Posts Tagged ‘Future’
The End Of Organizations As We Know Them – Thomas Power
You have read it here over and over again, I am not the only one sharing the message about the death of the industrial age, how community will over power corporations unless they embrace them, join them and even buy them. Big business must change how they think, small and medium business owners must change the way the think, there is much pain coming in this paradigm shift.
Thomas Power has a few words on the topic of community and love, I’ll let him continue the message you find here often on this blog. This is one of many great talks on the changes yet to come. Enjoy!
The Future Of Business Workshop – In Abbotsford
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The Future Of Business
With Owen Greaves |
| The internet has changed the way the world does business; But will it ever stop changing? |
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Change is constant and the electronic age has served merely to speed up the rate and size of change. If you are in business, or are planning to start a business, understanding how the online world changes everything will position you not only ahead of your competitors, but as a trustworthy ally to customers. Owen Greaves will guide you to understanding the Future of Business. |
| What you can expect in the Future of Business: | |
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The Future of Business Workshop is more than social media, the Internet or the world online; it’s about looking at business differently and fighting for your Businesses Survival. Together with Owen, you will see the Future Of Business and will apply that knowledge to create new ways of embracing the future in your business.
A workbook will be provided to each participant in the 2 – 4 hour workshop to encourage home study and application of the concepts presented. |
| What you will learn in this Engaging Workshop: | Your Investment: $99 Per Person tillMay 4th Reg Price: $149.00 after May 4th, 2011 |
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Who is Owen Greaves?
Owen Greaves lives in beautiful Abbotsford, British Columbia; he is a Futurist, Thought-Leader, Keynote Speaker, Think-Tank Leader, Author, Blogger, and Strategist. He has spent countless hours exploring and understanding what the next 3 to 5 years will bring and applies the vision of reaching out and teaching this model to business people eager to listen and learn. Owen is a man who loves making the paradigm shift around media and commerce to the Internet less painful. Location: Sandman Inn, Abbotsford, B.C. To Reserve Your Seat, Contact: |
The Future Of Business – Meet Emilie Wapnick
Let me Introduce you to Emilie Wapnick, she is a prime example of what I have been sharing with you here on this blog, what the younger generation thinks, and how they are building the business of the future. Now Emilie is in her mid 20’s and is leading the way for young entrepreneurs, pay attention to what she say’s and how she say’s it.
I contacted Emilie and ask if I could introduce her to you and share something from her site, but mostly I want you listen to her and get to know her before I send you off to visit her site. I think you will be surprised by what she has to say, and you will be even more surprised when you hear about her background and education.
There are many young entrepreneurs out there who believe they can have a lifestyle instead of a work style, that they can experience more than one passion. And they don’t buy the big lie, that you can only do one thing in your life for a profession or vocation. I’m 53 and I believe it! The journey of life is way more interesting than locking into one career, one job, or one trade in my humble opinion. But we were taught by our parents, our schools, and by society, that we had to get a good education, then get that one good job; then everything will be ok. It’s just not true, because it doesn’t work for many, it does however work for some.
It’s not really about being an entrepreneur, but that’s the term we use to rationalize our gypsy like emotions, we want to follow our passions, we have and can have more than one. Society rejects this model because it lacks what many would call security and control, the truth is, it does provide those things, it’s just different, not wrong.
This is what the future of business landscape looks like, the rules are changing, and how we think about those rules and future matter more than ever. Today we are busting out, we are fighting back the conditioning the Industrial Age has forced us to endure. The Industrial Age is Dead, now lets embrace ambiguity, let’s grab those passions, start your journey, and don’t forget to enjoy the adventure.
Enough from me, let’s get to Emilie.
Here is a snippet from Emilie’s About page:
Hi I’m Emilie,
I’m just a confused 26-year-old from Montreal, Canada, who has decided to never commit to one career path– ever.
I want to travel and live in cute European cities. I want to write and produce a TV show or web series about 20-somethings who move to Berlin to be artists. I want to start a non-profit online art collective. I want to start businesses that are run on principles of permission marketing. I want to surround myself with smart, creative, passionate people. I want to inspire others to break free of the beliefs that limit them.
I believe we all have these false mythologies we have created in our heads about who we think we are. We should be challenging these beliefs and replacing them with more positive ones that reflect the person we choose to be.
Already you’re getting some insight of who she is and what she thinks about her future, but let’s hear it from in this video. This video is taken from her blog, she explains what her site is about.
Are you like Emilie? I am, what you are seeing is a glimpse into the future, what the business owner of the future feels, what they want, but what they don’t want, is what older generations are trying to force them into. As you can see, the future of business is not a skill set or technology, it’s about how we think. What big business is trying to hang onto, these fine young cannibals are pushing back, pushing the paywalls down, and they will rewrite the rules of business, all we older folks have to do is believe in them. What we really have to do is, get out of the way and let them show use a better way. Thanks Emilie for letting us see the future of business.
OK, go visit Emilie’s Blog, you will feel a fresh breeze on your face, not too mention she’s a cool cat. Just follow the link:
The End Of Control By Gerd Leonhard
I’m up late every night trying to find new ways to teach you the ins and outs of where business going, the future of business. It’s my hope you are actually learning something here. You’re probably seeing it’s not business as usual, that things have been changing rapidly, and it’s painful too. I hope I’m making you think long and hard about what to do next in this new open economy. As I’ve mentioned many times, the future of business is not a skill set, it’s not mechanical, it’s not even about technology, it is however, about how you and I think.
