We all know that technology is changing the world, in ways and at a rate like never before. Alibaba’s $28bn sales in one day, Pokemon Go reinventing the hybrid world of gaming, remote diagnostics of aircraft as they fly above us, personalisation of offers with iBeacons as we browse a store. We see the accelerated adoption of everything from mobility to the internet of things, robotics to augmented reality, driverless cars and renewable energy, blockchain processes and 3d printed body parts.
The real question is how technology is being most effectively harnessed in organisations to guide new possibilities, to be a driver of strategy and catalyst of innovation, rather than just a support function. How too are technology professionals, from CTO to IT Help Desks, changing their role in organisations, to enable leaders and managers to make sense, harness the full potential, and effectively deliver the organisations and innovations of the future.
In his keynote, Peter Fisk will explore
1. The changing role of technology in the business, from transactional to transformational, from enabling platforms to distinctive experiences.
2. The necessary role of technology people in business, from support function to executive leadership, from technical skills to innovation visionaries
3. The opportunity for technology professional networks and associations, from educator to enabler, from passive membership to active movement.
CEPIS is a non-profit organisation seeking to improve and promote a high standard among ICT professionals, in recognition of the impact that ICT has on employment, business and society. CEPIS currently represents 33 member societies in 32 countries across greater Europe. Through its members, who are the professional ICT bodies at national level, CEPIS represents 450,000 ICT professionals. The CEPIS Council gathers 40 delegates, who are senior representatives from national informatics associations and computer societies around Europe and beyond.
Thinkers50 is the world’s platform for management ideas, bringing together business leaders with the best thinkers to explore what is hot, and what is next in business.
Michael Porter to Clay Christensen, blockchain technologies to hotspot creativity … from Harvard Business School to Hyderabad Tech Village, Fujitsu’s Californian campus to Haier’s Chinese HQ … Thinkers50 curates and connects the best ideas.
Thinkers50 Europe has established a new hub for these ideas, based in the heart of Denmark, the birthplace of Hans Christian Anderson, and the home of Europe’s leading robotics cluster. Odense is a city of the future, and a great place to think.
Earlier this year, we launched Thinkers50Europe in Odense, working with the Mayor and the municipality’s development team to establish an exciting new physical and digital platform to share the best ideas from the world, and across Europe.
Professor Rita McGrath of Columbia Business School said “At a time when a decent lifestyle seems beyond the aspirations of many, the Danish city of Odense is having none of it. With long-term thinking, integrated plans for infrastructure and development and long-term leadership, Odense has made quality of life the centerpiece of its development philosophy. Next up, a move to becoming a hub for innovation, which is already paying off in its leading position in the robotics industry – just in time for the Internet of Things. Keep an eye on developments from this surprising, intriguing place.”
Whitney Johnson, author of Disrupt Yourself, added “Odense, Denmark. Haven’t heard of it? You will. With Thinkers50 Europe now headquartered there, it’s about to become the Davos of business ideas.”
You can read the press release for the launch of Thinkers50Europe
And you can come along to the next event on 4 October 2016, when one of the world’s leading thinkers on personal development, Nilofer Merchant, will be exploring her latest ideas about “Onlyness” and how there is only one, unique and special you.
I will also be joined at the event by Thinkers50 founders Des Dearlove and Stuart Crainer, and together we will be launching an exciting new business event for all of Europe, to be in held in Odense next year.
Dassault Systèmes, abbreviated as 3DS, and known as “The 3DExperience Company”, is a European-based multinational software company that develops 3D design, 3D digital mock-up, and product lifecycle management solutions. The group was created in 1981 by Avions Marcel Dassault to develop a new generation of computer-aided design software called CATIA. Dassault Systems is based in the south-western suburbs of Paris, commonly called 3DS Paris Campus and also at Waltham, Massachusetts, west of Boston USA, and is called 3DS Boston Campus.
Dassault Systèmes develops and markets PLM software solutions and services that support industrial processes by providing a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from conception to maintenance. Dassault Systèmes customers are companies in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Architecture, Engineering and Construction, Consumer goods – distribution, FMCG – Distribution, Energy, and processes, Finance and Corporate Services, High Technology, Industrial Equipment, Life Sciences, Marine & Offshore, Natural Resources, and Transport & mobility.
Here are some case studies of 3D Experiences developed for clients with 3DS:
My keynote will be challenging and inspiring, adding new ideas and energy to this important reseller event. The outline agenda looks like this:
Winning in a VUCA world – changing markets, new technologies, changing attitudes.
New markets – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Power shifts and new drivers of success – new attitudes and influences, expectations and aspirations.
