Peter Fisk

Almost 30 years ago I remember being part of the team launching the first frequent flyer program from British Airways. AirMiles, the points scheme, and Executive Club, the tiered benefits program, were groundbreaking at the time.

Yet for many years I have now cringed at the supermarket shoppers dutifully scanning their “loyalty” cards for a fractional discount or reward coupons. It doesn’t really feel like loyalty when you have a wallet full of every store’s card.

It’s time for loyalty to evolve from a transactional system to a personal, dynamic relationship between brands and their customers.

Chinese innovators have moved from imitators to innovators.

Jack Ma himself, an English teacher in Shanghai with a big ambition, set off for America to learn from the technological revolutionaries of the West Coast, maybe even to get a job too. He returned home intent on bringing the revolution to China. His initial project, China Pages, soon evolved into Alibaba, a network for small businesses. And from there, inspired by Amazon, it became something much much more.

Indeed imitation is still frequent in China. Meituan Dianping, recently ranked as the world’s most innovative company, is led by Wang Xing who has spent the last decade trying to “copy paste” the best ideas from Facebook, Twitter, eBay, Groupon, and many more. He soon learnt that Chinese culture, infrastructure and consumers, needed some tweaks, and so learnt to “copy adapt paste”. Today he has realised that he can do better, “copy enhance paste” if you like, to the point where he is a true innovator.

In my blogs I have explored many of the fast growing Chinese companies:

• Taming Tigers … Learning from the best Asian business leaders
• The New Silk Road … China’s “belt and road” strategy will change the landscape of global trade
• The “I Ching” is probably the oldest guide on how to deal with uncertainty … and shapes the culture of Chinese business
• The Future is Asian … 5 billion people, most of the world’s mega-cities, 30% of the global economy, 70% of global economic growth
• 恭喜发财 … Time for Chinese innovation, inspired by the red fire monkey!

Not only do such giants as Alibaba and Tencent, Haier and Wanda and Xiaomi, continue to thrive and grow through innovation, thousands of younger Chinese entrepreneurs are poised to enter the global marketplace.

In a new book Pioneers, Hidden Champions, Changemakers, and Underdogs: Lessons from China’s Innovators authors Mark Greeven, George Yip, and Wei Wei offer an insider’s view of China’s under-the-radar, globally competitive innovators.

The book explores four types of innovators in China:

• Pioneers, large companies that are globally known. Companies like Haier and Huawei and Alibaba have created their own corners of the Chinese marketplace on the strength of their brand.
• Hidden champions, midsize enterprises that are market leaders in their niches. They’re not exactly startups; often they’re as old as the pioneers but smaller in size, scope, and revenue. They may not be visible to most internationally, but they’re frequently top players in their verticals.
• Underdogs, technology-driven ventures with significant intellectual property, typically focused on the B2B side. They are steadily, consistently producing new products and new technologies that have impacts across many global supply chains. Think AI or solar panels.
• Changemakers, newer firms characterized by digital disruption, exponential growth, and cross-industry innovations. They investigate what kinds of innovations these companies develop (product, process, or business model), their competitive strategies, and key drivers of innovation. New companies run by millennial and digital-native entrepreneurs. They’re completely digital and frequently come from unexpected corners of the market to disrupt traditional business models – for example, ridesharing, food delivery or news aggregation.

They identify six typical ways Chinese entrepreneurs innovate, including swarm innovation (collectively pursuing opportunities) and rapid centralized decision making.

Finally, they look at how Chinese innovators are going global, whether building R&D networks internationally or exporting disruptive business models.

The book includes many examples of Chinese innovators and innovations, drawn from a range of companies—from pioneers to changemakers—including Alibaba, Haier, Hikvision, Malong Technology, Weihua Solar, Mobike, and Cheetah Mobile.

Comparing China to the West

So what is different from China compared to the West? Certainly, there are plenty of American equivalents to pioneers and changemakers – what is giving China the edge today?

A lot of it comes down to process. Western companies have more formal, bureaucratic structures. Chinese companies are far looser and more informal. In the West, innovation is driven by process, which is often slow by nature. In China, teams will huddle around a boss, who will then make a decision very quickly.

Because of this streamlined approach to decision-making, China just does things faster. Trial and error can happen faster. Failure can happen faster. Learning from mistakes can happen faster. And because the Chinese market is already growing rapidly, the pace encourages companies to move just as fast. In the West, you still have to jump through hoops to achieve innovation. In China, they go for it.