Throughout this blog I have covered a variety of topics, I even share local events in my community, I do that for couple of reasons, to keep it interesting (I hope), and that I am a real living person practicing what I preach. The difference between you and I is, I see things you don’t, and I share that foresight with the intent of helping you take your first steps toward this new world of commerce. The Future of Business is a broad topic really, there are so many paths to go down but there isn’t enough time in a day to cover it all. So I tell you about what I find in my research, in my collaboration with other futurists, and then hopefully you can see the same patterns and trends being presented before us.
You probably find it difficult to implement strategies and tactics to an uncertain future, to something you can’t see clearly. That’s why I write about it, the best way to figure it out is to learn, find sources that can help you understand the paradigm shift we are going through. I pay attention to other futurists, 265 of them, I collaborate with some, and I do countless hours of research of my own, and I don’t get paid to do it! I’ll talk about that another time.
One of those 265 futurists I refer to is Gerd Leonhard, he lives Basil, Switzerland. He heads up The Futures Agency, The Futures Agency is structured as a virtual organization with global reach, deep knowledge and domain expertise, and extensive experience as strategic advisers. He is a digital mentor of mine, I respect his work, and he makes it interesting.
Now you may have noticed there’s push back from the corporate world, most Industrial Age businesses, they are throwing up paywalls everywhere, trying to control you, trying to prevent you from having information freely. Gerd talks about the end of control regularly, he even wrote a book on the topic a few years ago, so I’m not even going to try preaching it, I’ll let you read his book. You can get it here: End Of Control By Gerd Leonhard
Is Technology Taking Mankind To An Unhealthy Place?
I have been talking about technology for over 30 years, in my opinion, technology is taking mankind to an unhealthy place. There I’ve said it. Many of you think I am a pro technology man, more than I am a pro business man, the reality is, I’m both, but technology is merely a tool to get business done, even though technology is leading us down the road Neo in the Matrix have been down before.
I was born in the late 50’s, I’m a Baby Boomer, I have seen technology evolve, technology started it’s takeover of mankind with the handheld calculator. When I was in school, it was forbidden to use a handheld calculator in class, today, you can’t finish school without one. Technology is now raising generations unable to think, the arts are being eliminated because technology wants to do all the creative thinking for us. Everything technology today has gotten smaller, so small it can be injected into your blood stream, blood cell sized nanobots! These types of technologies will eventually make us live for ever, birth perfect babies, have perfect health. Ray Kurzweil predicts the singularity, where technology and man merge, will become a reality by the year 2045. Technology is being embedded into everything, including the human body. Is this a good thing, I’m not convinced it is just yet.
RFID chips were to be injected or planted into humans at one time, this can be done today, but I think the push back has forced big brother to shift gears. Instead of planting or injecting, the technology is carried by you and I through credit cards, bank debit cards, drivers licenses, and all these chips can be scanned by anyone as far as 50 feet away. That means the dark side can scan your credit card, create a new card with your account details, almost, if not, completely steal your identity. All this in the name of technological progress. For every technological good, there is an equal bad for all of us. We are more willing to embrace carrying these technology cards because they aren’t intrusive, it’s not painful or difficult to do, but that isn’t entirely true is it? We are being lulled into carrying these cards, using all these cool mobile device, geo-location, the 4squares and the like. We can’t not be found, everywhere we go we can be tracked, and most of us are happy about it. But what if there is a war of any-kind, corporate war, technology war, or a war where life is threatened. Those in the working corporate world become the enemy, those who work for technology companies, countries and man against man all become the enemy, where then do we hide? We can’t.
There is a a scripture in the bible that states, the meek (weak) shall inherit the earth, maybe it should be the Geeks shall inherit the earth. As much as I am concerned where technology is taking us, I also see much good, but I more worried about the consequences of a society that is too eager to embrace any technology without having some foresight. Everytime we mess with the human body, the earth, and or creation of anykind, we put ourselves in a place that can’t be reversed, is that smart?
Man is the problem, we complicate everything, we shackle ourselves, we don’t really know what we are dealing with in the bigger picture. People far smarter than I believe they know what they are doing, I’m suspicious to be completely transparent. So what do we do, we can’t go backwards, it’s too late. You couldn’t take technology (computers) out of our homes, our cars, our businesses, or take away handheld devices, we would be completely immobilized.
I get nervous everytime the major tech companies come out with a new product, we tend to do everything in our power to get in line to get it, without even thinking if we need it. Our future needs better planning behaviour than having the latest greatest in our hands, life is not about having the most toys, and or about being the first one to have it.
As you can see I’ve been ranting, I am worried about mankind, I am worried about you. We all were created to do something great on this planet and it’s different for each one of us, we were DNA’d to play a role, to make this world a better place. Technology doesn’t solve that problem, it merely allows us to get more done in a day, nothing more. There are no shortcuts.
Stephen Covey once said, “we are the only creatures on this earth that have the ability to stop and think before reacting”, let’s all exercise that muscle when it comes to embracing new technology or existing technologies. It may be too late, younger generations, the under 20 and generations to come may not be taught to stop and think. There is a huge discussion here, and I am only scratching the surface, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Do you believe technology is taking mankind to a healthy place?