Millenial mindset – fast, collaborative, personal and fun. At home but also work. How they change the workplace, and how they influence all the rest of us too.
Think different – left brain and right brain, analytical and intuitive, big picture and small detail, future back and now forward.
The digitisation of selling – changing the way companies work, sell and win
Digital technologies create new channels, new services, new engagement, new ways of selling – from push to pull, platforms, networks and business models.
What can we learn from the shift in the consumer world? Eg: Amazon Dash to Dollar Shave Club, Airbnb to Uber Eats, WhatsApp to Pokemon Go.
What can we learn from the shift in the business world? Eg: Microsoft and Sage, CommBank and Novartis, 3D Hubs and Xiaomi.
Be the Gamechanger – how to be the leader of change, innovation and growth?
Gamechangers – shaping markets in their own vision, changing the game (audacious, collaborative, intelligent, networked, enabling.
The new value-added of resellers – from analogue VAR to digital VAR, what it means for you, and 5 keys to winning in the changing markets.
Getting started – What leaders do, starting from the outside in (user, customer, reseller, 3DS), the practical steps, and the difference it can make.
Dassault Systèmes, abbreviated as 3DS, and known as “The 3DExperience Company”, is a European-based multinational software company that develops 3D design, 3D digital mock-up, and product lifecycle management solutions. The group was created in 1981 by Avions Marcel Dassault to develop a new generation of computer-aided design software called CATIA. Dassault Systems is based in the south-western suburbs of Paris, commonly called 3DS Paris Campus and also at Waltham, Massachusetts, west of Boston USA, and is called 3DS Boston Campus.
Dassault Systèmes develops and markets PLM software solutions and services that support industrial processes by providing a 3D vision of the entire lifecycle of products from conception to maintenance. Dassault Systèmes customers are companies in the following industries: Aerospace & Defense, Architecture, Engineering and Construction, Consumer goods – distribution, FMCG – Distribution, Energy, and processes, Finance and Corporate Services, High Technology, Industrial Equipment, Life Sciences, Marine & Offshore, Natural Resources, and Transport & mobility.
Here are some case studies of 3D Experiences developed for clients with 3DS:
My keynote will be challenging and inspiring, adding new ideas and energy to this important reseller event. The outline agenda looks like this:
Winning in a VUCA world – changing markets, new technologies, changing attitudes.
New markets – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. Power shifts and new drivers of success – new attitudes and influences, expectations and aspirations.
Millenial mindset – fast, collaborative, personal and fun. At home but also work. How they change the workplace, and how they influence all the rest of us too.
Think different – left brain and right brain, analytical and intuitive, big picture and small detail, future back and now forward.
The digitisation of selling – changing the way companies work, sell and win
Digital technologies create new channels, new services, new engagement, new ways of selling – from push to pull, platforms, networks and business models.
What can we learn from the shift in the consumer world? Eg: Amazon Dash to Dollar Shave Club, Airbnb to Uber Eats, WhatsApp to Pokemon Go.
What can we learn from the shift in the business world? Eg: Microsoft and Sage, CommBank and Novartis, 3D Hubs and Xiaomi.
Be the Gamechanger – how to be the leader of change, innovation and growth?
Gamechangers – shaping markets in their own vision, changing the game (audacious, collaborative, intelligent, networked, enabling.
The new value-added of resellers – from analogue VAR to digital VAR, what it means for you, and 5 keys to winning in the changing markets.
Getting started – What leaders do, starting from the outside in (user, customer, reseller, 3DS), the practical steps, and the difference it can make.
3D technology is helping medical researchers to revolutionize cardiovascular science and transform lives. Listen to Dr. Steve Levine, the leader of the Realistic Human Simulation Initiative at Dassault Systèmes SIMULIA discuss The Living Heart Project:
A new generation of businesses (new technologies, new business models, new leadership) is emerging to address a new generation of customers (new audiences, new geographies, new aspirations). Marketing exists to connect businesses and customers, in relevant and profitable ways.
A new approach to marketing is therefore required. Some of the new approaches, and maybe the language, will be familiar. But not all, and not joined up as a fundamental approach to driving business performance. Together, some call it Marketing 4.0 or Exponential Marketing, but whichever labels you apply, it involves a seismic shift in philosophy and practice.
It fundamentally challenges every marketer who still turns first to their strategic plan. And then to their advertising agency, or even their web developer. It is fundamentally digital in mindset, but human as well as technological. It demands analytical thinking, content and networks, but also vision and creativity. It requires new types of leaders, and a new mindset for every marketer. It is built around 7 transformations.