Working with Chinese companies

This doesn’t mean China is about simply going to dominate the world, and Western companies should be living in fear. Instead it opens up new markets – new consumers with latent needs, and new partners to satisfy them.

Chinese companies also have their challenges. They struggle with language barriers, cultural differences and general unfamiliarity with international markets and their habits. And while the largest Chinese companies have made moves to acquire foreign businesses as they enter into overseas markets, these mergers have generally moved slowly with limited beneficial exchanges of knowledge.

That’s the opportunity for Western companies. Microsoft has been very active building an AI ecosystem in China, Pfizer has developed some key partnerships with Chinese technology companies, while Johnson and Johnson has opened new R&D centres in the country. BMW’s innovation lab is in Shanghai, in large part because China has more cars and more traffic than any other country. What better place to experiment with automobile innovations?

5 lessons from Chinese companies

What are the lessons leaders could learn from Chinese innovators? In my experience these are the 5 factors that are most significant, and which western business leaders could learn from:

• Ecosystems. First, it’s important to embrace the idea of ecosystems, to cast a wide net of potential partners and collaborators who can help you increase your innovation power. Look at companies like Alibaba and Tencent – they are Google, Amazon, Facebook, Paypal, and more, all in one.
• Speed. Certainly, we talk a lot about speed in Western startup environments, but China’s large corporations provide a model for how to achieve that in enterprise settings. Focus on an issue and act decisively. Speed of decision making, speed of experiments, speed of action
• Long-term focus. Partly because they are typically private companies, owned by entrepreneurs or families, who don’t need to pander to quarterly analyst reviews.  This enables big infrastructure projects like the Belt and Road Initiative
• New worldview. They take a global perspective, unblinkered by legacies and localism. They see the world as an open marketplace, not just a gradual journey. Xiaomi for example defines its home market as any emerging economy.
• Digital first. China doesn’t have an infrastructure legacy, which still biases companies to make digital platforms an add-on. They start by thinking digital, and then add physicality, ultimately all becoming hybrids. This means that the “online to offline” market is huge for consumers, but also makes next tech platforms very easy.

Find out more at my forthcoming events

• Innovating Innovation: The courage to create a better futur with CEIBS in Zurich
• 把握当下 What can your business learn from Asia?  in Copenhagen, Oslo and Bergen
• Hacking Exponential Growth … The new dynamics of markets and business innovation
• Thinkers50 European Business Forum 2019 … The world’s best ideas for business leaders

Profit, money, shareholders: these are the priorities of most companies today. But at what cost?

In an appeal to corporate leaders worldwide, Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya calls for an end to the business approach of the past, and shares his vision for a new, “anti-CEO playbook” that prioritises people over profits. “This is the difference between profit and true wealth,” he says.

However still believes in the power of business. The Chobani CEO, who arrived in the USA from Turkey as a young man who spoke no English, fell into the role of entrepreneur almost by chance. The story of how he found a flyer advertising the sale of an old Kraft yogurt factory in upstate New York in the trash and decided to buy it, ultimately launching what would become the multibillion-dollar company Chobani, has become business world myth at this point.

Ulukaya believes that business today is fundamentally flawed.

“It’s time to admit that the playbook that’s guided businesses and CEOs in the last 40 years is broken,” Ulukaya said on the stage at TED in Vancouver. The idea of maximizing profits solely for the purpose of benefitting shareholders is, to Ulukaya, “the dumbest thing I’ve heard in my entire life.”

While Chobani is, by the numbers, an incredibly successful company, it’s not a traditional one, and Ulukaya is not a traditional CEO. From the outset, he’s prioritized hiring refugees and paying above-average wages, while offering benefits like comprehensive parental leave. What prompted Ulukaya, after all, to purchase the Kraft yogurt that was shutting down, was meeting the people who worked there. “The company wasn’t giving up on yogurt, it was giving up on them, as if they weren’t worth it,” Ulukaya said. “I was so angry at the CEO far away, in a tower somewhere, looking at a spreadsheet and closing the factory. Spreadsheets are lazy: They don’t tell you about people, they don’t tell you about communities,” he said. “But unfortunately, this is how too many businesses are run today.”

In the TED Talk, Ulukaya laid out his idea for a different way of doing business–one that he’s tried to advance himself through Chobani. Just as in stories, people who achieve great things through unconventional means are often called the “anti-hero,” Ulukaya wants to see more anti-CEOs: business leaders who break away from the prevailing people-over-profits model. And he calls for a new model–an anti-CEO playbook–to bring about the change.

