- Download a summary of Peter Fisk’s keynote “Learning from Asia”
The world’s most dynamic markets today are in Asia.
China is the world’s second largest economy, a huge new and growing consumer market, and home to many of the world’s fastest growing companies. Alibaba to Baidu, BYD and Bytedance, China Mobile to Didi Chuxing, Haier to Huawei, SAIC to Tencent, Dalian Wanda and Xiaomi. China has shifted from imitator to innovator, fundamentally driving new technologies, new applications, and the new agenda for business.
And whilst China is growing at around 5-6%, many other Asian countries will grow even faster through the next decade: India, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines. Collectively these are known at the 7% club. Indeed we could add another list of great non-Chinese Asian companies like DBS and Grab in Singapore, Samsung and LG in South Korea, Uniqlo and Softbank in Japan, Reliance and Tata in India.
- Read more in my article Taming Tigers: Learning from Asian Business Leaders
Whilst the 19th century belonged to Europe, and the 20th century to America, the 21st century is Asian. In particular, it is the “Eurasian” market axis, connecting Europe and Asia, that is likely to grow most significantly. Bruno Maçães argues in his book “The Dawn of Eurasia” that the distinction between Europe and Asia has disappeared, that China’s new “Silk Road” projects are more important than the G20, and that Europe is missing the boat on the third globalisation.
Meanwhile Parag Kanna says in his recent book “5 billion people, two-thirds of the world’s mega-cities, one-third of the global economy, two-thirds of global economic growth, thirty of the Fortune 100, six of the ten largest banks, eight of the ten largest armies, five nuclear powers, massive technological innovation, the newest crop of top-ranked universities. Asia is also the world’s most ethnically, linguistically and culturally diverse region of the planet, eluding any remotely meaningful generalization beyond the geographic label itself. Even for Asians, Asia is dizzying to navigate.”
- Read more in my article The Future is Asia: 5 billion people is just a starting point
And as we move rapidly towards the 2020s, the amount of change and uncertainty in markets is likely to increase further, challenging the more structured and analytical approaches of the west. Built into Asian culture and religion is a resilience to cope with change, but also an optimism to thrive on change, which is likely to serve them well.
- Read more in my article The I Ching, the oldest guide on how to deal with uncertainty
Yet this is not just about abandoning your local markets and heading East. What is even more relevant to most companies, particularly in Western markets, is that Asian business do thing differently – they innovate, compete and grow in different ways.
25 years ago I met my wife who is half Chinese. Getting to know her family opened my eyes to a very different attitude to life and work. Whilst the following might seem nice words, I can see how they really do instil a very different approach to work, life and success. From the smallest business, to the huge new corporations, they offer us new ideas and inspiration.
17 Lessons from Asia for Europe
So what can we learn from Asian companies, that we can apply back home?
- Values: The Confucian approach is often quoted by Chinese premier Xi Jinping – a philosophy founded on social harmony and collaboration, frugality and hard work, and education – values shared across much of Asia.
- Agility: Taoism is about going with the flow, and adapting to change. The yin and yang symbolise the ability for opposites to co-exist in a positive way, communism and capitalism, centralisation and decentralisation, fast and slow.
- Long game: Private ownership gives Asian companies stability to take a longer term view. Softbank takes a 30 year investment view. Governments work to a 5 year plan, enabling strategic initiatives to thrive.
- State: Whilst this is often seen negatively, government support enables companies to grow with long-term loans, to develop new capabilities together in dedicated zones, and develop shared infrastructure like ports and rail.
- Digital first: A desire to create the future is combined with a willingness to let go of the past, and not be hampered by legacy structures, jumping to the digital world. Look at DBS in Singapore, the world’s best bank.
- Fast and intuitive: Fast decision making is a hallmark of companies like Alibaba, typically leaders in small groups, acting less democratically, and much more of intuition rather than bound by spreadsheets and business cases.
- Research: Huge investments, partly state-funded, go into new science and technologies, in particular fields such as AI, robotics, biotech, and sustainable energy. 3 Chinese electric car companies now outsell Tesla, led by DYB.
- Experimentation: The fast and intuitive approach lends itself to constant experimentation. Companies like Xiaomi continually try new ideas to see what takes off with its huge consumer audiences.
- Scale: The huge size of Asian markets, 5 billion people compared to 1 billion on each other continent, means that even niche ideas have significant audiences, and can then be scaled rapidly though networks and give efficiencies.
- Entrepreneurial: Many western companies struggle with how corporations can be like start-ups. Haier transformed their business into 10,000 micro businesses under one roof, calling it their Rendanheyi model.
- Copying: Another seemingly taboo subject, but still what Chinese companies excel at (as does Apple). Meituan Dianping was recently ranked the world’s most innovative company, yet copies and tweaks business models.
- Ecosystem: Asian businesses are not afraid to openly work together. Alibaba and Tencent are like “Google plus Amazon plus Facebook plus eBay plus payment plus logistics plus wholesale” all in one. Platform models are the norm.
- Relationships: Famously, the Asian concept of “gunxia” plays a huge role in many of these aspects, a relationship based on face and trust, where businesses and individuals commit to collaborate without hussle or strong-armed deals.
- Leadership: We probably know more CEOs of Asian companies than western companies. Why is this? Because trust in companies comes through people, and particularly in ecosystems of employees, partners and customers.
- World view: Many Asian companies see the world, rather than local markets, as their home. Xiaomi for example sees natural affinity and rapid growth across similar emerging markets, from India to Brazil and Mexico.
- Education: Back to the Confucian idea at the beginning, education becomes key to future success. China has 4 times more STEM students than USA, and 33% of all students study engineering compared to 7% in USA.
- Frugal: Whilst rich young Asians have a huge appetite for partying and designer brands, overall they have a frugal attitude and most people save hard. Net household savings in China are 38% compared to 18% in USA and 4% in Europe.
- Hardwork: Jack Ma swears by it: the 996. Which means working long hours 9am to 9pm 6 days every week. Whilst the west have taken life easier, the Asians are working hard.
You may agree or disagree. What else would you add? You may find that the state interventionist approach is not fair, destabilises competition, and that many of these companies would have failed in their infancy but for such support. You may argue that the Asian “heads down” work ethic could easily be supplanted by machines in an emerging world of AI and robotics, and that Europe is better focused on more human, creative and added-value skills and work. As you walk around Shanghai, you may feel uncomfortable that the Chinese police evaluate you with their data-powered AR-enabled dark glasses, or how social credits drive compliant behaviour, and aspects of freedom and human rights are ignored. Yet Asian companies are fascinating, creative and not going away.
- Read my in-depth stories of many of these Asian companies here 100 Gamechanger Case Studies
This year’s Thinkers50 European Business Forum, bringing together the world’s top business thinkers with Europe’s business leaders, focuses on this topic. How can European businesses learn from the approaches of Asian companies. How can we take the best new ideas and apply them to our own companies here in Europe? For two inspiring days in Odense, Denmark – itself a hub of 21st century robotics – we bring together many different perspectives on this challenge.
In the European Business Lecture 2019, Alex Osterwalder gives his view on how Europe’s companies can be invincible. Also Erin Meyer on how they can work better together, top strategist Scott Anthony on innovating in dual transformation, Kjell Nordstrom gets funky again, Irene Yuan Son takes us to Africa, Navi Radjou contrasts India and America, Erica Dhawan gets you more connected, Haiyan Wang learns from China, and Howard Yu helps us leap forwards in new ways.
I will again be hosting the event, and look forward to seeing you at “the Davos of business thinking” on 25-26 September.
- Learn more of the best ideas from Asia at the Thinkers50 European Business Forum 2019
The most innovative businesses see the world differently.
They don’t just seek to imitate the success of others, to compete in the markets of today, to frame themselves by their relative differences to competitors. Instead they play their own game.
These companies go beyond innovating their products and services, their customer experienes and business models. They seek to innovate how their markets work.
Think of it like a sports game. How could you change the game? It could be anything from the pitch dimensions to rules of play, the team composition to the measures of success, the role of the referee to the participation of fans. Even the name of the game.
Now look at today’s most disruptive innovators – 23andMe to Airbnb, Brewdog to Buzzfeed, Casper to Coursera – they reframe, reimagine and redefine the market on their terms – who is it for, why people buy, what they pay and get, and how they work.
I’ve met and profiled over 250 “gamechanger” companies on my travels, in almost every sector, and in every part of the world. Corporate giants and start-ups, from Abu Dhabi to Berlin, Colombo to Qingdao.
There is no one way to change the game, but there are definitely some common traits:
- Audacious – Gamechangers are visionary and innovative, but also daring and original; they seek to shape the future to their advantage.
- Purposeful – They seek to make life better, in some relevant and inspiring way; they have a higher motive than just making money.
- Networked – Gamechangers harness the power of networks, digital and physical, both business and customer networks, to exponentially reach further faster.
- Intelligent – They use big data analytics and algorithms, machine learning and AI, to be smart and efficient, personal and predictive.
- Collaborative – Gamechangers work with others, from ecosystems to platforms, social networks and co-creation, to achieve more together.
- Enabling – They focus not on what they do, but what they enable people to do; and thereby redefine their marketspace, find new opportunities and redefine value.
- Commercial – Gamechangers take a longer-term perspective, adopting new business models, and recalibrating the measures of progress and success.
Do you have a future mindset?
Today’s business leaders need a future mindset. That sounds obvious, but isn’t.
Most leaders have a “fixed mindset”. They keep stretching the old models of success. They stay loyal to the model that made them great, seeking to squeeze and tweak it for as long as possible. They seek perfection – to optimise what they currently do – which leads to efficiency and incremental gains.
Instead a “future mindset” is prepared to let go of the past. To explore the future, to experiment with new ways of working and winning. Failure is a way to learn, and innovation becomes the norm. Change is relentless inside, as it is outside. Innovation is their lifeblood. Like Jeff Bezos loves to say “it is always day one”.
With a future mindset, the CEO needs new attributes:
- Sense maker – to interpret a fast and confusing world, to see new patterns and opportunities, what is relevant and not, to shape your own vision.
- Radical optimist – to inspire people with a stretching ambition, positive and distinctive, to be audacious, to see the possibilities when others only see risk.
- Future hacker – they start from the “future back”, with clarity of purpose and intent, encouraging ideas and experiments, leveraging resource and scale.
- Ideas connector – da Vinci said innovation is about making unusual connections; connecting new people, new partners, new capabilities and new ideas.
- Emotionally agile – whilst organisational agility is essential, emotional agility matters even more; to cope with change, to be intuitive in making sense, and making choices.
- Entrepreneur at large – keeping the founders mentality alive, hands-on working with project teams to infuse the mindset, to be the catalyst and coach.
- Having grit – “gamechanger” leaders need to go against the grain, to persist but know when to move on, to have self belief and confidence, guts and resilience.
The future is a better place to start
Start from the “future back”.
Trying to evolve in today’s complex and confused world is unlikely to lead you towards a bright and distinctive future. It will extend your life a little longer, but it will be tough and uninspiring, with diminishing returns.
Instead jump to the future. I tend to start with five years ahead, although it may differ by company. 5 years is long enough to change the world, but close enough to be real. Start by creating a positive, collective and inspiring vision of the future market. What will it be like? What will people want? Why? How? Where? Then consider how to win in this new world.
This is where “moonshot thinking” can be really useful. “Why be 10% better, when you could be 10 times better?” 10 times more profits, more customers, more quality, reduced cost, reduced time. Whatever. By giving yourself a “How could we do it 10x better” challenge you take a new perspective, solve problems in different ways.
Be inspired by ideas from other places.
Explore how ARM or GE, Inditex or Netflix, Glossier or Novo Nordisk have changed their markets. Choose any of my 100+ “gamechanger” companies! How did they do it? How did customers respond? (Remember, they often serve the same customers as you!). You can’t learn much from competitors, but you can learn a lot from relevant parallels.
Copy. Adapt. Paste.
Customer insight also matters. Deep dives and design thinking, exploring the emerging trends and deviant behaviours. This can enhance and validate your ideas, but the problem with most customer insight is that it is filtered by our current world. You need something to disrupt your thinking.
I have a great box of disruptive techniques. Some are really simple – like break then remake the rules, like imagine its free then find a way to make money, like reverse polarities and many more. The point is to disrupt your conventional thinking.
From this, ideas rapidly emerge. You need lots of ideas about the future. But these are fragments of the real answer. The real creativity comes in fusing together into bigger “concepts”. These could be customer solutions, or new ways of working, new revenue streams, or new business models, and new market scenarios.
Once you have a clear and collective ambition for the future, it’s time to work backwards. “If this is how we want to be in 5 years, where do we need to get to in 3 years, and then in 1 year? Therefore what do we need to start doing now?” You develop a “horizon plan” for your business; a strategy roadmap if you like, but developed backwards.
The important thing is that by working backwards, you have jumped out of the morass of today. You’ve avoided the assumptions, limitations, problems and priorities of today’s thinking. You have a more inspiring “gamechanging” future, and have started to map out the steps to get there. Most likely with different priorities in the short-term too.
Of course the steps on this journey might change, but it’s going to be an exciting adventure.
Change the way we think, resolve the conflicts
In today’s busineses, we have created artificial divides in how we think and operate. Digital and physical seem like two different worlds, global and local seem like alternative strategies that cannot combine, many still struggle to align value to customers and shareholders in a mutually reinforcing way, and short and long-termism continues to confuse our priorities.
Our thinking within business, has created separate and apparently conflicting approaches. The opportunity is to make the combination of both approaches world – “fusions” if you like – to be innovative in the way you combine apparent opposites.
Digital and physical are two sides of the same coin.
There is only one world, unless you believe Ray Kurzweil, and it is the real one. It’s human and physical. Digital technologies are incredibly powerful, enabling people to connect, to work, to learn, to play in new ways. From mobile phones to blockchains, 3D printing and augmented reality, digital allows us to do more, do it faster, do things we could never do before. But it’s still about humanity.
Start with people. How can you enable them to achieve more? To live better, to have more fun, to do better for the world. Whatever matters. I work closely with Richard Branson and his Virgin teams. Their mindset is to “start from the outside, and then work in”. Design a better customer experience. Built on your ambition and insight, and then explore how you could deliver it with new and existing capabilities.
Global and local are opportunities for every business.
I love Amazon’s “Treasure Truck” … Most of us have never connected with Amazon beyond the website and the delivery guy. Amazon is huge, global and anonymous. But the Treasure Truck is real. It travels around the country, bringing its pop-up store to local neighbourhoods, fun and games, bargains and demos. For Amazon, it’s a chance to make real connections, listen to people, and to be local.
We can all see a backlash in society against relentless globalisation, huge corporations, and social inequality. We see a lack of trust in brands, and know that authenticity matters. Etsy shows us that even the smallest and most local artisan businesses can also be global. For every business, local and global markets are within reach, however it’s also about combining scale and standardisation, with relevance and individuality.
Ideas and networks should be the core of your business.
Gamechanger businesses need a compelling idea, a core purpose, an inspiring proposition, that can spread fast and contagiously. In a digitally-fuelled world, the most innovative businesses embrace “ideas and networks” to drive exponential impact – like WhatsApp creating $19bn in three years, Airbnb $40bn in 9 years, Alibaba $476bn in 18 years, Amazon $740bn in 23 years.
Think about that concept of “exponential” … The power of networks – be it franchisees, or distributors, or customers and users – lies not in the number of members, but in the connections between them. Networks have a multiplying effect. Exponential. Consider, for example, Rapha, the sportwear brand that brings together people with a passion for cycling, who conveniently meet at their “Cycle Club” stores, and buy their premium gear. A fantastic “ideas and networks” business.
Finally this idea of short-term and long-term being in conflict with each other.
Jeff Bezos never has this problem, nor Elon Musk, nor Richard Branson. They focus on the long-term, recognising it will require some years of investment to get there. They all of course lead privately-owned companies. But every public company has the same ambition to innovate and grow. And so do most of their investors, actually.
The reality is that any company’s stock market performance is based on its future earnings potential, not its past. The better you can engage with equity analysts, journalists and investors themselves to explain why you will deliver a better future worth waiting for, then you get their support. If you don’t engage them in your future vision, plans and innovations, then they will default to looking for short-term evidence. It’s really in our hands, to work together to create a future we want to invest in. And to share the greater risk and rewards.
Time to embrace your future mindset
We live in an incredible time … More change in the next 10 years than in the last 250 years … remember? I know that sounds a little crazy, but think about Hyperloop in 3 years, a tipping point to electric cars in 5 years, Mars missions in 8 years. They are all real, and possible.
Digital platforms connecting buyers and sellers in new ways, blockchain having the potential to transform relationships and trust, 3d printing having the potential to transform value chains to deliver anything personalised and on-demand, AI and robotics giving us the capabilities to be superhuman in our minds and bodies.
These are just some of the fantastic new capabilities that enable us to innovate beyond what we can even imagine today. The future isn’t like the future used to be. We cannot just evolve or extrapolate the past. Today’s future is discontinuous, disruptive, different.
It is imagination that will move us forwards … unlocking the technological possibilities, applying them to real problems and opportunities, to drive innovation and growth in every industry, in every part of our lives.