These are the new rules of marketing:
Growth Hacking … Forget strategic planning that is slow, structured and stable – instead think of strategy like a portfolio of fast and relentless experiments, seizing and shaping the best opportunities for growth. It still needs direction and choices – a vision still matters, making sense of change, having a clarity purpose, and a defined context in which to hack. Strategy becomes agile and creative, outside in, big ideas and small experiments, driven by changing markets and customer aspirations, rather than fixed by your own capabilities and products.
Customer Analytics … Forget mass-market segmentation, whether geographic, demographic or anything else. People are individual, and don’t want standardised solutions. The power of big data, connecting and interpreting, automating and exploiting – together with more qualitative and creative insights through customer immersion and “design thinking” – is used to focus, engage, customise, deliver, support, enable the right customers over time. Linking to the hack culture, is the ability to keep learning, about people, about yourself, and what works.
Platform Innovation … Forget innovation around a product, or even a service. Think strategically about how you can shape the market, in particular the platform that engages buyers and sellers, suppliers and distributors. Business model innovation, channel innovation, price innovation, then follow. Innovation is about shaping the market and all its dynamics to your advantage, whilst also personalised for each individual through micro-innovation – collaborative and customised solutions and experiences.
Brand Storytelling … Forget brands built around who you are – brand logos, slogans and ownership. People engage with brands about them, brands that reflect their aspirations, and brands that connect them with other people who share their values and aspirations. Brand stories are living fables, encouraged by the company, but interpreted and spread by people to people. Content must be realtime and relevant, and keep moving forwards. Encouraged but not controlled. Inspiring, human and memorable.
Social Influencers … Forget advertising, whether a TV campaign with 30 second slots, or even personalised mailings – people are not listening, and they don’t trust you. Instead they trust people like them, friends and peers. Word of mouth in a digital world, PR and celebrity endorsement is replaced by Instagramers or Youtubers who they trust. Brand stories, advocates, and community building help to guide and shape this influence.
Enabling Experiences … Forget customer experiences as a semi-automated series of incentivised touchpoints built around the “sale”, think instead from a customer’s perspective. Think about the experience they have – the outcomes, not the inputs, what they do not what you do. Which is usually more about how they use, apply and exploit the products and services which they buy, rather than the purchase itself. Use their language, think about their experience, and how they use, store, apply and even dispose of products and services. Enable them to achieve more.
Exponential Growth … Forget an obsession with sales volumes, even revenues, which are the short-term measure of sales people. Marketers should be focused on growing the business – profitably and sustainably – creating a better business future, and a long-term platform and guide for customers. Think profitably. Think growth. Think economic value creation. Exponential growth is now the expectation of investor, achieved by harnessing the power of branded networks, social influence and agile business models. Fast, exciting and rewarding.
These new rules of marketing, and specifically the 7 transformations, are the cornerstones of my next book and also of a new range of inspiring keynotes and practical workshops. We explore each mantra in detail, with detailed case studies together with the tools and partners for action.
Whilst of course, every market and every business is different, the 7 mantras are a provocative challenge for change. Of course, solutions are not black and white. Every business still has a mix of structured and hacked strategy, uses a box of earned and paid media, and has a balance of push and pull. But it is a rapidly changing area, a revolution.
Marketing is the driving force of business – it moves the business forwards, shapes the future, engages the customer and aligns the organisation to deliver. It is the growth engine, the innovation catalyst and customer champion. Markets are changing at incredible speed, requiring new agility and new capability.
There has never been a more exciting time for marketing, or to be a marketer.
Get started with Emarsys Live
I will be previewing these “new rules” for the first time at Google Campus in the forthcoming months, with a series of quarterly events in partnership with Emarsys, which is one of the companies helping you to embrace this new world. The ‘supercharger” marketing events are for CMOs to explore the best and next practices around, inspiring ideas and practical tools. They are fast and relaxed sessions to help you think different and explore what will work for you.
13:00 Registration
13:20 Welcome to Google – Belinda Tredwell, Manager Campus London
13:25 Supercharge your marketing … Allen Nance from Emarsys
13:30 Supercharge your future … Peter Fisk on “The New Rules of Marketing”
14:00 Supercharge your action … Alex Timlin on “Implementing CRM-based Advertising”
14:45 Coffee Break
15:00 Supercharge your results … Martin Shaw on “Learning from Europe’s Top 500 Retailers”
15:45 Networking
16:00 Close
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Emarsys is a leading global provider of marketing automation software and the first marketing cloud for retail and e-commerce. The Emarsys B2C Marketing Cloud enables true, one-to-one interactions between marketers and consumers across all channels — building loyalty, enriching the customer journey and increasing revenues. Machine learning and data science fuels customer intelligence in an intuitive, cloud-based platform enabling companies to scale marketing decisions and actions far beyond human capabilities. Founded in 2000, Emarsys data-driven platform helps more than 1,500 clients in over 140 countries to connect with their customers all over the world.
