Business
The Future Of Business – Technology & Tourism
Seth Godin made the statement, While We Weren’t Paying Attention, The Industrial Age Just Ended. If that’s true, the masses of the world are in for change never experienced before. Although technology appears to be driving this change and new world of business, it’s more about how you and I think, to be more specific, how younger generations think.
In The Future Of Business series, I have been sharing insights on various industries, what we might expect to happen in the next 3 – 5 years. In this post I’m going to take a look at Tourism, this is an interesting topic because it is such a huge buisiness, somewhere around a 6 Billion dollar industry. But how will this shift from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age impact Tourism? It’s hard to tell at first glance but lets look at some obvious things that technology may introduce.
I can remember as a kid looking forward to summer, every summer my Mother & Father would take us someplace and it was always far enough away you couldn’t walk home. I could hear Mom & Dad discussing, planning and strategizing months in advance, we were going east or south, that meant Manitoba or the USA. My Dad would never stop either, if we were going from Calgary to Winnipeg (14 hours of driving) he was going to do it in a day, if we were lucky we might stop for potty breaks. The stops were never at a fancy restaurant or hotel, they were rest stops with smelly unclean outhouses. I know this sounds like abuse by todays standards, but that’s what it was like travelling with my family back in 60’s and early 70’s.
One of the saving grace’s on those trips were Tourism Offices, a place where we could pick up a map, a coffee or candy. More importantly, they had washrooms! Something I noticed in these kiosk like buildings was, you would find things there you couldn’t find anywhere else. Local artists would have paintings and or carvings, jewellery and what have you, interesting and talented people figured out it was a great place to sell their work.
Jumping ahead to today, and not much has changed in these groovy little Tourism Kiosks, why? Interestingly enough, the problems the Tourism Industry had back when I was a boy, they still have today. It’s always about funding and how these non-profit organizations have to conform to some very rigid groups and influencial people. I understand the problem all to well because, I used to be Vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of Tourism some 20 years ago. Tourism used ot be under the Chamber domain, today they are independant, out on they’re own.
Now the Canadian Tourism Commission (which is well funded) has culled some series data about where and why people come to visit Canada, it’s called Explorer Quotient, something to put in your toolbox. Here is the EQ presentation made by the CTC.
These groups have something we didn’t have 20 years ago, not even 15 years ago, we now have the Internet & Social Media. Tourism is struggling in this space because they don’t have the resources to create, invite or listen to what we all want. The opportunities are unlimited now for tourism and other non-profit organizations. I learned recently that the Green Bay Packers FootBall team is actually a non-profit organization!
There are a number of tools tourism could take advantage, they are already in place, like Foursquare and Gowalla, these are the low hanging fruit today, but in the next 5 years we will see some very interesting technologies that Tourism will leverage. In the future, we will be able to travel to far away places in the comfort of our own home via Virtual Reality. You may stop at a Tourism Rest Stop and sit down with a virtual reality headset and walk around the very community you are about to enter. You will be able to get key information on the top tourist stops while there, enjoy a cup of coffee at the same time. You will have the opportunity to get special deals you can’t get anywhere else in that town, only at the tourism office. You will have the opportunity to opt-in while touring the area digitally, yes the tourism will be able to track where you are via a smartphone, they will be able to forward information and real-time specials happening for a limited time.
Through your smartphone you could contact them on Twitter to make reservations at a restaurant or hotel. Most businesses will be on these social networks, they will over special deals and opportunities you find in the local paper. Maybe these businesses will accept FaceBook & Twitter Credits as payment. According to those two social networks credits will be offered July 1st, 2011. We’ll see how to roles out but it opens the door for local businesses and especially the tourism societies to partner with local or far away businesses for visitors in the tourism kiosks. We could help our local tourism by donating FaceBook & Twitter credits for them to use with local businesses, so many ideas can come from this topic alone. And these credits or points can be used anywhere in the world!
The sky is the limit here, if you can think it, you can probably do it. Technology is making it easier, what other ideas do you think Tourism could do to attract visitors?
Stuff From Under My Hat
We have a few problems on this planet, we will have a water shortage, we will even have a food shortage, Canada’s population is predicted to shrink, but why aren’t the masses paying attention to what’s coming? Many would claim we have an education problem, I beg to differ, we have a listening problem, not an education problem.