Imagine a world where you press “print” to get the dress of your dreams, the food of your fantasies, or the spare parts for your car. Instantly, personalised and on demand. Think then what does that mean if we don’t need the huge scale of manufacturing plants, warehousing and transportation. Maybe we will even subscribe to the IP catalogues of brands, rather than buy standard products, in the ways we currently subscribe to Netflix.
Time to embrace your growth mindset … Unlock your Einstein dreams and Picasso passion … Embrace your Mandela courage and Ghandi spirit. Be more curious, be more intuitive, be more human. Ask more questions. Don’t be afraid to have audacious ideas, to challenge the old models of success, and turn future ambitions into practical profitable reality.
How else did Zespri reinvent the Chinese gooseberry as the kiwi fruit? How else will SpaceX reach Mars by 2025? How else did Netflix came to be, or NuTonomy, or Nespresso, or Nyx?
This is why 23andMe’s Anne Wojicki wont give up in her quest to make DNA analysis available to everyone, and to ultimately find a cure for cancer. And it’s why Jack Ma didn’t give up as he rose from $1000-per year English teacher to technological royalty.
The secret is the future mindset.
To realise that the future is malleable. So we need to grab hold of it, and shape it in our own vision. To our advantage.
This is what “gamechangers” do.
- Article: The 10x Leader
- Article: Amplifying Potential
- Book: “Gamechangers: Are you ready to change the world?“
- Book: “Business Genius: A more inspired approach to leadership”
- Workshop: “Gamechangers Program: Leading for smarter innovation and profitable growth”
- Workshop: “Inspiring Leadership … future, people and change“
- Download a summary of Peter Fisk’s keynote “Gamechangers”
Time for business leaders to “seize the day” or, more appropriately, bǎ wò dāng xià (把握当下).
Agenda
- 0830 … Introduction by Snorre Storset, Head of Nordea Norway
- 0840 … 7 Wonders of the New Business World, Keynote by Peter Fisk
- 0940 … Q&A, Hosted by Nordea
- 1000 … Case Study of Scatec Solar
- 1030 … Case Study of Telenor (to be confirmed)
- 1100 … Round table discussion, facilitated by Peter Fisk
- 1130 … Lunch
Achieving exponential growth requires a disruptive mindset. To drive lasting change, you will need to design a whole new roadmap across your entire organizational value chain, including people, technology and business models.
- Recovery and Growth – how to reignite the future of business, as crisis has accelerated change, with new opportunities to grow. Recovery and growth are related to the design and deployment of business models able to combine robustness and scalability.
- Exponential – how to amplify your impact, by thinking more broadly and differently, and using network rather than linear thinking. Exponentiality is the power to multiply the effect of components (mindset, technology, business models) and not merely add them.
This is a pioneering program for senior executives from all areas of business who are eager to develop a strategic framework that incorporates an effective combination of linear and exponential growth business models.
Online agenda: Workshop with Peter Fisk
How can we develop an exponential mindset? Having the agility to improve the present and explore the future.
Monday seminar: “Changing the Game” … changing markets, changing business … how to change how you compete and win
- Reimagine the future: Megatrends to 2030, and how the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the future, from industry structures to consumer aspirations.
- Change the game, don’t play the game: innovate strategies for business growth, learning from Alibaba and Amazon to PingAn and Zespri
- Moonshot thinking: 10x not 10%, and using it to reframe your ambition and opportunities, learning from Softbank, Tesla, Jio Phone, Meituan Dianping
- Exponential multipliers: the power of networks, brands, business models, ecosystems, communities, learning from Haier, Nespresso, Glossier, Rapha
- Resources: 5 Megatrends 2020-2030
- Resources: Gamechangers
Tues-Thurs project: “New Ideas to Business Design”
- Participants will use the 4 dimensional “Gamechanger Compass” to reimagine their market, and how their business works
- They can codify this into a one page business design, or use the one page business model canvas
- Resources: 100 Gamechangers Case Studies
- Resources: Future Lab Online
Friday seminar: “Changing the Game” … project feedbacks, enhancements and learning outcomes
Online agenda: Workshop with Peter Fisk
How can we deliver more exponential impact? Leading the business to deliver new business models successfully.
Monday seminar: “Leading the future” … with more purpose, courage and growth mindset
- Finding purpose beyond profits: Reframing your business around “why” not what, and its implications for business and brands, learning from Apple and Danone, Patagonia and Unilever.
- Embracing new priorities: Purpose drives new priorities and measures of success, delivering value for all stakeholders, innovating to do this better.
- Leading with a growth mindset: Inspired by the new leadership heroes. Learning from Anne Wojicki to Emily Weiss, Mikael Bjergso to Satya Nadella
- The New Leadership DNA: 7 strategic shifts towards a better future for business, and 12 attributes of future-minded leaders, with the courage to create a better future
- Resources: 7 Leadership Inspirations
- Resources: 7 Business Shifts
Tues-Thurs project:”Turning Purpose into Profits”
- Participants will explore potential frames of purpose for their business, and the consequences for priorities and principles, propositions and deliverables, and measures of success.
- Resources: Business Purpose into Profits
- Resources: Future Lab Online
Friday seminar: “Leading the future” … project feedbacks, enhancements and learning outcomes
The most innovative businesses see the world differently.
They don’t just seek to imitate the success of others, to compete in the markets of today, to frame themselves by their relative differences to competitors. Instead they play their own game.
I call them “gamechangers”, and have spent the last 24 months running competitions around the world, to find and rank the world’s most innovative companies by sector and geography.
So what’s the “game”? Well, in simple terms, it’s the market.
These companies go beyond innovating their products and services, their customer experienes and business models. They seek to innovate how their markets work.
Think of it like a sports game. How could you change the game? It could be anything from the pitch dimensions to rules of play, the team composition to the measures of success, the role of the referee to the participation of fans. Even the name of the game.
Now look at today’s most disruptive innovators – 23andMe to Airbnb, Brewdog to Buzzfeed, Casper to Coursera – they reframe, reimagine and redefine the market on their terms – who is it for, why people buy, what they pay and get, and how they work.
I’ve met and profiled over 250 “gamechanger” companies on my travels, in almost every sector, and in every part of the world. Corporate giants and start-ups, from Abu Dhabi to Berlin, Colombo to Qingdao.
There is no one way to change the game, but there are definitely some common traits:
- Audacious – Gamechangers are visionary and innovative, but also daring and original; they seek to shape the future to their advantage.
- Purposeful – They seek to make life better, in some relevant and inspiring way; they have a higher motive than just making money.
- Networked – Gamechangers harness the power of networks, digital and physical, both business and customer networks, to exponentially reach further faster.
- Intelligent – They use big data analytics and algorithms, machine learning and AI, to be smart and efficient, personal and predictive.
- Collaborative – Gamechangers work with others, from ecosystems to platforms, social networks and co-creation, to achieve more together.
- Enabling – They focus not on what they do, but what they enable people to do; and thereby redefine their marketspace, find new opportunities and redefine value.
- Commercial – Gamechangers take a longer-term perspective, adopting new business models, and recalibrating the measures of progress and success.
Do you have a future mindset?
Today’s business leaders need a future mindset. That sounds obvious, but isn’t.
Most leaders have a “fixed mindset”. They keep stretching the old models of success. They stay loyal to the model that made them great, seeking to squeeze and tweak it for as long as possible. They seek perfection – to optimise what they currently do – which leads to efficiency and incremental gains.
Instead a “future mindset” is prepared to let go of the past. To explore the future, to experiment with new ways of working and winning. Failure is a way to learn, and innovation becomes the norm. Change is relentless inside, as it is outside. Innovation is their lifeblood. Like Jeff Bezos loves to say “it is always day one”.
With a future mindset, the CEO needs new attributes:
- Sense maker – to interpret a fast and confusing world, to see new patterns and opportunities, what is relevant and not, to shape your own vision.
- Radical optimist – to inspire people with a stretching ambition, positive and distinctive, to be audacious, to see the possibilities when others only see risk.
- Future hacker – they start from the “future back”, with clarity of purpose and intent, encouraging ideas and experiments, leveraging resource and scale.
- Ideas connector – da Vinci said innovation is about making unusual connections; connecting new people, new partners, new capabilities and new ideas.
- Emotionally agile – whilst organisational agility is essential, emotional agility matters even more; to cope with change, to be intuitive in making sense, and making choices.
- Entrepreneur at large – keeping the founders mentality alive, hands-on working with project teams to infuse the mindset, to be the catalyst and coach.
- Having grit – “gamechanger” leaders need to go against the grain, to persist but know when to move on, to have self belief and confidence, guts and resilience.
The future is a better place to start
Start from the “future back”.
Trying to evolve in today’s complex and confused world is unlikely to lead you towards a bright and distinctive future. It will extend your life a little longer, but it will be tough and uninspiring, with diminishing returns.
Instead jump to the future. I tend to start with five years ahead, although it may differ by company. 5 years is long enough to change the world, but close enough to be real. Start by creating a positive, collective and inspiring vision of the future market. What will it be like? What will people want? Why? How? Where? Then consider how to win in this new world.
This is where “moonshot thinking” can be really useful. “Why be 10% better, when you could be 10 times better?” 10 times more profits, more customers, more quality, reduced cost, reduced time. Whatever. By giving yourself a “How could we do it 10x better” challenge you take a new perspective, solve problems in different ways.
Be inspired by ideas from other places.
Explore how ARM or GE, Inditex or Netflix, Glossier or Novo Nordisk have changed their markets. Choose any of my 100+ “gamechanger” companies! How did they do it? How did customers respond? (Remember, they often serve the same customers as you!). You can’t learn much from competitors, but you can learn a lot from relevant parallels.
Copy. Adapt. Paste.
Customer insight also matters. Deep dives and design thinking, exploring the emerging trends and deviant behaviours. This can enhance and validate your ideas, but the problem with most customer insight is that it is filtered by our current world. You need something to disrupt your thinking.
I have a great box of disruptive techniques. Some are really simple – like break then remake the rules, like imagine its free then find a way to make money, like reverse polarities and many more. The point is to disrupt your conventional thinking.
From this, ideas rapidly emerge. You need lots of ideas about the future. But these are fragments of the real answer. The real creativity comes in fusing together into bigger “concepts”. These could be customer solutions, or new ways of working, new revenue streams, or new business models, and new market scenarios.
Once you have a clear and collective ambition for the future, it’s time to work backwards. “If this is how we want to be in 5 years, where do we need to get to in 3 years, and then in 1 year? Therefore what do we need to start doing now?” You develop a “horizon plan” for your business; a strategy roadmap if you like, but developed backwards.
The important thing is that by working backwards, you have jumped out of the morass of today. You’ve avoided the assumptions, limitations, problems and priorities of today’s thinking. You have a more inspiring “gamechanging” future, and have started to map out the steps to get there. Most likely with different priorities in the short-term too.
Of course the steps on this journey might change, but it’s going to be an exciting adventure.
Change the way we think, resolve the conflicts
In today’s busineses, we have created artificial divides in how we think and operate. Digital and physical seem like two different worlds, global and local seem like alternative strategies that cannot combine, many still struggle to align value to customers and shareholders in a mutually reinforcing way, and short and long-termism continues to confuse our priorities.
Our thinking within business, has created separate and apparently conflicting approaches. The opportunity is to make the combination of both approaches world – “fusions” if you like – to be innovative in the way you combine apparent opposites.
Digital and physical are two sides of the same coin.
There is only one world, unless you believe Ray Kurzweil, and it is the real one. It’s human and physical. Digital technologies are incredibly powerful, enabling people to connect, to work, to learn, to play in new ways. From mobile phones to blockchains, 3D printing and augmented reality, digital allows us to do more, do it faster, do things we could never do before. But it’s still about humanity.
Start with people. How can you enable them to achieve more? To live better, to have more fun, to do better for the world. Whatever matters. I work closely with Richard Branson and his Virgin teams. Their mindset is to “start from the outside, and then work in”. Design a better customer experience. Built on your ambition and insight, and then explore how you could deliver it with new and existing capabilities.
Global and local are opportunities for every business.
I love Amazon’s “Treasure Truck” … Most of us have never connected with Amazon beyond the website and the delivery guy. Amazon is huge, global and anonymous. But the Treasure Truck is real. It travels around the country, bringing its pop-up store to local neighbourhoods, fun and games, bargains and demos. For Amazon, it’s a chance to make real connections, listen to people, and to be local.
We can all see a backlash in society against relentless globalisation, huge corporations, and social inequality. We see a lack of trust in brands, and know that authenticity matters. Etsy shows us that even the smallest and most local artisan businesses can also be global. For every business, local and global markets are within reach, however it’s also about combining scale and standardisation, with relevance and individuality.
Ideas and networks should be the core of your business.
Gamechanger businesses need a compelling idea, a core purpose, an inspiring proposition, that can spread fast and contagiously. In a digitally-fuelled world, the most innovative businesses embrace “ideas and networks” to drive exponential impact – like WhatsApp creating $19bn in three years, Airbnb $40bn in 9 years, Alibaba $476bn in 18 years, Amazon $740bn in 23 years.
Think about that concept of “exponential” … The power of networks – be it franchisees, or distributors, or customers and users – lies not in the number of members, but in the connections between them. Networks have a multiplying effect. Exponential. Consider, for example, Rapha, the sportwear brand that brings together people with a passion for cycling, who conveniently meet at their “Cycle Club” stores, and buy their premium gear. A fantastic “ideas and networks” business.
Finally this idea of short-term and long-term being in conflict with each other.
Jeff Bezos never has this problem, nor Elon Musk, nor Richard Branson. They focus on the long-term, recognising it will require some years of investment to get there. They all of course lead privately-owned companies. But every public company has the same ambition to innovate and grow. And so do most of their investors, actually.
The reality is that any company’s stock market performance is based on its future earnings potential, not its past. The better you can engage with equity analysts, journalists and investors themselves to explain why you will deliver a better future worth waiting for, then you get their support. If you don’t engage them in your future vision, plans and innovations, then they will default to looking for short-term evidence. It’s really in our hands, to work together to create a future we want to invest in. And to share the greater risk and rewards.
Time to embrace your future mindset
We live in an incredible time … More change in the next 10 years than in the last 250 years … remember? I know that sounds a little crazy, but think about Hyperloop in 3 years, a tipping point to electric cars in 5 years, Mars missions in 8 years. They are all real, and possible.
Digital platforms connecting buyers and sellers in new ways, blockchain having the potential to transform relationships and trust, 3d printing having the potential to transform value chains to deliver anything personalised and on-demand, AI and robotics giving us the capabilities to be superhuman in our minds and bodies.
These are just some of the fantastic new capabilities that enable us to innovate beyond what we can even imagine today. The future isn’t like the future used to be. We cannot just evolve or extrapolate the past. Today’s future is discontinuous, disruptive, different.
It is imagination that will move us forwards … unlocking the technological possibilities, applying them to real problems and opportunities, to drive innovation and growth in every industry, in every part of our lives.
Imagine a world where you press “print” to get the dress of your dreams, the food of your fantasies, or the spare parts for your car. Instantly, personalised and on demand. Think then what does that mean if we don’t need the huge scale of manufacturing plants, warehousing and transportation. Maybe we will even subscribe to the IP catalogues of brands, rather than buy standard products, in the ways we currently subscribe to Netflix.
Time to embrace your growth mindset … Unlock your Einstein dreams and Picasso passion … Embrace your Mandela courage and Ghandi spirit. Be more curious, be more intuitive, be more human. Ask more questions. Don’t be afraid to have audacious ideas, to challenge the old models of success, and turn future ambitions into practical profitable reality.
How else did Zespri reinvent the Chinese gooseberry as the kiwi fruit? How else will SpaceX reach Mars by 2025? How else did Netflix came to be, or NuTonomy, or Nespresso, or Nyx?
This is why 23andMe’s Anne Wojicki wont give up in her quest to make DNA analysis available to everyone, and to ultimately find a cure for cancer. And it’s why Jack Ma didn’t give up as he rose from $1000-per year English teacher to technological royalty.
The secret is the future mindset.
To realise that the future is malleable. So we need to grab hold of it, and shape it in our own vision. To our advantage.
This is what “gamechangers” do.
More from Peter Fisk as background to this workshop:
- Magazine: Fast Leader: Reimagining the future
- Article: Future Recoded
- Article: Why innovate in a downturn?
- Article: What are the impacts of Covid-19?
- Article: The Big Pivot
- Article: The 10x Leader
- Article: Amplifying Potential
- Book: “Gamechangers: Are you ready to change the world?“
- Book: “Business Genius: A more inspired approach to leadership”
- Workshop: “Gamechangers Program: Leading for smarter innovation and profitable growth”
- Workshop: “Inspiring Leadership … future, people and change“
- Download a summary of Peter Fisk’s keynote “Gamechangers”
- Download a summary of Peter Fisk’s masterclass Driving Exponential Growth
How do you see your future?
We live in an incredible time. More change in the next 10 years than in the last 250 years. New technologies transforming the ways in which we live and work. Digital platforms and blockchains, AI and robotics, 3D printing and nanotech .