Emarsys focus on 5 stages of customer engagement:
Collect and merge your customer data in a single unified profile … Automate your data collection across all sources, from channels to behaviour, from CRM to offline data, building the richest overview of your customers. Create a single unified profile overview that connects and attributes interactions across all touchpoints to a single person.
Transform the raw data to intelligent powerful 1-to-1 marketing fuel … Transform your mountains of data into intelligent information with self-learning algorithms that analyse and reveal actionable insights.
Automatically place your contacts in smart segments, calculate individual product affinities, and much more to truly understand he person behind the email address.
Automate messages and responses across the entire customer journey … Create relevant messages from the first hello throughout the whole customer lifecycle; then automate advanced programs to execute the right content response at the right time. Decide how to handle any scenario, and automate the response to keep your customers coming back for more.
Connect with customers using personalized messages across all channels … Orchestrate your marketing activities across all channels including Email, SMS, Push, Social Audiences and even offline to engage customers wherever they are active. Include product recommendations, conditional content, or smart segmentation, to automate the personalization of your content for beautiful content regardless of channel.
Truly understand your customers and gain unique insights for your strategy … The only actionable business intelligence marketing platform that scientifically lets you understand and target customers like never before.
Highly focussed dashboards provide rich and detailed information that let you monitor any aspect of marketing performance and act on it with a couple of clicks.
“Wellness” is perhaps the biggest consumer trend around. How can you embrace the opportunities of this huge and fast-growing market? Especially if you are already in the fitness business …
Using the “growth compass” methodology (for more details, see the Gamechanger Labs) we will explore where are the best opportunities for growth in the fitness business. Whilst new fast-growth markets are obvious targets (for example, African countries), and new hospitality models (e.g. boutique hotels), it is also about thinking about the ecosystem, the changing consumer aspirations, and the adjacent markets.
Don’t just think about your existing product (fitness equipment) and how many places you can sell it in, think how can your brand work in new ways, changing your business models, linking up with new partners, or even developing additional brands and services. The growth companies is all about changing the “who, why, what, how” – any one of those dimensions, and more than one together.
You can download a free summary of my keynote presentation Future Fitness
Here are some of the most significant opportunities spaces for growth:
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For more than 45 years, Life Fitness has been dedicated to creating fitness solutions that benefit both facilities and exercisers. Our mission to keep people active started with the Lifecycle exercise bike and continues with the widest range of cardio, strength and group training products in the fitness industry.
It all started with the Lifecycle exercise bike, which was the first electronic piece of exercise equipment. It was invented by Dr. Keene Dimick, a chemist who was driven to invention by his desire to improve the effectiveness of his exercise routine. As aerobics, legwarmers and leotards crept into fitness facilities, Life Fitness was taking big steps forward as a company and diving headfirst into the digital age. Lifecycle, Inc. was sold to Bally Manufacturing Corp. and later became Life Fitness, Inc.
In the 1990s a bold expansion into strength training by Life Fitness sets the groundwork for future partnerships with college athletic facilities and professional sports teams. Meanwhile, Tae Bo® was keeping people fit, and Zubaz® pants were a frequent sight at the gym. Life Fitness extolled the value of connecting exercisers to their fitness equipment. This foresight paid off in the form of compatibility with future fitness apps and wearables.
“Our mission at Life Fitness is to develop the fitness solutions that get the world moving. And we feel that it’s extremely important to practice what we preach. The culture at Life Fitness revolves around what our products stand for—active and healthy living. Gym bags are as common as coffee mugs at our global headquarters outside of Chicago and at our nine other offices worldwide. Our product showrooms double as bustling employee gyms, and lively group workouts are an important part of the daily routine.”
The best way to know everything we can about our fitness products is to use them every day. Helping people live healthier lives is what we do, and the devotion to that goal begins with our employees.
An aggressive approach to innovation keeps Life Fitness on the cutting edge of technology and new product development. Life Fitness is prepared for fitness trends, like the increasing popularity of group training, and an exploding fitness app market.
So what next for LifeFitness? Where are the new opportunities for innovation and growth? What is a better future for keeping the world fit and healthy, and the world’s leading fitness solutions?
Here are a few more videos to inspire your thinking:
ECMA is the International Network of Folding Carton Organisations; carton businesses, national carton associations and suppliers to the carton industry.
The theme for this year’s ECMA Annual Congress is ‘Big Data – The New Folding Carton Industry’.
