Posts Tagged ‘Burrus’
Technology is evolving…fast. For that reason, it’s imperative that your firm focus not just on the changes that are happening today, but also on the technological trends that are emerging and shaping the future of your organization and your industry.
Why? Because the more anticipatory you can be in regard to technology, the more creatively you can use it to gain competitive advantage.
As someone who has been accurately predicting the future of technology for over 25 years, I urge all leaders to focus on the following three trends that are emerging and reshaping the business landscape as we know it.
1. Just-in-Time Training
Thanks to cloud-based technology, we’re on the brink of a revolution in just-in-time training. This will enable people to use their laptops, cell phones, and tablet computers as tools to receive training precisely when they need it. In the current training model used by many organizations, people receive training for a variety of things before they actually need the expertise, thus taking the people away from their jobs and costing the company a lot of money. With just-in-time training, companies can keep people in the field without the specific training.
Then, when the person needs a certain skill set to complete a job or do a task, he or she can receive the training for it in real time via cloud-based technology.
For example, suppose your company specializes in selling and repairing commercial HVAC units. There are a number of different units your repair staff needs to know how to fix. But rather than taking your people out of work and putting them in a multi-day training course, you keep them in the field without the specific training. When they have to repair a unit they are not familiar with, they can receive the training on how to fix it in real time via their mobile device as they are servicing the unit.
Now, let’s take this trend a step further. Suppose the commercial HVAC repair person is onsite, servicing something he’s never worked on before. He uses the just-in-time training module via his tablet computer. But he’s still confused about a certain aspect of the repair. All he has to do is touch the “help” icon on his screen and it immediately connects him to a master trainer live on the screen. But instead of just telling the master trainer what the problem is, the repair person can put on a headband that has a camera on the front, much like the headbands with a light on the front that people use for camping or car repair.
By wearing this digital, high-resolution camera that interfaces with the mobile device, the repair person can show the master trainer exactly what the issue is. Now that master trainer can see what the repair person sees and can tell him exactly what to do. The master trainer can lead the repair person through the repair as if he were standing right there with the repair person. Talk about a dramatic savings and increase in efficiency!
Realize that using cloud-based technology for just-in-time services goes way beyond repair. It could be used to train people on new software, train salespeople on product upgrades, instruct employees on new policies and procedures, etc. And it’s different and better than a standard tutorial, because the training can be accessed via any device, anywhere, and at anytime…and it offers an option for live help. In reality, the applications for cloud-based, just-in-time services are virtually limitless.
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Posted in Anticipating the future, Business Strategy, Competitive Advantage, Future Tech. Tags: Burrus, Certainty, Change, Cycles, cyclical change, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, desktop pc, Flash Foresight, future of the web, IT innovation, IT strategy, IT trends, tech news, Trends, Web 4.0. No Comments »
Between smart phones, smart pads, apps, cloud computing, and the myriad of other technological advances and transformations occurring today, many company leaders are wondering how to navigate it all. Historically, CEOs and other C-suite executives are used to having control over everything within the company’s walls. As such, they are not happy with the increased focus on such things as cloud computing, yet that’s precisely what their company’s staff is using when they use their personal computers to search Google or access other cloud-based applications.
This dislike for today’s new technology is understandable. It is, after all, outside of the control of the corporate veil the executives have worked so hard to develop and secure. But let’s face it…things like apps, SaaS, social media, smart phones, smart pads, and a host of other cloud computing options that your employees use, both at home and increasingly at work, are here to stay. Consider this: In early 2010, there were 150,000 apps just in the Apple store. Then that number increased to 200,000 apps. Now we’re close to 300,000 apps with billions of downloads. So it’s growing fast, with no indication of slowing down.
As a strategic consultant to large organizations, I’m amazed at how many executives are not embracing this paradigm shift. As a leader, you have to ask yourself, “Will there be more in the cloud options, including audio, video, storage, and apps, next year than there is this year? The answer is a resounding “Yes!” That means you can’t ignore it. Many of your own people are using cloud-based services right now. And if they’re using them, being more productive at home than they are in the workplace, and doing things that are more advanced on their smart phones and smart pads (at least in their minds), then your company has a problem. You can’t have people thinking the company is archaic in terms of technology or that the executive team is trying to hold people back. Instead, you need to be helping your people to move forward.
