Redundancy to New Job – 10 steps to reinvent your career path and change your whole life
Futurist Topics - Management
Looking for a new job: 10 practical steps to a new career path. How to reinvent your future. How to stand out in job applications and stay focussed on what really matters. Losing a job can be really stressful. It could be the start of the most fulfilling chapter of your life. Take hold of your future - or the future will take hold of you.
Read more: Redundancy to New Job – 10 steps to reinvent your career path and change your whole life
Brands: impact of social networks on brands, marketing and corporate image
Futurist Topics - Management
Future of online brand development, advertising, marketing and corporate image. How corporate image is being challenged by social networks such as FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, YouTube and other online communities. Why trust has fallen in corporate brand messages. How to use social networking and viral marketing to strengthen brands.
Read more: Brands: impact of social networks on brands, marketing and corporate image
Virtual Teams Save Time and Energy
Futurist Topics - Management
Life’s too short to travel to every meeting and the latest technology really makes you feel you are all together. Three dimensional images can also be created of conference speakers for larger audiences, walking life-size on stage. Over 25% of many corporation’s carbon footprint is travel and air travel is a significant element of this. If a third of business travel could be turned into virtual meetings, it would reduce annual global emissions of CO2 by over 120 million tons. Many business leaders are already spending up to six weeks a year cruising at 35,000 feet. What happens in the next three to five years?
Surviving through global economic crisis
Futurist Topics - Management
Media interview October 2008. Expect further shocks to the global economy. Companies which insured other companies will soon be hit by claims of at least $360bn. And hedge funds are under huge pressures. If an investor demands return of – say - $10m, a fund might have to sell $70m of shares in order to give the $10m back. Expect hundreds of millions of dollars of stock sales by hedge funds.The world is changing faster than you can call a board meeting or develop new strategy so think ahead. You need more than one business plan: at least one alternative so one step ahead of major events. Be ready to take very fast decisions, with flexible, dynamic teams able to change quickly as situations unfold. Those with cash will do well , find huge bargains – products, property or even entire corporations sold for only a fraction of what their future value.
Interview on global economic crisis: Business Week Turkey 2008
What should companies do to prepare for future global developments?
The world is changing much faster than you can call a board meeting or develop new strategy so we need to think ahead. You need more than one business plan: a main one and at least one alternative so that you are one step ahead of major events. Companies need to be ready to take very fast decisions, with flexible, dynamic teams who are able to change quickly as situations unfold. Sometimes that can mean centralised authority – in a major crisis to make a major decision fast. At other times that can mean decentralised authority, so that the people closest to the situation can make fast decisions and get on with it.
You work with many global financial organisations - how do you think the economic crisis will affect the world economy and international business?
Remember that for any company or person who loses money, there is usually someone else making money. Those with cash will do well in the severe downturn, because they will find huge bargains – products, property or even entire corporations being sold for only a fraction of what they may be worth in the future.
We may only be around half way through a 3-4 year adjustment, and there are major risks to the global economy right now. Companies which insured other companies will soon be hit by claims of at least $360bn – which may create a new wave of difficulties. And hedge funds are under huge pressures. Because they borrowed to invest, if an investor demands return of – say - $10m, a fund might have to sell $70m or more of shares in order to give the $10m back. We can expect many hundreds of millions of dollars of stock market sales by hedge funds.
Every nation will be affected over the next 18 months, although many emerging economies will continue to grow (more slowly).
Organisations that are suffering most from the crisis are all major players. What do you think the reason is?
Two reasons: firstly, the larger financial institutions spent huge amounts of time and energy buying and selling products. which are so complex that even they did not fully understand them, or the risks they were taking (and in many cases still don’t). Smaller companies on the whole run with simpler business methods: buying and selling physical products and “people” services rather than pieces of paper.
Secondly, large corporations are most visible and get almost all the media attention. The truth is that around 70-80% of the economy of most nations is companies with less than 20 employees – mostly family-owned. In hard times, these companies reduce staff, take out extra loans, sell their stock, cut investment, or go out of business. Just another small statistic lost in the wider picture. That is why it is so important for governments to make sure that banks continue to provide loans to small business – on reasonable terms. If they don’t, many thousands of healthy, successful small businesses in many nations will run out of cash quite rapidly and close down.
Will the current crisis alter the way we think about capitalism? Will the rules of the game be any different in the future?
Well I don’t think many people want to live in a communist super-state where the price of everything is dictated by the government. So we are definitely not talking about the end of capitalism. People still believe in competition between companies, and free pricing based on demand.
Most people in the world believe in markets – whether for fruit and vegetables or clothing or in financial products. But they also expect governments to set basic standards, prevent crime, protection for consumers and so on. They expect certain activities to be taxed for the benefit of the wider community, the environment to be protected.
We are in the early years of a new world order, with global trade, increased mobility and the digital society all combining into what we all globalisation. But if most of us now “live” in a global village or society, then it is clear that we need more effective global governence (I do not mean a global government) or better controls of some kind.
One of the reasons we are in this economic mess is that global finance has developed far faster than international regulation, with huge, highly complicated risks developing across borders on a scale never seen before. We can expect many reforms in future, as governments act together to provide better regulation in global financial services.
