Posts Tagged ‘Future of Business’
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?
A Word On The Future & Paying Attention
I often throw facts and figures at you when I talk about the Future of Business and other aspects of business, but I want you to give this message some thought. The future of business is not that complicated if you are indeed paying attention. In fact, you don’t have to look very far to see whats happening, try your own backyard.
People are creatures of habit, you can tell what’s going on by paying attention to the behavioural patterns of those around you. Better yet, if you really want to find out what’s going to happen, ask the under 20 generation what they want, how they plan to get it, and how they would do it. Do this next step and tell me what you see:
– Drive through your community and ask yourself one question. What’s missing?
This rule has been around since the birth of man, find a need, fill a need.
So look around and figure out what need is not being met in your community, then build a plan to fill that need.
Your action items are:
1.) Take Inventory – find a need not being met in your community.
2.) Take Action – build a plan to fill that need.
Simple advice for you to ponder. The future of business is in your hands, how complex and how big you want that business to be is up to you.
Any thoughts, please do share them.
It's Me Sharing Out Loud, Come Walk With Me
I’m going to let you read me thinking out loud today, here’s a few things on my mind right now, and I’m laying it in front of you to ponder. Here’s the thing(s).
An interesting trend is taking place and it’s a problem for insurance companies, it means a loss of revenue, and possibly a declining customer base. I suspect it’s a problem for more than just Insurance Companies. I’m not saying insurance companies are on the endangered species list, but there is a need for innovation in that industry, one that will allow them to adjust to this trend.
Let’s say you are a Futurist, say like me, and you get that call from your insurance agency. They start to ask the regular questions and you keep saying no I don’t work that way, I don’t have tons of equipment, and people don’t come to my office and so on. For example, your business might look this way in more detail.
You are a sole proprietor, you only do workshops & public speaking 90% of the time, if you do work with clients it’s at their offices, and your equipment might be a $750 Laptop, and Internet Connection and a smart phone. Oh, and did I mention, you are most of the time mobile, on the move. You never have clients come to your home office or desk, your workshops are held at another site like a hotel or local school, because you are not a typical bricks & mortar business. How does an insurance business get that extra business out of your home insurance when your considered home-based business functions like it doesn’t exist?
Everyday, more & more people are starting businesses with little or no overhead, not like the old home-based businesses we are used to starting. You know, the one’s where you have to carry inventory, have customers do pick-up at your home, or you have expensive equipment on your premises. Don’t get me wrong, many still do this but they are somewhat short sighted I think.
It’s almost like this type of business is a loop-hole in the home insurance industry, these types of businesses have been around forever, and I’m certain existing policies don’t cover all facets of this type of business. You’ve read it here before, you probably heard me say it, a connected audience, or a connected consumer can not be forced or controlled, mostly because they are on the move at all times. As the population grows more than 9 billion over the next 15 years, much of what we know today will have been re-written, like insurance policies, they need to adopt the social and mobile trend. The new businesses of tomorrow are mostly digital, require virtually no traditional functionality, and will never see a customer come to an office.
If you were to ask me if I had a FAX machine, I would answer back with, what’s a fax? Imagine when your kids, kids have kids, they will never know what a FAX machine was, a Computer in a Tower, or maybe even a Laptop for that matter. That leaves one thing, hand-held devices, or, technology that is embedded into our eye-care / contact lenses, or maybe the RFID chip finally gets it’s day and be put into our bodies. RFID is actually already here, you carry it with you everyday, so the chip no longer needs to be in us, we have social accepted carrying it around in our pockets. I know, I know, I’m going down a rabbit trail.
I’m not saying the demise of insurance companies is imminent, I’m suggesting they need to observe a trend that would seem to impact their livelihood. I would also suggest, not unlike Real Estate, you & I will be able to handle / do what these agents do for us today.
If insurance companies are still cold calling existing clients to develop new revenue, in the home-based businesses sector, I would suggest finding another method, because we can do that ourselves. The insurance company rules will change as the shape of business takes place, the rules though, are currently being broken and by-passed because of this trend in business.It’s no ones fault, it’s evolving, it’s changing it’s look, you might call it a Chameleon.
The future of business is a social and mobile business, the details still need to be worked out, but if your business isn’t paying attention, then you won’t get the attention. So I ask you, do you market to convert, or do you market to get attention? If it’s the latter, you have increased your chances of conversion ten fold, attention is the new currency, and you will use it to convert your product & services into cash.
The Future Of Business Is NOT Social Networks
One of the futurists I was following tweeted something that spurred me to write this little bitty, so bare with me. There is much confusion about Social Media / Networks, and saying that the future of business is Social Networks only adds to that confusion. For some unknown reason, there are far too many who seem to think that Social Media is the answer, the messiah, the silver bullet to all their business problems. STOP IT! This is far from the truth, and is sheer stupidity on the part of those who say it is.
I’ve talked about the next generation a few times now, GEN C, they are the under 20 somethings and they are starting to figure out what they want, and it’s not what business owners want. In fact, the generation that comes behind them will never know what a Tower or laptop is or was. imagine a generation that only knows wireless handheld devices, may never know what a Newspaper was, let alone a fax machine. They will all be things placed in a Smithsonian in some major cities if they can afford to have the show in town.
If you are paying attention to these social networks, and those who have built them, they are shifting and flowing, not because they work well, but because the people in those environments are looking for something. The future of business will be dependant on a couple of things, social networks are one of the tools to obtain those things, but not the end all. Being tagged will be paramount to being found in the future, your brand / product or service will live and die by being found. That being found will need to be everywhere, not just in social networks!
To found on the Internet will be one of the many challenges to deal with in the next 2 – 3 years. As with everything, the cream will rise to the top, the have’s over the have nots will continue as it does in the bricks & mortar business world. The big difference will be the tools or mediums you use, and how you use them that will matter, and should be well thought out. In the bricks & mortar we just yelled, and the loudest business got the attention, not so in the future, and social networks will play a minor role. Attention is the new currency, data is the new oil, and the combination of those two will present a whole new way of doing business in the near future. The problem is, the data is not fully understood, the technology we need is still not ready, it’s not ready because we don’t know what problem needs solving yet. Much of what we are relying on in social networks, hasn’t happened yet.
The future of business will be social, and it will most definitely be mobile, but it won’t be social networks that are the future. The real future of business is because we are connected, on the move, regrouping on the fly, unable to be controlled by anything or anyone, including social networks. A connected world cannot be controlled, it might be seduced, but only temporarily, and that is what big business and corporations are afraid of, they can’t control you & I.
Consider this, there will be another 3 Billion users of the Internet in the next 2 – 3 year, 5 at the most, are you in a position to get they’re attention online? Do you have a strategy or a plan to capture .01 % of that potential revenue? I can’t wait to see what new ways of increasing the new currency of attention, I’m ready, I’m more than ready, I’m down right excited. But if you’re still trying to figure out how to use social media networks, how to use a blog or a website, you better hire someone tomorrow to help you see whats coming. They can at least help you see the tidal wave and show you how to ride that wave rather than get wiped out by it.
That’s what we do here, we show you the future, and then help you create ideas to adopt what we show you. We are in the beginning of an upsetting industrial shift, a paradigm shift, and it’s very painful for some. Also keep in mind, much of what I am talking about is not about skill set, it’s more about how you think, to look at the world of business as it really is or will be.