Ulukaya’s anti-CEO playbook is simple, but presents a revolutionary approach to running a company.

“The anti-CEO playbook is about gratitude,” Ulukaya said. “Business should take care of their employees first.” In 2016, Chobani offered employees shares in the company to ensure that when the company profits, they all do. “I couldn’t see any other way,” Ulukaya said. It’s time, he added, for leaders to recognize that it’s a company’s employees who guarantee its success, and should share in it.

Ulukaya said, “the anti-CEO playbook is about community.” He slammed the fact that “today, the businesses that have it all ask communities, ‘What kind of tax breaks and incentives can you give me?’” Businesses, he said, “should go to struggling communities and ask, ‘How can I help?’” When Chobani went to build a second plant, the company looked to Idaho. Ulukaya spoke about how he met with people in the community, learned what would benefit them, and offered training and educational opportunities at the factory, which is now one of the largest yogurt factories in the world. “Go to communities, ask for permission, be with them, and succeed together,” he said.

He continued, “the anti-CEO playbook is about responsibility,” he said. The current playbook calls for businesses to stay out of politics. “The reality is that businesses, as citizens, must take a side,” Ulukaya said. That includes supporting refugees–30% of Chobani’s workforce in upstate New York are immigrants and refugees–and addressing pernicious problems like climate change and income inequality. “Business is in the best position to make a difference in today’s world, and business must take a side,” he said.

Ultimately, he said “the anti-CEO playbook is about accountability”. If businesses are positioned to make a change in the world, the CEOs have to remain open and responsive to the needs of their consumers and employees. When Ulukaya founded Chobani, the 1-800 phone number listed on the side of the package was his direct line. “Sometimes, I made changes based on what I heard,” he said. Businesses need to channel the expectations of their consumers, and CEOs, or rather anti-CEOs, must set aside their ego to enable that.

In just the last decade, the marketing world has been dramatically transformed.

Spending on digital media surpassed television ads long ago, and digital spend is anticipated to top $333bn in 2019.  More significantly, the rise of digital platforms has empowered customers to act on their terms, and to influence each other.

As a result, today’s marketers need to rethink every aspect of marketing:

• Article: The New Rules of Marketing
• Article: Building Brands like Pixar make Movies
• Article: “Market Makers: Developing a winning market strategy”
• Article: “Realtime Marketing: More agile, personal and topical marketing”
• Book: “Marketing Genius: The left and right-brain of marketing”
• Book: “Brand Innovation“
• Keynote: “Zoom in Zoom out: The future of marketing”
• Keynote: “The Magic Marketing Machine”
• Workshop: “Strategic Marketing: Winning in digital and realtime markets“
• Workshop: “Market Makers” Development Portfolio
• Workshop: “Genius Marketing: 21st Century Marketing Toolkit”

Below is a fantastic (both in content and size!) infographic from Serpwatch which highlights seven of the most important digital marketing trends to watch right now. It also highlights over 100 useful marketing stats that help to reveal the strategies and tactics that maximise ROI in the online arena.

If there is one concept that has dominated leadership thinking in recent times, then it is probably the “Growth Mindset” as articulated by Stanford psychologist, Carol Dweck, building on her research on mindsets and their effects on achievement and success.

Over the last year, as I have been working closely with Microsoft, for example, I’ve realised that the Growth Mindset is probably the most important idea that has helped Satya Nadella to define a new culture, a new freedom, and a new vision for his organisation. And to triple its market capitalisation over the initial five years of his leadership, regaining the mantle of world’s most valuable company.

Mindsets of course are soft and conceptual. Dweck has been particularly successful at making this more meaningful through her “what it is/isn’t” diagram, and applying her ideas primarily to children’s education, and then secondly to the minds of business leaders.

The hardest part is to turn a concept of the mind, into a practice of reality … part of the everyday working of an organisation, understanding the implications for processes, behaviours, decision making and performance metrics. and then implementing them not as a fashion, but as a meaningful approach that challenges and changes, enhances and extends, the direction of the business.

Other similar concepts have added, or sometimes confused, the picture.

Neuroscience advances offer a rigour to understanding our brains and behaviours, whilst mindfulness has added a more cult-like aura, converged the yoga studio with the workspace. Its value can be huge, being more aware of yourself and your surroundings,  and “seizing the nowness” as opposed to the tendency of many corporate workers to otherwise drift in an isolated, internal vacuum.