These are just some of the fantastic new capabilities that enable us to innovate beyond what we can even imagine today. The future isn’t like the future used to be. We cannot just evolve or extrapolate the past. Today’s future is discontinuous, disruptive, different.
It is imagination that will move us forwards … unlocking the technological possibilities, applying them to real problems and opportunities, to drive innovation and growth in every industry, in every part of our lives.
Imagine a world where you press “print” to get the dress of your dreams, the food of your fantasies, or the spare parts for your car. Instantly, personalised and on demand. Think then what does that mean if we don’t need the huge scale of manufacturing plants, warehousing and transportation. Maybe we will even subscribe to the IP catalogues of brands, in the ways we currently subscribe to Netflix.
Innovation starts from the “future back”
The best place to start is the future. The best entrepreneurs think “future back” rather than just trying to move forwards with the limitations and distractions of today. Elon Musk grabs headlines with his bold “Humans on Mars by 2025” vision, but then that makes everything else more purposeful, and more possible. Tesla to Hyperloop to SpaceX, all seem more possible, and even stepping stones to a greater destination.
“Future back” thinking also means you are not limited by your own capabilities. Richard Branson had a fantastic vision for a better airline, a consumer bank, a space travel business. But no idea how to make them happen. But then he found partners who could help make them happen. Partners with the expertise on tap, to connect with his ideas, and together innovate further and faster.
Partnerships are key to the future, connecting ideas and capabilities, risks and rewards, to achieve more together.
What might the future look like, and how will it affect you?
Predicting the future is a fun game, but also a series challenge for every business today. What might the future market look like, therefore which are the smartest choices of today?
Jumping to the future, we see dramatic change. For example, by 2050 ,the global population is likely to hit its highest point, then slowly reduce. By 2045, the much discussed “singularity” will be reached, where some machines have greater intelligence than humans. By 2040, a federated world government could be established, working with nations and tribes. And by 2035, a human population is likely to be established on Mars, perhaps by Chinese-owned SpaceX.
The World in 2030
By 2030 the average person in the U.S. will have 4.5 packages a week delivered with flying drones. They will travel 40% of the time in a driverless car, use a 3D printer to print hyper-individualized meals, and will spend most of their leisure time on an activity that hasn’t been invented yet. The world will have seen over 2 billion jobs disappear, with most coming back in different forms in different industries, with over 50% structured as freelance projects rather than full-time jobs.
Over 50% of today’s Fortune 500 companies will have disappeared, over 50% of traditional colleges will have collapsed, and India will have overtaken China as the most populous country in the world. Most people will have stopped taking pills in favor of a new device that causes the body to manufacture it’s own cures.
Here are 33 dramatic predictions by a range of the worlds think tanks and futurists:
- By 2030 over 80% of all doctor visits will have been replaced by automated exams.
- By 2030 over 90% of all restaurants will use some form of a 3D food printer in their meal preparations.
- By 2030 over 10% of all global financial transactions will be conducted through Bitcoin or Bitcoin-like crypto currencies.
- By 2030 we will seen a growing number of highways designated as driverless-vehicle only.
- By 2030, a Chinese company will become the first to enter the space tourism industry by establishing regular flights to their space hotel.
- By 2030, the world’s largest Internet company will be in the education business, and it will be a company we have not heard of yet.
- By 2030 over 20% of all new construction will be “printed” buildings.
- By 2030 over 2 billion jobs will have disappeared, freeing up talent for many new fledgling industries.
- By 2030 a new protest group will have emerged that holds anti-cloning rallies, demonstrating against the creation of “soul-less humans.”
- By 2030 we will see the first city to harvest 100% of its water supply from the atmosphere.
- By 2030 world religions will make a resurgence, with communities of faith growing by nearly 50% over what they are today.
- By 2030 over 50% of all traditional colleges will collapse, paving the way for an entire new education industry to emerge.
- By 2030 we will see a surge of Micro Colleges spring to life, each requiring less than 6 months of training and apprenticeship to switch professions.
- By 2030 scientists will have perfected an active cross-species communication system, enabling some species to talk to each other as well as humans.
- By 2030 we will see the first hurricane stopped by human intervention.
- By 2030 we will see wireless power used to light up invisible light bulbs in the middle of a room.
- By 2030 we will see the first demonstration of a technology to control gravity, reducing the pull of gravity on an object by as much as 50%.
- By 2030 democracy will be viewed as inferior form of government.
- By 2030 traditional police forces will be largely automated out of existence with less than 50% of current staffing levels on active duty.
- By 2030 over 90% of all libraries will offer premium services as part of their business model.
- By 2030 forest fires will have been reduced to less than 5% of the number today with the use of infrared drone monitoring systems.
- By 2030 over 30% of all cities in the U.S. will operate their electric utilities as micro grids.
- By 2030 we will have seen a number of global elections with the intent of creating a new global mandate, forcing world leaders to take notice.
- By 2030 traditional pharmaceuticals will be replaced by hyper-individualized medicines that are manufactured at the time they are ordered.
- By 2030 we will have seen the revival of the first mated pair of an extinct species.
- By 2030 swarms of micro flying drones – swarmbots – will be demonstrated to assemble themselves as a type of personal clothing, serving as a reconfigurable fashion statement.
- By 2030 marijuana will be legalized in all 50 states in the U.S. and half of all foreign countries.
- By 2030 cable television will no longer exist. By 2030 a small number of companies will begin calculating their labor costs with something called “synaptical currency.”
- By 2030 it will be common to use next generation search engines to search the physical world.
- By 2030 basic computer programming will be considered a core skill required in over 20% of all jobs.
- By 2030 we will have seen multiple attempts to send a probe to the center of the earth.
- By 2030 a form of tube transportation, inspired by Hyperloop and ET3, will be well on its way to becoming the world’s largest infrastructure project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVL-VKqdVkA
Counting back down through the next 10 years, the possibilities become ever more real, more predictable and influenceable:
2029
- Cars now fully automated, with rapid decline in personal ownership
- City of Bangkok requires huge new sea wall due rising oceans
- USA is now only fifth largest economic nation
2028
- Scientists rebirth dinosaurs from fossil DNA
- Tesla is world’s largest subscription-based mobility operator
- Realtime health-tracking of all citizens by World Health Organisation
2027
- Brainwave control, for security and identification
- 3d-printing of all human organs is now standard
- Majority of world’s population are now vegetarian
2026
- Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia is completed after 145 years
- Cure for Alzeimer’s Disease launched and made available free to all
- E-payments dominate as most countries end use of physical money
2025
- Tracking technologies now implanted in most humans
- Human brain simulations and back-ups
- Saudi Arabian mission to Mars is launched, followed by China.
2024
- Vertical farming takes off, particularly in Middle East
- DNA profiling now standard in most countries
- Production of carbon-fueled engines ends
2023
- Commercial asteroid mining is launched
- Online voting is now standard in all countries
- Micro-protein (insect-based) foods become popular
2022
- India becomes the world’s largest population
- China wins FiFA World Cup in Qatar
- Germany closes its last nuclear power plant
2021
- China’s tallest building is over 1km
- First manned mission lands on an asteroid
- Hyperloop launched Mumbai and Hyderabad
2020
- World Expo in Dubai, including launch of world learning platform
- Human memory and conversation stored
- High resolution bionic eyes
Shaping the future to your advantage
By jumping to the future, and then working backwards, you develop a bolder, braver ambition. Shaping the future on your terms, exploring the new possibilities for innovation and growth, unlimited by the priorities and prejudices of today. New technologies will be key, but they are more the enablers than answers. How will they make life better? How will they make your business better?
Inspired by the Adidas Speedfactory, what does the future of your manufacturing look like? If Amazon’s Alexa can manage your home, then what could the future workplace look like? What would happen if phones were free like Jio Phone has just disruptively done in India? How could you apply big data like 23&Me in healthcare to predict what people want? Or the new business models like Airbnb and Nespresso to redefine markets? Beyond the hype of Bitcoin, how could blockchain redefine how you engage customers? And what actually will people want most in the future?
Futurists look for emerging patterns – signals of future possibilities, already out there. Emergent behaviours, adaptive usage, new aspirations. You just need to find these signals, and apply them. Maybe on the fringes of your market, or by transferring ideas from other sectors, or other geograhies, or others aspects of life.
Leonardo da Vinci definined innovation as making unusual connections. So how could you connect the most relevant and disruptive ideas together in new ways?
Are you ready to create your better future?
It’s time to jump to the future. And then look back. Then you will see today differently.
Too many of us get locked in to a mindset of today – of incremental, extrapolating, and perfecting the old world. Working backwards from 2025 you will define different milestones, different priorities to be achieved within 3 years, and even next year.
Innovation demands a future mindset, that will deliver bigger ideas to drive innovation and growth, and new perspectives on what matters most today.
Are you ready?
- Download my keynote with KEBA in Linz, Austria: Future Back
- Watch the video (starts after 28 mins): Future Back
More useful future links
- Winning with a future mindset article by Peter Fisk
- Journey from the future back keynote by Peter Fisk
- Global shifts and technological fusion article by Peter Fisk
- Map of Megatrends to 2050 by Richard Watson
- 100 Disruptive Technologies by Richard Watson
- How the world will change by 2030 video by Bill Gates
- 5 predictions for life in 2030 article by World Economic Forum
- Innovation in technology by 2030 article by Feras Antoon
- 7 amazing technologies by 2030 video by Business Insider
- Future Scenarios 2030 video by Deloitte Germany
Dream a bigger dream, innovate the market not just the business, have the courage to shape the future in your own vision … be the Gamechanger:
Keynote at LQ: “Be the Gamechanger … the courage to create a better future together”
Keynote agenda:
- Winning in a changing world: How can we enable business leaders to dream bigger, innovate better and grow faster?
- Inspired by the innovators: What can we learn from the world’s most inspiring companies shaking up every market right now?
- Courage to do more together: Have you the courage to be a “Gamechanger” … and inspire others to create the future with you?
Free downloads:
Introduction to Gamechangers
The most innovative businesses see the world differently.
They don’t just seek to imitate the success of others, to compete in the markets of today, to frame themselves by their relative differences to competitors. Instead they play their own game.
I call them “gamechangers”, and have spent the last 24 months running competitions around the world, to find and rank the world’s most innovative companies by sector and geography.
So what’s the “game”? Well, in simple terms, it’s the market.
These companies go beyond innovating their products and services, their customer experienes and business models. They seek to innovate how their markets work.
Think of it like a sports game. How could you change the game? It could be anything from the pitch dimensions to rules of play, the team composition to the measures of success, the role of the referee to the participation of fans. Even the name of the game.
Now look at today’s most disruptive innovators – 23andMe to Airbnb, Brewdog to Buzzfeed, Casper to Coursera – they reframe, reimagine and redefine the market on their terms – who is it for, why people buy, what they pay and get, and how they work.
I’ve met and profiled over 250 “gamechanger” companies on my travels, in almost every sector, and in every part of the world. Corporate giants and start-ups, from Abu Dhabi to Berlin, Colombo to Qingdao.
There is no one way to change the game, but there are definitely some common traits:
- Audacious – Gamechangers are visionary and innovative, but also daring and original; they seek to shape the future to their advantage.
- Purposeful – They seek to make life better, in some relevant and inspiring way; they have a higher motive than just making money.
- Networked – Gamechangers harness the power of networks, digital and physical, both business and customer networks, to exponentially reach further faster.
- Intelligent – They use big data analytics and algorithms, machine learning and AI, to be smart and efficient, personal and predictive.
- Collaborative – Gamechangers work with others, from ecosystems to platforms, social networks and co-creation, to achieve more together.
- Enabling – They focus not on what they do, but what they enable people to do; and thereby redefine their marketspace, find new opportunities and redefine value.
- Commercial – Gamechangers take a longer-term perspective, adopting new business models, and recalibrating the measures of progress and success.
Do you have a future mindset?
Today’s business leaders need a future mindset. That sounds obvious, but isn’t.
Most leaders have a “fixed mindset”. They keep stretching the old models of success. They stay loyal to the model that made them great, seeking to squeeze and tweak it for as long as possible. They seek perfection – to optimise what they currently do – which leads to efficiency and incremental gains.
Instead a “future mindset” is prepared to let go of the past. To explore the future, to experiment with new ways of working and winning. Failure is a way to learn, and innovation becomes the norm. Change is relentless inside, as it is outside. Innovation is their lifeblood. Like Jeff Bezos loves to say “it is always day one”.
With a future mindset, the CEO needs new attributes:
- Sense maker – to interpret a fast and confusing world, to see new patterns and opportunities, what is relevant and not, to shape your own vision.
- Radical optimist – to inspire people with a stretching ambition, positive and distinctive, to be audacious, to see the possibilities when others only see risk.
- Future hacker – they start from the “future back”, with clarity of purpose and intent, encouraging ideas and experiments, leveraging resource and scale.
- Ideas connector – da Vinci said innovation is about making unusual connections; connecting new people, new partners, new capabilities and new ideas.
- Emotionally agile – whilst organisational agility is essential, emotional agility matters even more; to cope with change, to be intuitive in making sense, and making choices.
- Entrepreneur at large – keeping the founders mentality alive, hands-on working with project teams to infuse the mindset, to be the catalyst and coach.
- Having grit – “gamechanger” leaders need to go against the grain, to persist but know when to move on, to have self belief and confidence, guts and resilience.
The future is a better place to start
Start from the “future back”.
Trying to evolve in today’s complex and confused world is unlikely to lead you towards a bright and distinctive future. It will extend your life a little longer, but it will be tough and uninspiring, with diminishing returns.
Instead jump to the future. I tend to start with five years ahead, although it may differ by company. 5 years is long enough to change the world, but close enough to be real. Start by creating a positive, collective and inspiring vision of the future market. What will it be like? What will people want? Why? How? Where? Then consider how to win in this new world.
This is where “moonshot thinking” can be really useful. “Why be 10% better, when you could be 10 times better?” 10 times more profits, more customers, more quality, reduced cost, reduced time. Whatever. By giving yourself a “How could we do it 10x better” challenge you take a new perspective, solve problems in different ways.
Be inspired by ideas from other places.
Explore how ARM or GE, Inditex or Netflix, Glossier or Novo Nordisk have changed their markets. Choose any of my 100+ “gamechanger” companies! How did they do it? How did customers respond? (Remember, they often serve the same customers as you!). You can’t learn much from competitors, but you can learn a lot from relevant parallels.
Copy. Adapt. Paste.
Customer insight also matters. Deep dives and design thinking, exploring the emerging trends and deviant behaviours. This can enhance and validate your ideas, but the problem with most customer insight is that it is filtered by our current world. You need something to disrupt your thinking.
I have a great box of disruptive techniques. Some are really simple – like break then remake the rules, like imagine its free then find a way to make money, like reverse polarities and many more. The point is to disrupt your conventional thinking.
From this, ideas rapidly emerge. You need lots of ideas about the future. But these are fragments of the real answer. The real creativity comes in fusing together into bigger “concepts”. These could be customer solutions, or new ways of working, new revenue streams, or new business models, and new market scenarios.
Once you have a clear and collective ambition for the future, it’s time to work backwards. “If this is how we want to be in 5 years, where do we need to get to in 3 years, and then in 1 year? Therefore what do we need to start doing now?” You develop a “horizon plan” for your business; a strategy roadmap if you like, but developed backwards.
The important thing is that by working backwards, you have jumped out of the morass of today. You’ve avoided the assumptions, limitations, problems and priorities of today’s thinking. You have a more inspiring “gamechanging” future, and have started to map out the steps to get there. Most likely with different priorities in the short-term too.
Of course the steps on this journey might change, but it’s going to be an exciting adventure.
Change the way we think, resolve the conflicts
In today’s busineses, we have created artificial divides in how we think and operate. Digital and physical seem like two different worlds, global and local seem like alternative strategies that cannot combine, many still struggle to align value to customers and shareholders in a mutually reinforcing way, and short and long-termism continues to confuse our priorities.
Our thinking within business, has created separate and apparently conflicting approaches. The opportunity is to make the combination of both approaches world – “fusions” if you like – to be innovative in the way you combine apparent opposites.
Digital and physical are two sides of the same coin.
There is only one world, unless you believe Ray Kurzweil, and it is the real one. It’s human and physical. Digital technologies are incredibly powerful, enabling people to connect, to work, to learn, to play in new ways. From mobile phones to blockchains, 3D printing and augmented reality, digital allows us to do more, do it faster, do things we could never do before. But it’s still about humanity.
Start with people. How can you enable them to achieve more? To live better, to have more fun, to do better for the world. Whatever matters. I work closely with Richard Branson and his Virgin teams. Their mindset is to “start from the outside, and then work in”. Design a better customer experience. Built on your ambition and insight, and then explore how you could deliver it with new and existing capabilities.
Global and local are opportunities for every business.
I love Amazon’s “Treasure Truck” … Most of us have never connected with Amazon beyond the website and the delivery guy. Amazon is huge, global and anonymous. But the Treasure Truck is real. It travels around the country, bringing its pop-up store to local neighbourhoods, fun and games, bargains and demos. For Amazon, it’s a chance to make real connections, listen to people, and to be local.
