Insight Index - Futurist Jim Carroll, Keynote Speaker: Disruptive Trend & Innovation Expert

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.

INNOVATION INSIGHTS

If you keeping doing the same old thing, you’ll
end up with the same old thing!

The Story Behind the Picture: Is Your Brand from The Olden Days?

“A brand today can go from hero to zero in a matter of months….” In that context, you’d better get ahead of the fast future, before it gets ahead of you! Consider Sony. Once they were a really cool company with the coolest technology on the planet — the Walkman. Then they weren’t, because they didn’t […]

Daily Inspiration: “Expect velocity. Plan for acceleration. Structure for intensity. Execute relentlessly.”

“Expect velocity. Plan for acceleration. Structure for intensity. Execute relentlessly.” Back in 2006, I keynoted the Society of Cable Telecom Engineers at their annual conference in Tampa. At the time, YouTube was only just beginning to have an impact, and social networking was still in a nascent stage. It was January — Twitter wasn’t even […]

Innovation? Do These 10 Things Now….

Obviously, I spend a lot of time thinking about innovation. And given my global client list, I have a unique front-row seat into what organizations are doing to succeed — or, as they case may be, not succeed — with their innovation efforts. With that, here’s a quick list of 10 more things that smart, innovative […]

Innovation: Why Every Company Needs What I Call an XBOX/Playstation Room!

Half of the events I do as a futurist and innovation expert are spent at corporate leadership events. I’m frequently engaged by a CEO or other senior executive for a global Fortune 1000 company to come in and challenge their team as to how to align to a fast paced, disruptive future. After all, the reality […]

Article: Hatching your next great idea: 5 ways to set the stage

IBM’s Think Marketing blog found my site, and interviewed me on some of my thoughts around innovation and culture. Give it a read! Hatching your next great idea: 5 ways to set the stage by Jennifer Goforth Gregory, IBM Think Marketing Blog Sometimes, you wake up and it feels like it became spring overnight. But when […]

Keep Up with the Speed of Change: Future Trends in the Speaking Industry

I work with many of the world’s leading bureaus, one of who is the Washington Speakers Bureau. They represent such people as Condoleeza Rice, George W. Bush, Tony Blair, John Kerry, Magic Johnson, Terry Bradshaw — global political, sports and other leaders. They’ve just run a blog post that I wrote on trends in the […]

Daily Inspiration: “Start you day today by asking really good questions”

“Start you day today by asking really good questions” – Futurist Jim Carroll Over the last 25 years as a speaker on future trends and innovation, I’ve seen many cases where companies have jumped onto a trend simply because everyone else. Or, they’ve suddenly decided that ‘innovation’ is important, without really defining a purpose or […]

Lessons from My Youngest Son: Taking Initiative!

My youngest son Tom turns 22 today. Time flies! Both of my sons have been a huge inspiration to me on my approach to life, innovation, the future and trends — I know they live in a world that is completely different than my own, as they’ve grown up in a world of fast, relentless […]

Daily Inspiration: “Agility is the Only Antidote for Velocity”

“Agility is the only antidote for velocity” – Jim Carroll One recent client engaged me for a talk for their global team, with the keynote title “Achieving Agility: Aligning Ourselves for an Era of Accelerating Change”. That’s a good example of how I outline the attributes for success in a world of high velocity change. […]

Daily Inspiration: “A suggestion box? That’s the best way to trivialize the concept of innovation!”

“A suggestion box? That’s the best way to trivialize the concept of innovation!” – Jim Carroll Why Suggestion Boxes are a Stupid Idea. 10 Powerful Lessons for Innovation! With 25 years of working with some of the leading organization in the world on issues related to creativity and innovation, I’ve seen some of the best and worst […]

The Story Behind the Picture: “What Will You Do Today To Do the Tough Stuff? Ask Tough Questions!

Here’s a good quote to live by: it is said that doing the right thing when it’s easy to do is easy — it’s doing the right thing when it’s tough that is really tough! It can be difficult to be tough about things, because it’s always easier to be nicer, to avoid stress, to […]

Daily Inspiration: “Establishing a committee is a guaranteed prescription for innovation paralysis”

“Establishing a committee is a guaranteed prescription for innovation paralysis” – Jim Carroll How many times does this happen – you have a great idea that you know will succeed – only to have it go to a committee, who proceed to destroy your idea? As I dig into the culture and attitude of a […]

Daily Inspiration: “Surround yourself with optimists. Always ignore the pessimists!”