I have taught, spoken to, and even worked with many business people in different sectors, and I can tell you, listening is truely the challenge amung them. Now I don’t claim to know everything, infact, I don’t even predict the future, I do what’s called Foresight, I’m listening to what’s going on in the world. In a world that is moving from PC centric to a world completely mobile, it’s hard to keep up. We are regrouping on the fly, and regrouping people are impossible to control. That’s what big business is trying to figure out, don’t waste your time, you will never nail it down. Use your ears more than your mouth, let your ears keep your hat on.
The listening problem comes from an insecurity in my humble opinion, business owners don’t want to look stupid, or be seen as if they don’t know what’s happening in their business and or around them. I can only tell you this, it is impossible for any one person to know everything there is to know about everything, including your business. If you are a business owner, try to listen more, grow bigger ears, and then turn your business into a platform that people will find useful. People always return to what is useful. And become a likeable, lovable brand.
Tell your story and make it sound different, and mobilize everything. Just some thoughts and stuff from under my hat.
How are you listening to your customers?
Missing The Bigger Picture – Are You Paying Attention?
I recently had a couple of close friends tell me they didn’t get my blog, they felt it was dribble and wasn’t useful to business people. I was kind of taken by surprise, and yet I wasn’t all that shocked either, mostly because people don’t get me at the best of times. I even felt a little sad and I think I felt sorry for them. Once I picked myself up off the floor and got past the sting, they got me to thinking.
When I started blogging, I spent most of my time talking about nanotechnology, shortly there after I started thinking about the bigger picture of how technology is and will impact society 5, 10, 15, 30 years down the road. How will business look in the next 3 – 5 years, helping business and individuals to create ideas to adopt the future of business. Showing you some trends and the paradigm shift that is taking place, after all, the industrial age is dead right.
I tried to explain to my friends what my blog was about, and they said, “OK, fine but it doesn’t give me answers for today”. I said, ” I’m not giving you answers, my goal and job is to make you think for yourself, to think of your own answers”. I merely want people to think for themselves, but it appears my friends want the answer handed to them on a silver platter. Which means, they are not paying attention to the bigger picture, they are only putting out fires rather than looking ahead. Is that you?
If you don’t pay attention to what’s coming, how and why are you in business? Every business is built on the very fact that there is and will be a future, if that’s true, why are you building a business? As I told my friends, my blog is trying to give you a glimpse of what’s to come, and hopefully, it helps get the creative juices flowing so you will be ready. If you are paying attention. If not, I see dead businesses.
There is much to be learned here on this blog, if you are paying attention. Are you starting to get my message yet?
I have to tell you, after a couple of hours sharing what it is my blog & I do, I wondered how difficult it was for you and others to understand what I’ve been sharing for the past number of years. I’m going to make it simple for you.
START PAYING ATTENTION TO THE BIGGER PICTURE!
Lift your head up and look down the road, start asking questions, start educating yourself because no one is going to do it for you. If I seem a little testy, it’s because I care, I want good things for you, but you have to play your role in this game called life & business.
If you were reading my blog and paying attention, you would know that there are another 3 billion people coming online in the next 2 -3 years, that 60% of all commerce will be done online, and that the industrial age is dead, no really it’s dead. You would also know, that there is an ROI in social media, that the world has gone crazy with being social and mobile, what does all this mean to you and your business? I have only mentioned a few things that should concern you, you should be worried about how this activity will impact your business, and for that matter your day-to-day life.
There, I feel better now. I hope you find at least one thing you can take away from this blog that helps, if not, ask me a question and lets talk about it. Afterall, I’m here to help, I want to help you figure out how to address the changes we are going through right now. It’s painful for some of you, it’s painful for me too.
Happy Blogging and pay attention to what’s going on around you, the world is watching, and the world needs you to be ready.
The Future Of Business – Twitter And FaceBook Credits
The Internet has changed how we view our world, it has changed how we spend our time and our money, and it has most definitely changed the way we do business. The future of business is getting more and more sci-fi, it’s hard to compute (no pun intended), but we are headed to a world we used to watch in movies.