Granted, it’s human nature to protect and defend the status quo, and there are some security concerns with the emerging technologies. But at the same time, you have to remember the old adage that states, “It’s easier to ride a horse in the direction that it’s going.” In this case, the horses of technology are going in a new direction at a pace and speed we’ve never seen before. It’s time for executives to pay attention to this and do more than just go along for the ride.
Case in point: In January 1993, IBM knew the future of its company and it was the most admired company on the planet. But the horses of technology changed direction. By the end of 1993, IBM was getting close to going out of business. It missed the shift. But IBM is not an isolated case. Many other companies have missed the shift. Think about it…when was the last time you bought something from Polaroid?
Today’s gigantic technological shift is already taking place, and the last people who should miss it are today’s business leaders. The shift is here, it’s easy to see, and it’s as plain as day. Therefore, it’s time to start directing the horse on the journey. The question is, “How?”
Continue reading ‘Use Technology to Shape Your Company’s Future’ »
Posted in Business Strategy, Competitive Advantage, Future Tech. Tags: Burrus, Certainty, Change, Cycles, cyclical change, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, desktop pc, Flash Foresight, future of the web, IT innovation, IT strategy, IT trends, tech news, Trends, Web 4.0. No Comments »
Have you ever wished you could predict the future—and be right? What would it be like if you could clearly see critical changes in the months and years ahead and use those glimpses to shape that future, instead of just letting it unfold by default?
You can accurately predict enough of the future to make all the difference. In fact, you can hone your ability to trigger a burst of accurate insight about the future and use it to produce a new and radically different way of doing things. Called a flash foresight, this is about looking into the future and transforming it into a new paradigm for solving “impossible” problems, unearthing “invisible” opportunities, and running extraordinarily successful businesses in the twenty-first century.
For the past 25 years, I have been studying and systematically applying flash foresight, and I have discovered the following seven principles or “triggers” that lead to flash foresight results:
1. Start with certainty (use hard trends to see what’s coming)
You can use the power of certainty to spot and profit from future trends long before your competitors do. Just look at Apple, which accurately saw the trends of accelerating bandwidth, processing power, and high-capacity storage and harnessed them to create the megahits iPod, iTunes, iPhone and iPad. Meanwhile, Polaroid, Kodak, and Motorola spent years clinging to analog models while their competitors triumphed by grasping the arrival of the digital age.
Likewise, GM failed to respond to trends that were obvious for over a decade (rising gas prices, driven by increased global demand from China and India, and improving quality from foreign rivals).
Remember 1999, when the U.S. government predicted a trillion-dollar surplus? We’ve all made similar, wildly wrong predictions because we confuse cyclical change (the stock market) with linear change (population growth), and don’t know how to distinguish hard trends (the baby boomers are aging) from soft trends (there won’t be enough doctors to treat aging baby boomers). However, by distinguishing what’s certain (future fact) from what’s uncertain (future maybe), you can make accurate predictions.
Anyone can avoid the fate of Polaroid, Kodak, Motorola, and GM and instead create must-have products and high-demand services—as Apple, Canon, Toyota, and so many others have—by seeing what others can’t: the hard trends that are shaping our future.
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Posted in Anticipating the future, Business Strategy, Competitive Advantage, Flash Foresight. Tags: Burrus, Certainty, Change, Cycles, cyclical change, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, desktop pc, Flash Foresight, future of the web, IT innovation, IT strategy, IT trends, tech news, Trends, Web 4.0. No Comments »
In an era of budget, time, and labor constraints, is it possible to sell your ideas and concepts (which often require money, time, and labor to implement) to the CEO, CFO, Board of Directors, or whoever is in charge of the final decision? The answer is yes! You can sell your ideas up; it simply depends on how you frame the opportunity.