We can all see a backlash in society against relentless globalisation, huge corporations, and social inequality. We see a lack of trust in brands, and know that authenticity matters. Etsy shows us that even the smallest and most local artisan businesses can also be global. For every business, local and global markets are within reach, however it’s also about combining scale and standardisation, with relevance and individuality.
Ideas and networks should be the core of your business.
Gamechanger businesses need a compelling idea, a core purpose, an inspiring proposition, that can spread fast and contagiously. In a digitally-fuelled world, the most innovative businesses embrace “ideas and networks” to drive exponential impact – like WhatsApp creating $19bn in three years, Airbnb $40bn in 9 years, Alibaba $476bn in 18 years, Amazon $740bn in 23 years.
Think about that concept of “exponential” … The power of networks – be it franchisees, or distributors, or customers and users – lies not in the number of members, but in the connections between them. Networks have a multiplying effect. Exponential. Consider, for example, Rapha, the sportwear brand that brings together people with a passion for cycling, who conveniently meet at their “Cycle Club” stores, and buy their premium gear. A fantastic “ideas and networks” business.
Finally this idea of short-term and long-term being in conflict with each other.
Jeff Bezos never has this problem, nor Elon Musk, nor Richard Branson. They focus on the long-term, recognising it will require some years of investment to get there. They all of course lead privately-owned companies. But every public company has the same ambition to innovate and grow. And so do most of their investors, actually.
The reality is that any company’s stock market performance is based on its future earnings potential, not its past. The better you can engage with equity analysts, journalists and investors themselves to explain why you will deliver a better future worth waiting for, then you get their support. If you don’t engage them in your future vision, plans and innovations, then they will default to looking for short-term evidence. It’s really in our hands, to work together to create a future we want to invest in. And to share the greater risk and rewards.
Time to embrace your future mindset
We live in an incredible time … More change in the next 10 years than in the last 250 years … remember? I know that sounds a little crazy, but think about Hyperloop in 3 years, a tipping point to electric cars in 5 years, Mars missions in 8 years. They are all real, and possible.
Digital platforms connecting buyers and sellers in new ways, blockchain having the potential to transform relationships and trust, 3d printing having the potential to transform value chains to deliver anything personalised and on-demand, AI and robotics giving us the capabilities to be superhuman in our minds and bodies.
These are just some of the fantastic new capabilities that enable us to innovate beyond what we can even imagine today. The future isn’t like the future used to be. We cannot just evolve or extrapolate the past. Today’s future is discontinuous, disruptive, different.
It is imagination that will move us forwards … unlocking the technological possibilities, applying them to real problems and opportunities, to drive innovation and growth in every industry, in every part of our lives.
Imagine a world where you press “print” to get the dress of your dreams, the food of your fantasies, or the spare parts for your car. Instantly, personalised and on demand. Think then what does that mean if we don’t need the huge scale of manufacturing plants, warehousing and transportation. Maybe we will even subscribe to the IP catalogues of brands, rather than buy standard products, in the ways we currently subscribe to Netflix.
Time to embrace your growth mindset … Unlock your Einstein dreams and Picasso passion … Embrace your Mandela courage and Ghandi spirit. Be more curious, be more intuitive, be more human. Ask more questions. Don’t be afraid to have audacious ideas, to challenge the old models of success, and turn future ambitions into practical profitable reality.
How else did Zespri reinvent the Chinese gooseberry as the kiwi fruit? How else will SpaceX reach Mars by 2025? How else did Netflix came to be, or NuTonomy, or Nespresso, or Nyx?
This is why 23andMe’s Anne Wojicki wont give up in her quest to make DNA analysis available to everyone, and to ultimately find a cure for cancer. And it’s why Jack Ma didn’t give up as he rose from $1000-per year English teacher to technological royalty.
The secret is the future mindset.
To realise that the future is malleable. So we need to grab hold of it, and shape it in our own vision. To our advantage.
This is what “gamechangers” do.
- Article: The 10x Leader
- Article: Amplifying Potential
- Book: “Gamechangers: Are you ready to change the world?“
- Book: “Business Genius: A more inspired approach to leadership”
- Workshop: “Gamechangers Program: Leading for smarter innovation and profitable growth”
- Workshop: “Inspiring Leadership … future, people and change“
- Download a summary of Peter Fisk’s keynote “Gamechangers”
New technologies are transforming the ways in which we live and work. Technologies enable incredible change. It is how we unlock their potential that matters.
Today we explore the future of healthcare.
Through positive wellness and personalised pharma, robotics and genetics, digital applications and patient-centric business models … the future of health is about specialisation and innovation, patient-centric solutions that are faster and more efficient. The fast-changing science is one factor, however far more significant is the convergence of pharma and biotech, insurance and hospitals, physicians and pharmacists … working together to make life better.
Healthcare Challenges
Rising costs
Spending on healthcare almost invariably grows faster than GDP. The rate of growth of healthcare spend has exceeded that of GDP since records began. Moreover, spending and economic recession are closely linked. We can expect to see the rate of growth of healthcare spend in Europe outstrip GDP growth significantly during the current economically difficult times.
Macroeconomic factors like aging populations or insufficient public funding are challenging both receivers and providers of healthcare. Adoption and penetration rates of clinical information systems vary greatly. In fact, the number (and size) of buyers varies from country to country, and is not necessarily dependent on the size of the country but rather on the structure of the healthcare system. Additionally, purchasing behavior is shifting towards more coordinated, joint purchasing.
Changing demographics
Service is in demand. There is increasing demand on the healthcare delivery organisations, and this is happening in every country. People live longer thanks to advances in understanding of the causes of diseases, and consequent improvements in diagnostic techniques and treatments. The average life expectancy in OECD countries has now reached 80 years and continues to lengthen. However, not only are people living longer, but increasingly people are living longer with chronic disease.
Filling the resource gap
Even as demand increases, there is a global shortage of clinicians. Countries with the highest number of clinicians per population will need to address graduate intake in to medical schools, which is falling in real terms in many countries. The challenge is not limited to doctors either, as enrollment in nursing colleges has also fallen in some countries.
Arguably, a storm is brewing in France, where the number of doctors over 55 is among the highest in the OECD. Combined with an overall reduction in the number of graduates emerging from medical school, France may well see the number of doctors leaving the profession exceeding those entering it. It is generally the case that a skills shortage increases costs (or reduces service quality), so a well-run health system makes sure staff are properly equipped and doing the right tasks for their skills and training. This presents an ethical challenge as some countries seek to fill the gap by recruiting doctors and nurses from other countries, thus depriving those societies of their healthcare professionals.
Focus on quality
What patients expect is changing. The quality of care is increasingly important – as patients begin to exercise their right to choose how and with whom they engage for their healthcare. They demand transparency of data and processes. As a consequence, healthcare organizations will need to focus on how quality outcomes can be published in a meaningful way for patients. Patient safety is the major focus of patient advocacy groups and healthcare leaders. They will enforce deeper investigations of medication errors, hospital acquired infections, wrong site surgery or pressure sores, like never before.
Becoming customer-driven
Where the patient needs to be — at the heart of care. To address the needs of the expert patient, and to start the transition of healthcare to a demand- driven model, some of the world’s leading hospitals are placing the patient firmly at the centre of everything they do. For example, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio has a clear mission to improve the patient experience, and has a board-level Chief Experience Officer leading the Office of thePatient Experience. According to their website, the mission is to “ensure care is consistentlypatient-centered by partnering with caregivers to exceed the expectations of patients and theirfamilies.” Cleveland Clinic, along with a handful of other pioneering hospitals, has always been a bellwether in patient care, and it will be interesting to see how many other hospitals make similar arrangements.
Healthcare Opportunities
Moving towards a demand driven consumer model
As a society, we are changing rapidly, and this is apparent in the relationship between care providers and the citizen. Patients are increasingly becoming stakeholders in their own care journeys; they demand transparency in access and information about their care and importantly, about the quality of service provided. Citizens are now demanding access on their terms. They want to schedule appointments when and where it suits them, not the provider. They want the latest drugs or clinical trials; and of course, an end to surgical waiting lists. Or they want to begiven the option to ‘go private’ without incurring a personal cost.
The Internet is changing citizen behavior. This means the way governments interact with their citizens has to change too. Municipalities are providing more services to the citizen using technology. We will see healthcare providers do the same — adopt technological solutions to streamline processes such as setting up virtual appointments with doctors or looking up lab results online.
Healthcare is the last of the major supply driven industries. It will not be so for long. It will be the citizen that demands the transition to an industry that answers their needs, fears and aspirations.
Informed patients and the rise of social media
Patients are becoming more and more involved in their healthcare, with a higher stake in the journey than before.
Patients are simply better informed than ever before. Information about medical conditions and treatments are now easily available on the Internet. This has to some extent, shifted the focus of the patient-provider relationship towards the patient. The advent of social media is also driving healthcare interactions in new ways. Patients are exploiting these resources to discuss treatments, procedures and even individual practitioners. Alongside, healthcare practitioners, agencies and charities too will need to use social media to communicate with their citizens; in times of crisis this will become a critical mechanism.
To address the needs of the expert patient, and to start the transition of healthcare to a demand-driven model, some of theworld’s leadinghospitals are placing the patient firmly at the center of everything they do. What this means is that healthcare agencies need to have a clear strategy to take full advantage of social media.
Patients exercising choice
Healthcare systems are under close scrutiny by society. With patients having a bigger say in what they choose and demand for, government policy is impacted and in turn, healthcare providers.
Healthcare needs to become demand-driven to satisfy the needs of citizens and governments. Patients increasingly want to decide how and when to engage with their healthcare environment. Governments, health authorities and the medical profession will be challenged to provide patients with the information and services that will allow citizens to make informed choices about their healthcare. This will mean publishing data on indicators of quality (such as outcome data, readmission rates, so on) and also introducing ways for patients to book appointments at hospitals at times that suit the patient, not the provider.
Patient-centered medical home
Episodic, disease-oriented care in hospitals is not the most effective or efficient way to deliver care. The advent of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) acknowledges this reality. It promotes care relationships across a spectrum of providers and in a variety of locations, of which the one that is most attractive to the patient is their home. This approach encourages patients to become stakeholders in their care. The care delivery system will be designed so that it fully exploits information technology, helps coordinate care across the community and monitor thepatient’s conditions, and supports patient awareness.
It is the advances in IT to support real-time monitoring that will make PCMH the norm, the standard clinical practice. Hospitals will be able to discharge patients earlier, because they knowthat the patient’s condition can be continuously assessed, and interventions can take place toensure acuity is addressed outside of the hospital environment.
Hospitals as networks
Building hospitals without walls; care for patients without borders
Increasingly, hospitals are part of their communities, and all communities are facing the demographic and disease challenge, as described earlier. Hospitals may have to implement complex, multi-organizational processes to address these challenges in an efficient and effective manner. A shift in paradigm is called for that will mean large, tertiary hospitals building networks of smaller hospitals and primary care clinics. Care can then be divested to these networks, madeavailable closer to the patient’s home and therefore more convenient. This model will requirecoordination of all providers in the network and flow of information to continually manage the care of a patient through time.
Personalised medicine
The practice of medicine has always been based on evidence uncovered through observation. And today, clinicians are at an advantage. There is a host of diagnostic techniques available that allows them to make faster and more accurate diagnoses. Radiology allows clinicians to investigate structures deep within the body, whilst histopathology allows clinicians to investigate tissue samples using microscopes to identify tumors, viruses and so on.
Translational research and the advent of personalised medicine
Increasingly however, core science is providing new insights for the clinical community, particularly in the field of genetics. Translational research is about how fundamental scientific research benefits patient outcomes, either through the development of new diagnostic techniques, new drugs, or the modification of clinical practice, the latter often referred to as the Bench to Bedside cycle.
Workshop Agenda
Day 1: Innovative Futures
How companies in all sectors are driving and responding to the changing world:
0830 – 1000 : Changing World … the challenges and opportunities of an incredible changing world for business and society:
- Making sense of change, power shifts and emerging trends
- Harnessing the change drivers, seizing the best opportunities
- Being human in a technological world, fusing physical and virtual
- Implications for existing world, and tensions to resolve
- Cases: AlphaGo to Impossible Foods, Jio Phone to WhatsApp
- Tools: Change Drivers, Opportunity Maps.
1030 – 1200 : Rethinking business … learning from the world’s most innovative organisations and how they innovate:
- Rule breakers and rule makers, challenging every convention
- 100 companies who are changing the world right now
- Gamechanging and Doblin’s 10 types of business innovation
- Asking the right questions, solving bigger problems
- Cases: GM to Microsoft, Meituan Dianping to Netflix
- Tools: Rule Breakers, Business Innovation
1315-1445 : Innovating “future back”… starting from the future, to reinvent your world in your own vision:
- Ambition and purpose. Why do you exist, what will you do?
- Moonshots, being more audacious by changing your perspective
- 5-3-1 horizon planning, from the future back and then now forward
- Innovation portfolios to create tomorrow and deliver today
- Cases: Ben and Jerry’s to Patagonia, Tesla and Syngenta
- Tools: Moonshot Thinking. Defining Purpose.
1445 – 1600 : Innovating “outside in”… thinking like a customer, to engage people more deeply, and develop a better business:
- Framing your business around the customer’s ambition
- Customers and consumers, segments, motivations, propositions
- Reinventing your business model, the way you work
- Aligning the organisation to make it happen successfully.
- Cases: Airbnb to ARM Technologies, Harley Davidson and Nike
- Tools: Customer Propositions, Business Models.
Day 2: Healthcare Innovation
How companies in healthcare, from hospitals to clinics, pharma and devices, are driving and responding to the changing world:
0830 – 1000 : Future Scenarios … the challenges and opportunities of an incredible changing world for healthcare:
- The changing nature of healthcare, drivers and disruptors
- Having a bigger vision, accelerating the ideas of Vitality 2030
- Leading with a fresh perspective: What would X do?
- Creative fusions, atoms to molecules, to create better concepts
- Cases: 23andMe to Patients like Me, AliveCor to Infervision
- Tools: X vision. Creative Fusions.
1030 – 1200 : Patient Futures … seeing the future healthcare experience from the patient’s perspective:
- Rethinking from the patient’s perspective,
- How to be more engaging, relevant, positive and personal
- Defining a better patient proposition and healthcare experience
- Implications for delivery, and for other stakeholders
- Cases: Cleveland Clinic and Babylon Health
- Tools: Customer Energisers, Customer Propositions
1315 – 1445 : Healthcare Futures … rethinking the business model for healthcare, and how it works for everyone:
- Starting with the proposition, and defining new solutions
- Demand-driven thinking to make better patient connections
- Supply-driven thinking, to leverage assets, and partners
- Rethinking the costs and revenue flows and balances
- Cases: You
- Tools: Customer Solutions, Business Model
1445 – 1600 : Future Today … being an innovative leader, defining your roadmap for implementation, and delivering it today:
- Future back mapping, starting from 5 years and working backwards
- Aligning the portfolio, current plans and new ideas
- Accelerating the future, and balancing today and tomorrow
- Having the courage to lead the future, with a growth mindset
- Cases: You
- Tools: Horizon Planning, Growth Mindset
- FutureHealth … the future of healthcare, and innovation case studies
- Health Makers … from gene editing to brain stimulation, and 3D printed hearts
- Blockbuster drugs … building and sustaining billion dollar brands in a changing world of healthcare
- Event: Building Global Brands in Healthcare
- Event: FutureHealth USA
- Event: Customer-Centric Vision of Healthcare
- Download: FutureHealth 2020
Be the Gamechanger
The most innovative businesses see the world differently.
They don’t just seek to imitate the success of others, to compete in the markets of today, to frame themselves by their relative differences to competitors. Instead they play their own game.
I call them “gamechangers”, and have spent the last 24 months running competitions around the world, to find and rank the world’s most innovative companies by sector and geography.
So what’s the “game”? Well, in simple terms, it’s the market.
These companies go beyond innovating their products and services, their customer experienes and business models. They seek to innovate how their markets work.
Think of it like a sports game. How could you change the game? It could be anything from the pitch dimensions to rules of play, the team composition to the measures of success, the role of the referee to the participation of fans. Even the name of the game.
Now look at today’s most disruptive innovators – 23andMe to Airbnb, Brewdog to Buzzfeed, Casper to Coursera – they reframe, reimagine and redefine the market on their terms – who is it for, why people buy, what they pay and get, and how they work.
I’ve met and profiled over 250 “gamechanger” companies on my travels, in almost every sector, and in every part of the world. Corporate giants and start-ups, from Abu Dhabi to Berlin, Colombo to Qingdao.
There is no one way to change the game, but there are definitely some common traits:
- Audacious – Gamechangers are visionary and innovative, but also daring and original; they seek to shape the future to their advantage.
- Purposeful – They seek to make life better, in some relevant and inspiring way; they have a higher motive than just making money.
- Networked – Gamechangers harness the power of networks, digital and physical, both business and customer networks, to exponentially reach further faster.
- Intelligent – They use big data analytics and algorithms, machine learning and AI, to be smart and efficient, personal and predictive.