Happynomics - business, wealth and happiness
Futurist Topics - Management
Happynomics is about the link between wealth and happiness. Everyone wants to be happy – most advertisers try to persuade us that the secret of happiness is the next thing we will buy. But we know that long lasting happiness usually depends on many deeper things: friendship, strong family relationships, good health, personal fulfilment and so on. It is hard to be happy if you have many worries about money, too little or too much. In fact great wealth brings many pressures of its own. Happynomics is about the economics of happiness. Contentment can be measured not only in individuals but also in communities, or indeed across entire nations, looking at a national sense of well-being. On a national level, Happynomics surveys show that happyness is enhanced to varying degrees by wealth, education, peaceful government and trust, but weakened by things like corruption, insecurity and unemployment. Happiness is a dominant concept in marketing, customer loyalty, product design and workplace motivation.
Marketing in an Economic Crisis
Futurist Topics - Management
During recession many people look for value rather than luxury. Saving money, products that last longer. Expect growing demand for retail outlets that offer well-made, basic things at low cost. Expect new emphasis on simple, clear marketing messages. In a crisis people return to brands they know and trust – and trust will be a key theme. Budgets for marketing will be reduced and companies will look for more cost-effective ways to reach their target audiences. Less indirect marketing – for example sponsorship of sporting events where direct sales benefit less easy to see. Expect further migration of advertising from traditional print and broadcast media to online marketing, where advertisers measure instant returns from small investments, which they can then scale up if they work. An exception is likely to be radio advertising - relatively low cost and effective.
Future of Marketing - Videos
Futurist Topics - Management
The future of marketing - watch videos on direct mail, network marketing, email, strategies, ideas, relationship marketing, campaign slogans, market research, selling to consumers, consumer trends - three videos. Web 2.0, and using online communities in marketing. How to build strong brands, trust and loyal customers. 10 steps to a stronger Marketing Plan. Why traditional advertising is dying - impact of new digital channels. Many other marketing videos to watch on YouTube.
The Future of Motivation at Work: Video
Futurist Topics - Management
"Connect with all the passions people have: they will follow you wherever you go"
Over 130,000 views of this video. Why many companies are being hit by a motivation crisis. Old motivational tools don't work any more. How personal commitment has changed. What it means for managers who want to make things happen. How to win the war for talent and build great teams. People are passionate - but mainly about life outside of work. "Work-life balance" tells us that most people think work is opposite of life.
Wake up to stronger tribes and longer life
Futurist Topics - Management
Power of Tribes - Clash of Cultures - Consumer Groups
Your company may have a reputation for brilliant leadership, outstanding innovation, clever branding and effective change management, but the business could fail if the world changes and you are unprepared.
Read on to watch the full video and to read the full FT article by Patrick Dixon
Older consumers - new marketing and brands
Futurist Topics - Management
Marketing to older people. Huge growth of products and services for consumers over 50. If you want to attract older people, don’t just use images of young single people or of young children. Do remember that someone who is 75 years old today may be younger biologically than their parents were at 65 and their grandparents were at 55 – and they may feel like 50 year olds. Many older people lead very active lives, wanting to learn new things, explore new places. Don’t think about older people as one new market: there are many different markets, cultures, lifestyles among those over 50 and each can be targetted in a different way.
Building a Better Business - book - and the $20,000 challenge
Futurist Topics - Management
Dr Patrick Dixon's latest book on the future of marketing, management and motivation. "One of the most stimulating and challenging reads in this field for a very long time" - Sir Digby Jones, Director-General CBI. Dr Dixon has been ranked as one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive today (Thinkers 50 - 2005). Enter the $20,000 Building a Better Business Challenge.
Read more: Building a Better Business - book - and the $20,000 challenge
Happynomics - interview on happiness and wealth
Futurist Topics - Management
Every product and service is sold on a promise: buy this and it will make your life better, easier, more pleasurable and so on. Sadly many businesses are obsessed with making a profit and neglect really thinking about their customers, meeting their needs and seeing life from their point of view. Happynomics raises deeper issues. Satisfying a customer is not the same thing as making them happier. Take for example a medical company offering cosmetic surgery. Their customer may be happy that they delivered on the promise: removed some fat and wrinkles safely at an agreed price without leaving scars. But is she really more contented and fulfilled as a result? Did surgery really transform her whole life?
The Future of Corporate Governance
Futurist Topics - Management
Taking personal responsibility for economic and ethical performance of corporations - Corporate governance and business ethics articles by Dr Patrick Dixon, who was ranked as one of the 20 most influential business thinkers alive today (Thinkers50) in 2005. More than 11 million different people have visited this site.
Future of Marketing
Futurist Topics - Management
Google Zeitgeist CEO Summit 2007 - Dr Patrick Dixon introduces future of marketing and why traditional advertising is dead in an online world ruled by virtual communities.
New consumer values will demand a new approach to marketing. Big questions about the value of "progress". What is the ultimate marketing slogan or advertising banner?
More Articles...
- Personal and corporate espionage
- Why Consumer Reports can't predict the future
- Drug Testing in the Workplace
- Marketing to Older Consumers
- Older Workers and Impact on Workplace
- Surviving the future
- Why Market Research Fails to Predict the Future
- Why corporate and social responsibility is now a "success" issue
- Why small business insurance often fails to protect
- The Future of Outsourcing
- The future of marketing - Article in Portuguese
- Dr Patrick Dixon at the World Economic Forum
- Scenarios: multiple strategies in rapidly changing world
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