First things first: When you’re selling your ideas up, don’t talk about the idea itself. While that may sound strange, it’s the primary sales rule that most people break. Yes, you love your ideas and think they’re great, but not everyone loves the same things as you. And when you’re selling your ideas to others, you can’t focus on your preferences. Rather, you have to focus on the other person. Here’s how you do that.
Tune into the pain of the person you’re talking to.
Forget about yourself and how excited you are about this great new idea or concept you want the company to implement. At this point, you and your likes are not important. If you’re going to sell your idea or concept, you have to understand where the other person’s personal pain is. For example, maybe they’re dealing with an upset board or stockholders who don’t like last quarter’s results. Or perhaps they have to reorganize. Or maybe sales are down or they just lost the head of marketing to a competitor. Do your research and uncover the main challenge they’re dealing with right now.
Once you know the other person’s pain, you can position the idea or concept you want to sell as something that can solve that pain. In other words, you have to show the CEO, CFO, board, or whomever you’re selling to that there’s a direct payoff to them if they approve your idea. So if you know that the CEO’s greatest pain is the fact that the sales team isn’t communicating with marketing or manufacturing, resulting in lower sales and poor customer experiences, then you have to look at what you’re proposing and figure out how it can ease that pain or even solve that problem.
As you do this, state it clearly. Don’t make anyone guess or come to their own conclusions. For example, you could say, “I know you’re dealing with… [lagging sales, poor internal communications, customer complaints, etc.]. I’ve come across some things that I think can help you overcome those challenges. Obviously I want to help the company succeed and grow, so let me tell you about what I’ve found.”
Then talk about the new idea or concept in terms of solving the current problem only. Don’t go into all the benefits, functions, features, or costs. That’s an entirely different conversation you have later. Right now, you’re simply getting the decision maker on board with the idea or concept and in agreement that it will solve his or her problem.
Continue reading ‘Selling Your Ideas Up: How to Overcome Objections and Get Your Ideas Approved’ »
Posted in Anticipating the future, Business Strategy, Sales. Tags: Burrus, Certainty, Change, Cycles, cyclical change, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, desktop pc, Flash Foresight, future of the web, IT innovation, IT strategy, IT trends, tech news, Trends, Web 4.0. No Comments »
By James E. Gaskin
The corporate desktop has looked the same for decades: computer, keyboard, mouse, desk phone, maybe a printer. But do these tools dominate because they’re the perfect combination of technology needed for work today, or is the enterprise workplace due for an extreme makeover?
The corporate desktop has looked the same for decades: computer, keyboard, mouse, desk phone, maybe a printer. But do these tools dominate because they’re the perfect combination of technology needed for work today, or is the enterprise workplace due for an extreme makeover?
According to industry analysts, hardware vendors, architects and futurists, the odds that major changes will revamp the standard corporate cubicle, technology tools and even buildings, rise every day.
Of course, fundamental changes like this don’t happen at all once. “When you’ve got hardware in place, it’s tough to yank it out,” cautions Rob Enderle, principal analyst for the Enderle Group. “Some corporate PBXs are still in use from the 1980s. Faxing was declared dead in 1995, but I have two in my office.”
Enderle’s point is that it takes a major event to upset the status quo, but that event, or confluence of events, appears to be happening today.
The proliferation of mobile devices, the broad availability of high-speed wireless access, cloud-based services and browser-based videoconferencing mean that employees no long have to be tied to their desktop PCs.
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Posted in Technology News. Tags: Burrus, Certainty, Change, Cycles, cyclical change, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, desktop pc, Flash Foresight, future of the web, IT innovation, IT strategy, IT trends, tech news, Trends, Web 4.0. No Comments »
My special report recently published on CIO Update:
For many people, change is difficult and transformation even more so. According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, “change” means “to make something different,” while “transform” means “to make a thorough or dramatic change.” It is a difference of degree, I admit, but that degree is so extreme that it becomes a qualitative difference.
Changing means continuing to do essentially the same thing, only introducing some variation in degree. Build it a little bigger, smaller, faster, higher, longer. Increase the marketing budget. Add a few staff to the department. Come up with a new slogan. But today’s business problems cannot be fixed by changing, nor can organizations or industries survive simply by changing. Embracing change is no longer enough: We need to transform.