- Collaborative – Gamechangers work with others, from ecosystems to platforms, social networks and co-creation, to achieve more together.
- Enabling – They focus not on what they do, but what they enable people to do; and thereby redefine their marketspace, find new opportunities and redefine value.
- Commercial – Gamechangers take a longer-term perspective, adopting new business models, and recalibrating the measures of progress and success.
Do you have a future mindset?
Today’s business leaders need a future mindset. That sounds obvious, but isn’t.
Most leaders have a “fixed mindset”. They keep stretching the old models of success. They stay loyal to the model that made them great, seeking to squeeze and tweak it for as long as possible. They seek perfection – to optimise what they currently do – which leads to efficiency and incremental gains.
Instead a “future mindset” is prepared to let go of the past. To explore the future, to experiment with new ways of working and winning. Failure is a way to learn, and innovation becomes the norm. Change is relentless inside, as it is outside. Innovation is their lifeblood. Like Jeff Bezos loves to say “it is always day one”.
With a future mindset, the CEO needs new attributes:
- Sense maker – to interpret a fast and confusing world, to see new patterns and opportunities, what is relevant and not, to shape your own vision.
- Radical optimist – to inspire people with a stretching ambition, positive and distinctive, to be audacious, to see the possibilities when others only see risk.
- Future hacker – they start from the “future back”, with clarity of purpose and intent, encouraging ideas and experiments, leveraging resource and scale.
- Ideas connector – da Vinci said innovation is about making unusual connections; connecting new people, new partners, new capabilities and new ideas.
- Emotionally agile – whilst organisational agility is essential, emotional agility matters even more; to cope with change, to be intuitive in making sense, and making choices.
- Entrepreneur at large – keeping the founders mentality alive, hands-on working with project teams to infuse the mindset, to be the catalyst and coach.
- Having grit – “gamechanger” leaders need to go against the grain, to persist but know when to move on, to have self belief and confidence, guts and resilience.
The future is a better place to start
Start from the “future back”.
Trying to evolve in today’s complex and confused world is unlikely to lead you towards a bright and distinctive future. It will extend your life a little longer, but it will be tough and uninspiring, with diminishing returns.
Instead jump to the future. I tend to start with five years ahead, although it may differ by company. 5 years is long enough to change the world, but close enough to be real. Start by creating a positive, collective and inspiring vision of the future market. What will it be like? What will people want? Why? How? Where? Then consider how to win in this new world.
This is where “moonshot thinking” can be really useful. “Why be 10% better, when you could be 10 times better?” 10 times more profits, more customers, more quality, reduced cost, reduced time. Whatever. By giving yourself a “How could we do it 10x better” challenge you take a new perspective, solve problems in different ways.
Be inspired by ideas from other places.
Explore how ARM or GE, Inditex or Netflix, Glossier or Novo Nordisk have changed their markets. Choose any of my 100+ “gamechanger” companies! How did they do it? How did customers respond? (Remember, they often serve the same customers as you!). You can’t learn much from competitors, but you can learn a lot from relevant parallels.
Copy. Adapt. Paste.
Customer insight also matters. Deep dives and design thinking, exploring the emerging trends and deviant behaviours. This can enhance and validate your ideas, but the problem with most customer insight is that it is filtered by our current world. You need something to disrupt your thinking.
I have a great box of disruptive techniques. Some are really simple – like break then remake the rules, like imagine its free then find a way to make money, like reverse polarities and many more. The point is to disrupt your conventional thinking.
From this, ideas rapidly emerge. You need lots of ideas about the future. But these are fragments of the real answer. The real creativity comes in fusing together into bigger “concepts”. These could be customer solutions, or new ways of working, new revenue streams, or new business models, and new market scenarios.
Once you have a clear and collective ambition for the future, it’s time to work backwards. “If this is how we want to be in 5 years, where do we need to get to in 3 years, and then in 1 year? Therefore what do we need to start doing now?” You develop a “horizon plan” for your business; a strategy roadmap if you like, but developed backwards.
The important thing is that by working backwards, you have jumped out of the morass of today. You’ve avoided the assumptions, limitations, problems and priorities of today’s thinking. You have a more inspiring “gamechanging” future, and have started to map out the steps to get there. Most likely with different priorities in the short-term too.
Of course the steps on this journey might change, but it’s going to be an exciting adventure.
Change the way we think, resolve the conflicts
In today’s busineses, we have created artificial divides in how we think and operate. Digital and physical seem like two different worlds, global and local seem like alternative strategies that cannot combine, many still struggle to align value to customers and shareholders in a mutually reinforcing way, and short and long-termism continues to confuse our priorities.
Our thinking within business, has created separate and apparently conflicting approaches. The opportunity is to make the combination of both approaches world – “fusions” if you like – to be innovative in the way you combine apparent opposites.
Digital and physical are two sides of the same coin.
There is only one world, unless you believe Ray Kurzweil, and it is the real one. It’s human and physical. Digital technologies are incredibly powerful, enabling people to connect, to work, to learn, to play in new ways. From mobile phones to blockchains, 3D printing and augmented reality, digital allows us to do more, do it faster, do things we could never do before. But it’s still about humanity.
Start with people. How can you enable them to achieve more? To live better, to have more fun, to do better for the world. Whatever matters. I work closely with Richard Branson and his Virgin teams. Their mindset is to “start from the outside, and then work in”. Design a better customer experience. Built on your ambition and insight, and then explore how you could deliver it with new and existing capabilities.
Global and local are opportunities for every business.
I love Amazon’s “Treasure Truck” … Most of us have never connected with Amazon beyond the website and the delivery guy. Amazon is huge, global and anonymous. But the Treasure Truck is real. It travels around the country, bringing its pop-up store to local neighbourhoods, fun and games, bargains and demos. For Amazon, it’s a chance to make real connections, listen to people, and to be local.
We can all see a backlash in society against relentless globalisation, huge corporations, and social inequality. We see a lack of trust in brands, and know that authenticity matters. Etsy shows us that even the smallest and most local artisan businesses can also be global. For every business, local and global markets are within reach, however it’s also about combining scale and standardisation, with relevance and individuality.
Ideas and networks should be the core of your business.
Gamechanger businesses need a compelling idea, a core purpose, an inspiring proposition, that can spread fast and contagiously. In a digitally-fuelled world, the most innovative businesses embrace “ideas and networks” to drive exponential impact – like WhatsApp creating $19bn in three years, Airbnb $40bn in 9 years, Alibaba $476bn in 18 years, Amazon $740bn in 23 years.
Think about that concept of “exponential” … The power of networks – be it franchisees, or distributors, or customers and users – lies not in the number of members, but in the connections between them. Networks have a multiplying effect. Exponential. Consider, for example, Rapha, the sportwear brand that brings together people with a passion for cycling, who conveniently meet at their “Cycle Club” stores, and buy their premium gear. A fantastic “ideas and networks” business.
Finally this idea of short-term and long-term being in conflict with each other.
Jeff Bezos never has this problem, nor Elon Musk, nor Richard Branson. They focus on the long-term, recognising it will require some years of investment to get there. They all of course lead privately-owned companies. But every public company has the same ambition to innovate and grow. And so do most of their investors, actually.
The reality is that any company’s stock market performance is based on its future earnings potential, not its past. The better you can engage with equity analysts, journalists and investors themselves to explain why you will deliver a better future worth waiting for, then you get their support. If you don’t engage them in your future vision, plans and innovations, then they will default to looking for short-term evidence. It’s really in our hands, to work together to create a future we want to invest in. And to share the greater risk and rewards.
Time to embrace your future mindset
We live in an incredible time … More change in the next 10 years than in the last 250 years … remember? I know that sounds a little crazy, but think about Hyperloop in 3 years, a tipping point to electric cars in 5 years, Mars missions in 8 years. They are all real, and possible.
Digital platforms connecting buyers and sellers in new ways, blockchain having the potential to transform relationships and trust, 3d printing having the potential to transform value chains to deliver anything personalised and on-demand, AI and robotics giving us the capabilities to be superhuman in our minds and bodies.
These are just some of the fantastic new capabilities that enable us to innovate beyond what we can even imagine today. The future isn’t like the future used to be. We cannot just evolve or extrapolate the past. Today’s future is discontinuous, disruptive, different.
It is imagination that will move us forwards … unlocking the technological possibilities, applying them to real problems and opportunities, to drive innovation and growth in every industry, in every part of our lives.
Imagine a world where you press “print” to get the dress of your dreams, the food of your fantasies, or the spare parts for your car. Instantly, personalised and on demand. Think then what does that mean if we don’t need the huge scale of manufacturing plants, warehousing and transportation. Maybe we will even subscribe to the IP catalogues of brands, rather than buy standard products, in the ways we currently subscribe to Netflix.
Time to embrace your growth mindset … Unlock your Einstein dreams and Picasso passion … Embrace your Mandela courage and Ghandi spirit. Be more curious, be more intuitive, be more human. Ask more questions. Don’t be afraid to have audacious ideas, to challenge the old models of success, and turn future ambitions into practical profitable reality.
How else did Zespri reinvent the Chinese gooseberry as the kiwi fruit? How else will SpaceX reach Mars by 2025? How else did Netflix came to be, or NuTonomy, or Nespresso, or Nyx?
This is why 23andMe’s Anne Wojicki wont give up in her quest to make DNA analysis available to everyone, and to ultimately find a cure for cancer. And it’s why Jack Ma didn’t give up as he rose from $1000-per year English teacher to technological royalty.
The secret is the future mindset.
To realise that the future is malleable. So we need to grab hold of it, and shape it in our own vision. To our advantage.
This is what “gamechangers” do.
- Article: The 10x Leader
- Article: Amplifying Potential
- Book: “Gamechangers: Are you ready to change the world?“
- Book: “Business Genius: A more inspired approach to leadership”
- Workshop: “Gamechangers Program: Leading for smarter innovation and profitable growth”
- Workshop: “Inspiring Leadership … future, people and change“
- Download a summary of Peter Fisk’s keynote “Gamechangers”
We live in an incredible time. More change in the next 10 years than in the last 250 years.
New technologies are transforming the ways in which we live and work. Technologies enable incredible change. It is how we unlock their potential that matters.
Today we explore the future of healthcare.
Through positive wellness and personalised pharma, robotics and genetics, digital applications and patient-centric business models … the future of health is about specialisation and innovation, patient-centric solutions that are faster and more efficient. The fast-changing science is one factor, however far more significant is the convergence of pharma and biotech, insurance and hospitals, physicians and pharmacists … working together to make life better.
Healthcare Challenges
Rising costs
Spending on healthcare almost invariably grows faster than GDP. The rate of growth of healthcare spend has exceeded that of GDP since records began. Moreover, spending and economic recession are closely linked. We can expect to see the rate of growth of healthcare spend in Europe outstrip GDP growth significantly during the current economically difficult times.
Macroeconomic factors like aging populations or insufficient public funding are challenging both receivers and providers of healthcare. Adoption and penetration rates of clinical information systems vary greatly. In fact, the number (and size) of buyers varies from country to country, and is not necessarily dependent on the size of the country but rather on the structure of the healthcare system. Additionally, purchasing behavior is shifting towards more coordinated, joint purchasing.
Changing demographics
Service is in demand. There is increasing demand on the healthcare delivery organisations, and this is happening in every country. People live longer thanks to advances in understanding of the causes of diseases, and consequent improvements in diagnostic techniques and treatments. The average life expectancy in OECD countries has now reached 80 years and continues to lengthen. However, not only are people living longer, but increasingly people are living longer with chronic disease.
Filling the resource gap
Even as demand increases, there is a global shortage of clinicians. Countries with the highest number of clinicians per population will need to address graduate intake in to medical schools, which is falling in real terms in many countries. The challenge is not limited to doctors either, as enrollment in nursing colleges has also fallen in some countries.
Arguably, a storm is brewing in France, where the number of doctors over 55 is among the highest in the OECD. Combined with an overall reduction in the number of graduates emerging from medical school, France may well see the number of doctors leaving the profession exceeding those entering it. It is generally the case that a skills shortage increases costs (or reduces service quality), so a well-run health system makes sure staff are properly equipped and doing the right tasks for their skills and training. This presents an ethical challenge as some countries seek to fill the gap by recruiting doctors and nurses from other countries, thus depriving those societies of their healthcare professionals.
Focus on quality
What patients expect is changing. The quality of care is increasingly important – as patients begin to exercise their right to choose how and with whom they engage for their healthcare. They demand transparency of data and processes. As a consequence, healthcare organizations will need to focus on how quality outcomes can be published in a meaningful way for patients. Patient safety is the major focus of patient advocacy groups and healthcare leaders. They will enforce deeper investigations of medication errors, hospital acquired infections, wrong site surgery or pressure sores, like never before.
Becoming customer-driven
Where the patient needs to be — at the heart of care. To address the needs of the expert patient, and to start the transition of healthcare to a demand- driven model, some of the world’s leading hospitals are placing the patient firmly at the centre of everything they do. For example, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio has a clear mission to improve the patient experience, and has a board-level Chief Experience Officer leading the Office of thePatient Experience. According to their website, the mission is to “ensure care is consistentlypatient-centered by partnering with caregivers to exceed the expectations of patients and theirfamilies.” Cleveland Clinic, along with a handful of other pioneering hospitals, has always been a bellwether in patient care, and it will be interesting to see how many other hospitals make similar arrangements.
Healthcare Opportunities
Moving towards a demand driven consumer model
As a society, we are changing rapidly, and this is apparent in the relationship between care providers and the citizen. Patients are increasingly becoming stakeholders in their own care journeys; they demand transparency in access and information about their care and importantly, about the quality of service provided. Citizens are now demanding access on their terms. They want to schedule appointments when and where it suits them, not the provider. They want the latest drugs or clinical trials; and of course, an end to surgical waiting lists. Or they want to begiven the option to ‘go private’ without incurring a personal cost.
The Internet is changing citizen behavior. This means the way governments interact with their citizens has to change too. Municipalities are providing more services to the citizen using technology. We will see healthcare providers do the same — adopt technological solutions to streamline processes such as setting up virtual appointments with doctors or looking up lab results online.
Healthcare is the last of the major supply driven industries. It will not be so for long. It will be the citizen that demands the transition to an industry that answers their needs, fears and aspirations.
Informed patients and the rise of social media
Patients are becoming more and more involved in their healthcare, with a higher stake in the journey than before.
Patients are simply better informed than ever before. Information about medical conditions and treatments are now easily available on the Internet. This has to some extent, shifted the focus of the patient-provider relationship towards the patient. The advent of social media is also driving healthcare interactions in new ways. Patients are exploiting these resources to discuss treatments, procedures and even individual practitioners. Alongside, healthcare practitioners, agencies and charities too will need to use social media to communicate with their citizens; in times of crisis this will become a critical mechanism.
To address the needs of the expert patient, and to start the transition of healthcare to a demand-driven model, some of theworld’s leadinghospitals are placing the patient firmly at the center of everything they do. What this means is that healthcare agencies need to have a clear strategy to take full advantage of social media.
Patients exercising choice
Healthcare systems are under close scrutiny by society. With patients having a bigger say in what they choose and demand for, government policy is impacted and in turn, healthcare providers.
Healthcare needs to become demand-driven to satisfy the needs of citizens and governments. Patients increasingly want to decide how and when to engage with their healthcare environment. Governments, health authorities and the medical profession will be challenged to provide patients with the information and services that will allow citizens to make informed choices about their healthcare. This will mean publishing data on indicators of quality (such as outcome data, readmission rates, so on) and also introducing ways for patients to book appointments at hospitals at times that suit the patient, not the provider.
Patient-centered medical home
Episodic, disease-oriented care in hospitals is not the most effective or efficient way to deliver care. The advent of the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) acknowledges this reality. It promotes care relationships across a spectrum of providers and in a variety of locations, of which the one that is most attractive to the patient is their home. This approach encourages patients to become stakeholders in their care. The care delivery system will be designed so that it fully exploits information technology, helps coordinate care across the community and monitor thepatient’s conditions, and supports patient awareness.
It is the advances in IT to support real-time monitoring that will make PCMH the norm, the standard clinical practice. Hospitals will be able to discharge patients earlier, because they knowthat the patient’s condition can be continuously assessed, and interventions can take place toensure acuity is addressed outside of the hospital environment.
Hospitals as networks
Building hospitals without walls; care for patients without borders
Increasingly, hospitals are part of their communities, and all communities are facing the demographic and disease challenge, as described earlier. Hospitals may have to implement complex, multi-organizational processes to address these challenges in an efficient and effective manner. A shift in paradigm is called for that will mean large, tertiary hospitals building networks of smaller hospitals and primary care clinics. Care can then be divested to these networks, madeavailable closer to the patient’s home and therefore more convenient. This model will requirecoordination of all providers in the network and flow of information to continually manage the care of a patient through time.
Personalised medicine
The practice of medicine has always been based on evidence uncovered through observation. And today, clinicians are at an advantage. There is a host of diagnostic techniques available that allows them to make faster and more accurate diagnoses. Radiology allows clinicians to investigate structures deep within the body, whilst histopathology allows clinicians to investigate tissue samples using microscopes to identify tumors, viruses and so on.