More of that later, first let’s consider “mindset” …

Fixed and Growth Mindsets

“The view you adopt for yourself profoundly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value.”  says Dweck.

In her book Mindset she proposes that two fundamental mindsets dominate our thoughts and consequently our actions: the growth and the fixed mindsets. The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are malleable and able to be cultivated through effort. The fixed mindset is based on the belief that your abilities are permanent.

Dweck further analyzes these mindsets and their effects on various domains such as sports, business, relationships, ability, and parenting. She concludes that the growth mindset leads to higher achievement whereas the fixed mindset often leads to early plateaus and lower levels of success.

The Fixed Mindset

Through Dweck’s research, the fixed mindset hampers success and must be avoided in domains where one seeks to find achievement. If we believe that our abilities such as creativity and intelligence cannot be changed, any successes become confirmations of our ingrained skill set and an affirmation of our worthiness. This leads us to avoid failure at all costs in fear of exposing our true selves.

Let’s use a fixed mindset to interpret intelligence. In this system of thought, we believe our intelligence is static, leading us to want to appear intrinsically smart. This can result in: avoiding challenges, giving up easily when faced with obstacles, not giving 100% effort, ignoring criticism, and feeling threatened by the success of others.

If we see life through a fixed mindset:

• We become trapped in a black-and-white world of success and failure.
• We take easier classes in school to maintain our identity as a “straight-A” student.
• We fear effort because it means we’re not good enough.
• We become kings of remedial jobs.
• We surround ourselves with yes-men.
• We avoid social interactions.
• We blame others and dodge confrontation.
• We reject change.
• We embrace ideologies without questioning them.
• We believe in an idealized “true love” where our partner is instantaneously and perfectly compatible.
• We avoid responsibility.
• We play it safe.

The Growth Mindset

Believing that our qualities can be cultivated leads to different fundamental thoughts and actions. This mindset changes the implication of failure from unworthy to opportunity. Failure becomes a minor setback and a chance to learn. This growth-oriented worldview places deep meaning in effort, learning, and reaching one’s potential.

Using a growth mindset, let’s approach intelligence again. Unlike the fixed mindset, we believe intelligence can be developed, leading us to want to learn. A desire for learning often results in: embracing challenges, working through obstacles, valuing effort, learning from criticism, and finding inspiration in the success of others.

If we have a growth mindset:

• We live in a world of potentials, where focused learning and effort will lead to a “good” life.
• We embrace challenges.
• We value effort’s role in achievement.
• We listen to opposing viewpoints.
• We aren’t afraid to let go of false presuppositions.
• We face our fears.
• We compromise when necessary.
• We take responsibility.
• We embrace change.

Of course, this is an abstract concept that needs thoughtful implementation, to shape the attitudes and behaviours, choices and metrics, that will deliver it in reality. Here are some useful links:

Going beyond fixed and growth mindsets

Whilst the opposing descriptions of these two mindsets is helpful in bringing some clarity to what they are, the mind is not quite so binary. James Anderson calls the reality, more of a “Mindset Continuum.”

When we see mindsets as a dichotomy, we misjudge the subtlety and complexity of Dweck’s work. We may also misunderstand what we must do to change our Mindsets. Students can’t instantly “have” a Growth Mindset. We can’t expect our teaching strategies to suddenly result in students taking on challenges, embracing effort and learning from their mistakes.

Rather, our goal is to help students become increasingly growth oriented. It is more realistic and helpful to expect that as students become more growth oriented, they will persist a bit longer. They will take on a bit more of a challenge, put in a little more effort, and respond more positively to mistakes. Their progress towards a Growth Mindset is gradual.

Furthermore, if we view Mindsets as a dichotomy, we run the significant risk of adopting a one-size-fits-all approach. Students at different stages along the continuum have different worldviews – therefore, they require different teaching strategies. A student with a Fixed Mindset will respond and act differently to a student with a Low Growth Mindset, so we must adapt our teaching methods accordingly.

In other words, a Growth Mindset is not a declaration, it’s a journey – one that involves small, progressive shifts in thinking, rather than huge leaps. Most people aren’t Fixed or Growth, but somewhere in between.

As Dweck says, “Nobody has a Growth Mindset in everything all the time. Everyone is a mixture of Fixed and Growth Mindsets. You could have a predominant Growth Mindset in an area but there can still be things that trigger you into a Fixed Mindset trait.”