Transformation means doing something utterly and radically different. It means nanofusion; it means using algae as a fuel source; and reimagining GM on the Dell model. In the early 1990s, Barnes & Noble superstores changed how we shop for books. By the mid-1990s, Amazon was transforming how we shopped for books, which then transformed how we shop for everything.
If you’re a Baby Boomer, you likely remember listening to music on long-playing vinyl disks. When eight-track tapes and then cassette tapes came out, that was a great change: now you could hear the music in the car. When the industry moved from LPs and cassettes to CDs, that was an even better change: now you could hear your favorite music without the hisses and scratches.
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Posted in Press, Special Report, Technology News. Tags: Burris, Burrus, Certainty, Change, Cycles, cyclical change, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, Flash Foresight, future of the web, IT innovation, IT strategy, IT trends, Trends, Web 4.0. No Comments »
I was recently featured on CanadaOne.com. In the article I talk about the leading technology trends that will transform your business.
Continue reading ‘A Look at Technology Trends that are Transforming Business’ »
Posted in Anticipating the future, Business Strategy, Competitive Advantage, Technology News. Tags: Burrus, Business Strategy, Business Trends, Certainty, Competitive Advantage, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, Flash Foresight, IT, IT trends, predicting the future, Strategy, technology forecasting. No Comments »
I was recently featured in China’s Global Times. In the article I talk about the seven radical principles that will transform your business.
By Zhang Lei
Technotrends author and “business futurist” Daniel Burrus foresaw the future over a decade ago, when he predicted the 20 technologies that would be driving businesses and economic change today, including the use of fibre optics in broadband Internet, streaming videos and the wireless Web.
Now he’s teaching readers how they can do it too, with new book Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible.
Technotrends author and "business futurist" Daniel Burrus. Photo: Guo Yingguang/GT
Seven principles
In a purple shirt and grey suit, 63-year-old Daniel Burrus gave an inspiring speech on the book’s “seven radical principles” in Beijing last week. His audience was keen to learn how they may transform their fortunes – as Burrus’ website (and uncorroborated but enthusiastic reviews on amazon.com) claims it did already when it became a bestseller in the US this January.
The seven systematic, easy-to-implement principles instruct users to “start with certainty, anticipate, transform, skip what you think is your biggest problem, go opposite, redefine and reinvent and direct your future.”
He explained the terms: in “going opposite,” Burrus used the example of Crocs, a company that challenged the notion that cheap rubber shoes were the “opposite” of desirable footwear. Having started in 2002, by 2005 production had reached 1 million shoes a month with sales in 2007 of $847 million.
As for “skipping,” a reader once apparently told Burrus she had something she couldn’t skip – terminal cancer. “Why don’t you skip thinking about dying until your death and why don’t you start thinking about living as long as you’re alive?” According to the tale, she contacted him a month later from Europe to thank him for changing her life.
Burrus is a keen exponent of meaningful-sounding jargon, using phrases such as “flash foresight” and offering insights such as “the more you look, the more you see.”
He has spent years traveling and imparting the same wisdom at every stop, such as “the power of ‘flash foresight,’ is when you get a number of certainties and put them together, all of a sudden you realize that you can start to see the future, and you can see it with certainty.”
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Posted in Anticipating the future, Business Strategy, Flash Foresight, Technology News. Tags: Burris, Burrus, business in china, Certainty, China, Competitive Advatnage, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, Flash Foresight, Strategy. No Comments »
Recently published by Mitchel York of About.com.
In his excellent new book, Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible, Daniel Burrus makes a point of discussing the opportunity for entrepreneurial ventures aimed at Baby Boomers. There were 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964. Burrus says 80 percent of the nation’s wealth is controlled by people over the age of 50. So what are entrepreneurs doing about it? Forward-looking ones are taking the “hard trend” of demographic certainty to innovate. Some ideas that are already on the market, or should be:
• Personal elevators retrofitted onto the outside of homes
• Video games that place you at Woodstock, the 1968 Democratic Convention or the Chicago 7 trial and let you interact with friends
• Late-life financial planning products
• “Unretirement homes” that combine the health-care resources of nursing homes with upscale style and design
• “Green” funeral homes and boomer cemetaries that match Boomer attitudes about body disposal
• RFID tags and other technologies to help seniors read prescription bottles by getting the information off the bottle and onto computer or smartphone screens, which have more room and capacity to explain drugs.