Big Data could become one of the most important drivers of change in the packaging industry. Big data has the potential to fundamentally change the way businesses compete and operate and could provide a competitive edge to those companies that invest and successfully derive value from their data.
In this keynote Peter will explore specific topics including
Big Data … transforming every industry, the fuel of the digital revolution
Using consumer insight to design new solutions, experiences and business models
Every business is physical and digital, how big data enables omnichannel marketing
Google to 23&Me, Crystal to Dominos, Nespresso to Tesla
Big Ideas … creatively applying data to innovate business models, and brand experiences
P&G’s deep immersion to explore new consumer insights about packaging
Amazon Dash transforming the way people buy food, changing the needs of packaging
Fish People bringing authenticity to food, through personalisation and traceability
Big Impact … the opportunity for packaging to embrace big data, and add value to brands
Differentiation and personalisation, where packaging enables consumers to do more
Speed and agility to anticipate, track, and respond to fast-changing markets
Security and protection to build transparency and trust
From cereal boxes to ready meals to pharmaceutical packaging, folding cartons are a key product in the global packaging market. This market, valued at $140,000 million in 2012, continues to grow and is forecast to be worth $184,000 million in 2018.
This growth will be fed mainly by the continued and growing demand for health care products, as well as cigarettes, dry foods and frozen/chilled foods, especially in emerging economies, while demand in the developed regions is likely to be somewhat muted in comparison.
Below Smithers Pira highlights five key trends which are affecting the folding carton market
Migration barriers
The migration of contaminants through cartonboard used in food packaging has been a cause for concern since 2010, with the identification of mineral oils from recycled newsprint as a potential threat to consumer health.
In June 2012, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) announced the development of a scanner that is capable of detecting the unintentional transfer of chemicals, including substances used in printing inks, from the outer surface of food packaging to the inner surface in contact with the food.
As a result there has been a surge to develop a barrier that can prevent the migration of both known and unknown substances, which could prove harmful to consumers.
Downsizing
Driven by the need to reduce costs, as well as the desire to attract positive publicity, brand owners are constantly striving to reduce the amount of packaging used in the distribution of their products.
Initiatives such as the Kraft Foods “Better World” sustainability programme, which aims to make packaging “less and better”, have seen a reduction in overall packaging consumption volumes, with Kraft achieving a saving of 10% on the packaging volume of its Easter egg packaging.
Single serve packs
The trend towards smaller packs to reduce packaging volumes is offset by a simultaneous move towards single serve packs in many end-use sectors. This trend tends to result in overall packaging volumes increasing as smaller packs consume more material in their packaging than the larger packs they replace, per volume of packed product.
The demand for single serve packs is being driven by the growing number of single person households, alongside increasing demands on consumers’ time resulting in families eating at varying times of the day. These trends resulted in more than half of the new product releases in the UK prepared food sector being in single serve packs in 2012.
Printing techniques
Brand owners are becoming increasingly demanding of converters and printers in efforts to differentiate their products in an ever more crowded marketplace. This is stimulating innovation in packaging design and printing techniques, with an increasing requirement for additions to packaging such as QR codes, holographic images, Fresnel lenses and other 3D devices.
An exciting innovation that brand owners are starting to incorporate into their packaging is the use of digital printing. This is driven by a growing demand from brand owners for seasonal and promotional packaging designs that can be achieved via digital print. Up until recently the applications of digital print in the market for folding cartons has been limited, but developments in the last few years have made it a viable and promising option.
Smart Packaging
Developments in printed electronics are bringing the development of smart packaging closer to economical implementation by reducing the previously prohibitive costs associated with this technology.
Driven by ageing populations needing more sophisticated packaging in applications such as medicine monitoring, coupled with rising disposable incomes and stricter legislation and control, demand for smart packaging is growing. As this innovative area continues to grow, it will have an unavoidable influence on the packaging market.
At this year’s Future Book Forum in Munich, 2-4 November 2016, we will build on our work of the last two years – when we defined a vision, manifesto and roadmap for the future of book publishing. Last year we have explored the new attitudes and aspirations of millennials, the new world of work, and the business case for making books more profitable – in particular how to find new revenue streams and growth opportunities with new business models. This year, at the largest gathering of the world’s book publishers, we seek to go further – to bring together all our best ideas, and reinvent the book, in one day.
In my recent book “Gamechangers” you can learn from the world’s most disruptive innovators – from Amazon to Buzzfeed, Corning and Desigual, Vice and WeChat, Xiaomi and Zappos – and how they are shaking up every industry. They typically combine audacious ideas and intelligent networks, global and local, digital and physical, collaborative and personal, to engage today’s consumers more deeply, and to find the best future sources of profitable growth.
The question is, how can we shake up the game of publishing – in more powerful, practical and profitable ways.