Get ready for Facebook‘s virtual currency, Facebook Credits, will become the official coin of the realm beginning July 1, 2011. Imagine that, being able to purchase products and services with Twitter and FaceBook Credits, next you will be able to pay your mortgage with those credits. I’m all for that. In fact, in November 2010 The Dallas Mavericks Basketball team offered Free FaceBook Credits for Twitter Followers. Soon you and I will be able to make direct deposits to our bank accounts without ever having to go there, you will do it on your mobile device anytime, anywhere. Payroll direct deposit is archaic compared to the swipe technology of today. You will also make most of your purchase with this swipe technology on your smart-phone, it is predict 60% of all commerce will be done in this fashion.
The real future of business will be Virtual Reality and Hologram technology, but that technology is still developing, we will shop in our homes and never have to go out into the masses of people. Imagine being able to try on clothes without ever actually having to try on clothes, say what! Social Networks will handle all the market research, the data will be staggering, there’s a business to start, organize all that data and sell it back to the business sector. eMarketer has a similar model, they are a great resource but, you better have some coin to get the real valuable data. As Gerd Leonhard of The Futures Agency says, Data is the New Oil.
We are moving to a place where you can’t hide, you can’t lie, and you can’t have a bad product or service if you want to survive in this new business landscape. The world is becoming more and more mobile and social, that’s a hot tip for you right there.
So how do you succeed in the future of business? At a high level it’s simple really, grow bigger ears, get very mobile and social, and above all else, engage with the people formerly known as consumers, it’s not business as usual kids, pay attention. The business landscape is getting more open & free, that’s the business model, Open & Free. It’s an access first society, people want access more than they ever want to be sold and forced to pay upfront. Figure out how to give people access, and you will find the revenue follows, the toll booth is no longer at the front gate, it should be almost invisible and seamless.
Would you make purchase with Twitter and FaceBook Credits?
The Future Of Business – Klout & Influence
Most of you believe that Klout & Influence are important, you want it, and you tend to work towards finding ways to get it. I warn you, be careful what you wish for, you may get it only to find you don’t want it. Everyone, and I mean everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame at some point in their life, it’s part of human behaviour, and especially in affluent countries.
In the future, the next 15 years or so, it is predicted there will be 1 Billion Millionaires in the world, that number isn’t really that impressive because, the population will be over 9 Billion when the time comes. The majority will not be millionaires, it’s just more of what we have today.
In the future of business you will hear a lot about Klout & Influence, social networks are measured with these two terms as a way of determining who’s who. Websites like Klout and others are trying to bring credibility to individuals through mathematical measurements, it’s a digital representation of one’s possible klout & influence, not something human and tangible like integrity. One’s character and integrity should be in the equation somehow, it should be part of Klout & Influence scores in my humble opinion. But how do you measure motive and or doing the right thing, not too mention keeping your word.
Now Klout & Influence are not always related to money, so the number (millionaires) at the top is pretty small. The thing about Klout & Influence is, it wasn’t meant for those who have it. Those who have Klout & Influence are merely stewards of it. It’s really meant for those who don’t have it.
Martin Luther King had Klout & Influence, but he didn’t use it for his own gain, he used it to make the world a better place, more specifically for people that were being exploited, murdered and abused. For all people, not just black people to be blunt. This individual set an example of how Klout & Influence should be exercised, not hoarded and hidden away for private use, it was and is meant to help and serve others who don’t possess Klout & Influence. Unfortunately, we are greedy, we want more, and we want to be the one who says who can have what and when, we want control. I’m not convinced this is going to change anytime soon, it might change shape, but it will still be a problem for mankind for as long as we are on this earth.
Social Networks has brought out the kinder side of the human race for the most part, we genuinely want to help others, sometimes without expecting anything in return, but the dark side lurks. Unfortunately, there will always be those who take advantage of folks trying to make the world a better place.
The Future of Business, and success, will be measured by Klout & Influence, it’s the way we are headed, and it will be difficult to determine the true sense of the word success. It will be misleading at times, but I think it’s personal, we need to figure out how to link Integrity & good character into the equation. To ensure we are dealing with honorable individuals.
Your Klout & Influence should answer one question in your sphere of influence, your immediate world, How Many People Are Better Off Because You Lived?