So, what are some of the entrepreneurial innovations you’re hearing about (or creating) aimed at the Boomer set?
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Posted in Entrepreneurs, Innovation, Technology News. Tags: About.com, baby boomers, Burris, Burrus, Certainty, Change, CNBC Street Signs, Cycles, cyclical change, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, Entrepreneur, Flash Foresight, Trends. 1 Comment »
I will be appearing LIVE on CNBC’s Street Signs show on Monday, June 6th. Street Signs airs weekly from 2-3pm EST. I hope you will tune in.
Posted in Press. Tags: Burris, Burrus, Certainty, Change, CNBC Street Signs, Cycles, cyclical change, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, Flash Foresight, Trends. No Comments »
Published by Mei Jia for the China Daily.
As a top technology forecaster, Daniel Burrus predicts that people's smart phones and tablet computers will be as powerful as super computers in two years. Mei Jia / China Daily
One of the world’s top technology forecasters and business strategists, Daniel Burrus, likens a visit to Beijing to a time travel experience, in which the past, present and future are intertwined.
“I like to see all the energy here in the city,” Burrus told METRO during an exclusive interview at the Bookworm. “Sadly, I don’t see such energy in the United States.”
To Burrus, the future is not totally unpredictable. Beijing’s mixture of past and future appeals to him because he sees unique connections between the two.
Known for his accurate technology predictions over the past 28 years, such as predicting in 1996 the rapid growth of wireless Internet in the 2010s, Burrus’ predictions about China are optimistic.
He holds that “your future views shape the acts that shapes you”. This is the basis of his view that China will have a better future than the US.
“In China most people think their tomorrows will be better than yesterdays,” he said, “But in the US, especially in the past three or four years, the situation is the opposite. So which do you think will do better?”
Burrus was on his second visit to Beijing to meet clients here. He said he has at least 50 international clients, including Fortune 500 companies such as GE and Google, and some governments. He helps them with strategies based on his predictions of future trends.
Burrus’ latest book, Flash Foresight, is a New York Times bestseller. In the book he reveals how individuals and businesses can predict future trends and can avoid possible problems. The Chinese version of the book will come out this year.
“It’s possible to see the invisible and do the impossible, as stated in the book’s subtitle,” he said.
The book gives seven principles, supported by vivid real-life examples and solid research.
Principle One is to start predictions with what’s certain. Everyone knows what the next iPhone will be like: faster processing and high-definition video. So that people can be prepared for what’s to come.
Principle Four says that when faced with a major problem, you should skip it. A woman with terminal cancer came to him once and asked how she could deal with death. Burrus told her to ignore death and embrace life. She later e-mailed to tell him she was no longer afraid and was enjoying a holiday in Europe.
Dell once made the cheapest computers because they creatively used online shopping. Apple makes the world’s most expensive computers, but is successful. Finding leather shoes too costly, Crocs produced plastic ones, which became a hit. These are examples of Burrus’ Principle Five: do the opposite.
The author of six books and owner of six companies said he’s always challenging his own limits. He has learnt to do a new thing every year for the past 23 years, including rock-climbing, filmmaking and volplaning (flying a plane with the engine cut off).
“The human mind is really powerful,” he said. “Let me tell you a news scoop. In two years we’ll have processing power in cloud computing, which means our smart phones and tablet computers will compute comparably with super computers.
“Think about how it will change the way doctors diagnose patients, among other things.”
“Feel free to verify that with me two years later.”
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Posted in Flash Foresight, Future Tech, Technology News. Tags: Burris, Burrus, Certainty, China, Competitive Advatnage, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, Flash Foresight, Strategy. No Comments »
Originally published by Mitchell York for About.com.