Translational research and the advent of personalised medicine
Increasingly however, core science is providing new insights for the clinical community, particularly in the field of genetics. Translational research is about how fundamental scientific research benefits patient outcomes, either through the development of new diagnostic techniques, new drugs, or the modification of clinical practice, the latter often referred to as the Bench to Bedside cycle.
Workshop Agenda
Day 1: Innovative Futures
How companies in all sectors are driving and responding to the changing world:
0830 – 1000 : Changing World … the challenges and opportunities of an incredible changing world for business and society:
- Making sense of change, power shifts and emerging trends
- Harnessing the change drivers, seizing the best opportunities
- Being human in a technological world, fusing physical and virtual
- Implications for existing world, and tensions to resolve
- Cases: AlphaGo to Impossible Foods, Jio Phone to WhatsApp
- Tools: Change Drivers, Opportunity Maps.
1030 – 1200 : Rethinking business … learning from the world’s most innovative organisations and how they innovate:
- Rule breakers and rule makers, challenging every convention
- 100 companies who are changing the world right now
- Gamechanging and Doblin’s 10 types of business innovation
- Asking the right questions, solving bigger problems
- Cases: GM to Microsoft, Meituan Dianping to Netflix
- Tools: Rule Breakers, Business Innovation
1315-1445 : Innovating “future back”… starting from the future, to reinvent your world in your own vision:
- Ambition and purpose. Why do you exist, what will you do?
- Moonshots, being more audacious by changing your perspective
- 5-3-1 horizon planning, from the future back and then now forward
- Innovation portfolios to create tomorrow and deliver today
- Cases: Ben and Jerry’s to Patagonia, Tesla and Syngenta
- Tools: Moonshot Thinking. Defining Purpose.
1445 – 1600 : Innovating “outside in”… thinking like a customer, to engage people more deeply, and develop a better business:
- Framing your business around the customer’s ambition
- Customers and consumers, segments, motivations, propositions
- Reinventing your business model, the way you work
- Aligning the organisation to make it happen successfully.
- Cases: Airbnb to ARM Technologies, Harley Davidson and Nike
- Tools: Customer Propositions, Business Models.
Day 2: Healthcare Innovation
How companies in healthcare, from hospitals to clinics, pharma and devices, are driving and responding to the changing world:
0830 – 1000 : Future Scenarios … the challenges and opportunities of an incredible changing world for healthcare:
- The changing nature of healthcare, drivers and disruptors
- Having a bigger vision, accelerating the ideas of Vitality 2030
- Leading with a fresh perspective: What would X do?
- Creative fusions, atoms to molecules, to create better concepts
- Cases: 23andMe to Patients like Me, AliveCor to Infervision
- Tools: X vision. Creative Fusions.
1030 – 1200 : Patient Futures … seeing the future healthcare experience from the patient’s perspective:
- Rethinking from the patient’s perspective,
- How to be more engaging, relevant, positive and personal
- Defining a better patient proposition and healthcare experience
- Implications for delivery, and for other stakeholders
- Cases: Cleveland Clinic and Babylon Health
- Tools: Customer Energisers, Customer Propositions
1315 – 1445 : Healthcare Futures … rethinking the business model for healthcare, and how it works for everyone:
- Starting with the proposition, and defining new solutions
- Demand-driven thinking to make better patient connections
- Supply-driven thinking, to leverage assets, and partners
- Rethinking the costs and revenue flows and balances
- Cases: You
- Tools: Customer Solutions, Business Model
1445 – 1600 : Future Today … being an innovative leader, defining your roadmap for implementation, and delivering it today:
- Future back mapping, starting from 5 years and working backwards
- Aligning the portfolio, current plans and new ideas
- Accelerating the future, and balancing today and tomorrow
- Having the courage to lead the future, with a growth mindset
- Cases: You
- Tools: Horizon Planning, Growth Mindset
- FutureHealth … the future of healthcare, and innovation case studies
- Health Makers … from gene editing to brain stimulation, and 3D printed hearts
- Blockbuster drugs … building and sustaining billion dollar brands in a changing world of healthcare
- Event: Building Global Brands in Healthcare
- Event: FutureHealth USA
- Event: Customer-Centric Vision of Healthcare
- Download: FutureHealth 2020
The most innovative businesses see the world differently.
They don’t just seek to imitate the success of others, to compete in the markets of today, to frame themselves by their relative differences to competitors. Instead they play their own game.
I call them “gamechangers”, and have spent the last 24 months running competitions around the world, to find and rank the world’s most innovative companies by sector and geography.
So what’s the “game”? Well, in simple terms, it’s the market.
These companies go beyond innovating their products and services, their customer experienes and business models. They seek to innovate how their markets work.
Think of it like a sports game. How could you change the game? It could be anything from the pitch dimensions to rules of play, the team composition to the measures of success, the role of the referee to the participation of fans. Even the name of the game.
Now look at today’s most disruptive innovators – 23andMe to Airbnb, Brewdog to Buzzfeed, Casper to Coursera – they reframe, reimagine and redefine the market on their terms – who is it for, why people buy, what they pay and get, and how they work.
I’ve met and profiled over 250 “gamechanger” companies on my travels, in almost every sector, and in every part of the world. Corporate giants and start-ups, from Abu Dhabi to Berlin, Colombo to Qingdao.
There is no one way to change the game, but there are definitely some common traits:
- Audacious – Gamechangers are visionary and innovative, but also daring and original; they seek to shape the future to their advantage.
- Purposeful – They seek to make life better, in some relevant and inspiring way; they have a higher motive than just making money.
- Networked – Gamechangers harness the power of networks, digital and physical, both business and customer networks, to exponentially reach further faster.
- Intelligent – They use big data analytics and algorithms, machine learning and AI, to be smart and efficient, personal and predictive.
- Collaborative – Gamechangers work with others, from ecosystems to platforms, social networks and co-creation, to achieve more together.
- Enabling – They focus not on what they do, but what they enable people to do; and thereby redefine their marketspace, find new opportunities and redefine value.
- Commercial – Gamechangers take a longer-term perspective, adopting new business models, and recalibrating the measures of progress and success.
Do you have a future mindset?
Today’s business leaders need a future mindset. That sounds obvious, but isn’t.
Most leaders have a “fixed mindset”. They keep stretching the old models of success. They stay loyal to the model that made them great, seeking to squeeze and tweak it for as long as possible. They seek perfection – to optimise what they currently do – which leads to efficiency and incremental gains.
Instead a “future mindset” is prepared to let go of the past. To explore the future, to experiment with new ways of working and winning. Failure is a way to learn, and innovation becomes the norm. Change is relentless inside, as it is outside. Innovation is their lifeblood. Like Jeff Bezos loves to say “it is always day one”.
With a future mindset, the CEO needs new attributes:
- Sense maker – to interpret a fast and confusing world, to see new patterns and opportunities, what is relevant and not, to shape your own vision.
- Radical optimist – to inspire people with a stretching ambition, positive and distinctive, to be audacious, to see the possibilities when others only see risk.
- Future hacker – they start from the “future back”, with clarity of purpose and intent, encouraging ideas and experiments, leveraging resource and scale.
- Ideas connector – da Vinci said innovation is about making unusual connections; connecting new people, new partners, new capabilities and new ideas.
- Emotionally agile – whilst organisational agility is essential, emotional agility matters even more; to cope with change, to be intuitive in making sense, and making choices.
- Entrepreneur at large – keeping the founders mentality alive, hands-on working with project teams to infuse the mindset, to be the catalyst and coach.
- Having grit – “gamechanger” leaders need to go against the grain, to persist but know when to move on, to have self belief and confidence, guts and resilience.
The future is a better place to start
Start from the “future back”.
Trying to evolve in today’s complex and confused world is unlikely to lead you towards a bright and distinctive future. It will extend your life a little longer, but it will be tough and uninspiring, with diminishing returns.
Instead jump to the future. I tend to start with five years ahead, although it may differ by company. 5 years is long enough to change the world, but close enough to be real. Start by creating a positive, collective and inspiring vision of the future market. What will it be like? What will people want? Why? How? Where? Then consider how to win in this new world.
This is where “moonshot thinking” can be really useful. “Why be 10% better, when you could be 10 times better?” 10 times more profits, more customers, more quality, reduced cost, reduced time. Whatever. By giving yourself a “How could we do it 10x better” challenge you take a new perspective, solve problems in different ways.
Be inspired by ideas from other places.
Explore how ARM or GE, Inditex or Netflix, Glossier or Novo Nordisk have changed their markets. Choose any of my 100+ “gamechanger” companies! How did they do it? How did customers respond? (Remember, they often serve the same customers as you!). You can’t learn much from competitors, but you can learn a lot from relevant parallels.
Copy. Adapt. Paste.
Customer insight also matters. Deep dives and design thinking, exploring the emerging trends and deviant behaviours. This can enhance and validate your ideas, but the problem with most customer insight is that it is filtered by our current world. You need something to disrupt your thinking.
I have a great box of disruptive techniques. Some are really simple – like break then remake the rules, like imagine its free then find a way to make money, like reverse polarities and many more. The point is to disrupt your conventional thinking.
From this, ideas rapidly emerge. You need lots of ideas about the future. But these are fragments of the real answer. The real creativity comes in fusing together into bigger “concepts”. These could be customer solutions, or new ways of working, new revenue streams, or new business models, and new market scenarios.
Once you have a clear and collective ambition for the future, it’s time to work backwards. “If this is how we want to be in 5 years, where do we need to get to in 3 years, and then in 1 year? Therefore what do we need to start doing now?” You develop a “horizon plan” for your business; a strategy roadmap if you like, but developed backwards.
The important thing is that by working backwards, you have jumped out of the morass of today. You’ve avoided the assumptions, limitations, problems and priorities of today’s thinking. You have a more inspiring “gamechanging” future, and have started to map out the steps to get there. Most likely with different priorities in the short-term too.
Of course the steps on this journey might change, but it’s going to be an exciting adventure.
Change the way we think, resolve the conflicts
In today’s busineses, we have created artificial divides in how we think and operate. Digital and physical seem like two different worlds, global and local seem like alternative strategies that cannot combine, many still struggle to align value to customers and shareholders in a mutually reinforcing way, and short and long-termism continues to confuse our priorities.
Our thinking within business, has created separate and apparently conflicting approaches. The opportunity is to make the combination of both approaches world – “fusions” if you like – to be innovative in the way you combine apparent opposites.
Digital and physical are two sides of the same coin.
There is only one world, unless you believe Ray Kurzweil, and it is the real one. It’s human and physical. Digital technologies are incredibly powerful, enabling people to connect, to work, to learn, to play in new ways. From mobile phones to blockchains, 3D printing and augmented reality, digital allows us to do more, do it faster, do things we could never do before. But it’s still about humanity.
Start with people. How can you enable them to achieve more? To live better, to have more fun, to do better for the world. Whatever matters. I work closely with Richard Branson and his Virgin teams. Their mindset is to “start from the outside, and then work in”. Design a better customer experience. Built on your ambition and insight, and then explore how you could deliver it with new and existing capabilities.
Global and local are opportunities for every business.
I love Amazon’s “Treasure Truck” … Most of us have never connected with Amazon beyond the website and the delivery guy. Amazon is huge, global and anonymous. But the Treasure Truck is real. It travels around the country, bringing its pop-up store to local neighbourhoods, fun and games, bargains and demos. For Amazon, it’s a chance to make real connections, listen to people, and to be local.
We can all see a backlash in society against relentless globalisation, huge corporations, and social inequality. We see a lack of trust in brands, and know that authenticity matters. Etsy shows us that even the smallest and most local artisan businesses can also be global. For every business, local and global markets are within reach, however it’s also about combining scale and standardisation, with relevance and individuality.
Ideas and networks should be the core of your business.
Gamechanger businesses need a compelling idea, a core purpose, an inspiring proposition, that can spread fast and contagiously. In a digitally-fuelled world, the most innovative businesses embrace “ideas and networks” to drive exponential impact – like WhatsApp creating $19bn in three years, Airbnb $40bn in 9 years, Alibaba $476bn in 18 years, Amazon $740bn in 23 years.
Think about that concept of “exponential” … The power of networks – be it franchisees, or distributors, or customers and users – lies not in the number of members, but in the connections between them. Networks have a multiplying effect. Exponential. Consider, for example, Rapha, the sportwear brand that brings together people with a passion for cycling, who conveniently meet at their “Cycle Club” stores, and buy their premium gear. A fantastic “ideas and networks” business.
Finally this idea of short-term and long-term being in conflict with each other.
Jeff Bezos never has this problem, nor Elon Musk, nor Richard Branson. They focus on the long-term, recognising it will require some years of investment to get there. They all of course lead privately-owned companies. But every public company has the same ambition to innovate and grow. And so do most of their investors, actually.
The reality is that any company’s stock market performance is based on its future earnings potential, not its past. The better you can engage with equity analysts, journalists and investors themselves to explain why you will deliver a better future worth waiting for, then you get their support. If you don’t engage them in your future vision, plans and innovations, then they will default to looking for short-term evidence. It’s really in our hands, to work together to create a future we want to invest in. And to share the greater risk and rewards.
Time to embrace your future mindset
We live in an incredible time … More change in the next 10 years than in the last 250 years … remember? I know that sounds a little crazy, but think about Hyperloop in 3 years, a tipping point to electric cars in 5 years, Mars missions in 8 years. They are all real, and possible.
Digital platforms connecting buyers and sellers in new ways, blockchain having the potential to transform relationships and trust, 3d printing having the potential to transform value chains to deliver anything personalised and on-demand, AI and robotics giving us the capabilities to be superhuman in our minds and bodies.
These are just some of the fantastic new capabilities that enable us to innovate beyond what we can even imagine today. The future isn’t like the future used to be. We cannot just evolve or extrapolate the past. Today’s future is discontinuous, disruptive, different.
It is imagination that will move us forwards … unlocking the technological possibilities, applying them to real problems and opportunities, to drive innovation and growth in every industry, in every part of our lives.
Imagine a world where you press “print” to get the dress of your dreams, the food of your fantasies, or the spare parts for your car. Instantly, personalised and on demand. Think then what does that mean if we don’t need the huge scale of manufacturing plants, warehousing and transportation. Maybe we will even subscribe to the IP catalogues of brands, rather than buy standard products, in the ways we currently subscribe to Netflix.
Time to embrace your growth mindset … Unlock your Einstein dreams and Picasso passion … Embrace your Mandela courage and Ghandi spirit. Be more curious, be more intuitive, be more human. Ask more questions. Don’t be afraid to have audacious ideas, to challenge the old models of success, and turn future ambitions into practical profitable reality.
How else did Zespri reinvent the Chinese gooseberry as the kiwi fruit? How else will SpaceX reach Mars by 2025? How else did Netflix came to be, or NuTonomy, or Nespresso, or Nyx?
This is why 23andMe’s Anne Wojicki wont give up in her quest to make DNA analysis available to everyone, and to ultimately find a cure for cancer. And it’s why Jack Ma didn’t give up as he rose from $1000-per year English teacher to technological royalty.
The secret is the future mindset.
To realise that the future is malleable. So we need to grab hold of it, and shape it in our own vision. To our advantage.
This is what “gamechangers” do.
- Article: The 10x Leader
- Article: Amplifying Potential
- Book: “Gamechangers: Are you ready to change the world?“
- Book: “Business Genius: A more inspired approach to leadership”
- Workshop: “Gamechangers Program: Leading for smarter innovation and profitable growth”
- Workshop: “Inspiring Leadership … future, people and change“
- Download a summary of Peter Fisk’s keynote “Gamechangers”
Through positive wellness and personalised pharma, robotics and genetics, digital applications and patient-centric business models … the future of health is about specialisation and innovation, patient-centric solutions that are faster and more efficient. The fast-changing science is one factor, however far more significant is the convergence of pharma and biotech, insurance and hospitals, physicians and pharmacists … working together to make life better.
Personal, predictive and positive
For just $99 we can see our life before us, with a DNA profile from 23 and Me, and as a result we go to PatientsLikeMe to find out how others have responded. We eat the best foods from GSK, and check our daily fitness with Nike+, maybe with a little help from Avumio’s diagnostic apps and online advice from Dr Koop.
If we need help, we turn to ZocDoc where a local nurse with Epocrates at his fingertips, who prescribes a standard drug from Wuxi, or a custom prescription from Genentech. A night in W Hotel’s clinic, or a surgical trip to Antalya is unlikely. Instead we spray on our L’Oreal skin protection, sip on our super-vitamin Zespri kiwi juice, and smile.
The future of healthcare is personal, predictive and proactive, using advanced diagnostics so that people can themselves understand their likely conditions, and take better actions now to reduce risks or avoid illnesses. In this sense it is about positive wellbeing, rather than caring or curing. However when misfortune does strike, then care is about patients and personalisation, putting people at the heart of the medical process, supported by physicians and pharmaceuticals which are right for individuals.
Today we live in hope that we will stay healthy. Improved diets and active lifestyles intuitively reduce our concerns, but when something does go wrong we put our faith in a system that is largely designed around medical science and operational efficiencies. We wait in line for a hospital bed, for a standard procedure, for a generic drug. And once we get the all clear, we disappear until the next problem. When was the last time when you talked to a doctor whilst feeling good, and staying fit?