The right mindset for business leaders

What matters most, in a business context, is understanding how does all this translate to the mindset of a business leader, and ultimately to everyone within an organisation culture. What are the implications for leadership development, for the role and behaviours of leaders in organisation, and the ability of organisations to focus, develop and succeed in today’s world of market complexity and relentless change.

In my forthcoming book “Extraordinary: How to step up to lead the future of business” I take on this challenge, defining the new mindset for business leaders.

• Winning with a Future Mindset

It builds on all of the above, but also with some added insight from the rapidly evolving field of business applied neuroscience. In particular it looks at what it takes for a business leaders to make sense of their complex environment to compete today, but even more importantly, to succeed tomorrow.

Too much leadership thinking has focused on “today” … the ability to deliver operationally, to engage employees and customers in the present, the organisational status quo. Yet in today’s business environment, the dynamics of constant change – driving both challenge and opportunity – is the major dynamic which leaders need to manage.

In particular they become more focused on where they are going, rather than where they are. That requires sense making, to find the best opportunities for future growth, and to dispense with incrementalism, and instead make more dramatic, disruptive choices.  This drives a much greater focus on future, rather than just growth – revolutionary beyond evolutionary.

Time to embrace a “future mindset” … Unlock your Einstein dreams and Picasso passion … Embrace your Mandela courage and Ghandi spirit. Be more curious, be more intuitive, be more human. Ask more questions. Don’t be afraid to have audacious ideas, to challenge the old models of success, and turn future ambitions into practical profitable reality.

• What is a mindset?
• Hit Refresh: Microsoft’s “growth mindset”
• The New Leadership Mindset: Mindfulness and Neuroplasticity

Seth Godin has been a peer for the last 25 years. When his great book Purple Cow came out back in 2002, I was CEO of the world’s largest marketing network, the Chartered Institute of Marketing. We immediately embraced the concept, the book, and Seth. He became the guest editor of our new monthly magazine which I first published a year later, The Marketer. His purple cow became a symbol not just have how to stand out, but also of how to articulate ideas in more memorable ways. And my own first book Marketing Genius came out around the same time too.

Since then we’ve developed parallel careers, many more books (he has delivered a phenomenal 19 titles), huge amounts of speaking, and I think we also share a relentless desire to innovate the way people read, learn and share ideas too. Seth has constantly experimented with new platforms. And he’s lost none of his irreverence too. Yet what happened to both of us is interesting. From marketing we gradually shifted to topics that had more relevance to wider audiences – to entrepreneurs, about innovation, and for leaders.

When I was leading the CIM, my mission was for marketing to drive the business (strategically, insightfully, in terms of people and influence, and in terms of economic value). We did huge amounts of analysis (proving that marketing contributes around 3 times more to profit, than any other activity/function in the business), building capabilities for marketers to have the skills and confidence to become future CEOs, and positioning marketing as providing the insight that drives new ideas, and the strategic vision that steers the future business direction.

But somehow marketing lost its way. It, dare I say, became uncool. The disruption of digital, big data, and most significantly Google, transformed priorities from strategic brand-building, to tactical data plays. Search engine optimisation became more important than channel development, Groupon-type discounting more important than building loyalty, building an app more crucial than delivering great service. There’s nothing wrong with all this. It’s the new competitive battleground, the new tools of the trade. But it all became rather functional, rather tactical, rather operational.

So it’s great that Seth has jumped back into the cheerleader seat of marketing.

His new book proclaims This is Marketing, which is sure to work well on Google search. And immediately follows with “Marketing has changed” … or at least some of it …

• Free download of the First Chapter of This is Marketing
• Blinklist’s 10 Commandments of Marketing from Seth Godin

“Over the past quarter century, Seth has taught and inspired millions of entrepreneurs, marketers, leaders, and fans from all walks of life, via his blog, online courses, lectures, and bestselling books. He is the inventor of countless ideas and phrases that have made their way into mainstream business language, from Permission Marketing to Purple Cow to Tribes to The Dip.

Now, for the first time, Godin offers the core of his marketing wisdom in one accessible, timeless package. At the heart of his approach is a big idea: Great marketers don’t use consumers to solve their company’s problem; they use marketing to solve other people’s problems. They don’t just make noise; they make the world better. Truly powerful marketing is grounded in empathy, generosity, and emotional labour.

