Peter Fisk

Davos has become a festival of rock gods and global presidents, Asian entrepreneurs and African charities. Whilst Bono strolls through the party scene and Will.i.am plays with the latest gadgets, Prime Minister Narenda Modi extols the virtues of the Indian economy, and founder Klaus Schwab reminds us of the big challenge to get the world back on track.

The agenda for this year’s World Economic Forum focused on “creating a shared future in a fragmented world.” Schwab describes the new context as “geostrategic fissures have re-emerged on multiple fronts with wide-ranging political, economic and social consequences. Realpolitik is no longer just a relic of the Cold War. Economic prosperity and social cohesion are not one and the same.”

1. Soaring short-term CEO optimism

2. A focus on the geopolitical positives

3. Taking technology in their stride

What customers want, how they think, and interact with each other are all changing, relentlessly. Each year marks a rapid change in the social media landscape, rapidly emerging trends and fundamental changes to customer aspirations and preferences, driving marketers to rethink approaches and find new ways to engage with people, and enable them to engage with each other.

Social is now the core of marketing. Not brands, not advertising, not products, not sales. And at the heart of this is how people engage with people. In particular people like them. People who they trust. People who they share passions with. People who they want to be like. Real people more than celebrities. Real people who talk in normal language. Emotional, practical, inspiring, genuine, realtime, human.

So to help you prepare for the changes to come in 2018, here are some of the top social media trends:

1. Influencers gain influence

To avoid the pressure of competing with rival brands, marketers will be looking to develop more long-term relationships with key social media influencers in 2018. But why bother looking to partner up for the long haul? Just look at Louis Vuitton’s 2016 partnership with Selena Gomez. It ended abruptly when rival fashion brand Coach managed to sign a new deal with the celebrity influencer, leaving Louis Vuitton out in the cold.

Another key advancement in influencer marketing strategy this year will be authenticity. Consumers can easily detect influencer-brand collaborations that seem forced and call them out, which is why savvy marketers will focus on building organic relationships with influencers that mesh with their brand in 2018.

2. Video in demand

Nothing on social media is more eye-catching than good video content, or video on demand (VOD). Whether you’re marketing on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat, it looks like social video engagement stats are going to be exponential in 2018.

• YouTube viewers watch a billion hours of video each day
• Facebook users consume over 8 billion videos every day
• 82% of Twitter’s audience views video content on the platform

There’s a  huge variety of formats which this video content can take, from 360-degree videos to live streams. This gives marketing teams a serious amount of flexibility when it comes to planning video campaigns. However, mobile comes first. After all, 90% of Twitter video views and 60% of YouTube views are now from users on mobile devices.

3. Chatbot conversations

“Talk to us now” says the button on the webpage, seeking to engage people faster and deeper with a more human-like conversation. Chatbots have been around for years, but they’ve seen bigtime AI improvements recently. More and more brands are working on using chatbots for customer support and perfecting their chatbot marketing strategy.

Right now, chatbots are mostly used for customer service. 61% of consumer-chatbot interactions are centered around customer service-related questions. The future of bots is looking bright, too, with an estimated 85% of customer interactions managed by chatbots by 2020. Who exactly is using chatbots? It looks like Millennials are the main culprits. 58% of Millenials have used a chatbot before and 71% say they would try interacting with a chatbot from a major brand, according to a survey by Retale.

Social media “stories” are the new form of storytelling. Aggregated, personalised and realtime. The “stories” format pioneered by Snapchat has now become a staple of the social media world. First Instagram created Instagram Stories, and now YouTube has released a stories format of their own called “Reels”. Each offers unique features and presentation, but they all follow the same concept.

Stories capture the best moments from a day and most vanish after a set period of time. Their temporary nature creates a sense of FOMO for users who don’t check them out before they disappear. They’re also just a fun, bite-sized way to present video content.

5. New rules of data

In 2018, the European Union is getting serious about companies collecting consumer data. On May 25, 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is going into effect. Will your company be prepared?

The GDPR gives EU citizens more control over their personal data. Every time a company wants to collect information from a consumer, they’ll now need explicit consent from the individual. That data could be anything from their location to their name to their email address. On top of that, the company will need to tell the person what data they plan to collect and how they’ll use it. If you don’t comply you’ll be faced with an EU fine of up to 4% of global annual turnover or $23m whichever is greater.

Here is an extract from Forbes’ with their 7 marketing trends for the year ahead:

1. Big, big data. Big data’s been a big trend for many years now, but it’s mostly been confined to big businesses and major players. With the prevalence of big data now—after all, there are over 6 million developers working on big data projects—and its growing accessibility thanks to machine learning and AI, big data will become more available to small- to mid-sized business owners. With more advertising platforms and marketing outreach methods incorporating big data into their usual infrastructure, it’s going to be hard to stay competitive if you aren’t tapping into the thousands of customer data points that are now available.

2. Non-visual experiences. Nobody expected the smart speaker industry to blow up the way it did in 2017. By 2022, smart speakers are expected to be a staple part of more than 55 percent of US households, and they’ve already sold more than 20 million units this year alone. People are starting to interact with these devices as a part of routine, daily life, using voice commands and listening back to results. Consumers are gradually getting used to interfaces that require no visual surface or physical inputs, and that’s going to have a huge impact on how marketers communicate with them.

3. App capitalization. There’s an app for everything now. And yes, there’s been a diversity of apps available for the past decade or so, but now, consumers rely on certain apps—like map, transportation, and review apps—as part of their daily life. They’ve become as ingrained as Google as a primary search engine, and therefore represent strong real estate in which a brand can grow. I think in 2018, we’re going to see more app capitalization—more brands purchasing ads and making deals to earn exposure on other, highly popular apps.

4. Native ads and smart content. Native advertising is expected to drive more than 74 percent of all ad revenue by 2021. With a more natural placement and formatting, native ads tend to get more exposure and more engagement than traditional banner ads—and are less annoying for consumers. The only problem is, native advertising requires a fundamentally different approach to copy—one that can capitalize on the unique preferences of the people seeing the ads. In 2018, we’ll definitely see increased spending on native ads, and we’ll also see the rise of “smart content” for those ads, able to adapt to audiences using cookies and an in-depth understanding of target audiences.

5. Micro-moments. Google defines micro-moments as any moment that drives a customer to use their mobile device on the fly, whether they want to learn something, go somewhere, do something, or buy something. In 2018, the brands that spend the most time trying to learn, understand, and capitalize on these micro-moments are going to have the highest possibilities of success. It requires deeper demographic research and a mobile-intensive strategy, but with the new tools I think we’ll see develop, it’s going to be easier to approach for modern brands.

6. Content and influencer networks. Content marketing has been a top strategy for a long time, but we’re running into a problem: oversaturation. Every brand with a website has some kind of content strategy, and social media networks are full to bursting with content producers fighting for visibility. That’s why in 2018, I think we’ll see a major shift in investment; rather than trying to keep fighting for new space, marketers will capitalize on space that’s already taken. In other words, I think we’ll see more brands trying to increase their visibility and grow their own influence by capitalizing on influencers who have already built an audience and a reputation. These influencer networks will be less expensive to manage, can reduce the sheer volume of content being produced, and can give brands a leg-up in online visibility.

7. Individual communications. The internet is a busy place, so it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle. That’s why more consumers are favoring individual, personalized experiences, including one-on-one communications with brands. Obviously, a purely one-on-one approach isn’t sustainable, but that’s why more brands are turning to chatbots as a cost-effective alternative. Chatbots have started to grow more intelligent and more customizable, and are getting more popular with brands and consumers alike. By the end of 2018, chatbots will become even more of a norm—and a practical necessity if you want to give your customers a large-scale yet personal experience.

Disruption was officially the most common business buzzword of last year. We all know that new technologies are having a hugely disruptive impact on how we do business. And by adding new business models, reaching new audiences, and delivering new customers experiences they can fundamentally change the competitive landscape.

But to do something about it, business leaders have to do more. Locked into their existing frames of thinking, or even worse to their old models of success, most leaders struggle to tune into this new world. Making the shift from fixed mindset to “growth mindset” is  start, but it often needs something more dramatic.

Business leaders need to disrupt themselves.

Former Wall Street equity analyst Whitney Johnson is an expert on disruptive innovation and personal disruption. In her book Disrupt Yourself: Putting the Power of Disruptive Innovation to Work she defines a framework for doing that, and goes further in her new book Build an “A” Team: Play To Their Strengths and Lead Them Up the Learning Curve. 

Her research in disruptive innovation starts with the understanding that the framework of disruption is at a very high level a framework for managing change … beginning with the individual. She developed the framework whilst leading the Disruptive Innovation Fund with Harvard’s Clay Christensen. Whether scaling a business or trying to get your people to be more innovative, her research helps people to harness, rather than just cope with change and to drive the new strategies and innovations that will succeed in a changing world.

Whitney will be joining me at this year’s Thinkers50 European Business Forum (EBF18) in Odense, Denmark on 26-27 September 2018, when we will specifically focus on the challenges of new technologies, and how to harness them for more positive impact – for people and profit. It doing so, we will explore the new ways of thinking demanded of business leaders, and how they can make better choices.