When you hear about entrepreneurs starting businesses, the back story is usually something like this: I was trying to get a mortgage and it was really annoying having to apply to all those banks, and I thought, the banks should be competing for my business. Or: I was wearing tight t-shirts on top of my jeans, but I’d lose weight so had to wear a belt underneath, which was bulky and ugly. So I invented an invisible belt. Very often, entrepreneurs have an ah-ha moment based on personal experience, and a company is born.
But you don’t have to be particularly passionate about something based on personal experience to start a sucessful business. Take Daniel Burrus, futurist, entrepreneur and author, who has started six companies. He launched Visionary Apps, because he saw that computing was moving fast toward mobililty and smartphones, and that there was no efficient way for real estate brokers and agents to reach real estate investors. These technology advancements are what he calls “hard trends” that are not cyclical, but permanent. So he created iPhone apps, based on a recurring revenue model, that leverage the permanent technological change and the coming opportunistic boom in vulture real estate investing.
Burrus’s new book, Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible (HarperBusiness), offers entrepreneurs a lesson in seeing around corners that lead to opportuntiies. His core principles include:
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Listen to the Audio Version of the Interview >
Posted in Anticipating the future, Flash Foresight, Technology News. Tags: Burris, Burrus, Certainty, Competitive Advatnage, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, Flash Foresight, Strategy. 1 Comment »
Originally published on HuffPost Business:
Small business owners aren’t known for being great planners. That’s because small businesses tend to react more than they plan, or they created a plan 10 years ago and haven’t revisited it since. Such an approach may have worked well in the past, but today — in the aftermath of the global recession — the business world is different. Many small business owners are wondering what to do to sustain or regain their past success.
Believe it or not, there has never been as much opportunity for small businesses to create new products and services, as well as grow their companies, as there is today. Even though we are surrounded by a fog of bad news regarding the economy and a slow jobs recovery, there is a mountain of great opportunity right in front of us. We simply have to blow away the fog to see it. Planning — using the science of certainty — is the key to getting rid of the fog.
Over the course of my career, I have started six companies — three of which were national leaders in the first year. So I know what it’s like to start a small business and grow it rapidly. Here are the planning keys I used to be successful.
1. Start with certainty
Whenever I did business planning, I always started with certainty because strategy based on certainty has low risk and high reward. So in a world of uncertainty, the first step to planning is to ask yourself, “What am I certain about?”
Certainties fall into two categories: hard trends and soft trends. A hard trend is a projection based on measurable, tangible, and fully predictable facts, events, or objects. A soft trend is something you have the ability to change or influence. For example, saying that Baby Boomers are aging is a hard trend — it’s a definite certainty. But saying there won’t be enough doctors to treat aging Baby Boomers is a soft trend — it’s something people can control and choose to address or ignore. In other words, a hard trend is something that will happen: a future fact. A soft trend is something that might happen: a future maybe. Therefore, to begin your planning:
- • Make a list of all the hard trends that are taking place in your industry, so you know what you can be certain about. Eliminate from this list anything you are not certain is a hard trend.
- • Make a list of all the soft trends taking place in your industry, so you can see what you can change or influence.
- • Ask yourself: What do I know will happen in the next few weeks, months, and years? And how can I innovate to take advantage of what I now know for certain about the future?
You can use the power of certainty to identify, plan, and profit from future trends long before your competitors do. Just look at Apple, who accurately saw the trends of accelerating bandwidth, processing power, and high-capacity storage and harnessed them to create the megahits iPod, iTunes, iPhone, and iPad. Meanwhile, Polaroid, Kodak, and Motorola spent years clinging to analog models as their competitors triumphed by grasping the arrival of the digital age. Can small businesses see the future and profit from it as Apple did? Yes, but only when they start their plans with certainty.
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Update: Gene Marks of the NY Times included a mention of the above article on his You’re the Boss blog.
Posted in Anticipating the future, Business Strategy. Tags: Burris, Burrus, Certainty, Competitive Advatnage, Dan Burrus, Daniel Burrus, Flash Foresight, Huffington Post, Strategy. No Comments »
Technology is evolving…fast. For that reason, it’s imperative that your firm focus not just on the changes that are happening today, but also on the technological trends that are emerging and shaping the future of your organization and your industry.