• Marketing’s about solving problems, not selling products
• Marketing’s about building empathy, not communicating messages
• Marketing’s about enabling people to achieve more, not just do what they do

This book teaches you how to identify your smallest viable audience; draw on the right signals and signs to position your offering; build trust and permission with your target market; speak to the narratives your audience tells themselves about status, affiliation, and dominance; spot opportunities to create and release tension; and give people the tools to achieve their goals.

• Marketing’s about focused propositions, not average solutions
• Marketing’s about building trust and dialogue, not awareness and hussle
• Marketing’s about being part of their world, not making them part of yours

It’s time for marketers to stop lying, spamming, and feeling guilty about their work. It’s time to stop confusing social media metrics with true connections. It’s time to stop wasting money on stolen attention that won’t pay off in the long run. This is Marketing offers a better approach that will still apply for decades to come, no matter how the tactics of marketing continue to evolve.”

Here are some of the many great quotes which I came across:

(Page 12) “Marketers make change happen: for the smallest viable audience, and by delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages that people actually want to get.”

(Page 12) “Marketers have the empathy to know that those they seek to serve don’t want what the marketer wants, don’t believe what they believe, and don’t care about what they care about.”

(Page 20) “Marketing is our quest to make change on behalf of those we serve, and we do it by understanding the irrational forces that drive each of us.”

(Page 28) “You have no chance of changing everyone. You need to change someone. Which ones? Do they share a psychographic?”

(Page 65) “Our calling is to make a difference. A chance to make things better for those we seek to serve…Not for your own benefit, but because of what it can produce for others.”

(Page 70) “Great marketing is the generous and audacious work of saying, ‘I see a better alternative; come with me.’”

(Page 81) “Marketers make change. We change people from one emotional state to another. We take people on a journey; we help them become the person they’ve dreamed of becoming, a little bit at a time.”

30 years ago Chuck Hall, the cofounder of 3D Systems, designed and printed a small cup. It was the first example of 3D printing, or additive manufacturing as it is more generally known. He called the approach stereolithography, a method and apparatus for making solid objects by successively “printing” thin layers of the ultraviolet curable material one on top of the other.

Hall knew that his invention would take up to 30 years to find its way into people’s homes. Today the possibilities appear endless.

In the future you can imagine almost anything being printed by the customer, at home or in a nearby store, to their personal specification, and on demand. Anything from a spare part for your car, to a new organ for your body, personalised medicines just for you, the perfect food or dress of your imagination, a new house designed in your dreams.

Imagine too how that will change the fundamental basis of many industries.

Today we still make standard products for average customers. We make them in advance, hoping they will sell. Make them in huge factories, store them in warehouses, sourced by a network of suppliers, distributed by land and sea, sold by retailers, delivered to your home.

Forget all that, just press print.

3D-printed objects are created from a digital file and a printer that lays down successive layers of material until the object is complete. Each layer is a thinly sliced cross-section of the actual object. It uses less material than traditional manufacturing. Most materials used in 3D printing are thermoplastics—a type of plastic that becomes liquid when heated but will solidify when cool and not be weakened. However, as the technology matures, researchers are finding new materials—even edible—that can be 3D printed.

It has been predicted that 3D printing, in general, will grow at an exponential rate (approx. $10 billion by 2020); the 3D printing market is already estimated to be at $500 million.

Prosthetic limbs and other body parts

From vets who have made a 3D-printed mask to help a dog recover from severe facial injuries to surgical guides, prosthetic limbs and models of body parts, the applications for 3D printing to impact medical strategies is vast. In an experiment conducted by Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, a mouse with 3D-printed ovaries gave birth to healthy pups which could bode well for human interventions after more research is done.

Homes and other buildings

In less than 24 hours, a 400-square-foot house was constructed in a suburb of Moscow with 3D printing technology. The possibilities for quickly erecting houses and other structures with 3D printing are intriguing when time is critical such as to create emergency shelters for areas after a natural disaster. Additionally, the potential for new architectural visions to be realized, that weren’t previously possible with current manufacturing methods will lead to design innovations. An entire two-story house was 3D printed from concrete in Beijing in just 45 days from start to finish. Researchers from Germany even 3D-printed a house of glass—currently only available in miniature size—but they were the first to figure out how to 3D print with glass.