We recently asked 50 of the world’s top business thinkers to write a letter to the world’s CEOs, and collectively they can be found in a new book from Thinkers50 called Dear CEO. Here is Whitney Johnson’s letter to business leaders:

Dear Chief Executive Officer,

I talk about disruption and disruptors. For a lot of people, the term ‘disruption’ is heard commonly enough that they tune it out as a mere buzzword. This is unfortunate, because disruption is a powerful force that transforms organizations, communities and ultimately the world. It’s critical to the success of your organization, but the tricky secret is that companies and organization don’t disrupt unless their people do.

According to Towers Perrin, Intl., organizations with a highly engaged workforce increased operating income by 19.2%, while low engagement led to a 32.7% decline in operating profits.

That’s the good news.

The bad news is that the data on employee engagement is abysmal. Really, really bad. You may think that your biggest problem is something happening at the government policy level, or systemic flaws in your business or financial model that must be addressed, or the latest tricks your competitors are getting up to. The reality is your biggest problem is that your employees are disengaged from their work and from the mission of your enterprise. In fact, if they’re like the majority of American workers, the phrase ‘bored out of their gourd’ aptly describes how your average employee feels while on the job. For you.

The famous annual Gallup poll on employee engagement hasn’t reported much change in several years. The fraction of employees who feel engaged at work has hovered stubbornly just below one third. Fifty percent say they are “not engaged” and over 17% unabashedly describe themselves as “actively disengaged.” I suspect that means they’re hunting for a new job, and if they are bright, talented and capable they will find one and with it, hopefully, a better chance to strut their stuff than is currently available to them. They will disrupt themselves. But even the merely disengaged are less productive, have little motivation or outlet for their gifts and are contributing less to your bottom line than you might wish. Disengagement is highest among the younger generations of workers—the most innovative, tech savvy and frustratingly mobile members of the workforce. These valuable and expensive resources will be out your door as well, in less than three years on average.

Your workplace culture almost certainly needs to change to encourage and facilitate internal personal disruption and you must lead the charge. Here’s what I recommend, to start:

Develop managers as talent spotters to identify the potential value of disruptive employees, clear their path and green-light their dreaming and innovation. Speed new ideas on to realization. Watch out for the nay-sayers, those who throw up obstacles to change. Adopt the mindset of a cycling team, with everyone helping the fittest riders move into the lead.

Cultivate a risky playing field, where failure is not terminal and employees can explore possibilities, venture into untried territory and learn from mistakes as well as successes. Real stretch assignments + real accountability = real progress.

Reward talent-developers. Which of your many managers are willing to truly encourage the people who could replace them? Who has a lot of subordinates promoted from their department or is willing to broker moves for them? Managers add value by developing nascent talent and they build morale and momentum by helping employees disrupt themselves internally.

Provide genuine and tangible remuneration for those who bring their distinctive strengths to work for you. Personal disruptors should be celebrated and rewarded with open doors to additional innovation.

Train to train, not to retain. Make opportunities to learn a do more the modus operandi rather than a tactic of last resort to placate disgruntled high value employees. Those who know they are being groomed for additional responsibilities are more likely to hang around and embrace new challenges.

Think long term and ride out the near term productivity setbacks that can occur when employees take on new roles. Change brings growing pains, but growing pains are a desirable problem, unlike the acute discomforts that accompany ossification and degeneration.

Engagement. Loyalty. Innovation. Higher performance. Higher profits. These are impressive outcomes that result from one simple input—encouraging personal disruption. It is going to happen no matter what you do. The only question is whether your valuable employees disrupt for you or from you. Help your employees achieve their dreams while on the job for you and the dreams you hold for your business are more likely to come true as well.

Wishing you every success as YOU personally disrupt your status quo,

Whitney Johnson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdCLUbml9q8

Join Whitney at the Thinkers50 European Business Forum (EBF18) in Odense, Denmark on 26-27 September 2018

I’m currently developing a fantastic new learning experience for IE Business School, their new flagship program for senior executives. It’s called the Global Advanced Management Program. And it’s all about preparing executives for the C-suite … in four intense, incredible and inspiring weeks.

The Global AMP is about developing business leaders for a new world – one which is complex and ambitious, global and digital, fast and exciting – how they think, where they focus, how they will be winners. Indeed, the mindsets that got your business to where it is, are unlikely to take you further over the next 10 years, a decade that will likely see more change than the last 250 years.

Innovation lies at the heart of the Global AMP.

Taking an understanding of the changing world and possibilities of technology, of what customers want and will want in future, to reimagine what you do and reinvent your business, then supported by the strategies and structures that will deliver success.

Disruptive Innovation is about thinking, designing and creating in radically new ways.

It starts with deep insight, amplified by new ideas from design thinking, shaped by new customer propositions and experiences, which are fundamentally built around radical new “gamechanger” strategies and new business models, and then accelerated into market with lean and rapid development. Find out more here:

But you’ve kind of heard all that before, so what is really different? Let’s jump into the perspectives of some of our incredible faculty who will be joining on this journey:

Andrew McCarthy is a designer, facilitator, entrepreneur, innovation and creativity consultant.

He has almost two decades of international experience as an art and creative director in multinationals and advising corporations on creativity, strategy and innovation processes. He is an Adjunct Professor at IE and collaborates on educational ventures with the TeamLabs, Impact Hub, h2I, IDE, and Studio Banana.

Andrew is an innovation, design, or user advocacy officer with various companies and mentor or advisor to a number of startups. His professional interests also include Lean and Agile methodologies, but he is most interested in how we ever think anything we aren’t already thinking and using whatever practices work. Andrew enjoys improv, speaks and moderates at conferences, and his voice has been featured in ads and audiobooks, at his daughters’ bedtimes, and to the startlement of animals great and small.

Download the brochure of Andrew’s IE masters program on Customer Experience and Innovation … the brochure is a piece of art in itself!

Why your brain hates you so much. Why you have been trying to be and build the wrong things for the wrong people at the wrong times. Why you are doomed to repeat history, and What to do about it. How you could (maybe!) become an actual human being.

Marcos Eguillor is an entrepreneur, founder and Managing Partner of BinaryKnowledge. He has helped several start-ups of the digital sector. He possesses a broad international experience, mainly focused on the Digital Ecosystem, in product design and development, innovation, business development & strategy, project management and technology strategy.

Marcos is professor and guest speaker at different organizations such as the IE University, IE Business School, EOI, Spanish Red Cross, Dirección General de Protección Civil and Helsinki España. Following his not-just-for-profit values, he is vice-president of the Spanish Red Cross (Madrid), Member of the Board of the Spanish Association of Telecommunication Engineers and delegate member at the Spanish Engineering Institute. He was acknowledge as Best Entrepreneurship Mentor at IE, 2013.

If you listen to Marcos for a second, you’ll get the feeling that he’s only telling you a tiny bit of everything he has to tell. He teaches entrepreneurship, he’s an entrepreneur himself, and most importantly he has volunteered for the Red Cross since 1995.

Salvador Aragon is Professor of Information Systems at IE Business School. In his own words: “I am currently researching the role of information technologies in the business organization, their relevance as an engine for innovation and transformation, and how they are managed”.

He is also interested in the development of new markets and services in digital convergence, studying, for example, how mobiles and interactive television are moving toward each others’ territory, permitting young people to arrange to meet through teletext messages.

Furthermore, professor Aragón has researched the theoretical concept of digital convergence. From a more practical perspective, he has also studied the management of information systems in Spanish firms, and, in collaboration with MIT, the definition of new services on mobile platforms.

The “disruptive innovation” stream (week 3) of the Global AMP will focus on some of these major areas, exploring them in practical and joined up ways, and in particularly combining the best approaches old and new, of entrepreneurs and corporates, to say how can you win in today’s innovation circus:

• Disruption … what are the sources of disruption, both affecting you (new technologies, new entrants new models), but also by which you can disrupt others (more intended, more dramatic).
• Gamechanging … developing new strategies for “changing the game”, the way the market works, the way customers think, and the ways to win. More entrepreneurial, more strategic, and significant.
• Fuzzy front end … where do great ideas come from, from raw to disciplined creativity, to stealing the best ideas from other sectors or walks of life, and how to shape these ideas into richer concepts.
• Design thinking … the power of intuition, observation and learning from real people; to solve real problems, and turning these insights into rapid prototypes that can  be shaped further.
• Alt perspectives … frugal innovation has become the mantra of emerging markets, seeking to solve problems thought simplicity and at low cost. But this could work anywhere.
• Open creation … from crowdsourcing to competitions, co-creation and sharing, innovation happens faster and better when brains work together, engaging people faster, learning and adapting.
• Business models … from subscription models to curated services, how can you make money in new ways, be it in terms of new revenue streams, or charging differently.
• Value dynamics … Creating and capturing value is not always consequential, so how do optimise both the value proposition to customers, and the value short and longer term to your business.
• Ecosystem partners … the buy or make questions, has evolved into new ways of partnering to make ideas happen, from licensing to joint collaborations, achieving more together.
• Lean development … harnessing the power of lean experimentation, prototyping and development, how to accelerate ideas to market more iteratively, and much faster.
• Fast adoption … penetrating markets faster, so that early adaptors work with you to engage markets, connecting with new social and influencer marketing, and new sales models.
• Story telling … from Cokes’s liquid and linked to Instagram stories in realtime, how do you shape the narrative of your innovation, linking to brands and what people actually say.
• Market multipliers … network-based approaches have transformed the way innovations diffuse, so using multipliers like influencers, gaming, shared resources, partners, to go further faster.
• Managing innovation … from the product development process to agile management, from lifecycle management to portfolio optimisation, funding and venturing, metrics and performance.