We start with a manuscript, developed by Thinkers50, the world’s leading platform for business ideas. They asked 50 of the top business gurus to each write a “letter to the CEO” addressing the biggest issues in business right now, and the best ideas to address them. Our challenge is to think how can we design and deliver this “book” in the most innovate way. How can we bring it to life in bold and visionary ways, across which platforms, how should it be distributed and supported, and have most impact? The book is real, and will be developed based on your choices, then launched to the world’s CEOs at the European Business Forum in Odense on 9-10 May 2017.
Together we will work through three highly accelerated phases of innovation using the best approaches from design thinking, disruptive innovation and concept blueprinting. We’ll also get some outside inspiration as we go. The three phases are
Ideas Lab – exploring new possibilities, combining insights and imagination, to stretch and shape our concept.
Design Studio – focusing in, connecting and shaping the best ideas, and paradoxes to address, and choices to make.
Launch Pad – deciding what will it look like, how will it be used, bought, priced, and a roadmap for implementation.
So, get involved. Don’t be afraid to dream, to share your best ideas. Together as an industry, we can imagine and innovate like none of us individually, to shape new solutions that can secure a better future for all of us. Just imagine – a book of the world’s best business ideas, turned into a radical new concept instantly, and then challenging the world’s business leaders to innovate too!
Building on last year
As a starting point, here is a summary of Future Book Forum 2015:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_z2v9GhmWQ
The manuscript from Thinkers50
Here are some short extracts taken from the contributions to the manuscript for the Thinkers50 “Letter to the CEO” book which is our starting point:
From Tom Peters:
Dear CEO
The easy way to write this letter is to use words like “disruption” in pretty much every paragraph. Then throw in “Big Data” and “IoT”/Internet of Things as often as possible as well. Indeed, we are bombarded by disruptive forces and the likes of the Internet of Things and advanced AI could throw us off stride—or off the bus. (Oh, and “leadership,” “vision,” and “authenticity” must make at least cameo appearances, too.)
For starters, I urge you to hire the brightest young women (and a few young men) to help you deal with all this madness—as to the “young” bit, I assume you are wise enough to have two or three “under thirtys” on your Board and even more on your executive team, right? (If not, are you sleeping?) …
From Whitney Johnson:
Dear CEO
I talk about disruption and disruptors. For a lot of people, the term ‘disruption’ is heard commonly enough that they tune it out as a mere buzzword. This is unfortunate, because disruption is a powerful force that transforms organizations, communities and ultimately the world. It’s critical to the success of your organization, but the tricky secret is that companies and organization don’t disrupt unless their people do.
According to Towers Perrin, Intl., organizations with a highly engaged workforce increased operating income by 19.2%, while low engagement led to a 32.7% decline in operating profits.
That’s the good news …
From Scott Anthony
Dear CEO
It’s cliché to say that the pace of change is accelerating. Indeed, that statement has arguably been true since the renaissance. But something feels different today. Businesses built painstakingly over decades get ripped apart almost overnight. Innosight’s research shows that 50% of the companies on the S&P 500 will not be on the list in 10 years. Many of the companies that will replace today’s giants likely do not even exist today.
Every business leader needs to think about the impact of ever-accelerating change. Broad trends such as the rise of robots and drones, the disappearance of computers into everyday life, everything-as-a-service, and big data analytics promise to bring disruptive change to every nook and cranny of the global economy …
From Vlatka Hlupic …
Dear CEO
Every once in a while, one comes across a major shift in our way of thinking about society: representation by Parliament, for example, and the concept of human rights.
In business management we are on the threshold of a similar, momentous change. For decades now, the dominant approach has been based around the pursuit of short-term financial targets and cost control, with powerful chief executives deploying human resources as they seek to maximize returns. Concerns for welfare, or for society, were assumed to be an optional extra. You were supposed to choose between profits and conscience.
We now know that this approach is seriously flawed – and from a business perspective, as well as from social and environmental considerations. What is interesting is that business leaders are now forming part of a consensus challenging …
From Costas Markides:
Dear CEO
Any CEO of a publicly traded company is under intense pressure to maximize shareholder value. This has always been the case but it has become increasingly so in the last few years as a result of more aggressive and impatient investors as well as more data availability and accounting transparency. The need to do this every year—or every quarter—hangs over the head of every CEO like the “sword of Damocles”. Fail to deliver for a quarter or two and you’d better start looking for a new job! Yet, for any CEO aspiring for success, this is exactly the wrong thing to be pursuing.
It is important to understand why …
The letters are short, fresh and important. They deserve more than to be thrown together in another 300 page, densely printed, boring paperback picked up at airport booksellers. How will we, together reinvent the book?