The future is different. It sees a convergence of sectors, enabled by an integration of technologies,the personalisation of science, and business models that are more human and commercial.
We recognise that prevention is better, and cheaper, than cure: cholesterol-reducing margarines, UV protection built into cosmetics, anti-statins to every over 50 in order to reduce the risk of heart disease, regular scans for people with family histories, blood pressure monitored daily by your smart watch, fitness parks designed for middle aged retirees, compression socks for long-haul flights. Drug companies make functional foods, sports companies create wellbeing devices, hospitals offer fitness programs, medical centres offer beauty treatments, cosmetics brands help you look good and live better.
From biotechnology to pharmaceuticals, governments to surgeons, sports clinics to supermarket pharmacies, cosmetics to functional foods, mobile technologies and online communities, many different partners and services will come together to keep us alive and well.
Digital and mobile, catalysts of change
Big data for fast and remote diagnostics, wearable sensors for body management, sit alongside more innovative solutions like 3D organ printing and robotic surgery. Advances in technology are allowing for the provision of affordable, decentralised healthcare for the masses and are lowering the barriers to entry in less developed markets.
Of all the advances, mobile technology is the catalyst for change. The phone and tablet enable distribution of a broad range of medical and support services in hospitals, and particularly in countries with little or no healthcare infrastructure and areas in which there are few trained healthcare professionals. These technologies also allow trained professionals to perform quality control remotely.
Amongst the many significant developments is a shift towards one-on-one, in-field diagnostics and monitoring. Services that were once only available at a doctor’s office or hospital are now available on-demand through low-tech, affordable solutions. Personal systems allow for “good enough” diagnostics that would have been difficult, expensive, and timely to attain previously.
Extract: How pharma can win in a digital world
The masterclass is for business leaders, CEOs and board members, ready to capture the opportunities of a fast changing world, to embrace speed and agility, technology and disruption, to drive exponential growth. It is for leaders who want to shape the future in their own vision.
Agenda for Peter Fisk’s Masterclass
- Making sense of relentless change, exploring the new opportunities, starting from the future back
- Learning from the most disruptive innovators, to reimagine your markets, to change your game
- Having the courage to step up, create the future in your own vision, to be bold and brave and brilliant.
Download summary: “Dare to be more: the courage to lead a better future”
We live in an incredible time. More change in the next 10 years than in the last 250 years.
New technologies are transforming the ways in which we live and work. Technologies enable incredible change. It is how we unlock their potential that matters.
The most innovative businesses see the world differently.
They don’t just seek to imitate the success of others, to compete in the markets of today, to frame themselves by their relative differences to competitors. Instead they play their own game.
I call them “gamechangers”, and have spent the last 24 months running competitions around the world, to find and rank the world’s most innovative companies by sector and geography.
So what’s the “game”? Well, in simple terms, it’s the market.
These companies go beyond innovating their products and services, their customer experienes and business models. They seek to innovate how their markets work.
Think of it like a sports game. How could you change the game? It could be anything from the pitch dimensions to rules of play, the team composition to the measures of success, the role of the referee to the participation of fans. Even the name of the game.
Now look at today’s most disruptive innovators – 23andMe to Airbnb, Brewdog to Buzzfeed, Casper to Coursera – they reframe, reimagine and redefine the market on their terms – who is it for, why people buy, what they pay and get, and how they work.
I’ve met and profiled over 250 “gamechanger” companies on my travels, in almost every sector, and in every part of the world. Corporate giants and start-ups, from Abu Dhabi to Berlin, Colombo to Qingdao.
Irish Innovators … AIDTech to Bamboo, CamileThai to Flyefit, Glofox to Nuritas, Pharmapod and Phorest … Read more about the most innovative companies in Ireland
There is no one way to change the game, but there are definitely some common traits:
- Audacious – Gamechangers are visionary and innovative, but also daring and original; they seek to shape the future to their advantage.
- Purposeful – They seek to make life better, in some relevant and inspiring way; they have a higher motive than just making money.
- Networked – Gamechangers harness the power of networks, digital and physical, both business and customer networks, to exponentially reach further faster.
- Intelligent – They use big data analytics and algorithms, machine learning and AI, to be smart and efficient, personal and predictive.
- Collaborative – Gamechangers work with others, from ecosystems to platforms, social networks and co-creation, to achieve more together.
- Enabling – They focus not on what they do, but what they enable people to do; and thereby redefine their marketspace, find new opportunities and redefine value.
- Commercial – Gamechangers take a longer-term perspective, adopting new business models, and recalibrating the measures of progress and success.
Do you have a future mindset?
Today’s business leaders need a future mindset. That sounds obvious, but isn’t.
Most leaders have a “fixed mindset”. They keep stretching the old models of success. They stay loyal to the model that made them great, seeking to squeeze and tweak it for as long as possible. They seek perfection – to optimise what they currently do – which leads to efficiency and incremental gains.
Instead a “future mindset” is prepared to let go of the past. To explore the future, to experiment with new ways of working and winning. Failure is a way to learn, and innovation becomes the norm. Change is relentless inside, as it is outside. Innovation is their lifeblood. Like Jeff Bezos loves to say “it is always day one”.
With a future mindset, the CEO needs new attributes:
- Sense maker – to interpret a fast and confusing world, to see new patterns and opportunities, what is relevant and not, to shape your own vision.
- Radical optimist – to inspire people with a stretching ambition, positive and distinctive, to be audacious, to see the possibilities when others only see risk.
- Future hacker – they start from the “future back”, with clarity of purpose and intent, encouraging ideas and experiments, leveraging resource and scale.
- Ideas connector – da Vinci said innovation is about making unusual connections; connecting new people, new partners, new capabilities and new ideas.
- Emotionally agile – whilst organisational agility is essential, emotional agility matters even more; to cope with change, to be intuitive in making sense, and making choices.
- Entrepreneur at large – keeping the founders mentality alive, hands-on working with project teams to infuse the mindset, to be the catalyst and coach.
- Having grit – “gamechanger” leaders need to go against the grain, to persist but know when to move on, to have self belief and confidence, guts and resilience.
The future is a better place to start
Start from the “future back”.
Trying to evolve in today’s complex and confused world is unlikely to lead you towards a bright and distinctive future. It will extend your life a little longer, but it will be tough and uninspiring, with diminishing returns.
Instead jump to the future. I tend to start with five years ahead, although it may differ by company. 5 years is long enough to change the world, but close enough to be real. Start by creating a positive, collective and inspiring vision of the future market. What will it be like? What will people want? Why? How? Where? Then consider how to win in this new world.
This is where “moonshot thinking” can be really useful. “Why be 10% better, when you could be 10 times better?” 10 times more profits, more customers, more quality, reduced cost, reduced time. Whatever. By giving yourself a “How could we do it 10x better” challenge you take a new perspective, solve problems in different ways.
Be inspired by ideas from other places.
Explore how ARM or GE, Inditex or Netflix, Glossier or Novo Nordisk have changed their markets. Choose any of my 100+ “gamechanger” companies! How did they do it? How did customers respond? (Remember, they often serve the same customers as you!). You can’t learn much from competitors, but you can learn a lot from relevant parallels.
Copy. Adapt. Paste.
Customer insight also matters. Deep dives and design thinking, exploring the emerging trends and deviant behaviours. This can enhance and validate your ideas, but the problem with most customer insight is that it is filtered by our current world. You need something to disrupt your thinking.
I have a great box of disruptive techniques. Some are really simple – like break then remake the rules, like imagine its free then find a way to make money, like reverse polarities and many more. The point is to disrupt your conventional thinking.
From this, ideas rapidly emerge. You need lots of ideas about the future. But these are fragments of the real answer. The real creativity comes in fusing together into bigger “concepts”. These could be customer solutions, or new ways of working, new revenue streams, or new business models, and new market scenarios.
Once you have a clear and collective ambition for the future, it’s time to work backwards. “If this is how we want to be in 5 years, where do we need to get to in 3 years, and then in 1 year? Therefore what do we need to start doing now?” You develop a “horizon plan” for your business; a strategy roadmap if you like, but developed backwards.
The important thing is that by working backwards, you have jumped out of the morass of today. You’ve avoided the assumptions, limitations, problems and priorities of today’s thinking. You have a more inspiring “gamechanging” future, and have started to map out the steps to get there. Most likely with different priorities in the short-term too.
Of course the steps on this journey might change, but it’s going to be an exciting adventure.
Change the way we think, resolve the conflicts
In today’s busineses, we have created artificial divides in how we think and operate. Digital and physical seem like two different worlds, global and local seem like alternative strategies that cannot combine, many still struggle to align value to customers and shareholders in a mutually reinforcing way, and short and long-termism continues to confuse our priorities.
Our thinking within business, has created separate and apparently conflicting approaches. The opportunity is to make the combination of both approaches world – “fusions” if you like – to be innovative in the way you combine apparent opposites.
Digital and physical are two sides of the same coin.
There is only one world, unless you believe Ray Kurzweil, and it is the real one. It’s human and physical. Digital technologies are incredibly powerful, enabling people to connect, to work, to learn, to play in new ways. From mobile phones to blockchains, 3D printing and augmented reality, digital allows us to do more, do it faster, do things we could never do before. But it’s still about humanity.
Start with people. How can you enable them to achieve more? To live better, to have more fun, to do better for the world. Whatever matters. I work closely with Richard Branson and his Virgin teams. Their mindset is to “start from the outside, and then work in”. Design a better customer experience. Built on your ambition and insight, and then explore how you could deliver it with new and existing capabilities.
Global and local are opportunities for every business.
I love Amazon’s “Treasure Truck” … Most of us have never connected with Amazon beyond the website and the delivery guy. Amazon is huge, global and anonymous. But the Treasure Truck is real. It travels around the country, bringing its pop-up store to local neighbourhoods, fun and games, bargains and demos. For Amazon, it’s a chance to make real connections, listen to people, and to be local.
We can all see a backlash in society against relentless globalisation, huge corporations, and social inequality. We see a lack of trust in brands, and know that authenticity matters. Etsy shows us that even the smallest and most local artisan businesses can also be global. For every business, local and global markets are within reach, however it’s also about combining scale and standardisation, with relevance and individuality.
Ideas and networks should be the core of your business.
Gamechanger businesses need a compelling idea, a core purpose, an inspiring proposition, that can spread fast and contagiously. In a digitally-fuelled world, the most innovative businesses embrace “ideas and networks” to drive exponential impact – like WhatsApp creating $19bn in three years, Airbnb $40bn in 9 years, Alibaba $476bn in 18 years, Amazon $740bn in 23 years.
Think about that concept of “exponential” … The power of networks – be it franchisees, or distributors, or customers and users – lies not in the number of members, but in the connections between them. Networks have a multiplying effect. Exponential. Consider, for example, Rapha, the sportwear brand that brings together people with a passion for cycling, who conveniently meet at their “Cycle Club” stores, and buy their premium gear. A fantastic “ideas and networks” business.
Finally this idea of short-term and long-term being in conflict with each other.
Jeff Bezos never has this problem, nor Elon Musk, nor Richard Branson. They focus on the long-term, recognising it will require some years of investment to get there. They all of course lead privately-owned companies. But every public company has the same ambition to innovate and grow. And so do most of their investors, actually.
The reality is that any company’s stock market performance is based on its future earnings potential, not its past. The better you can engage with equity analysts, journalists and investors themselves to explain why you will deliver a better future worth waiting for, then you get their support. If you don’t engage them in your future vision, plans and innovations, then they will default to looking for short-term evidence. It’s really in our hands, to work together to create a future we want to invest in. And to share the greater risk and rewards.
Time to embrace your future mindset
We live in an incredible time … More change in the next 10 years than in the last 250 years … remember? I know that sounds a little crazy, but think about Hyperloop in 3 years, a tipping point to electric cars in 5 years, Mars missions in 8 years. They are all real, and possible.
Digital platforms connecting buyers and sellers in new ways, blockchain having the potential to transform relationships and trust, 3d printing having the potential to transform value chains to deliver anything personalised and on-demand, AI and robotics giving us the capabilities to be superhuman in our minds and bodies.
These are just some of the fantastic new capabilities that enable us to innovate beyond what we can even imagine today. The future isn’t like the future used to be. We cannot just evolve or extrapolate the past. Today’s future is discontinuous, disruptive, different.
It is imagination that will move us forwards … unlocking the technological possibilities, applying them to real problems and opportunities, to drive innovation and growth in every industry, in every part of our lives.
Imagine a world where you press “print” to get the dress of your dreams, the food of your fantasies, or the spare parts for your car. Instantly, personalised and on demand. Think then what does that mean if we don’t need the huge scale of manufacturing plants, warehousing and transportation. Maybe we will even subscribe to the IP catalogues of brands, rather than buy standard products, in the ways we currently subscribe to Netflix.
Time to embrace your Musk mindset … Unlock your Einstein dreams and Picasso passion … Embrace your Mandela courage and Ghandi spirit. Be more curious, be more intuitive, be more human. Ask more questions. Don’t be afraid to have audacious ideas, to challenge the old models of success, and turn future ambitions into practical profitable reality.
How else did Zespri reinvent the Chinese gooseberry as the kiwi fruit? How else will SpaceX reach Mars by 2025? How else did Netflix came to be, or NuTonomy, or Nespresso, or Nyx?
This is why 23andMe’s Anne Wojicki wont give up in her quest to make DNA analysis available to everyone, and to ultimately find a cure for cancer. And it’s why Jack Ma didn’t give up as he rose from $1000-per year English teacher to technological royalty.
The secret is the future mindset.
To realise that the future is malleable. So we need to grab hold of it, and shape it in our own vision. To our advantage.
This is what “gamechangers” do.
- Article: The 10x Leader
- Article: Amplifying Potential
- Book: “Gamechangers: Are you ready to change the world?“
- Book: “Business Genius: A more inspired approach to leadership”
- Workshop: “Gamechangers Program: Leading for smarter innovation and profitable growth”
- Workshop: “Inspiring Leadership … future, people and change“
- Article: Building a bank of the future (the challenges and opportunities)
- Article:How banks can innovate for innovators (SMEs and entrepreneurs)
- Case studies: Future Bank: Gamechangers of Banking and Insurance
- Download a summary of Peter Fisk’s keynote “Gamechangers”
Agenda for Grupo DISA Executive Team
- World changing … The megatrends, consumer aspirations to new technologies, that are reshaping markets, opening up new opportunities, and driving new growth
- Rethinking strategies … Global consumers to digital technologies demand new business models, new strategies, and new experiences
- Disrupting innovation … Inspired by the world’s most disruptive innovators, unlocking the power of ideas and networks, to think bigger and different
- Future leaders … 7 practical ways to lead the future, with a future mindset and agile approach, to drive innovation and growth, with more impact
Be the Gamechanger
We live in an incredible time. More change in the next 10 years than in the last 250 years.
New technologies are transforming the ways in which we live and work. Technologies enable incredible change. It is how we unlock their potential that matters.
The most innovative businesses see the world differently.
They don’t just seek to imitate the success of others, to compete in the markets of today, to frame themselves by their relative differences to competitors. Instead they play their own game.
I call them “gamechangers”, and have spent the last 24 months running competitions around the world, to find and rank the world’s most innovative companies by sector and geography.
So what’s the “game”? Well, in simple terms, it’s the market.
These companies go beyond innovating their products and services, their customer experienes and business models. They seek to innovate how their markets work.
Think of it like a sports game. How could you change the game? It could be anything from the pitch dimensions to rules of play, the team composition to the measures of success, the role of the referee to the participation of fans. Even the name of the game.
Now look at today’s most disruptive innovators – 23andMe to Airbnb, Brewdog to Buzzfeed, Casper to Coursera – they reframe, reimagine and redefine the market on their terms – who is it for, why people buy, what they pay and get, and how they work.
I’ve met and profiled over 250 “gamechanger” companies on my travels, in almost every sector, and in every part of the world. Corporate giants and start-ups, from Abu Dhabi to Berlin, Colombo to Qingdao.
There is no one way to change the game, but there are definitely some common traits:
- Audacious – Gamechangers are visionary and innovative, but also daring and original; they seek to shape the future to their advantage.
- Purposeful – They seek to make life better, in some relevant and inspiring way; they have a higher motive than just making money.
- Networked – Gamechangers harness the power of networks, digital and physical, both business and customer networks, to exponentially reach further faster.
- Intelligent – They use big data analytics and algorithms, machine learning and AI, to be smart and efficient, personal and predictive.
- Collaborative – Gamechangers work with others, from ecosystems to platforms, social networks and co-creation, to achieve more together.
- Enabling – They focus not on what they do, but what they enable people to do; and thereby redefine their marketspace, find new opportunities and redefine value.
- Commercial – Gamechangers take a longer-term perspective, adopting new business models, and recalibrating the measures of progress and success.
Do you have a future mindset?
Today’s business leaders need a future mindset. That sounds obvious, but isn’t.