And much more. How can sustainability spark new ways of innovating? What can big data and AI do to conventional processes? How would Steve Jobs (or Elon Musk today) transform our industry? What if we made unusual connections (like da Vinci was a master of)? How to be an innovation company?

So join me, and my fabulous colleagues, for the world’s best executive development program, the new Global Advanced Management Program, starting in 2018. Find out more right here.

The  program has been designed specifically to prepare current and future leaders, and their businesses, for the challenges which they face now and in the coming years. Focusing on leadership in a world of disruptive change, the Global AMP will help you understand the underlying trends driving the future which are already shaking up your industry, explore the threats and opportunities these bring, and respond accordingly.

Divided into 5 core academic modules, each designed and orchestrated by expert faculty, the program will lead you through the challenge of understanding mega-trends such as technological change, our role in a world where AI and robotics make many traditional jobs irrelevant, scarce physical resources and changing demographics.

How will you shape the new markets formed by these trends to the advantage of your business? Where will you focus, and how will you compete? How will you engage with the future customers – Asian, millennial, female – and those in markets that do not even exist today? What are your new business models to drive speed, agility and profitable growth?

The program focuses on devising new solutions, delivered by the right organisations and strategies, to succeed in such a brave new world. Energising and aligning the business to the strategic needs of the future will require that it becomes faster and more agile and we will learn how to use areas such as finance and operations, partnerships and networks, as levers for growth.

Most significantly, we will help you develop yourself as a leader of this dynamic world – to build a leadership platform, and exploit it skilfully to implement change that builds organisations that are themselves a source of competitive strength.

Alongside these academic modules, the program also includes practical application, with each participant developing a Gamechanger Project from they will create a blueprint for the future of their industry, a plan for how their business can reinvent itself, and define their own role in leading their company or division towards this future successfully.

Finally, the Leadership Development Plan helps each participant, along with an individual advisor, focus on their own specific strengths and weaknesses and actions that they can take to become an effective leader, and to sustain high personal and business performance.

World Changing: Making sense of change, exploring megatrends and their medium and longer-term implications, and choosing your future direction. The rise of emerging markets, new technologies and next generation audiences, is matched by the increasing scarcity of resources, social fragmentation and climate impact. The “fourth industrial revolution” heralds a new era for business and society, from digitalisation and automation, to 3D printing and machine learning, artificial intelligence and robotics. Philosophically, we will also look back to the age of genius, and the lessons for the future.

• Power shifts: Economic, political and economic power shifts across continents, generations and businesses.
• Technology futures: Harnessing the potential of new capabilities, from digital and big data, biotech and nanotech, to AI and robotics.
• Resource scarcity: Changing sources of energy, the peak of rare metals, talent and creativity, high-tech components and patented technologies.
• Human impacts: Rethinking work, education and employment, ageing and healthcare, urbanization and belonging, wealth and happiness.
• Future shaping: Making sense of change, and making better choices. Harnessing value drivers and scenario planning to shape the future that you want.

Market Shaping:  Competitive landscapes have become increasingly complex, competition can now appear from seemingly unrelated industries, new markets emerge and old ones disappear. Digital markets have no boundaries, allowing the smallest business to have huge impact, and accelerating the convergence of sectors and businesses. In this context, the market-shaping module will guide you in engaging with future customers, shaping markets to your advantage and ultimately developing a market map that can help focus your business to win in future markets.

• Market spaces: How well do you really know your market? Framing markets and how they work, value drivers and emerging practices, challenges and opportunities.
• Future markets: Finding and creating new market spaces, based on new customers, new geographies and new solutions.
• Customer thinking: Understanding new and existing customers based on aspirations and behaviours, finding new insights and ideas, new needs and niches.
• Engaging propositions: Rethinking value, how it created and captured, and then delivered in terms of engagement and experiences.
• Markets as movements: Rethinking how to build brands and loyalty where customers trust each other, and seek personalisation, collaboration and community

Disruptive Innovation: Disruption comes from all angles – entrepreneurial start-ups challenging established giants, new technologies replacing inefficient processes, simplicity outperforming complexity, and customers challenging businesses to do better. The impact can be dramatic, reputations can be made and destroyed in days, whilst long admired companies are wiped off the map. The aim of this module is to learn how to turn the tables and become the disrupter by quickly developing insights and ideas, driving innovative strategies and business models, that can be delivered in fast and efficient ways.

• Market Disruption: Transforming value equations by rethinking the way markets work, the sources of advantage, pain points and profit pools.
• Design thinking: Gaining deeper insights into what really drives customers, to find the real problem, and solutions that are more relevant and valuable.
• Fast Innovation: Turning ideas into impact faster through fast and lean innovation, from incremental to breakthough, managing portfolios to create the future
• Business models: Rethinking how organisations work to deliver innovative propositions, from licensing to subscription, low cost to luxury.
• Accelerating impact: Harnessing the power of multipliers, the network effect of social media to business ecosystems, spreading innovation faster, accelerating growth.

Energizing Organizations: Business thrives on an inspiring purpose, an alignment for action, and priorities and incentives that engage people to high performance. Organisations also need the agility to continually adapt and respond to changing markets, to develop new capabilities and partnerships, and reach new markets. The objective of this module is to help you energize your organization, develop a strategy, along with the metrics to constantly measure its implementation, and align financial and operational resources to deliver results effectively.

• Winning strategy: Defining the right direction and priorities, guided by an inspiring purpose, and harnessing the drivers of value.
• Smarter choices: Making better decisions, strategically and every day, matched by the right metrics and rewards that ensure performance.
• Aligning organisations: Shaping organisations and processes to be agile and efficient, leveraging strengths and addressing weakness, inside and outside.
• Energising people: Mobilising your employees to think and deliver the strategy in innovative and profitable ways, harnessing the power of teams and humanity.
• Sustaining impact: Ensuring that the organization has the ongoing renewal and adaptability to deliver share value, short term and into the future.

Amplified Leadership: The best leaders amplify the impact of their people and their business. Developing a leadership that is relevant to them and their people, they inspire and engage, connect and support the business to deliver against long-term directions and short-term priorities. Leaders of the future, will need to be adept at leading and managing change in a way that unlocks talent and performance. The outcome of this module will be to a help participants lead themselves, their teams and their business. For this reason, the module works through all the other modules to connect ideas and future action.

• Leadership matters: Business is obsessed with leadership, but how do leaders really add value, engage people effectively, and deliver better results?
• Knowledge economy: Organisational hierarchies are a legacy of old economies. In today’s ideas-based organisations, leaders add value in different ways.
• Authentic organisations: From corporate to personal reputations, how do you build trust and authenticity inside and outside the business?
• Talent beacons: In an ideas-driven world, the best companies have the best people. So how do you ensure that you attract, motivate and retain the best talent?
• Why should anyone be led by you? Fundamentally, why should you be the leader of the business. What do you have, and what will you give, to be successful?

Leaders are, of course, much more than functional managers. They see a bigger picture, work across the organization, and connect activities for more impact. The 5 Global AMP modules, rather than addressed in isolation will be carefully knitted together throughout the duration of the program, to demonstrate the opportunities and implications of every decision and action across the business.

Participants will work on an individual, evaluated project throughout the program. This “Gamechanger Project” is designed to draw on all of the materials covered in each module and will be applied directly to the challenges and opportunities of the participants’ business. It will deliver five specific outcomes, in the form of maps, that will be of value to you and to your company. Together they form a blueprint for the future.

• Future Map: Developing a vision of the future of your industry. Define how you will shape it to your business’ advantage, to seize the best opportunities for growth.
• Market Map: Shaping your markets, how you work, and your customer propositions to engage current and future customers.
• Innovation Map: Reinventing your business model to deliver the future propositions in practical, efficient and profitable ways.
• Organisation Map: Aligning your direction and strategy, your processes and people, metrics and performance to deliver results.
• Impact Map: Defining your role in leading your company or division towards a bright, inspiring and successful future.

Progress on the project will be checked in peer to peer presentations and participants will have access to tutors to guide their work. This will be underpinned by the Leadership Development Plan which supports the individual in how they will develop themselves to deliver this effectively.

Find out more about the new Global AMP at IE Business School

We live in an incredible time … More change in the next 10 years, than in the last 250 years … Connected technologies, augmented intelligence, and possibilities limited only by our imaginations.

Elon Musk says we live in a time of profound progress – accelerated by his Tesla cars, SpaceX rockets and Hyperloop tubes, he hopes. Ray Kurzweil beckons us towards his point of singularity, an exponential journey where man fuses with machine. Alibaba’s Jack Ma, who went from English teacher to $480bn CEO, simply says he’s having the best party ever.

But it doesn’t always feel exciting. Complexity and change can often challenge our established ways of thinking, the frame in which we see our world, and the choices we make.