“In the digital world where most of us live, our identities are continually defined by the billions of data bytes we share.”
Data is the fuel of the digital economy. GBG enables companies to connect instantly to over 300 third-party datasets, helping them focus on improving their customers’ experience while adhering to their own internal risk management, fraud or compliance procedures.
From Aviva to Barclays, Etsy to Ford, IBM to Nike … GBG currently supports over 6,000 clients across the world, in both the private and public sector. These organisations need identity data intelligence to protect themselves from nancial crime or regulatory non-compliance and to improve the overall experience they offer customers – with the ultimate goal of improving their overall business.
GBG’s technology spans employee screening, customer on-boarding and fraud management across all B2C sectors. They support customers globally in traditional banking, government, utilities, retail and transport as well as newly emerging industries such as eCommerce, online gaming, cryptocurrency and mobile payments.
Identity can be defined as the characteristics by which an individual is known. Today, several elements build our identity and every individual has thousands of characteristics that can be gleaned from a wide range of data sources. The more identity data points analysed, the better informed business decisions will be and the better the customer experience.
Attributed data … Examples: Name and address, Passport, Payment details, Education qualications
Biometric data … Examples: Fingerprints, Retina, Voice, DNA
Behavioural data … Examples: Interests, Likes, Dislikes, Usage patterns
Digital data … Examples: Device ID, IP address, Social ID, Cookies
This is where identity data intelligence comes in. GBG’s technology takes identity data from multiple sources and enables organisations to make clear decisions about the customers they serve and the people they employ.
In this workshop we will explore what it takes to be a leader of the future, to shape fast growth markets in your own vision, and to make them happen successfully. There are three sections:
The opportunities of change – tectonic power shifts, new technologies and big data, new consumer agendas, changing lifestyles, and ways of working.
VUCA World – volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous – means we have to think, plan and act differently – as do our clients. VUCA is scary, time to keep you head down, but is also full of opportunity, time to have your heads up.
Power shifts – “west to east” means that growth and competition comes in new places, “big to small” means speedboats beat supertankers, and “business to customer” means we have to do business on their terms.
Think different – left brain and right brain, analytical and intuitive, big picture and small detail, future back and now forward, connecting the unconnected whilst focusing on priorities, and harnessing the potential of data and insight.
Discussion – How does the VUCA world affect our business, and that of our clients? How do we respond to it as a business, and personally? How do we need to change in order to win in this world?
Inspired by innovation – what can we learn from the world’s most disruptive innovators, and in particular those who harness data to enable better experiences
Gamechangers – learning from the world’s most innovative companies in each different sector – identifying the five attrbutes which drive them (audacious, collaborative, intelligent, networked, enabling).
Shaping the future – how these companies are “changing the game” in their different markets, working from the “future back” with a bigger vision, engaging customers more deeply, to lead and shape the future on their terms.
Discussion – Which innovators could we learn from? (it includes some business services and big data companies). What can we learn from their them and how they win (creative ideas, creative application).
Making the future happen – how do companies deliver success in todays markets, from design thinking to lean innovation, new business models and communities.
Business innovation – focus in on specific examples eg Airbnb, Nespresso, Tesla and how they are innovating their business models (new ways of working and winning) and customer experiences (new ways of engaging and enabling)
New tools for leaders – rethinking the business toolkit, from the way in which companies develop strategy, to the way they define brands, develop products, deliver service, build relationships, and measure performance
New leaders – from fixed to growth mindset, from football to government, from “command and control” (2C) to “coach, communicator, connector and catalyst” (4C), leaders of experts, leaders who “amplify the potential of others”
Discussion – “What will we do? What will I do?” Exploring the changing role of leaders, the defining symbols and behaviours, and what would make us a winning time. Being bold, brave and brilliant.
The workshop will be high energy and interactive, it will include music and videos, stories and analysis. Participants can also refer to the more detailed case studies, video tutorials, and downloadable toolkits.
How to innovate your market, your business, and drive growth through new approaches to brands, marketing and sales.
“The best way to predict the future is to create it” said Abraham Lincoln.
The best opportunities for business – to find new growth, to engage customers more deeply, to stand out from the crowd, to improve their profitability – is by seizing the opportunities of changing markets. The best way to seize these changes is by innovating – not just innovating the product, or even the business itself – but by innovating the market.
In the old world we accepted markets as a given – the status quo – and competed within it, with slightly different products and services, or most usually by competing on price. Most new products were quickly imitated, leading to declining margins and commoditisation. Most companies now receognise that this is not a route to long-term success in a rapidly changing world.