Most leaders have a “fixed mindset”. They keep stretching the old models of success. They stay loyal to the model that made them great, seeking to squeeze and tweak it for as long as possible. They seek perfection – to optimise what they currently do – which leads to efficiency and incremental gains.
Instead a “future mindset” is prepared to let go of the past. To explore the future, to experiment with new ways of working and winning. Failure is a way to learn, and innovation becomes the norm. Change is relentless inside, as it is outside. Innovation is their lifeblood. Like Jeff Bezos loves to say “it is always day one”.
With a future mindset, the CEO needs new attributes:
- Sense maker – to interpret a fast and confusing world, to see new patterns and opportunities, what is relevant and not, to shape your own vision.
- Radical optimist – to inspire people with a stretching ambition, positive and distinctive, to be audacious, to see the possibilities when others only see risk.
- Future hacker – they start from the “future back”, with clarity of purpose and intent, encouraging ideas and experiments, leveraging resource and scale.
- Ideas connector – da Vinci said innovation is about making unusual connections; connecting new people, new partners, new capabilities and new ideas.
- Emotionally agile – whilst organisational agility is essential, emotional agility matters even more; to cope with change, to be intuitive in making sense, and making choices.
- Entrepreneur at large – keeping the founders mentality alive, hands-on working with project teams to infuse the mindset, to be the catalyst and coach.
- Having grit – “gamechanger” leaders need to go against the grain, to persist but know when to move on, to have self belief and confidence, guts and resilience.
The future is a better place to start
Start from the “future back”.
Trying to evolve in today’s complex and confused world is unlikely to lead you towards a bright and distinctive future. It will extend your life a little longer, but it will be tough and uninspiring, with diminishing returns.
Instead jump to the future. I tend to start with five years ahead, although it may differ by company. 5 years is long enough to change the world, but close enough to be real. Start by creating a positive, collective and inspiring vision of the future market. What will it be like? What will people want? Why? How? Where? Then consider how to win in this new world.
This is where “moonshot thinking” can be really useful. “Why be 10% better, when you could be 10 times better?” 10 times more profits, more customers, more quality, reduced cost, reduced time. Whatever. By giving yourself a “How could we do it 10x better” challenge you take a new perspective, solve problems in different ways.
Be inspired by ideas from other places.
Explore how ARM or GE, Inditex or Netflix, Glossier or Novo Nordisk have changed their markets. Choose any of my 100+ “gamechanger” companies! How did they do it? How did customers respond? (Remember, they often serve the same customers as you!). You can’t learn much from competitors, but you can learn a lot from relevant parallels.
Copy. Adapt. Paste.
Customer insight also matters. Deep dives and design thinking, exploring the emerging trends and deviant behaviours. This can enhance and validate your ideas, but the problem with most customer insight is that it is filtered by our current world. You need something to disrupt your thinking.
I have a great box of disruptive techniques. Some are really simple – like break then remake the rules, like imagine its free then find a way to make money, like reverse polarities and many more. The point is to disrupt your conventional thinking.
From this, ideas rapidly emerge. You need lots of ideas about the future. But these are fragments of the real answer. The real creativity comes in fusing together into bigger “concepts”. These could be customer solutions, or new ways of working, new revenue streams, or new business models, and new market scenarios.
Once you have a clear and collective ambition for the future, it’s time to work backwards. “If this is how we want to be in 5 years, where do we need to get to in 3 years, and then in 1 year? Therefore what do we need to start doing now?” You develop a “horizon plan” for your business; a strategy roadmap if you like, but developed backwards.
The important thing is that by working backwards, you have jumped out of the morass of today. You’ve avoided the assumptions, limitations, problems and priorities of today’s thinking. You have a more inspiring “gamechanging” future, and have started to map out the steps to get there. Most likely with different priorities in the short-term too.
Of course the steps on this journey might change, but it’s going to be an exciting adventure.
Change the way we think, resolve the conflicts
In today’s busineses, we have created artificial divides in how we think and operate. Digital and physical seem like two different worlds, global and local seem like alternative strategies that cannot combine, many still struggle to align value to customers and shareholders in a mutually reinforcing way, and short and long-termism continues to confuse our priorities.
Our thinking within business, has created separate and apparently conflicting approaches. The opportunity is to make the combination of both approaches world – “fusions” if you like – to be innovative in the way you combine apparent opposites.
Digital and physical are two sides of the same coin.
There is only one world, unless you believe Ray Kurzweil, and it is the real one. It’s human and physical. Digital technologies are incredibly powerful, enabling people to connect, to work, to learn, to play in new ways. From mobile phones to blockchains, 3D printing and augmented reality, digital allows us to do more, do it faster, do things we could never do before. But it’s still about humanity.
Start with people. How can you enable them to achieve more? To live better, to have more fun, to do better for the world. Whatever matters. I work closely with Richard Branson and his Virgin teams. Their mindset is to “start from the outside, and then work in”. Design a better customer experience. Built on your ambition and insight, and then explore how you could deliver it with new and existing capabilities.
Global and local are opportunities for every business.
I love Amazon’s “Treasure Truck” … Most of us have never connected with Amazon beyond the website and the delivery guy. Amazon is huge, global and anonymous. But the Treasure Truck is real. It travels around the country, bringing its pop-up store to local neighbourhoods, fun and games, bargains and demos. For Amazon, it’s a chance to make real connections, listen to people, and to be local.
We can all see a backlash in society against relentless globalisation, huge corporations, and social inequality. We see a lack of trust in brands, and know that authenticity matters. Etsy shows us that even the smallest and most local artisan businesses can also be global. For every business, local and global markets are within reach, however it’s also about combining scale and standardisation, with relevance and individuality.
Ideas and networks should be the core of your business.
Gamechanger businesses need a compelling idea, a core purpose, an inspiring proposition, that can spread fast and contagiously. In a digitally-fuelled world, the most innovative businesses embrace “ideas and networks” to drive exponential impact – like WhatsApp creating $19bn in three years, Airbnb $40bn in 9 years, Alibaba $476bn in 18 years, Amazon $740bn in 23 years.
Think about that concept of “exponential” … The power of networks – be it franchisees, or distributors, or customers and users – lies not in the number of members, but in the connections between them. Networks have a multiplying effect. Exponential. Consider, for example, Rapha, the sportwear brand that brings together people with a passion for cycling, who conveniently meet at their “Cycle Club” stores, and buy their premium gear. A fantastic “ideas and networks” business.
Finally this idea of short-term and long-term being in conflict with each other.
Jeff Bezos never has this problem, nor Elon Musk, nor Richard Branson. They focus on the long-term, recognising it will require some years of investment to get there. They all of course lead privately-owned companies. But every public company has the same ambition to innovate and grow. And so do most of their investors, actually.
The reality is that any company’s stock market performance is based on its future earnings potential, not its past. The better you can engage with equity analysts, journalists and investors themselves to explain why you will deliver a better future worth waiting for, then you get their support. If you don’t engage them in your future vision, plans and innovations, then they will default to looking for short-term evidence. It’s really in our hands, to work together to create a future we want to invest in. And to share the greater risk and rewards.
Time to embrace your future mindset
We live in an incredible time … More change in the next 10 years than in the last 250 years … remember? I know that sounds a little crazy, but think about Hyperloop in 3 years, a tipping point to electric cars in 5 years, Mars missions in 8 years. They are all real, and possible.
Digital platforms connecting buyers and sellers in new ways, blockchain having the potential to transform relationships and trust, 3d printing having the potential to transform value chains to deliver anything personalised and on-demand, AI and robotics giving us the capabilities to be superhuman in our minds and bodies.
These are just some of the fantastic new capabilities that enable us to innovate beyond what we can even imagine today. The future isn’t like the future used to be. We cannot just evolve or extrapolate the past. Today’s future is discontinuous, disruptive, different.
It is imagination that will move us forwards … unlocking the technological possibilities, applying them to real problems and opportunities, to drive innovation and growth in every industry, in every part of our lives.
Imagine a world where you press “print” to get the dress of your dreams, the food of your fantasies, or the spare parts for your car. Instantly, personalised and on demand. Think then what does that mean if we don’t need the huge scale of manufacturing plants, warehousing and transportation. Maybe we will even subscribe to the IP catalogues of brands, rather than buy standard products, in the ways we currently subscribe to Netflix.
Time to embrace your Musk mindset … Unlock your Einstein dreams and Picasso passion … Embrace your Mandela courage and Ghandi spirit. Be more curious, be more intuitive, be more human. Ask more questions. Don’t be afraid to have audacious ideas, to challenge the old models of success, and turn future ambitions into practical profitable reality.
How else did Zespri reinvent the Chinese gooseberry as the kiwi fruit? How else will SpaceX reach Mars by 2025? How else did Netflix came to be, or NuTonomy, or Nespresso, or Nyx?
This is why 23andMe’s Anne Wojicki wont give up in her quest to make DNA analysis available to everyone, and to ultimately find a cure for cancer. And it’s why Jack Ma didn’t give up as he rose from $1000-per year English teacher to technological royalty.
The secret is the future mindset.
To realise that the future is malleable. So we need to grab hold of it, and shape it in our own vision. To our advantage.
This is what “gamechangers” do.
- Article: The 10x Leader
- Article: Amplifying Potential
- Book: “Gamechangers: Are you ready to change the world?“
- Workshop: “Gamechangers: Leading for smarter innovation and profitable growth”
- Workshop: “Inspiring Leadership … future, people and change”
- Keynote: “Be the Gamechanger“
- Keynote: “Courageous Leadership“
- Keynote: “Leading from the Future Book“
- Video: “Smarter Innovation, Faster Growth“
- Video: “Zoom in, Zoom out. Winning in a VUCA World“
- Executive Program: “Disrupt or be Disrupted. The Global AMP“
- Interview: “How can you change the world?“
- Interview: “What do you do? How do you do it better?“
Developing people for the age of AI and robotics.
Peter Fisk explores how to harness the potential of humanity, in a world of robotics and AI – including the reinvention of education and work.
Download a summary of Peter Fisk’s keynote Superhuman Futures
In order to ensure the success of their organisations, business leader must rethink, refocus, and reinvent their approach to talent management. Only those who are willing to embrace change and respond with innovative solutions will succeed in this brave new world.
Perhaps one of the most important questions right now is how to harness the potential of humanity, in a world of robotics and AI, including the reinvention of education, work and healthcare.
We will discuss new approaches to develop the next generation of leaders, and will help the participants develop the mindsets required not only to manage, but to thrive as leaders in a business environment marked by intense workplace pressure, unrelenting change, and escalating competition.
- Superhuman: Will robots replace us, or make us better?
- Human Capital: Investing in the Potential of People
- Finding the magic of humanity in a world of digital technologies and intelligent robotics
Peter Fisk is also Academic Director of IE Business School’s flagship Global Advanced Management Program for business leaders ready to step up to the C Suite, to lead their organisations in the new, challenging but incredibly exciting world. Here he introduces the program:
How do you win in a world of relentless change?
You know you need to innovate more than ever. You need to think bigger, and different. Not just as an occasional project, but as a continual stream of revolution. You need to think more significantly, how to solve the significant problems of a restless world, to seize the new opportunities to make life better in useful and meaningful ways, and to accelerate profitable growth. Not just the technology, but the smart application of it to the real world, socially and commercially.
Smaller, incremental innovations are quickly swallowed up, or made irrelevant by the next thing. Consumers see through the hype and fragility. Or don’t have time for the frivolity of irrelevance.
Of course, small changes can add to bigger ones, but if they collectively don’t achieve more, and move you forwards in a bigger way, then they are distracting and wasted.
We need bigger ideas. But they are hard to deliver, particularly when the landscape keeps moving. When the future is imperfect or even unpredictable. When the business case is difficult to make. When everything seems to have been already, and most competitors are into marginal gains – discounts and tweaks to almost perfect products and services.
Stop! Think again.
Time to “hack” the future
Switch on your Musk mindset … Unlock your Einstein dreams and Picasso passion … Embrace your Mandela courage and Ghandi spirit.
Is this what will take SpaceX to Mars by 2025? Is this why Zespri reinvented the chinese gooseberry? Is this how Netflix came to be, or NuTonomy, or Nespresso, or Nyx?
Is this what motivates Jeff Bezos to say “every day is day one”? Is this how Anne Wojicki seeks to cure cancer? Is this why Jack Ma ignored everyone to create $500bn in 15 years?
We need to think bigger, but we also need to think actively. The future is malleable, so we need to grab hold of it, to shape it in our own vision. To our advantage. This is what “game changers” do. They take a market, and reinvent it, or even create a new one, on their terms. Don’t just innovate a product, service, or even business model – innovate the market.
Of course, they can’t plan exactly how to get there. That would be ridiculous, like trying to climb Mount Everest without the agility to sense and respond to the changing weather conditions. But they know where they are going. They have a bigger dream. And they are willing to fight and flex to get there.
And then they hack.
You think of it as a nerdy kid sitting in front of a bank of computers, trying to infiltrate the most cybersecure fortresses. But its much more than that. It’s about using your brain, curiosity, intuition, hypothesis, resourcefulness, and experimentation. It’s about sensing your way, being bold yet also adaptive, being flexible but also driven.
Leaders need a “future mindset”
There is no space into today’s business world for a fixed mindset. One which seeks to sit an optimise the current world, in search of ever greater efficiency and ultimate perfection. That is a route of diminishing returns. It’s also what you’ve been doing for decades. Trying to hang on to the old model of success. Instead we need a future mindset. To face the future every day, find new ways forward, to a better world.
A future mindset needs an organisational context in order to be shared and thrive – an agile innovation culture. Business is shifting from a passive to active dynamic – where 80% of activities are active (project-type working focused on innovation, experimentation and customisation) and only 20% passive (ongoing-type working focused on administration, production and standardised delivery), rather than the opposite.
In this active culture, work becomes fast and flexible, innovation becomes the core rather than a occasional luxury, where there are no limiting strategies and fixed ways of working, unhindered by internally-focused structures and process, and where ideas and experiments can thrive. And where the focus is no longer about living off the past, or surviving for today. But inspired by a better future.
How do you see your future?
We live in an incredible time. More change in the next 10 years than in the last 250 years. New technologies transforming the ways in which we live and work. Digital platforms and blockchains, AI and robotics, 3D printing and nanotech .
These are just some of the fantastic new capabilities that enable us to innovate beyond what we can even imagine today. The future isn’t like the future used to be. We cannot just evolve or extrapolate the past. Today’s future is discontinuous, disruptive, different.
It is imagination that will move us forwards … unlocking the technological possibilities, applying them to real problems and opportunities, to drive innovation and growth in every industry, in every part of our lives.
Imagine a world where you press “print” to get the dress of your dreams, the food of your fantasies, or the spare parts for your car. Instantly, personalised and on demand. Think then what does that mean if we don’t need the huge scale of manufacturing plants, warehousing and transportation. Maybe we will even subscribe to the IP catalogues of brands, in the ways we currently subscribe to Netflix.
Growth starts from the “future back”
The best place to start is the future. The best entrepreneurs think “future back” rather than just trying to move forwards with the limitations and distractions of today. Elon Musk grabs headlines with his bold “Humans on Mars by 2025” vision, but then that makes everything else more purposeful, and more possible. Tesla to Hyperloop to SpaceX, all seem more possible, and even stepping stones to a greater destination.
“Future back” thinking also means you are not limited by your own capabilities. Richard Branson had a fantastic vision for a better airline, a consumer bank, a space travel business. But no idea how to make them happen. But then he found partners who could help make them happen. Partners with the expertise on tap, to connect with his ideas, and together innovate further and faster.
Partnerships are key to the future, connecting ideas and capabilities, risks and rewards, to achieve more together.
What might your world look like in 2025?
By jumping to the future, and then working backwards, you develop a bolder, braver ambition. Shaping the future on your terms, exploring the new possibilities for innovation and growth, unlimited by the priorities and prejudices of today. New technologies will be key, but they are more the enablers than answers. How will they make life better? How will they make your business better?
Inspired by the Adidas Speedfactory, what does the future of your manufacturing look like? If Amazon’s Alexa can manage your home, then what could the future workplace look like? What would happen if phones were free like Jio Phone has just disruptively done in India? How could you apply big data like 23&Me in healthcare to predict what people want? Or the new business models like Airbnb and Nespresso to redefine markets? Beyond the hype of Bitcoin, how could blockchain redefine how you engage customers? And what actually will people want most in the future?
Futurists look for emerging patterns – signals of future possibilities, already out there. Emergent behaviours, adaptive usage, new aspirations. You just need to find these signals, and apply them. Maybe on the fringes of your market, or by transferring ideas from other sectors, or other geograhies, or others aspects of life.
Leonardo da Vinci definined innovation as making unusual connections. So how could you connect the most relevant and disruptive ideas together in new ways?
Are you ready to create your better future?
It’s time to jump to the future. And then look back. Then you will see today differently.
Too many of us get locked in to a mindset of today – of incremental, extrapolating, and perfecting the old world. Working backwards from 2025 you will define different milestones, different priorities to be achieved within 3 years, and even next year.
Innovation demands a future mindset, that will deliver bigger ideas to drive innovation and growth, and new perspectives on what matters most today.
Are you ready?