Download the full article: NOW+NEXT 2018

The agenda for this year’s World Economic Forum focuses on “creating a shared future in a fragmented world.” Founder Klaus Schwab describes the new context as “geostrategic fissures have re-emerged on multiple fronts with wide-ranging political, economic and social consequences. Realpolitik is no longer just a relic of the Cold War. Economic prosperity and social cohesion are not one and the same.”

Technologies can be intimidating too. It’s easy to feel inadequate if you can’t precisely explain your artificial intelligence from your augmented reality, bitcoins from blockchains, or petabytes and gigabytes (a million times different). But it is the application of all this to the real world – to human beings, customer experiences, and to economic and social progress – that matters. That requires foresight and imagination. So don’t be afraid, we can all be part of this journey.

Beer for punks: Brewdog has grown from Scottish start-up to billion-dollar brand.

Bitcoin or Brewdog?

The rate of change is best illustrated by the stories of start-ups who have rapidly captured the new mainstream, changing our lives and aspirations as they do. From Amazon Go’s bluetooth-enabled stores to Magic Leap’s next generation virtual reality, L’Oreal’s intelligent hair brush and Norman Foster’s droneports that helps aid agencies reach people in need quicker, 2017 was a year of incredible innovation. Here are a few reminders:

• Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency grew from $1000 to $20,000 over the 12 months of 2017. Whilst the bubble will eventually burst, the underlying blockchain technology is set to revolutionise businesses far beyond finance, democratising markets, and how consumers engage with brands
• Boom. Dubai Air Show saw the launch of a “new Concorde” aircraft, featuring the iconic delta wing and able to fly at Mach 2.2. In collaboration with Virgin, Boom Technology is on schedule to launch this year, bringing back memories of when I could breakfast in LHR, and again in JFK 3 hours later.
• Brewdog. The Scottish craft beer entrepreneurs became a $1 billion-valued “unicorn” in 2017, partly through consumer crowdfunding, aka “Equity for Punks”. Known for its provocative marketing, and strong ales, it opened a brewery in Ohio, and plans a DogHotel with bedside DogTap if thirsty.
• GZ Media. Digital tech isn’t everything, as seen by the trend for vinyl records. The world’s largest manufacturer comes from the small Czech town of Lodenice, and produces 25 million records a year. Live Nation is the world’s most profitable music company, live events soaring in a digital world.
• Hyperloop. 3 years ago Elon Musk launched his vacuum-tube 760 mph trains, and the first 1 mile test loop is now in place. By open-sourcing the technology, companies across the world are all working on perfect and implementing next generation travel. Tesla and SpaceX were just starters.
• Jio Phone. Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani launched the Jio Phone in 2017, an (almost) free smartphone for the hundreds of millions of aspirational Indians who he serves, and a radical rethinking of the telecoms business model. Handset and calls are free, data comes at a small fee.
• Stripe. 26 year old John Collison from Ireland is now the world’s youngest self-made billionaire. He co-founded the $9bn software system that enables companies around the world to more easily accept online payments. Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel is slightly wealthier, but two months older.
• ThyssenKrupp. What if elevators could move sideways, instead of just up and down? Inspired by Charlie and the Chocolate factory, the steel maker has launched the Multi, replacing the old up and down pulley systems with magnetic levitation, up and across the walls of buildings.
• Toutiao. The Beijing start-up was 2017’s most successful new unicorn, valued at $20bn. It is a content recommendation platform, using AI to analyse content, plus users and their interactions, from which algorithm models generate a personalised feed list of content for each user.

So where do we start in making sense of this changing world? To seize this huge disruption as fabulous opportunities to work smarter and get an edge, innovate and grow, we need to understand the drivers of change. These power the “mega trends” that are shaping our markets and minds, and the more practical advances that we can directly and creatively embrace.

Wonka vision: ThyssenKrupp’s magnetic levitation multi-directional elevator.

Finding the future

Pattern recognition is one of the key skills in being able to develop foresight, to gain a better view of your changing markets, and therefore an advantage over competitors. “Trends” emerging patterns of change likely to impact how we live and work. Megatrends are large, social, economic, political, environmental or technological change that are slow to form, but once in place can influence a wide range of activities, processes and perceptions, possibly for decades. They are the underlying forces that drive trends.

Many of the trends are familiar to us all. Shift in global economic power, with commodity prices driving some emerging markets into recession. Democratic and social change, with more people living longer, more aspiration and fewer children. Rapid urbanisation, in particular through the explosion of lesser-known, medium-size, emerging-market cities like Hyderabad or Shenzen. Climate change and resource scarcity. And, of course, technological breakthroughs.

Underneath these mega trends are the more interesting shifts, and in particular the “fringe” behaviours of radical thinkers and early adaptors, which could become the mainstream of future years. Newness typically emerges from the edges. One of the most impactful annual trend presentations comes from Richard Watson, who seeks to map short and long-term trends (from the centre of the diagram outwards). He also focuses on the intersections, points where trends have more disruptive impact – and equally the bigger opportunities for innovation and growth.

Pattern recognition: Richard Watson’s trend map illustrates new challenges and opportunities.

Growth drivers

As McKinsey says “the trend is your friend” … It’s the oldest adage in investing, and it applies to projecting future business performance too. Their analysis shows that capturing the waves of change, created by industry and geographic trends, is the most important contributor to business results … a company benefiting from such waves of change is 4-8 times more likely to rise to the top of future performers.

Here is where I see the most significant waves of change:

Where will growth come from?

• Growing locally … as social tensions rise, globalisation is seen as remote, even undemocratic. Localism becomes more important than trying to be global
• Asia matures … tapping into the new billion-person markets of ICASA (India, China, Africa, SE Asia) who have new wealth, wellbeing and aspirations
• New business models … exploring new ways of doing business – from new services that deliver new revenues streams, new price models like subscription, and new value equations

What will be most disruptive?

• Technological fusion … connectivity of all the new technologies, energy and automation, AI and 3d printing, networks and devices, biotech and robotics.
• Customers in the driving seat …digitally empowered customers demand business works on their terms, C2B, and even better, as customers together, C2C.
• Network revolution … from value-chains to network-based platforms, asset heavy or asset light, value is in the connectivity and collaboration of participants.

How will we win differently?

• Rebuilding trust … finding a new social value equation, authentic and relevant, that people gain reengage with, or even trust brands more than traditional institutions.
• Overcoming fear … working together to outwit cybercriminals, terrorists and fake news – ensuring that AI and technology work for us, to be more ethical and transparent.
• Positive impact … embracing a sustainable circular economy, that shares value responsibly – where business contributes to a higher purpose, social and environmental, and makes money.

Satya Nedella, CEO of Microsoft, recognised the need to think differently within the business he inherited from Bill Gates and  Steve Ballmer. His new book “Hit Refresh” is a manifesto for seeing our old challenges, assumptions and prejudices, in new ways. By taking a different perspective, often inspired by small companies and marginal operators, he sought fresh ways of working inside Microsoft, and new solutions for personal and business customers.

Social business: Adidas and Ocean Clean Up, making designer shoes from plastic waste.

Reframing choices

What should be clear, is that our world, our markets and customers, have become increasingly polarised. A new set of tensions – or paradoxes – have emerged. From Brexit to climate change, Trump to the Catalans, we see challenges to our stability and progress that were not even imagined a few years ago.

• Global v local … big or small, international or provincial, centralised or decentralised, homogeneous or heterogeneous, institutional or individual, standardised or crafted … Or instead, how can we get the best of both worlds – like Amazon’s Treasure Truck bringing unplanned surprises to local neighbourhoods, from global platform, to local people?
• Human v technological … digital or physical, robotic or human, artificial or authentic, transparent or private, ideas or algorithms, fast or slow, interfaces or experiences … Or instead, how can we combine the two to do better – like Dalian Wanda, China’s answer to Disney, with a new generation of multi-media, entertainment-based shopping malls.
• Individual v collective … individuals or communities, transactional or relational, producing or co-creating, enterprises or ecosystems, competing or collaborating, protected or open sourced … Or instead, how to achieve both, like Supreme, the hip-hot skater brands that uses pop-up marketing driven with incredible hype by social-media, driving a millennial after-market in fashion?
• Business v society … purpose or profit, shareholders or society, responsible or reckless, transparent or untrusted, diversity or division … Or how can we find a new balance, like Adidas’ Parley running shoes made from recycled sea waste plastics in collaboration with Ocean Clean Up from the Netherlands, then sold as ultra cool and twice the normal price?
• Change v continuity … innovate or optimise, growth or efficiency, flexible or stable, experimental or perfection, change mindset or fixed mindset … Or instead, how to connect the two dynamics, like GE which seeks continuous revolution with its FastWorks innovation process, connecting design thinking and lean development to experiment and reduce time to market by 90%?
• Simplicity v complexity … linear or networked, corporate or entrepreneurial, planning or hacking, creator or adapter, analytic or intuitive … Or instead, how to embrace both, like the world’s largest white company Haier, which uses a “rendanheyi” business model, built on thousands of micro-businesses within one organisation, entrepreneurial and focused?
• Tomorrow v today … tactical or strategic, incremental or transformational, safety or risk, boldness or parity, tangible or intangible, sales revenue or future profits … Or instead, how to drive radical change whilst delivering everyday, like the “double time” model embraced by Jeff Bezos in driving 25 years of relentless growth, but staying focused at the same time?

