Future of Business
The Future of Business – Don’t Sell, Just Engage
You’ve either heard me say it, or you have read it here many times, ” The Future of Business is not a skill set, it’s more about how we think”. For some reason business owners always end up at tactics, they come back to the ground level and try to do what they have always done. A great example is the Old Spice Campaign, they went out and created an amazing series of commercials, ran them and missed out on the most important part. Engaging with the audience! Instead they went right to tactics to get more views and more followers instead of actually talking to their audience. They really missed the boat here, they blew it big time. What happened, it became just another advertising campaign that was clever and amusing.
We are entering a huge crisis for business owners, it gets more urgent the longer you wait to educate yourself on how business really is today, and will be tomorrow. Part of the challenge is in the business owners head, they believe they know what is happening, and they don’t want to look foolish either, so they plod along not asking for help.
With everything going mobile and social, more and more to tiny screens, some on larger surfaces, we are moving away from what we have always done. We used to be people of the book, now we are people of the screen (a Kevin Kelly quote). In fact, Kevin wrote a bitty on 6 trends:
1.) Screening
2.) Interacting
3.) Sharing
4.) Accessing
5.) Flowing
6.) Generating
I’ll let Kevin Kelly fill you in on the details of these 6 trends, which he wrote about in 2008, I’m just going to touch on a couple.
Everything is flowing now, it’s endless rivers of content, endless streams. Business today is shifting and flowing from one thing to another. We are going from pages to streams, the PC to the cloud, from Today to NOW (real-time streams), from me to we, from items to data. Gerd Leonhard claims Data is the new Oil, how we harness that data can determine much of our success in the marketplaces. Today, everything generates a stream everywhere. Gary Vaynerchuk calls it our legacy, the trail of digital crumbs that we publish on the Internet is how people will remember us.
Ultimately, our business world online is shifting to a very uncomfortable place, we live in a world where everything is moving to free, or feels like free. Someday soon, like music, all books will eventually be $0.99, and will stay in long tail for many years, generating longer cash-flow. We have been moving to where the only things of value are things that can’t be copied. Business owners need to realize, where ever the attention flows, money will follow.
The psychology of tomorrows entrepreneurs is simple, they want lifestyle not work-style, they will look for ways to get attention, this attention will provide the lifestyle many of us have worked for 30 years to get. They will do it in months instead of years. These entrepreneurs don’t value ownership, ownership of home, ownership of car, they are for more willing to rent, the shift from ownership to rental, where access is better than ownership. The likes of Netflix and services of that nature are driving this new theology. It’s not skill set, it’s how we think, we need to pay attention, listen more, and we have to build things that can’t be copied, like Trust. How do you build trust, get to know your audience, interact and build relationships. Don’t sell, just engage.
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?
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?
The Future of Business – Visa & Mastercard Will Not Be Cards
Somethings just seem more and more obvious, I ask this question all the time, can you imagine a day when we will no longer use money? I mean coins & paper money. It’s coming and much sooner than you think, it’s all because of Chip Technology or whatever name you decide to give it. We….all of us, are being traced by our cell phones, by our Debt Cards, or Credit Cards, whether we like it or not, so why do we even need them?
The truth is, the smart phone is all we will ever need until technology and humans merge. Visa & MasterCard have already started changing they’re model to be accessed by smart phones for all purchases or payment methods. Smart phones will be the wireless Visa & MasterCard debit machine, it already is in some parts of the world. Imagine not carrying 15 plastic cards around in your wallet, no debt cards, no credit cards, no nothing cards! But also imagine if it became law that you had to have a smart phone in order to live, buy food, buy clothes, then what?
Some day we will merge with technology, but until then, we will still have to deal with these clunky systems to pay for our purchases, not too mention making deposits to our bank accounts. This shift is expected to begin in 2011, yep, it’s coming and coming fast….what’s interesting though, my bank hasn’t even released their debt card with a chip in it yet….that’s how fast this is happening, they may not have too!
Just think, Visa & MasterCard will no longer be plastic cards, they will be an application in your smart phone. That to me is progress I would like to see.
What do you think?