trends, Nevada Economic Development Conference, Las Vegas, Nevada

Sadly, one week before the horrific Las Vegas shootings, I spoke at the University of Nevada Las Vegas for economic development officials from across the state, on key economic opportunist beyond the tourism and gaming sector. It covered issues related to renewables and energy, self driving cars and accelerating industries, workforce and skills issues and […]

Trend: Where will the Future Really Happen? 2 Upcoming Keynotes on The Real Future, Not the Fake Future

We seem to live in two parallel worlds at this moment: the fanciful, political, “let’s make a wish” or “yell and scream” political world, and the real world. I don’t know about you, but I’m with the real world, and it’s obvious that others are too. To that end, I’m doing an increasing number of economic […]

Daily Inspiration: “Some people see the future and see a threat. Innovators see the same future and see an opportunity. Who do you choose to be, and what will you do to align yourself to an era of growth?”

“Some people see a trend and see a threat. Innovators see the same trend and see an opportunity!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Trends: What Comes Next with the Decline of an Empire?

It’s about time someone starts to talk about the future implications of the new world history that we are now watching unfold. I decided to write this post after reading of Angela’s Merkel recent comments on the fact that Europe needs to go it alone. Quite clearly, she is voicing what many other political, business, […]

Thinking Growth: Where’s the Growth? It’s Everywhere

I’m cleaning out some old research files, and came across this simple set of statistics: between now and 2050, we will move from 7 to 10 billion people; we need 70% more food, 50% more water, and 50% more fuel. People always ask me, ‘where are the emerging opportunities for innovation?” Those simple statistics define […]

Video highlight: Philadelphia Manufacturing Summit

A few months ago, I opened this conference with a resounding call to action — there are tremendous opportunities to reinvent and transform manufacturing in North America through advanced methodologies, automation, IoT (Internet of Things) factory digitization, additive manufacturing and more! It’s captured in my blog post, Trend: Why Manufacturing Needs to Reinvent Itself, Fast! That […]

Innovating Post-Brexit: What History Has Taught Us!

A few weeks ago, I was in Washington, and filmed a little clip about the need to innovate despite massive uncertainty. Last week, I was in the UK, and filmed a version for folks trying to think about the future in the context of Brexit. You need to watch it!

Keynote – Innovating in The Era of Accelerated Uncertainty: How to Adapt to the New World of Volatility

And we’re off! A key client just confirmed that for the start of 2017, they need one of my key messages …. right now, in an era of massive uncertainty, they want to kick off the year by shaking off aggressive indecision, and by aligning themselves to fast paced trends. So I wrote them a keynote description that […]