The biggest challenge for leaders today, is to resolve these paradoxes, to align the opposing forces or apparent contradictions. The biggest opportunity for leaders is to find ways to achieve both – which means reframing the context, and rethinking solutions. Third ways, new ways, better ways.

Increasingly it is new technologies that enable these new ways.

Take blockchain, for example, offering the ability to “democratise” markets and brands, through local engagement and decision making. Or 3d printing, through mass customised production on demand. Or neuroprosthetics, enabling artificial limbs to work as well as real body parts. Or AI-based scanners and trackers making more accurate and predictive medical diagnosis. The applications of technology can redefine our possibilities, and our choices.

Woman and machine: David Hansen’s humanoid robot Sophia became a Saudi citizen.

What’s happening now?

Conceptual thinking, and cool start-ups are great. But what is the reality for most of us?

I spend much of my time travelling, advising and inspiring business people around the world through projects, workshops and keynote events. I get to meet the most fascinating companies and innovators. Some are big famous corporates like P&G, or luxury icons like Cartier, or cool brands like Red Bull, but others are smaller, more niche and more intriguing companies. I usually learn more from the latter. Some of the places I have been most inspired by personally over the last year have included:

• Barcelona. Whilst the Catalans fought over their future, the city was the destination for many of the world’s top beauty brands. Coty has combined its French heritage with P&G’s global brand portfolio to create a new force, rethinking everything in beauty, from brands to business models.
• Chicago. Driving north from O’Hare airport, along the shore of Lake Michigan, I was amazed by the number of healthcare companies, big and small. Atos Medical are a great example of the shift to innovative care solutions, service more than product, with direct patient relationships.
• Dubai. Innovation is everywhere, preparing for World Expo 2020, and realising that a nation needs to do more than sell oil, and attract tourists. Emirates is now twice as big as any other airline, focusing on being a hub not a destination, and the Museum of the Future showcases where next.
• Hamburg. Germany used to be the industrial powerhouse of Europe, but the engineering mindset that loves quality and precision is finding it hard to innovate and change in today’s world. BASF to Bayer, BMW to Bosch struggle to keep pace with a new generation of agile global players.
• Hong Kong. David Hansen claims that he brings robots to life. His human-like, smiling and joking, creation called Sophie became the world’s first robot citizen during the launch of Neom, Saudi Arabia’s $500bn future metropolis, human and robotic, 33 times larger than New York City.
• Guayaquil. The largest city in Ecuador is a hub of social innovation. Mashpi Lodge is a great example of responsible tourism, with sky bikes through the Andean cloud forest, or Nevada Roses with its closed-loop ecosystem, and the most amazing organic fair-trade chocolate by Pacari.
• Odense. Denmark’s third largest city has reinvented itself, from remote land of HC Andersen’s children’s storytelling to Europe’s leading robotics hub. The city itself is being rebuilt as a smart, social metropolis, and has just attracted Facebook (and Thinkers50) to create a base here.
• Pretoria. MMI is a merger of South Africa’s two largest insurance companies, Metropolitan and Momentum, bringing together very different organisational cultures and operating models. They are now focused on growth, and whilst the RSA economy is weak, Africa is growing rapidly.
• Zurich. Iron deficiency is the world’s most common health condition, and particularly debilitates women. Working with a fantastic innovator in new treatments, Vifor Pharma, we were inspired by the Lucky Iron Fish Project in Vietnam – finding simple, human solutions to complex problems.

What I take from these experiences is that the sensationalist phrase I started with – more change in the next 10 years, than last 250 – is very real, and happening right now. Across every sector, in emerging and developed markets, digital and analogue, companies big and small are shaking up our world.

They embrace the new technologies in smart ways, they focus on ways to make life better, and they are driven by leaders with the courage and foresight to look beyond today’s priorities and paradigms, to shape the future in their own visions.

Millennial marketing: Supreme, in collaboration with brands like Louis Vuitton.

What will you do next?

So what will you do in the year ahead? How will you embrace the megatrends, big and small, but in ways that also address the new context and conflicts? Will you be the next Bitcoin or Brewdog? Here are my 18 provocative yet practical concepts that I believe will be crucial to your strategies and actions, brands and business models, to drive innovation and growth in the year ahead:

• Make digital and physical work together … In 2018, the real world fights back. Don’t see them separately. Digital is the enabler of more human experiences – more personal and sensory, more immersive and collaborative. Images, touch and voice are no longer bound by a screen, and can be dispersed more physically – creating more convenience and support where it matters most. Airbnb is far more than a booking engine, but a way to explore new places and feel you belong there.
• Rebuild trust with transparency … In 2018, it’s hard to know what is genuine, where things come from, and who to trust. Rachel Botsman’s new book Who Can You Trust? explores how technology together, but might drive us apart. Blockchain is one potential way of resolving the crisis, an example being FollowMyVote which allows secure, anonymous voting. In embracing such new approaches, brands will need to move from touch points to trust points.
• Engage customers in their context … in 2018, stop thinking that you are the centre of the world, instead engage customers in their context, more relevant and more valuable. Austrian plastics innovator Greiner stopped talking about yogurt pots, and instead how to help customers like Nestle to innovate with more healthy foods on the go. The best places to sell downloadable music? In the gym, where most people listen to it.
• Embrace automation and algorithms … In 2018, its time to make big data work for you. Marketing is ever more personal and predictive. Netflix and Spotify have transformed what we watch and listen to, through their algorithmic recommendations. Finery tracks your clothes purchases to become you “wardrobe operating system”, whilst Digit allows you to outsource your finances, ensuring you can the best return on investments or spare cash.
• Focus on the points of influence … In 2018, the point of sale will finally decline in importance, challenging sales people everywhere to rethink. People are inspired and influenced by each other – their ideas and experiences – rather than celebrities or salespeople. Community-based platforms like Glossier become powerful, building an active community through relevant content and collaboration – a beauty brand in itself, as well as new type of channel for other relevant brands.
• Become the thought leader … in 2018, ideas will matter more. Fast-emerging technologies need new thinking. Customers need insights and inspiration about what to do, rather than just products and services to implement. They want new perspective and next practices, to stimulate their thinking, and to do better. Creative ideas, research projects, white papers, education, case studies. These are far better ways to assert your competitive advantage, and to engage customers more deeply.
• Create big brand moments … in 2018, brands become participative. Nike’s Sub 2 initiative caught the imagination of sports enthusiasts around the globe. Could a human break 2 hours for the marathon? The debate climaxed in Monza with a perfectly-staged event, that resulted in Eliud Kipchoge running 3 mins faster than anyone in history (but 35 seconds adrift of his target). Millions watched and cheered him through a Twitter livestream, and later bought his Zoom Fly shoes.
• Solve the problem, don’t just sell the product … in 2018, its time to help people do more. For too long, we’ve been eager to make the sale, and maybe offer a little “after sales” support. For customers, this is where their value begins. So the best brands, are all about helping people to use the products better, to achieve what they want to do. This might be through DIY workshops to help people use their new tools, or coaching clinics to help people run faster in their new kit.

Cycling community: Rapha’s cycle clubs engage people beyond the sale.

• Think communities not buyers… In 2018, business will finally realise that consumers want to engage with each other, rather than brands. Get over your obsession for relationships. Instead enable customers to connect with others like themselves – engaging, sharing, creating. With shared purpose they gain a voice, and become a movement. Rapha, with its Cycle Clubs full of lycra-clad cycling enthusiasts drinking coffee, as well as buying the premium clothing, is a great example.
• Reinvent your business model … in 2018, business models are ripe for innovation. Rethinking how your business works is more urgent, and more possible. Engaging partners to do what you do better, maybe share the risk and reward. Developing new revenue streams by charging for additional services, or maybe a subscription model. Loftium created a fabulous new model for first time home buyers, offering to pay the deposit in return for a share of ongoing spare bedroom Airbnb earnings.
• Innovate for people and profit … in 2018, social businesses will grow rapidly. Solving a real problem in society, and making money, is a great motivator for innovation. Consumers will engage more deeply with brands that demonstrate a conscience. Solben is a great example, a bio-energy company founded 8 years ago by 16 year old Mexican entrepreneur Daniel Gomez Iniguez, and now the largest in Latin America. Tesla, now with a higher market cap than Ford, builds on this too.
• Don’t be afraid of the digital mesh … in 2018, digital technologies fuse together. People, devices, content and services. AI is the glue that connects it all in relevant, dynamic and autonomous ways. Platforms enable this fusion, the technology becoming invisible, whilst the applications are multiplied. Alibaba’s City Brain project is about a connected, intelligent approach to smoothing traffic, encouraging shopping and reducing crime in Chinese cities.
• Make the network multipliers work for you … in 2018, networks grow exponentially in value. Each new participant adding many more connections. Social networks, distribution networks, franchises and communities are all networks. The secret is to make their connectivity become more valuable – the content shared between people, the benefits of omnichannel in a multi-locational brand. Don’t see your networks as a passive database, but as active participation.
• Intelligent personalisation is the norm … in 2018, customisation used is no longer a luxury,  it is expected. But with intelligent processes and 3d printing, anything can be created instantly, and on demand. Adidas Speedfactory has transformed demand for designer trainers, a completely new AI-based product produces, whilst Local Motors will co-create the car of your dreams within 28 days, and Habit is a DNA diagnostic-based nutrition plan created just for you.
• Connect with brand bots … in 2018, Amazon’s Alexa or Tencent’s Xinowei have become our new automated shopping friends, creating a new “their place” between digital and physical retail. But this also threatens the influence of brands, as machines make choices, often biased by owners. Domino’s teamed up with Alexa to make pizza ordering fast, fun and friendly, whilst Sephora created its own chatbot, Kik, to help beauty consumers choose the right products, and to use them better too.
• Immerse yourself in a fantasy world … in 2018, dreams can become reality. Virtual reality (VR) and reality have combined as augmented reality (AR) enabling digital technologies to enhance physical experiences. But this requires imagination too, bringing interactive games or fictional stories to life. Pokemon Go was a fad, but also a tipping point in game design. Game of Thrones could be your next vacation, or just stay at Disney’s new Star Wars Hotel.
• Be human, quirky and surprising … in 2018, people want to smile more. Cut through the automation and sameness of convergent innovation, to do something different. Amazon’s Treasure Trucks are a fun way to take single-item discounting to local communities, announced on social media and the arriving “with the ringing bells of the old ice-cream van” to create a sense of local carnival, and taking time to meet, talk and listen to customers.
• Envision the future, and deliver today … in 2018, the old strategy process doesn’t work. 10, 5 or 3 year planning frames are too inflexible. Instead we need roadmaps to the future which give us direction, enabled by smart choices, but we also need to adapt and evolve with constant change. Scott Anthony’s book Dual Transformation is a great manual, Facebook rethinks every 6 months, and Google redefines strategy as growth hacking. By seeing a better future, you will deliver better today.