“Surround yourself with optimists. Always ignore the pessimists!” – Jim Carroll Some of the most fascinating organizations in the world have brought me in to encourage their people to think about the future, and how to nurture a culture of creativity and innovation. Organizations like NASA (twice!), Johnson and Johnson, Whirlpool/Maytag, the Walt Disney Corporation and […]

Daily Inspiration: “What made you successful in the last 10 years will not make you successful in the next 10. Given that, what are you going to change in your thinking and your strategy to adjust to this harsh reality?”

“What made you successful in the last 10 years will not make you successful in the next 10. Given that, what are you going to change in your thinking and your strategy to adjust to this harsh reality?” – Futurist Jim Carroll 10 Signs that You are Failing at Innovation, and What You Should Do […]

Daily Inspiration: “The world needs more people with a new type of degree that I call the Masters in Business Imagination!”

“The world needs more people with a new type of degree that I call the Masters in Business Imagination!” – Jim Carroll Masters in Business Imagination – The Only Degree You’ll Ever Need! Each day, I post a motivational quote from a stage to my Instagram feed. Follow me and get inspired! This morning, I […]

In 1989 (28 years ago), I Was Almost Fired Because of an Article About Email. Read Why – And What Happened!

The folks at Postal and Parcel Technology Magazine approached me some months back to write an article about the future of mail in the era of technology, and particularly, e-mail. I suggested to them that rather than looking forward, why not look to the past for valuable lessons? Such as, how organizations seem to always react […]

Your Customers Know More Than You Do: Do You Accept That, And What Will You Do About It? Here Are 10 Things You SHOULD Do!

Does your organization have the right stuff to deal with todays’ information-empowered, globally collaborative, we-know-better-than-you-do customer? Probably not! Imagine that you are a big company. Imagine that you roll out a new piece of software that was supposed to make things better for your customers. Imagine that it doesn’t do that — and it makes things […]

Daily Inspiration: “Agility is the only antidote for velocity”

“Agility is the only antidote for velocity” – Jim Carroll Many organizations engage me for an offsite CEO or executive session that is focused on how to move the organization forward in a period fast paced change. So it was this client in the hi-tech sector — where I delivered a keynote around the idea […]

Hire People You Don’t Like. Stop Seeking Common Ground. Kill the Committee. & More Ideas to Accelerate Your Reality

Those who succeed possess a daring need for speed. That’s your reality. If you think your world, industry, company, business model, platform, technology or anything else will look the same a year from now — you’re wrong. What are you going to do about it? Change things. Change things big. Don’t think small – be […]

People Will Always Laugh At Your Crazy Ideas: They Are Usually Wrong!

Many people have a belief system that has them convinced that the world of tomorrow will look much like it does today, with the result that when they are confronted by the future, they dismiss it. Case in point – back in 2006, I was the opening keynote speaker for a conference of telecom and […]

Daily Inspiration: “Structure is the enemy of innovation – but if you must, establish a routine that involves being spontaneous!”

“Structure is the enemy of innovation – but if you must, establish a routine that involves being spontaneous!” – Jim Carroll The photo is from an event I did for an insurance company — an industry that is set to be disrupted in a significant way as direct-relationship business models increasingly take hold. I’ve written […]

Daily Inspiration: “Innovation is like a tee shot – it is deceptively simple in concept, yet endlessly difficult to achieve with any degree of consistency”

“Innovation is like a tee shot – it is deceptively simple in concept, yet endlessly difficult to achieve with any degree of consistency” – Jim Carroll So I golf. Not well, but I have goals. Which makes the fact that the PGA of America has invited me in to keynote their organization twice all the […]

Daily Inspiration: “To win in the race to the future, you need to decide to show up at the starting line”

“To win in the race to the future, you need to decide to show up at the starting line” – Futurist Jim Carroll Each morning since August, I’ve enjoyed my morning coffee while putting together a little future/motivational quote from some of my stage pictures. You can track this over on Instagram; I also tweet them. I’m […]

Innovate and Adapt – or Die: The Sobering Reality of Disruption

It’s that simple. Here’s a simple list of companies that were once great successes. Then they weren’t: Blockbuster. Borders. Lehman Bros. Kodak. Circuit City. RadioShack. Pan-Am. Enron. E.F. Hutton.RCA. Tower Records. Polaroid. Woolworths. Compaq. Arthur Anderson. The list could go on…. companies that were leaders in their time, and then failed, due to a lack of […]