Edible 3D-printing

When you think about traditional cake decorating techniques—pushing frosting through a tip to create designs—it’s very similar to the 3D printing application process where material is pushed through a needle and formed one layer at a time. Just as it’s done with 3D plastic printing, a chocolate 3D printer starts with a digital design that is sliced by a computer program to create layers; then the object will be created layer by layer. Since chocolate hardens quickly at room temperature, it’s an ideal edible material for 3D printing, but companies have printed other edible creations from ice cream, cookie dough, marzipan and even hamburger patties.

Firearms

Defense Distributed was the first to create a 3D-printed firearm in 2013 called the Liberator. While there are 3D printers that can use metal, they are very expensive, so the Liberator was printed using plastic. The advances of 3D technology and the ability to print your own firearm from home has raised questions about how to address the technology in gun control regulations.

Manufacturing

There are many applications across several industries including automotive, aerospace and more for 3D printing in manufacturing from printing replacement parts of machinery and prototyping new products (with the added benefit of recycling the models after you’re done) to creating molds and jigs to improve the efficiency of the production process. The bodies of electric vehicles and other cars have been 3D printed. Manufacturers can use 3D printing to lower costs and produce products quicker.

Musical instruments

From an incredible 3Dvarius, inspired by a Stradivarius violin, to flutes and banjos, several musical instruments and parts of instruments such as mouthpieces have been created using a 3D printer. In fact, the world’s first live concert with a 3D-printed band (drum, keyboard, and two guitars) took place at Lund University in Sweden.

Anything your mind can imagine

The extraordinary thing about 3D printing is that it can be used to create just about anything your mind can conjure up. It just requires the digital file and the right material. While experts are still troubleshooting how to incorporate 3D printing processes into all areas, weekend warriors are finding all kinds of clever hacks to create with their 3D printers including trash cans, cup holders, electric outlet plates and more.

Business transformation needs to keep pace with the changing world, aligning with the megatrends, harnessing the changes to keep pace, but also to influence the changes in their own vision. The companies who can most effectively shape the trends, are best prepared to succeed in the future, but will also shape the future to their advantage:

by 2035: More people, older and richer

There will be about 1 billion more of us, and we will live longer. The world should reach 8.5 billion people by 2030, up from 7.3 billion in 2015. The fastest growing demographic will be the elderly, with the population of people over 65 years old at 1 billion by 2030. Most of those new billion will be in the middle class economically, as the percentage of citizens in dire poverty continues to drop (a rare sustainability win). Even as the middle swells, however, the percentage of all new wealth accruing to the very top of the pyramid will continue to be a major, and destabilizing, issue.

by 2035: Urban living, smart cities

Two-thirds of us will live in cities. The urbanization of our populations will increase, creating more megacities as well as small- and medium-size metropolises. Countervailing forces will include a rising cost of living in the most desirable cities. The effects will include the need for more big buildings with better management technologies (big data and AI that makes buildings much more efficient), and we will need more food moved in from where we grow it to where we eat it — or rapidly expand urban agriculture.

by 2035: More transparent, less privacy

Our world will become even more open — and less private. It’s hard to imagine that the trend to track everything will be going anywhere but in one direction: a radically more open world. The amount of information collected on every person, product, and organization will grow exponentially, and the pressure to share that information — with customers and consumers in particular — will expand. The tools to analyze information will be well-developed and will make some decision-making easier; for instance, it will be easier to choose products with the lowest carbon footprints, highest wages for employees, and fewest toxic ingredients. But all these tools will shatter privacy in the process.

by 2035: Global warming, rising seas

Climate Crisis: The climate will continue to change quickly and feature regular, extreme weather everywhere. Yes, there’s still uncertainty about how everything will play out exactly, but not about whether the climate is changing dramatically and dangerously. Significant inertia in both atmospheric and economic/human systems allows for a more confident prediction of what will happen in just 11 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has made clear how critical it is to radically alter the path of carbon emissions to hold the world to 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. But that’s not likely to happen with current levels of commitment in global governments: The important Paris climate accord of 2015, in theory, agrees to hold warming to 2 degrees Celsius. But in practice, what countries have committed to so far will only hold us to no more than 3 degrees of warming. By 2030, we are very likely to already be at or approaching the 1.5 mark.