The best leaders have the courage to shape the future, rather than just live by the norms of today … to think bigger and smarter … to rethink, refocus and reinvent.

The best opportunities for business – to find new growth, to engage customers more deeply, to stand out from the crowd, to improve their profitability – are found by seizing the opportunities of changing markets. The best way to seize these changes is by innovating – not just innovating the product, or even the business itself – but by innovating the market.

In the old world we accepted markets as a given – the status quo – and competed within them, with slightly different products and services, or most usually by competing on price. Most new products are quickly imitated, leading to declining margins and commoditisation. Most companies now recognise that this is no longer a route to long-term success in a rapidly changing world.

Leaders need more courage. Opportunities are limitless, competition is intense and ideas need to be bigger. Judgement is the hardest part – making the right decisions, for today and tomorrow. Making better choices that embrace the new context, resolve the apparent tensions, and propel on our exciting journey.

Be bold, be brave, be brilliant.

As the pace of technological innovation continues to accelerate, there is a thirst for new ideas.

Augmented reality to artificial intelligence, big data analytics to blockchain distributed networks, connected cars and wearable devices …  Technological change forces us to think different, to reframe our future perspectives and make new choices, to find practical and valuable applications for the mind-boggling capabilities, and to ensure that progress is positive as well as profitable.

Business thinkers have stepped up to bridge this ideas gap, with a proliferation of new books.

These range from Andrew Lo’s foundation-setting supplement to the efficient-market hypothesis (in “Adaptive Markets”) and Ray Dalio’s illuminating discussions of what has driven his and Bridgewater’s success (“Principles”) to Amy Goldstein’s compelling and carefully researched analysis of a devastated industrial town’s challenges in industrial retooling and repositioning itself (“Janesville”) and Satya Nadella’s engaging discussion of both his personal journey and the opportunities facing tech as Microsoft successfully reboots (“Hit Refresh”).

Disruption and inequality feature highly in economic, corporate and political discussions. And there are valuable insights to be gained from Brian Merchant’s detailed analysis of what has gone into the creation and proliferation of the iPhone (“The One Device”) and Walter Scheidel’s sobering historical analysis of the causes and consequences of inequality (“The Great Leveler”).

Laura Alber, CEO of Williams-Sonoma, was particularly inspired by “The Disruptors’ Feast”.

Frits van Paasschen, the former CEO of Starwood Hotels, takes readers on a global journey through decades of his work to discover the path through disruption. It was refreshing to step outside of the dynamics of my own industry and immerse myself in Mr. van Paasschen’s compelling narratives of some of America’s most beloved brands as they overcame or succumbed to industry, economic or customer changes.

In a warm and engaging style, Mr. van Paasschen directly addresses seemingly perennial topics such as technology, globalization and sustainability, which can have a momentous influence on any industry. Despite the challenges that lie ahead for leaders in our rapidly evolving economy, Mr. van Paasschen is soberly optimistic in his parting words: “It is better to prepare than to predict.”

John Zimmer is co-founder of car-sharing brand, Lyft. He chose “Tribe”.

Often the simplest reminders are the most important and influential. Zimmer has always believed that the happiest moments in life are those when we feel most connected to family, friends and the community around us. Sebastian Junger’s “Tribe” does an excellent job highlighting how we need to reclaim our sense of true community, and shows how societies define themselves and thrive when they share a common purpose. In times of increasing complexity and technology, we have to double down on our humanity and stay intimately connected—in person, not online—to the people around us.

Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, thought that “Radical Technologies” stood out.

Adam Greenfield’s book describes some of the ways innovation is transforming our daily lives. The book depicts an urban landscape where street cleaners carry GPS transponders to track their progress; sensors capture traffic jams on local thoroughfares and instantly alert drivers with a thick red line on their smartphone screens; and every transaction in every bistro, shop and cafe generates a profile of our personal preferences and daily habits.

If it feels like the world is awash with data on everything we think or do, you are right: The data we generate every second of our lives is being culled at creation. With artificial intelligence, machines can probably understand us better than we understand ourselves.

Change is inevitable. The big question is, How do we retool ourselves? How do we function in this new, utterly transparent world? What are the social consequences of what we are experiencing? Longing for a past that will never exist is not an option, and “Radical Technologies” is a fascinating glimpse at what we can achieve when we embrace the changes happening all around us and infuse our lives with the spirit of possibility.

In many ways, we stand at a special point in history.

The world has never been richer, humans have never lived such long, productive and healthy lives, and we have brought technology to the point where our machines could soon help us solve many of our remaining problems.

How will the world’s population continue to increase?

There will be 11.2 billion of us by 2100, according to the UN’s most likely scenario. But this is a projection, not a certainty. There’s an outside chance the world’s population could be as high as 16.6 billion by the end of the century. Or it could be as low as 7.3 billion – that’s fewer people than the 7.5 billion alive today. In all the UN scenarios, though, the population keeps increasing until at least 2050.

Why is the average age rising?

Because we’re living longer and having fewer children each. In 1950, many people across the globe could not expect to make it to their 50th birthday. Today, average global life expectancy is nearly 72 years and by 2100 it is projected to increase to over 83 years. Longer lives mean more old people, while lower fertility rates mean relatively fewer people are born to replace them: the so-called population pyramid is turning into a beehive.

By 2030, there will be 41 megacities of more than 10 million people. And by 2050, two thirds of us will live in urban areas. Super-dense cities could house everyone on a surprisingly small amount of land. Those 6.3 billion urban dwellers in a city the same density as today’s Mumbai could squeeze onto an area the size of the UK. But spread those people out into a city the density of today’s Atlanta, and the land footprint expands dramatically, to around the size of the US. Keeping a lid on suburban sprawl could be a key priority in the megacities of the future.

Today the vast majority of the energy humanity consumes – 86% – comes from fossil fuels. Renewable energy sources account for around 10% of the total, but that share is growing fast. Global solar energy consumption was around 7.5 times higher in 2015 than 2010. In a future dominated by renewables, countries with lots of land on which to site wind turbines and solar panels could find themselves at a distinct advantage.

Almost half of US jobs could soon be done by a robot or computer, according to Oxford University researchers. But some jobs are much more likely to be automated than others. Telemarketers, accountants and taxi drivers could see themselves replaced over the next decade or two, while jobs requiring creativity, manual dexterity or empathy could persist for far longer. Future labour markets will have to adapt to the pressures imposed by automation.

Happy new year! 2018 is set to be another year of rapid change in markets, driven by accelerating disruption of technologies and consumer expectations, ever more innovative business models and consolidation of the big global tensions – global v local, humans v machines, business v society, and today v tomorrow.

I keep saying it, but we live in an incredible time – more change in the next 10 years than the last 250 years. At the heart of the next decade will be new resolutions to those tensions, finding smarter ways to resolve the paradoxes of today’s world – finding creative ways to turn apparent conflicts into new opportunities.

• Global shifts and technological fusion, meta intelligence and the dark side … Finding the “megatrends” to amplify your future success
• Look back at last year … The best 2017 trend reports … inspired by Alibaba’s Buy+, Google’s Tilt Brush and Momondo’s DNA Journey

So what are the 12 month trends that will be most important for business and brands in 2018?

Intelligent consumers, intelligent business

Forbes Top 10 Business Trends 2018 focuses more on the technologies that will transform customer experiences, and the ways in which we engage with brands and businesses. It see 10 trends that will influence us all in 2018:

1. AI-driven brand experiences

When you think of artificial intelligence (AI), you might think of dehumanizing interactions. Don’t confuse AI with primitive marketing automation: “There are three levels of machine learning: AI where machines perform tasks normally performed by humans; machine learning, where the machines learn on their own; and deep learning, where machine learning chains together for rich learning.”

2. Online communities get interactive

Your smartphone might make you think that people prefer social media vs. in-person interactions. However, top companies realize that building great communities engenders long-term brand loyalty. Nothing drives strong communities better than in-person and live interactions. Even live video engages better than recorded video. Just look at the popularity of Facebook Live.

3. Millennials welcome Generation Z

According to analysts at Goldman Sachs, America’s youngest generation, “Gen-Z” (those born after 1998), are now entering their formative years and rising in influence. At nearly 70 million strong, the eldest of which are now entering college and/or the workforce, this group will soon outnumber their Millennial predecessors. Meanwhile the millennials, the oldest of them are now 35, are the new leaders.

4. New employment deals

Expect 3% wage rises across all sectors. In high demand jobs such as health care, elderly care, and physical therapy, expect wage increases to be higher.  We’ll also see wages likely increase in engineering, drone technology, and virtual reality.  Talented employees seek salary, benefits, flexibility, and autonomy. Smart companies know that flexibility and autonomy might beat out just pure compensation for many employees.

5. Social learning

As more professionals work remotely, companies have found creative ways to keep employees connected and develop their talents outside of the office. Social learning is the process of learning through peer social interaction. The most common example of traditional social learning is the chance encounter at the workplace water cooler. Two or more people run into each other, share ideas, and walk away knowing a little more in the process; this is social learning.

6. Live streaming video

Whereas video itself has become a necessary component for successful businesses, customers are no longer content with impersonal, generic marketing. People want real connections, with real people. Video is the most viewed content, and live video is the most effective way to engage with your audience. 80% of audiences would rather watch live video from a brand than read a blog, and 82% prefer live video from a brand to social posts. And 73% of B2B organizations report positive ROI from video marketing.

7. Think communities not buyers

The notion of the buyer’s journey was used to describe the path that your potential customer would take when making a purchase. Today’s customers are sophisticated, savvy consumers who do their research. The old ‘buyer’s journey’ has given way to more realistic models that takes into account this new reality. The journey buyers and prospects take is no longer linear or even neat, it’s more unpredictable and fluid which poses a big challenge to marketers.

8. Marketing is about problem solving

Marketers used to espouse the features and benefits of offerings. However, B2B customers have learned to ignore features/benefits. In fact, your ideal client may not even realize that they could benefit from your product or service. Top performing companies focus on the problems you solve, and the anticipated results you deliver. Companies like E Group  and Catapult New Business have seen explosive growth by focusing sharply on the challenges they help their clients overcome instead of focusing on the products and services they offer.

9. Thought leaders open new doors

Thought leaders are the new rainmakers. As technology continues to expand and disrupt industries, companies and clients rely more and more on SMEs to educate, guide and advise. Whereas your client can get information about your company’s products and services on your website, they can’t figure out how your solution might fit their needs. Whereas traditional sales professionals have noticed increased challenges in getting in front of customers, TLs are welcomed into the room with open arms.

10. Blockchain comes mainstream

If you had invested $1,000 dollars in Bitcoin back in 2008, you’d have more than $60,000,000 today. Bitcoin is based on the blockchain protocol. Blockchain originated in the technology space, which explains slow adoption rooted in its techno-babble jargon.  Smart companies will build skills around blockchain technology to ensure they are the ones doing the disrupting rather than the ones being disrupted.

Intersectionality and Xennials

JWT 2018 Future 100 Trend Report says 2018 will be the year in which 5G and augmented reality (AR) drive massive change in our interactions with the internet—we’ll be able to shop from our cars and visualise furniture in our home before deciding to buy it. And, rather than being described as “the future” at tech conferences, this will happen en masse. Brands and marketing are navigating an increasingly sophisticated consumer landscape where they are assessed on the nuances of their visual language, the diversity of their representation, 360-degree ethics and complete transparency.

Finally, and rather excitingly, we are moving further into a post-hipster world—or at least, into that world’s grown-up iteration. In 2017 we charted the Xennials, the 30-45-year-old microgeneration caught between the core millennial and generation X groups. Travel, food, drink, beauty and tech brands need to come to grips with this group’s expectations, as its net worth is set to more than double over the next 10 years.

Here are just a few of the 100 trends for the year ahead:

Travel and Hospitality … Immersive hospitality. 

Spooked by stagnant audience figures, film companies are creating immersive hotels in their films’ worlds, like Disney’s Star Wars hotel, launching in 2019.  

Tech and Innovation … Manufacturing 2.0. 

From Adidas’s new Speedfactory to Puma, brands are reshaping the factory with advanced rapid-manufacture techniques, creating bespoke products on demand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyum6GZp3r4

Food and Drink … Algorithmic food design. 

Having revolutionized art and sculpture, algorithms are making inroads in food design, creating unique and Instagram-optimized shapes. The multilayered, three-dimensional works of artist José Margulis have been transformed into tasty treats by architect-turned-patisserie chef Dinara Kasko:

Retail … Hyper-personalised products. 

The trend towards diagnostic, highly-personalised services is spreading from health to retail, as consumers become comfortable with exchanging personal data for solutions.  Try Habit, a DNA-based nutrition plan personalised to you:

Luxury … Remote on demand. 

Services like Blink by Black Tomato offer pop-up travel in remote locations that take personalization to the extreme, as wealthy travelers eschew cookie-cutter experiences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cptSKwymZRE

Lifestyle … Gen Z yellow? New zeitgeist hues for 2018.

Like its namesake, Gen Z Yellow is optimistic and gender-neutral. 2018’s new shades will make a colorful impact on our everyday landscape.

Culture … Intersectionality. 

“Intersectionality” is resurging in popular discourse—both in media outlets trying to reach the highly diverse generation Z, and among diversity chiefs developing employment practices. 

Brands and Marketing … Branded audio. 

First came branded content, then videos. Next, branded audio offers intimate opportunities for brands to connect with audiences in the era of voice. 

Health … Trippy wellbeing. 

The latest trend among high performers seeking shortcuts to optimized wellbeing is psychedelic drugs, which are enjoying a popularity not seen since the 1960s.

Beauty … New wave men’s grooming. 

Men’s skincare was one of the year’s most-searched beauty trends. New retailers and design objects reflect a sophisticated clientele moving beyond stereotypes.

Automated, virtual and transparent

Trendwatching’s 5 Trends for 2018 is focused on technologies relentless reinvention of our world, our business and lifestyles.

1. A-commerce

Here’s what comes after e-commerce and m-commerce. Shoppers will embrace the outsourcing of certain retail experiences to algorithms and smart devices. That means the automation of hunting, negotiating, purchasing, delivery arrangements and more. China’s JD.com, for example, is building automated warehouses, drone technology and AI route planning systems to deliver 92% of purchases same or next day to most of China.

Amazon Dash buttons accustomed millions to the idea of one touch auto-ordering. Meanwhile, millions are already outsourcing financial decisions to services such as Digit, the auto-saving app that moves small amounts of money to a savings account whenever it sees the chance. As of March 2017 it had saved USD 500 million for its users. That kind of financial outsourcing is a now a global phenomenon: think Neat, the AI-fueled payment card and app from Hong Kong, SusuAI in Nigeria, or Plum in the UK.

Example: Finery, digital manager of your wardrobe, launched in 2017:

2. Assisted development

Post-demographic consumers are crafting new narratives of adulthood. In 2018, they’ll look to brands to help – to teach them life skills, let them outsource daily tasks, or help them realize personal life goals.

For millions around the world, soaring asset prices, stagnant wages and high youth unemployment have put the traditional staging posts of adulthood – buying a house, starting a proper career – out of reach until they are in their 30s and beyond. A full 15% of US 25 to 35-year-olds now live at home; in 2000 it was 10% (Pew Research, September 2017).

Meanwhile, attitudes on what constitutes proper adulthood are undergoing massive shifts, fueled by underlying social forces and a ton of adulting memes. Nearly 20% of 28 to 37-year-old men in Shanghai are unmarried; in 2005 the figure was 12%. Meanwhile, 40% of Shanghainese in this age group say they have cohabited before marriage (Fudan University, June 2017).

Example: Loftium, innovative business model for home buyers, launched in 2017:

3. Virtual companions

Virtual entities make the leap from assistants to companions. Millions of people increasingly feel it is possible to have a meaningful conversation (or a relationship) with virtual entities that entertain, educate, heal and even befriend.

We’re not just talking the staggering 394% increase in time spent on social and messaging apps in 2016 (Yahoo, June 2017). We’re talking about relationships with personal assistants that already extend beyond the merely functional (don’t pretend you’ve never got deep and meaningful with Siri!). No wonder Apple is hiring software engineers with a psychology background to help Siri have better conversations.

A recent study found that among users aged 19 to 32, those who spend more than two hours a day on social media have twice the risk of feeling socially isolated against people who spend less than 30 minutes a day on the same platforms (American Journal of Preventative Medicine, July 2017).

Example: Replika is an AI-driven chatbot that creates a digital representation of you:

4. Forgiving by design

Post-purchase forgiveness. Imagine products and services that forgive them when their past – the product they selected, the size they chose, the service they wanted – doesn’t match their future. How? By near-magically adapt around their changing needs, wants and whims.

78% of consumers say they retract loyalty faster today than they did just three years ago (Accenture, February 2017). Hardly surprising given customers are constantly beset by offers of free trials, slashed prices and seductive perks. One way to swim in these waters?

‘The Apple HomePod reconfigures its sound depending on where it’s placed in a room. Why doesn’t my new car adapt around the changing weather!?’

Example: Curve and Mastercard allows you to change your payment card even after using it:

5. Glass box wrecking ball

A revolution in transparency is just getting started. Remember Harvey Weinstein and the avalanche of #MeToo revelations which one person started off.

Connectivity has not only turned every business into a glass box. It has also vastly magnified the power of those who have been wronged by malign individuals or organizations. It’s done that in two ways.

First, because it enables those who have been mistreated to find others who share their story, to corroborate and organise in new ways, and then move in unison as a righteous transparency wrecking ball. Second, it is allowing a broader cultural movement that is seeing toxic cultures of secrecy and disbelief torn down.

The intelligent digital mesh

Gartner calls the entwining of people, devices, content and services the intelligent digital mesh. It’s enabled by digital models, business platforms and a rich, intelligent set of services to support digital business.

• Intelligent: How AI is seeping into virtually every technology and with a defined, well-scoped focus can allow more dynamic, flexible and potentially autonomous systems.
• Digital: Blending the virtual and real worlds to create an immersive digitally enhanced and connected environment.
• Mesh: The connections between an expanding set of people, business, devices, content and services to deliver digital outcomes.

At Gartner Symposium recently the tech research company focused on 10 strategic (five year impact) technology trends for the year ahead. In summary they are:

1. AI will be the enabler of everything else

AI has massive potential to enhance decision making, reinvent business models and ecosystems, and remake the customer experience. Many organizations have already taken notice of this, with a recent Gartner survey indicating that 59% or organizations are gathering information to build an AI strategy, while the rest are piloting or adopting AI programs.

2. Augmenting analytics

AI has become a major battleground for software and service vendors, with AI expected to be incorporated into every application, app and service, at least on some level. Gartner highlights augmented analytics, which uses machine learning to automate data preparation, insight discovery and insight sharing as an area of growing strategic importance.

3. Intelligent swarms of things

As  the IoT grows to encompass an increasing number of things, AI and machine will enable these things to operate autonomously or semi-autonomously, and together. For example, a robotic vacuum with computer vision could navigate and clean a house with minimal intervention.

4. Digital twin

Digital twins, which are digital representations of real-world systems, offer information on the status of their real-world counterpart. These representations can respond to changes or improve operations, potentially saving companies billions of dollars in maintenance repair and operations. While most examples of digital twins today exist within the IoT space, there are a growing potential for digital twins to exist for objects that are not actually “thinks,” such as a digital twin for a human that offers biometrics and medical data to doctors, or a digital twin for a city, that could offer information to city planners about operations and maintenance.

5. Computing in realtime  

“Edge computing” moves computation and processing closer to the user/thing, or the “edge” of the network. When compared to traditional cloud computing, this reduces the communication bandwidth needed and eliminates the latency between sensors and the cloud. As autonomous vehicles, drones, and other robotic technologies continue to mature, the need to real-time processing of vast amounts of information will only grow.

6. Conversational brands

Conversational platforms are changing how people interact with the digital world. Rather than having to learn how the computer communicates (aka learn the interface), conversational platforms enable the user to convey their intent using natural language. Peer to peer conversations and communities will become core to brands and marketing.

7. Immersive experiences

Virtual reality (VR), which places the user in a digitally rendered environment and augmented reality (AR) which overlays digital information on the real world, are dissolving the boundaries between the digital and physical world. Now, mixed reality (MR), which merges and extends both AR and VR, is becoming the experience of choice.

8. Blockchain

The blockchain is a shared, distributed decentralized and tokenized ledger that removes business friction by being independent of individual applications or participants. While there is significant potential in the long term for untrusted parties to exchange commercial transactions, the next two to three years will be more hype than tangible benefit.

9. Event Driven

Digital business moments, which are a combination of business events that reflect the discovery of notable states or state changes, will drive digital business. While a simple example would be the signal that a purchase order has been completed, as the IoT and other technologies emerge, complex events can be detected more quickly and analyzed in greater detail.

10. Risk and trust

The security world is constantly changing as threats and threat protection evolves, as evidenced by the string of high profile hacks over the summer. Continuous adaptive risk and trust assessment (CARTA) allows for real-time, risk and trust-based decision making with adaptive responses to security-enable digital business. To make CARTA a reality, organizations should explore integrating security into their DevOps efforts to deliver a continuous SevSecOps process, as well a explore deception technologies to catch bad actors that have penetrated the organization’s network.

Redesigning customer experiences

Fjord Trends 2018 suggests how organizations can navigate these currents and design for positive change.

Fjord examines seven trends expected to shape the next generation of experiences:

• Physical Fights Back … Digital has had the limelight long enough – there are two brand experience headliners now. The time has come to blend the digital with the physical.
• Computers Have Eyes … As well as comprehending our words, computers now understand images without any help from us. Imagine the exciting possibilities for next-generation digital services.
• Slaves to the Algorithm … How do you design a marketing strategy to win over the algorithms – immune to conventional branding efforts – that sit between brands and their customers?
• A Machine’s Search for Meaning … A.I. might change our jobs, but need not eliminate them. We can – and should – design our collaboration with the machines that will help us develop.
• In Transparency We Trust … Blockchain has the potential to create transparency that will clear the fog of Internet ambiguity, regain lost trust, and repair relationships with the public.
• The Ethics Economy … Organizations are feeling the heat to take stands on political and societal hot button issues, whether they want to or not. And consumers are speaking with their dollars, choosing brands that align with their core beliefs.
• Design Outside the Lines … Design’s rapid ascedency and newfound respect within organizations is a win for all. But, in a world in which everyone thinks they’re a designer, today’s practitioners need to evolve – how they work, learn and differentiate themselves – if they are to continue having impact.

 

Marketing driven by context and conversations

While Snapshot may not have taken off in quite the way advertisers anticipated, 2017 predictions did anticipate marketers who would strive to create new and improved ways to build an “experience” for customers and establish relationships with consumers. Big data had a big impact on the landscape, with the data revolution taking a stronghold in the marketing industry. While the data revolution has made it possible for marketers to more accurately target consumers and measure the value of advertising strategies, it has also resulted in an even higher demand for effective use of analytics tools and high ROI. Forbes brings together 5 trends from other reports:

1. Establishing A Conversation

A SmartInsights survey reports that marketers around the world continue to anticipate content marketing to be the single most important commercial trend in 2018, and it’s not without good reason. After all, content marketing is one of the most effective ways to establish a conversation and engage potential customers in relationships with your brand across time. In 2018, look for marketers who are doing more than ever before to generate high-quality, relevant content and optimize their sites to encourage users to participate in the content they share. Marketers will need to find ways to connect more authentically and leverage social listening to strategize successfully in the new year.

2. Short Planning Cycles

When it comes to marketing strategy, it’s important not to get too far ahead of yourself. Consumer tastes change frequently, so businesses can’t put all their advertising eggs in one basket. Kate Sayre, global head of consumer goods strategy at Facebook, explains that when it comes to marketing, the only real constant is change: “We do six-month planning cycles at Facebook because we don’t know the future. A lot of it is driven by the consumer. This is new consumer behavior in a lot of these environments and we can pretend we may know what the consumer is going to do, or we can actually do small-scale testing, figure out what they’re going to do, and expand and go from there.” Marketers will need to focus on adaptability as new technologies continue to advance and improve.

3. Contextual Marketing

Traditional interruption advertising is designed to distract from the consumer’s task at hand, but contextual marketing seeks to match it. Consider the way Facebook’s algorithms track users’ behaviors in order to prioritize showing them content they will find relevant; this keeps users engaged and coming back for more. Contextual marketing is driven by the insights afforded by big data, including market and customer analysis and predictive analytics; understanding the context in which consumers seek to engage with your brand can help you determine customer intent and drive conversions. Contextual marketing is the future of marketing, as consumers continue to demand greater personalization online.

4. Purpose Driven Purchasing

As much as 79 percent of consumers would prefer to purchase products from a company that operates with a social purpose, and high-performing marketers are more than two times more likely to be leveraging purpose-driven marketing methods. Purpose-driven marketing is also contextual since it creates authentic and engaging conversations with customers. For example, Tesla outsold Mercedes Benz by nearly three times with only 1/190th of the ad budget by engaging their audience in an ongoing conversation about decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels. Customers want to support socially responsible enterprises with their business; at the heart of the future of marketing is marketing with heart.

5. Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning

2018 may bring about an automated customer service revolution as more businesses turn to chatbots to facilitate customer interaction. “In 2018, chatbots will become a far more common solution for brands wishing to serve their customers in a smarter and more cost-effective way,” explains Matt Navarra, director of social media at TheNextWeb. “With AI now being easier to integrate into various tools and services, chatbots will become far more useful and personalized with each interaction it has with users.” Artificial intelligence will also help to power big data interpretation and analysis, making it possible for startups to glean greater insight from the information collected.

Marketing is likely to become more analytical in 2018, with big data driving insights and experiences. At the same time marketers need more imagination than ever, to harness new technologies and engage expectant consumers in relevant, profitable and inspiring ways.

More trends

And more