Winning in this new world requires a bigger ambition – to change the game, not just play the game. Winners recognise that markets are malleable, geography is irrelevant and categories are outdated, that boundaries blur and new spaces emerge, and that practices and perceptions can be shaped to your advantage.
“Gamechangers” innovate their market, and then innovate their business with exponential impact – like WhatsApp creating $19bn in three years, Uber $60bn in 5 years. They start from the future back, making sense of change, seeing the new patterns and possibilities, harnessing the power of ideas and digital networks to win in new ways. This requires new leadership thinking, and for the whole business to innovate.
Nordic Sales and Marketing Summit
Peter kicks off the summit by exploring what it takes to win in today’s fast-changing markets, drawing on inspiration from the world’s most innovative companies, and those in Denmark:
World changing … the driving forces of change, and the new opportunities for growth across markets, new trends and insights, new ways of working
Changing the game … 100 disruptive innovators who are shaking up every sector and geography right now, what can you learn from their success?
Innovative strategies … how to rethink, refocus and reinvent your strategy for growth, and in particular through marketing and sales
Be the gamechanger … why you should be the catalyst of change, innovation and growth in your business.
Peter Fisk, in partnership with Speakers Club will be hosting a number of high-energy, smart-thinking, fast-action workshops in Copenhagen in the coming months:
Workshop 1: Creative Disruption: big ideas for smart innovation and exponential growth
“This is the age of disruption … which is not simply about disruptive technologies, but dramatically changing how people think and behave” says Sebastian Thrun, founder of Udacity. The best companies increasingly shape their industries in their own vision. They redesign them to their advantage, and even in ways which make it hard for other companies to compete. Jack Welch once said “You need to destroy your own business before somebody else does – to think like to challenger, a start-up, a disruptor”. Whilst disruption is typically overused as a term and under delivered in reality, it can be a powerful approach to strategic thinking, holistic innovation and culture change..
Objective
To develop radical ideas and disruptive innovations that will shake-up your market
Agenda
Growth Hacking: exploring your future from the “future back” with no rules, no limits
Design Thinking: embracing your best insights into emotional, irrational customers
Rule Breakers: rethinking every “rule” (assumption, convention) of your market
Rethinking Assets: defining every asset, then exploring how it could be used new ways
Border Crossing: applying ideas from other markets and companies (what would Apple do)
Accelerated creativity: generating more ideas faster, connecting and stretching them further
Rapid evaluation: prioritising the best ideas so far (HML x 4) and making the best better
Concept definition: defining each emergent concept, customer and technical specifications
Exponential Impact: making disruption happen and stick, accelerating “exponential” growth
Workshop 2. Rethink Marketing: Innovative strategies for brands and marketing
Markets are changing rapidly, global and connected, fast and dynamic, convergent and connected. Customers are changing even more rapidly, millennial to boomer, social and mobile, empowered and aspiring. Business is changing in response, start-ups and networks, co-creaters and collaborative, digital and data, fast and agile. The question is how have your marketers, and their marketing changed? Are you keeping pace with this fast changing environment, or hanging on to old models of success – home markets, established brands, hero products, advertising and websites, agency creativity, old channels – and still seeking to build relationships with customers who trust you no more, and are probably not your best customers anyway? Marketing in fast and connected, digital and realtime markets is different.
Objective
To develop innovative and integrated marketing strategies for realtime impact
Agenda
Market Mapping: exploring fast-changing markets, and new customer insights and trends
Market Strategies: innovating your market and marketing – change the why, who, what and how
Brand Propositions: creating a more inspiring brand, relevant and topical propositions and solutions
Brand impact: storytelling into realtime communication, customisation and communitie
Workshop 3: Business Innovation: Creating new business models for profitable growth
New business models are the most effective way to transform organisations, to innovate the whole way in which the business works. Inspired by a new generation of businesses – Airbnb to Uber, Dollar Shave Club to Netflix – we see dramatically new business models in every market, through collaborative platforms, data analytics and personal recommendations, or subscription-based payments. We explore at least 64 different business model templates which could transform your business. We start with the customer, to explore emergent needs and behaviours, shaping better propositions and solutions, then exploring how to deliver them commercially, and as engaging customer experiences.
Objective
To explore new business models – rethinking how to deliver more profitable growth
Agenda
Design Thinking: immersing yourself in customer worlds to find deeper insights and ideas
Value Propositions: defining the value to customers, how you will solve their problem better
New Business Models: exploring new business designs, new solutions, new channels, new pricing
Business Innovation aligning your whole business to deliver more revenue at less costs.
A wide range of executive development workshops – ranging from growth strategy to market disruption, brand innovation to business storytelling – are available as customised programs for your business