The results of climate change will be unrelenting. Many highly populated coastal areas will be in consistent trouble, as sea levels rise. The natural world will be much less rich, with drastic to catastrophic declines in populations of many species and major to total losses of ecosystems like coral. Droughts and floods will stress global breadbasket regions and shift where we grow major crops. The Arctic will be ice-free in the summer (this will allow ships to move freely in this region, which is technically good for shorter supply chains but a Pyrrhic victory at best). Between seas, heat, and shifts in water availability, mass migrations will likely have begun. By 2030, we will have much better clarity on how bad the coming decades after that point will be. We will know whether the melting of the major ice sheets will be literally inundating most coastal cities, and if we’re truly approaching an “Uninhabitable Earth” in our lifetimes.

by 2035: Less resources, more circular

We will be forced to more aggressively confront resource constraints. To keep volumes of major commodities (such as metals) in line with economic growth, we will need to more quickly embrace circular models: sourcing much less from virgin materials, using recycled content and remanufactured products, and generally rethinking the material economy. Water will be a stressed resource, and it seems likely that many cities will be constantly in a state of water shortage. We will need more investment in water tech and desalination to help.

by 2035: Clean energy, electric cars

The transformation of our energy grids, our transport infrastructure, and our buildings to zero-carbon technology will be surprisingly far along. Here’s some good news: Due to continuing drops in the cost of clean technologies, renewable energy is dramatically on the rise, making up more than half the global new power capacity every year since 2015. By 2030, effectively no new additions of generating capacity will come from fossil-fuel-based technologies. Electric vehicles will be a large part of the transportation equation: While estimates about the share of EVs on the road by 2030 range from the teens to nearly 100% (assuming early retirement of internal combustion engines), nearly all sales of new vehicles will be EVs. This will be driven by dramatic reductions in the cost of batteries and strict legislation banning fossil-fuel engines. We will also see an explosion of data-driven technologies that make buildings, the grid, roadways, and water systems substantially more efficient.

by 2035: Intelligent, connected technologies

The internet of things will have won the day, and every new device will be connected. Proponents of the “singularity” have long projected that by around 2030, affordable AI will achieve human levels of intelligence. AI and machine learning will plan much of our lives and make us more efficient, well beyond choosing driving routes to optimize traffic. Technology will manipulate us even more than it does today — Russian interference in U.S. elections may look quaint. AI will create some new kinds of jobs but will also nearly eliminate entire segments of work, from truck and taxi drivers to some high-skill jobs such as paralegals and engineers.

by 2035: Global divergence and conflict

There’s an open question about how we’ll get important things done. I’m thinking specifically about whether global governments and institutions will be working in sync to aggressively fight climate change and resource pressures, and tackle vast inequality and poverty — or whether it will be every region and ethnic group for itself. Predicting politics is nearly impossible, and it’s hard to imagine how global policy action on climate and other megatrends will play out. The Paris Agreement was a monumental start, but countries, most notably the U.S., have lately retreated from global cooperation in general. Trade wars and tariffs are all the rage in 2019. It seems likely that, even more than today, it will be up to business to play a major role in driving sustainability.

Some of the world’s largest consumer goods companies – P&G, Unilever, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Nestlé and Danone – have launched a new initiative to use refillable and returnable containers in place of current plastic packaging and to reduce waste.

Under the “Loop” scheme created by Terracycle, consumers can make online orders for goods, such as shampoo, washing powder and mouthwash, that normally come in single-use plastic packaging. They will be delivered instead in durable, refillable containers that can be collected from the doorstep and cleaned for reuse.

“This is hassle-free and convenient for the consumer,” says Virginie Helias, vice president of global sustainability for Procter & Gamble. “You can receive your order within 24 hours and you can return your bottle when empty.”

Core to the scheme, run by recycling company Terracycle, is online ordering, which means people do not need to bring their old containers to shops to have them refilled, and fits well with people’s increasing tendency to shop online.

Much of the plastic packaging currently used either cannot be recycled or has little value when recycled. By cutting out the need for single-use containers, Helias hopes to make “significant” reductions in plastic waste, but until the pilot schemes are evaluated it is difficult to estimate the savings, or the costs.

This month marks the 30th anniversary of Tim Berners-Lee’s original proposal for a World Wide Web, which his supervisor called “vague, but exciting.” We’ve come a long way in those last hyperconnected 30 years.

So … Ambient tracking, Bounty Programs, Solar Highways, 5D Printing, Digital Frailty, Nanobot Nurses, and Thinkables … are just some of the more exotic examples out of the 315+ technology and science trends report by futurist Amy Webb’s team at The Future Today Institute,

Some key takeaways include the following: