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Author: Daniel Burrus

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Combat Unpredictable Change with Anticipation

It is often assumed that people don’t like change, when in reality humans are born to instinctively love change. It’s why we take vacations and crave travel, because we want and need change. We must get out of our usual surroundings and witness something new in order to regain focus and refresh our perspectives. In this case, change is a choice, so we like it.

But there is also a negative side to change: when the change affects you personally, unpleasantly, and unknowingly. However, most of the changes that come “out of nowhere” are actually very visible months or even years before they officially hit. For example, people get burglar alarms usually after being robbed. We all tend to react to change and put out fires more than we anticipate what will happen based on the direction in which change is heading.

It’s time to become more anticipatory so you can see change coming and pre-solve problems associated with it before they occur. Only after becoming anticipatory will you be able to use change as an opportunity for growth rather than a crisis to be managed.

How to Be Anticipatory

There are two types of change that you can use to see the future accurately: cyclical change and linear change.

You’re in the midst of cyclical change every day: weather cycles, biological cycles, and even business cycles. In the United States, you know exactly when the next presidential election will be, when the next full moon will be, plus many other key things that cycle with time. You know that if the stock market goes up, it will eventually go down. Cycles are everywhere, and to be aware of them is to be anticipatory.

The second is linear change, and once this type of change hits, things will never go back to the way they once were. For example, once you get a smartphone, you’re never going back to a flip phone. Once the people in China park their bicycles and get a car, they will not go back to the bicycle as their primary form of transportation. Linear change is a one-way street with many predictable consequences.

When you look around and determine what cycles you experience in your business as well as what linear changes have been happening, you can turn the predictable changes into an advantage, which is the key to becoming anticipatory, turning much of today’s uncertainty into certainty.

These certainties fall into two methodologies I’ve discussed at length in the past: Hard Trends and Soft Trends. A Hard Trend is a projection based on measurable, tangible, and fully predictable facts. A Soft Trend is a trend that “might” happen, meaning that you can change or influence a Soft Trend.

The fact that Baby Boomers will age is a Hard Trend: it will happen, and is a future fact. However, the fact that over the past ten years fewer people have been becoming doctors, resulting in a shortage of doctors to treat aging Baby Boomers, is a Soft Trend: it’s something we can choose to address or ignore. It’s a future maybe. The ability to differentiate between the two will enable your organization to transform its culture into one that profits from change, uncertainty, and burgeoning trends.

Change the View

To get your employees at all levels to embrace change, you have to give them the confidence that certainty brings by having them identify the Hard Trends that will happen. Start by encouraging them to do the following:

  • Make a list of all the Hard Trends that are taking place in your industry, so you know what you can be certain about.
  • Make a list of all the Soft Trends taking place in your industry, so you can see what you can change or influence.
  • Have them answer this question: 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?

Also, let your employees know this certainty: their roles will change over the next five years. Tell them, “You can either allow yourself to become less relevant or even obsolete, or you can see where your career is going and get the training and tools you need to become increasingly relevant and thrive.”

Finally, realize that how you view the future shapes how you act today, and how you act today shapes your future. Anticipation based on the Hard Trends and the certainties that are before you is key to seeing the predictable future and pre-solving problems before they ever occur. This allows your employees to embrace the changes before them. Remember, the good old days are not behind us. They’re ahead of us, and it’s up to you to make them happen.

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Best Practices Culture Entrepreneurship Industries Management Skills Technology

Becoming an Anticipatory Leader™: The Missing Competency

We are all good at reacting and responding – a knee-jerk reaction, so to speak. Even organizations large and small have learned how to be lean and agile while executing a strategy at a high level. But despite these skills, General Motors still declared bankruptcy, Blockbuster closed its last store, and the record industry succumbed to Spotify, all despite their leaders and workers being responsive and agile and executing well. To thrive in this new age of hyper-technological disruption and change, it is imperative to learn a new competency: Becoming Anticipatory.

That may sound impossible, but it’s not. It is actually quite simple when you know where and how to look, and when you and your employees master this skill, you’ll be able to create what I call an Anticipatory Organization™.

A Proven Methodology

Based on three decades of research and applying the principles I’ve developed to organizations worldwide, I have a proven methodology for separating what I call Hard Trends from Soft Trends. Over the years, I’ve written about this extensively in several best-selling books, including my latest New York Times bestseller, The Anticipatory Organization, and hundreds of articles and blogs.

A Hard Trend is a projection based on measurable, tangible, and fully predictable facts, events, or objects. It’s something that will happen: a future fact that cannot be changed. In contrast, a Soft Trend is a projection based on statistics that have the appearance of being tangible, fully predictable facts. It’s something that might happen: a future maybe. Note that Hard Trends can be identified before they impact you, your business, and your customers. Soft Trends can be changed, which means they provide a powerful vehicle to capitalize on and influence the future with.

This distinction completely changes how individuals and organizations view and plan for the future. Understanding the difference between Hard and Soft Trends allows us to know which parts of the future we can be right about. When you learn how to analyze trends in this way, you can accurately predict future disruptions, identify and solve problems before they happen, and practice what I call “everyday innovation.” This enables you to solve challenges and problems faster and see the opportunities that were impossible just a few years before. In other words, you become anticipatory rather than reactionary.

Employees of an Anticipatory Organization understand that those who can see the future most accurately will have the biggest advantage. They know that you cannot change the past, but you can shape the future based on the actions you take in the present. As such, they actively embrace the fact that many future disruptions, problems, and game-changing opportunities are predictable and represent unprecedented ways to gain an advantage. They know that it’s better to solve predictable problems before they happen, and that future problems often represent the biggest opportunities. Above all else, they are confident and empowered by having a shared view of the future based on Hard Trends and what I call the “Science of Certainty.”

What is the “Science of Certainty”?

Once you can separate Hard Trends from Soft Trends and differentiate between the things that will happen from the things that might happen, you can accurately define the certainties going forward. We know that the newest iPhone will always have faster processing chips than its predecessor, we know that after 3G and 4G will come 5G and so on, and we know that we are putting more and more in the cloud with no end in sight.

Outside of technological examples, we know that Baby Boomers are not going to get younger, we know that governments worldwide are going to continue to issue future regulations, and we know the cycles of nature, like summer following winter.

There is so much we can see that it’s absolutely possible to create certainties using the Hard Trend/Soft Trend model I’ve developed. But why is this so important to business? Strategy based on certainty (on Hard Trends) has low risk, while strategy based on uncertainty (on Soft Trends) has high risk. With certainty, you have the confidence to say “yes” and move forward. But with uncertainty, you tend to get stuck in neutral.  

To succeed in business now and in the future, being lean and agile and executing well are no longer enough. You must anticipate the future. I see this as being the most important missing competency that we’ve seen in decades.

Ask yourself: 

How much time do I spend trying to keep up while putting out fires, managing crises, and reacting to change? Are these activities helping me to get ahead? Learning to be anticipatory will change that and allow you to successfully shape your future.

Join me live on December 17th at 10am PST / 1pm EST

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Accounting Best Practices Culture Economics Growth Industries Investing Management Personal Development Technology

The Cybersecurity of Banking and Finance

I’ve discussed the importance of cybersecurity in healthcare due to the extremely sensitive personal data and the loss of trust if hacked. If healthcare data and a patient’s trust is as sensitive as research shows, then it’s no surprise that the banking and financial industry is in serious need for anticipatory cybersecurity and digital data protection.

Banking Evolution

Up until the early eighties, transactions at financial institutions were handwritten, calculated long-hand, and done without the aid of a computer or calculator. Fast forward many years and not only can we make deposits and automate our bills to be paid online, but many employees of financial institutions are starting to work remotely as well.

Additionally, cash-out technology is replacing physical cash and check exchange. PayPal, Venmo, Zelle Pay, Apple Pay and many more make the exchange of money a social network of sorts with minimal or no fees, depositing straight into your bank account digitally without the bank’s physical presence or involvement.

A Breach of Banking Security

Whether you drive to a bank to withdraw cash or log into your Venmo account and deposit cash digitally, banking is a personal and serious subject. Keep in mind, a financial institution has every last little detail about our financial situations.

Historically, a security breach in a bank was a takeover robbery. These now pale in comparison to cyber crimes committed against financial institutions, where they take sensitive information and even your identity. Much like the healthcare industry, financial institutions are faced with thousands of cyberattacks every single day, with ]the financial reward much greater than cash.

One example of a big bank that suffered a massive attack was Capital One. A single weak spot in cybersecurity allowed cybercriminals to capture the personal information of over 100 million people and leak it to the world.

In the past year, there have been over 3,000 known successful cyber attacks against financial institutions according to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. In the case of the Capital One hack, their system flaw was described as a “configuration vulnerability” in its security software that compares to the tellers and security guards in past banking years all going to lunch with the vault wide open and a lobby full of people.

Time for a Change!

Anticipatory cybersecurity measures should be elevated at financial institutions much like the healthcare industry. Capital One’s hack is not the only large scale financial institution that succumb to hacking, as we saw with companies like Equifax and Morgan Stanley being attacked as well.

Banks and financial institutions implement cyber protection, but are they really safe? I know of several cyber companies that test for vulnerabilities in this industry and within 48 hours they gain access to everything the bank “assumed” was protected and safe. But cyber protection is ever-changing and in need of constant testing for new vulnerabilities, and unfortunately, the vast majority of current cybersecurity strategies is about reacting quickly after the problem occurs rather than an anticipatory one.

The Hard Trend that cybercriminals continuously find a way to outsmart the institutions should be used by banks to pre-solve hacking problems before they become a nationally reported disaster, and be anticipatory by using behavior analytics and other anticipatory tools to prevent a breach of security and the breach of trust.

Cyber Solutions

When hacking occurs repeatedly in an industry, trust breaks because the customer does not feel their personal information is truly valued by the institution.

Hackers love to take advantage of weak passwords or use emails loaded with malicious computer code that lets them get inside the network while others scan for out-of-date hardware and software missing the latest security fixes. Likewise, cybercriminals work around the clock, therefore the IT firm or internal IT department must be in place to do the same.

Anticipatory cyber strategies put the cyber education of employees as a priority, with an outside firm doing security scans on everything before the problem occurs, having all software scanned and updated regularly, and making sure spam filters are adequate in your company’s email system.

Free Perimeter Test

Because we see cybersecurity as a strategic imperative in protecting your future brand and reputation, we have identified best-in-class cyber testing companies that will provide a free perimeter test of your organization to check for vulnerabilities in your cybersecurity defense system, provide the results of their tests and recommend immediate actions that can be taken to stop any uncovered leaks in your system. If you would like a free perimeter test to check for vulnerabilities in your cybersecurity defense system, please contact us.

Ask for your free perimeter test at: https://www.burrus.com/perimteter-test-request/

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Best Practices Growth Health and Wellness Industries Management Technology

Take Your Biggest Problem…and Skip It

Every business runs into issues that can or will halt progress and cause the company to stagnate. These include slow cash flow, out-of-date technology, and long sales cycles; you name it, it likely exists. Often, when trying to “fix” the problem, the company gets even more mired in the challenge and can’t seem to get past the roadblock. They focus on the problem and either shift into crisis management mode, letting the problem dictate their every move, or perhaps they solve the problem, but in doing so, uncover that it was never the real problem. Either way, the company is being agile instead of anticipatory.

A Simple Solution

A better solution to solving those tough problems is to just skip them. I know skipping a problem completely sounds simple and almost daunting in nature; however, it is necessary.

How can this help? When you confront your roadblock by leaping over it rather than letting it stop you from reaching your goals, you see new solutions that you never realized existed. Keep in mind, this strategy is in no way meant to encourage you and your organization to procrastinate or pretend that problems don’t exist; they do. The strategy here is to realize the real underlying problem that’s causing your company trouble and making a conscious decision to find a solution to move forward instead of being blocked by it. When a company reorganizes everything, they’re about to solve an internal problem that isn’t the real issue at hand, they are bound to that problem.

If you think this solution sounds fanciful and idealistic, I assure you it isn’t. This strategy is actually a great way to free your mind and view the problem in new and more conducive ways. Consider the following real-life examples of how this strategy has helped companies overcome challenges and make smarter decisions.

A small manufacturing business started getting many requests for several additional products, but in order to meet the increased demand, the company would have to borrow the capital necessary for a major expansion. The business was relatively new, so without a large track record of successful sales and stability, its request for a loan was ultimately rejected by the bank. Instead of putting off the expansion of both the products and the company itself, they decided that the problem at hand could be skipped by way of pre-selling the new products. With those advanced orders in hand, they were able to secure the loan with the bank and proceed.

A company whose job is to solve scientific problems decided that in order to solve said problems faster and accelerate new product development, it would need to triple the number of R&D employees. Despite their career in finding solutions, the roadblock they faced in this situation was that employee costs would also triple, and at the moment, the company couldn’t afford that.

They chose to skip the problem of hiring expensive employees by creating an online R&D forum, wherein the company posts difficult problems needing solutions and offers payment to anyone who can solve the problem.

By making the site open to any scientist with an Internet connection and posting the problems in over a dozen languages, the company created a global, virtual R&D talent pool of independent help, which has found solutions to problems that have literally stumped its own internal researchers. One of the great beauties of this strategy is that the company pays for the virtual researchers’ time and effort only if they come up with a feasible working solution, the amount of money the company pays for a solution depending on the difficulty of the problem. In this case, skipping a problem has brought a company hundreds of solutions to more important problems; the ones they solve professionally as a company.

Every Problem Has A Solution

You must always remember that every problem has a solution, and some are better than others. The key to breaking through your problem is to realize that there are many paths to a destination. And as you pay attention to the Hard Trends shaping your industry, you come to realize that there are many problems that you can actually pre-solve by way of anticipation, allowing you to avoid reaching the point of having to skip the problem, as you will see it coming before it becomes a problem.

However, some are unavoidable. But as I’ve written before, every problem is like an onion. You must peel back the layers in order to find the real problem, listing the components of the problem to reveal whether or not you are working on the correct issue and ultimately toward the correct solution. Always keep in mind that what you perceive to be your biggest problem may not be; so you can simply skip it.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Industries Management Personal Development Technology

So Much Data, So Little Time. Until Now.

In a way, the exponential growth of machine-to-machine communications with connected sensors, or what is called the Internet of Things (IoT), has become an example of too much of a good thing.

IoT facilitating communication among connected machines, devices, and sensors, creates data at levels never seen before, in volumes that are growing at such a rate that organizations and government agencies will have massive problems analyzing and using in an optimal way. At the same time, rapid IoT data growth is introducing new security and data volume issues that current cloud security and storage systems will have difficulty handling.

By the time the rapidly growing streams of data get to the cloud-based analytic systems and then circle back to the devices with instructions based on the analysis of the larger data ecosystem, the opportunity for instant analysis and appropriate action is greatly reduced.

Fortunately, a concept called Edge Computing can make sense of, and put to use, the wealth of data taken from IoT.

Edge computing solves that problem by effectively putting processing power a good deal closer to where the action is happening. Because of this, it can offer game-changing opportunities for organizations looking to leverage the advantages of IoT without many common constraints and drawbacks.

Edge Computing Defined

Edge computing is a type of information technology system in which data is processed as close to the original source as possible, incorporating a horizontal architecture that distributes the resources and services of computing, storage, networking, and communications closer to the actual data sources. Rather than merely sending data elsewhere, any device with computing, storage, and network connectivity can be attached to programmable automation controllers, which handle processing, communication and other tasks.

The result is not limited merely to faster processing and analysis of important data. Edge computing can also address bandwidth capacity and other communications challenges, particularly with the rapidly increasing amount of data that is produced and the increased demands of artificial intelligence and other systems to enable two-way instant intelligence and action.

The Advantages and Applications of Edge Computing

The potential of edge computing is both powerful and broad across any number of possible applications. Here are a few ways in which Edge Computing can change the data world as we know it:

  • Manufacturing – In these settings, edge devices, including machines and sensors, can capture streaming data used to predict and prevent a part from failing. They can also reroute traffic or modify production for maximum productivity and head off product defects quickly and efficiently. As a result, you can increase speed while reducing costs and boosting revenue.
  • Drones – These devices need to essentially “phone home” to take any action on data that’s collected. Edge computing allows drones themselves to analyze collected data and take appropriate steps in lieu of said data. For example, a drone examining a remote forest fire, a collapsed building or hundreds of acres of farmland can pinpoint a problem itself and take action instantly. Simultaneously, drones can pinpoint nearby human personnel and provide those people with valuable information, enabling faster and more effective response times.
  • Remote Offices – Essentially, applying Edge Computing to this situation would include replicating cloud services on a local level. By installing intermediary micro data centers or high-performance servers at such remote locations, employees and others working away from a centralized location or headquarters can have the ability to act on valuable information in a fraction of the time needed to first send the data to cloud storage.

Other Advantages

Given its decentralized nature, Edge Computing can also prove difficult in the world of cybersecurity. But since computing and control occur near the original source of the data, it would be easier to identify any unusual or suspicious activity and take action long before a security breach occurs. Additionally, since Edge Computing allows for communication, networking and other tasks without extensive routing, a higher level of containment is possible, providing fewer opportunities for cyber attacks.

It’s also important to bear in mind that Edge Computing is not unduly limiting. While Edge Computing offers remarkable opportunities, we’re certainly not going to stop using cloud services as we have come to know them. Rather, it’s a complementary relationship in which both parties boost the other’s value. Particularly voluminous or less time-sensitive data and information can be transferred to the cloud for comprehensive analytics or simply long-term storage.

Edge Computing acknowledges the scope of IoT, while addressing many of the challenges and drawbacks such a comprehensive network presents. The next step is for you and your organization to become more anticipatory in discovering what Edge Computing can and will do to transform your industry. How can you capitalize on this technology and become the disruptor? What Hard Trends are you noticing in your industry that point to problems needing pre-solving with the use of Edge Computing?

Help your organization take this game-changing opportunity and make it your own.

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Best Practices Entrepreneurship Management Personal Development Technology

Scholarship Announcement for 2019

I spent my early career teaching and have a deep passion for lifelong learning and creating a life of dreams fulfilled. Accomplishing educational goals is a significant step toward this. I tell my audiences that “I want to create a widely diversified portfolio of unforgettable memories,” and I encourage others to do the same.

While each of us has an important purpose and a unique story to tell, we all need a boost at some point to give our dreams momentum.

Burrus Scholarship Gives Dreams a Boost

A couple of years ago, the idea to support a few individuals each year in the pursuit of their educational dreams arose. These individuals also maintain a focus on the greater community in which they live. That being said, I created the Daniel Burrus Scholarship Fund.

The award is given once a year to individuals in high school who plan on attending college or are full-time college students in good academic standing with a desire to continue their education and better impact their community.

I’m proud to announce the three winners of our Fall 2019 award

The scholarship recipients’ essays explained how they each believe my anticipation principles, such as paying attention to Hard and Soft Trends, the Law of Opposites, Problem Skipping and Choosing to Be Extraordinary, can help an organization lead transformation instead of just react to change. Let me introduce them.

First up is Ember Milstead who resides in Rome, GA. Ember recently graduated from Model High School and is currently attending Pennsylvania State University, double majoring in criminology and psychology in pursuit of a promising career in criminal law. Ultimately, Ember’s goal is to aid in the reduction of false convictions in the United States and to better our legal system.

Ember identifies Hard Trends as something useful in recognizing disruptions before they disrupt. She believes that to do this, an organization must first differentiate between Soft Trends and Hard Trends, where Soft Trends are predictions that have the potential to occur and Hard Trends are future facts that will occur. She cites that technological advancements are a Hard Trend and in addition to this, believes organizations can use Hard Trends to accelerate their success, citing Netflix as the most prominent example of a company pre-solving a problem before it actually becomes a problem.

 

 

 

Secondly, we have Matthew De La Cruz who is from the Bronx in New York. Overcoming a diagnosis of Pervasive Developmental Delays (PDD-NOS), which falls under the Autistic Spectrum, at two years old, and with the undying support of his immigrant parents, Matthew worked hard to exceed the limitations of his condition and graduated as Valedictorian from Monsignor Scanlan High School in 2019. He currently attends Baruch College in New York City studying finance and he aspires to become the CEO of a financial firm in the future.

Remarkably, Matthew cites the invention of the wheel in 3,500 B.C. as evidence of technological change being a constant in our lives, even though these days it has become predominantly digital and based in the Internet of Things (IoT). Because of this, Matthew believes that using an anticipatory mindset to point out certainties in markets is important for a company of any size to transform technological change into a competitive advantage and flourish in the present and the future.

And finally, we have Kennedy McKinney who is a passionate future journalist. Her love for journalism began in 2013 when she decided to start her own online paper, and it’s only grown from there with her accomplishment of becoming editor-in-chief at her high school paper. Kennedy is now majoring in Journalism with a specialty in entertainment and sports, where she also plans to learn more about media production and video editing to prepare for the constant transition from print to digital papers.

Kennedy believes that a common example of how a company can use Hard Trends to anticipate is found most predominantly with technology. Over 3.8 billion people use the internet today, which Kennedy identifies as a Hard Trend. However, she also observes that many companies use Soft Trends more frequently, which are trends based on statistics that have the appearance of being fully predictable facts, but notes that they are something that might happen as opposed to Hard Trends that will happen. Therefore she believes companies should not strategies solely on Soft Trends, but utilize Hard Trends to anticipate change and transform their future.

The inspiration and intelligence these young people bring to their communities and the world are boundless. Small acts of support grow exponentially. Keep making an impact on the next generation of leaders in your community.

The Daniel Burrus Scholarship Fund was created to be a resource for those students who applied AO principles to help them achieve their goals and objectives while leading others along the way. By supporting students to shape a positive future, I believe our youth can be better prepared to become transformational leaders within their communities and achieve enormous success. Learn more about the Daniel Burrus Scholarship Program. You might also be interested in picking up a copy of my latest book The Anticipatory Organization.

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Best Practices Growth Management Skills Technology

Don’t Get Stuck; Move Forward

A difficult problem can and will eventually become a roadblock so large that it renders forward progress in any productive way virtually impossible. The direct result of a roadblock as such is more often than not, procrastination, and the longer this problem is in place, the more you become convinced there are no solutions. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

In paying attention to the Hard Trends that will shape the future of your organization, you can be more anticipatory, not only in your disruption but also in your method of pre-solving problems before they exist. As a matter of fact, in accordance with a concept I’ve mentioned in previous articles, you will foresee a problem that you can merely just skip. That’s right; you can skip the problems you see headed your way!

You may wonder how this is possible; how can you just skip a problem? Here are a few simple steps you can use to implement this strategy and progress into the future.

1. Your Problem isn’t the Real Problem

Often, you can’t see the real problem, because you’re blinded by what you perceive as the problem. By skipping what you perceive as the problem, you are free to discover the real problem. Perhaps your perceived problem is not having the budget to hire a large number of employees, when in reality, if you skip that problem, the real problem is finding better solutions, not a lack of staff. Forget about what you think is the problem. If that problem didn’t exist, what would be the real problem? Often the real problem and solution will surface once you eliminate the perceived problem.

2. Think in Terms of Opposites

Often, the opposite of what you perceive the problem to be is really your solution. If your problem is “saving money,” the opposite of that is “spending money.” Instead of focusing on how you can save money, try focusing on how much your company is currently spending. Focusing on the spending habits and how to either correct them or keep them in check will then automatically present the solution of saved money to you and your company.

3. Look at Technology for Help

Today’s technology is ever-expanding, and it constantly offers a wealth of new options for solving numerous problems. Can’t find a good way to effectively communicate with remote workers at your company? There are several video communication tools available today that would solve this issue. Need a way to obtain more ideas for improving your products or services? Use the plethora of social media outlets to either see what your customers are saying, or connect directly with them via surveys and inquiries. Look at what you need done and find a technological solution to automate it for you.

4. Peel the Onion

Think of any problem your company faces as the top layer of an onion. To find the real problem, you need to peel the layers back by listing the components of the problem to reveal whether or not you are working on the correct issue and ultimately toward the correct solution. In analyzing all of the components of what you perceive the problem to be, often  you will find that the core issue you’re focusing on isn’t what is causing the biggest roadblock, but that, perhaps, a sub-issue that you reveal upon peeling the problem layers is truly the nucleus of your problem.

5. Focus on One Issue at a Time

Problems can be quite complex, with many corridors that lead you to a road of worry and off the path toward a solution. Even worse, sometimes the problem actually has many components working against you simultaneously, depending on your industry. Many problems are made up of multiple problems, not just one isolated incident. Separating the other problems allows you to be better at seeing and solving the real problem, the one you should focus on, when you separate it from the other problems. Don’t spread yourself too thin; take it one step at a time.

Skip to the Finish

Every problem has a solution – some better than others. By asking yourself if you can skip the problem entirely, you free your mind to look beyond the roadblock. Simultaneously, the act of skipping a problem teaches you to become more anticipatory in many other ways, especially when your problem is actually disruption heading your company’s way. Learning to pay attention to the Hard Trends shaping your industry’s future and being able to determine what is a Hard Trend versus what is a Soft Trend will also teach you how to pre-solve any problems that may come your way. Soon, having to skip a problem won’t be necessary; you’ll already have a solution before it even occurs.

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Best Practices Growth Industries Management Personal Development Technology

Today’s CTO: The Chief Transformation Officer

In the past, I suggested that the role of the CIO needs to shift from that of a Chief Information Officer to a Chief Innovation Officer, largely due to the rapid, multiple technology-driven transformations that are always occurring. But just as the CIO’s role needs to change, so too does the CTO’s role—from Chief Technology Officer to Chief Transformation Officer. This shift is necessary in order to maintain and elevate the position’s relevance within the organization. There is less of a need for merely understanding information and technology, and a much greater requirement of leaders to be anticipatory in regard to innovation and transformation.

Transform Instead of Change

Traditionally, the CIO has historically been focused on the technology needed for running the company, while the CTO has been responsible for the technology integral to products being sold to customers or clients. However, based on predictable Hard Trends that have taken place and ones that will take place in the coming years, business processes always undergo major transformations, making it imperative that someone both drives and oversees internal as well as external, transformation in order to stay ahead of the curve and become an Anticipatory Organization®.

Keep in mind that change is doing the same thing, only with some small differences. Transformation is doing something completely different. The iTunes store changed music, giving us the ability to digitally purchase full-length albums and upload them to our iPods, cataloging them on our desktop computers. Spotify transformed it, giving us subscription access to just about anything we want to listen to on our mobile devices for one monthly fee, without us having to store anything on our desktop computers.

Old Titles and New Roles

It’s no longer enough to merely change your ways; you need to transform, no matter what field you operate in. There is no profession, career, business, or organization that is not going to transform dramatically and fundamentally as more technological change occurs every year, if not a little bit every day. Always expect radical transformation to occur fast and oftentimes without warning whatsoever.

Many technology companies of today not only profit but operate in a space of products and services that were nonexistent just a few short years ago. Snapchat is a great example of this. Before its inception, individuals took photos and videos with their mobile devices, sharing them merely on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and via text message in a semi-permanent fashion. Snapchat quickly facilitated the ability to send private photo and video messages that would delete themselves unless the recipient manually saved the message. In a matter of months, sending Snapchats became more popular than simple picture text messages, reflecting the transformative nature of business today as well as the speed of the transformation.

Given this example, it’s vital that today’s CTOs embrace the role of Chief Transformation Officer. No longer will this position’s relevance be tied to how well he or she can oversee the development of technology. The CTO will need to oversee the transformation of every business process, including how you sell, market, communicate, collaborate, and innovate.

This also means that the CTO and CIO need to be in closer collaboration with each other. Because the CIO’s new role is Chief Innovation Officer, and because so much of the CIO’s previous responsibilities are digitized today with nearly everything as a service (XaaS), the CIO is free to focus on overall innovation. By working closely together, the CTO and CIO can drive transformation and innovation—both internally and in terms of product and service development.

Ultimately, no matter what business or occupation you’re in, it will transform in many ways. In fact, the landscape is going to transform so radically that no organization will go untouched. It’s up to the Chief Transformation Officer to ensure that your company is the one that not only anticipates and survives these transformations but also thrives during and after it. Only then can you turn disruption and change into opportunity and advantage for your organization.

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Best Practices Growth Industries Management Personal Development Technology

This Is What Business Leaders Must Do (Part 2)

Now that I’ve revealed what business leaders must know in order to become the disruptor instead of the disrupted, the next step is applying those principles. I discussed previously the need to solve problems before they occur; however, what happens when you do uncover a problem?

Whatever it is, you have to take that problem and skip it, because that problem is not really your problem. The key to unraveling your organization’s most intractable problems often lies in recognizing that the problem confronting you is not the real problem, just what you think the problem is.

Consider Elon Musk and Tesla. During the company’s inception, Musk funneled millions of his own money into Tesla to jump-start manufacturing. When creation, testing, and everything was moving slower than expected while pre-orders for a Roadster stacked up, he had to funnel even more of his money into the company, nearly bankrupting himself. Tesla wasn’t just facing one big problem; their problem was multiple problems! Batteries would overheat and burn, cars would fail safety testing; you name it, it happened.

However, Musk and the Tesla team decided to skip those problems, realizing their real challenge was bringing fully electric cars to market. So employees focused on making sure the vehicles ran safely and got them to market, later debuting sedan models in addition to sports cars to make the very concept of electric vehicles appealing to the masses.

Like Tesla, if you look at your problem from different angles, you may well find that it is not your true problem, and rather than trying to solve it, you fare better by skipping it entirely. 

Go opposite (Follow the path less traveled)

When searching for the real problem you want to address, it’s not always easy to know where to look. A great way to harness your anticipatory abilities is to note where everyone else is looking and then look in the opposite direction. Uber looked at how traditional taxi cab companies operated, where individuals ride in vehicles and have to stress about how to split the cab fare with friends or worry if their cab driver took them on a joy ride in an unfamiliar area to increase the final bill.

By Uber essentially making the ride a flat fee from the start, it takes away a lot of stress, not to mention using your mobile device to call a personal driver to your pickup location and eliminating having to hail a cab amongst everyone on the street.

Redefine and reinvent (Identify and leverage your uniqueness in new ways)

Change is the only constant, so you can’t rest on your laurels doing what you’ve always done, even if you do your best to keep doing it better. The only way to survive and thrive is to continuously reinvent and redefine everything.

Reinventing oneself has always been a powerful strategy, but in the past, corporate and product reinvention was an option. Today it is imperative. In the past, stability and change were two contrasting states: when you achieved stability, you did so despite change. Today change itself has become an integral part of stability: you achieve stability by embracing change as a constant.

Beat the competition by redefining anything and everything about your business. Additionally, decommoditize continuously by looking for creative ways to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Direct your future (Or someone will direct it for you)

Anticipate the future to direct your future. Becoming more anticipatory starts with seeing the certainty of hard trends that will happen and making strategic moves based on them. Additionally, observe soft trends as factors you can influence to shape a better future. But it’s not enough to simply heed what I’ve discussed thus far; there is something more all-encompassing. You must actively shape your own future.

Directing your future is your creative capacity to envision and rewrite your future. You become what you dream, so if you want to know what you are becoming, ask yourself what you’re dreaming. This is a vital piece to becoming anticipatory. Anticipation puts a powerful strategic tool in your hands, giving you the control of your own future.

Chart Your Course

Anticipating the future is key to successful innovation and, more importantly, helps you become the disruptor and not the disrupted. If you want your organization and industry to be disruptive, then it is imperative for you to observe the hard trends shaping the future and help shape your organization’s future. By committing to these principles and plans of action, you and your organization will stay ahead of the curve and find a solution before the rest of the world sees a problem.

Categories
Best Practices Growth Industries Management Personal Development Technology

Business Leader Imperative: What You Need to Know

Have you ever wished you could predict the future? What would you do if you could clearly see critical changes in the months and years ahead and use them to shape your future instead of just letting it unfold by default?

I have good news for you: you can. In fact, paying close attention to the Hard Trends, or certainties that will happen, becoming more anticipatory, and pre-solving problems before they occur will allow you and your organization to become the disruptor instead of the disrupted, positioning yourself as a leader in your industry.

Throughout the entirety of my career, I have worked with several CEOs, government officials, and leaders from all different backgrounds on facing digital disruption. Here are some principles I have discovered that are crucial for business owners and other leaders alike to heed in becoming more anticipatory.

Start with certainty (Use Hard Trends to see what’s coming)

You can use the power of anticipation to spot and profit from future trends long before your competitors do. Just look at Netflix, who accurately saw the trends of individuals looking for convenience in their consumption of media and, likewise, their frustration with nominal late fees stacking up. They went on to build a subscription service for movies and television, pioneering what Hulu and Amazon Prime eventually released as well. Meanwhile, Blockbuster not only clung to their legacy thinking but actually refused to buy Netflix when given the option.

Remember 1999, when the U.S. government predicted a trillion-dollar surplus? We’ve all made similar, wildly wrong predictions because we confuse a cyclical change like the stock market with linear change, similar to population growth. Likewise, we don’t know how to distinguish Hard Trends, like the fact that baby boomers are aging, from Soft Trends, like the shortage of medical professionals to treat aging baby boomers. But by distinguishing what’s a certain future fact from an uncertain future maybe, you can make accurate predictions.

Anyone can avoid a disastrous fate like Blockbuster or even the recording industry, which was disrupted similarly starting with Napster, eventually iTunes, and now Spotify, and instead create must-have products and high-demand services as Tesla, Netflix and so many others have by seeing what others can’t: the Hard Trends that are shaping our future.

Anticipate (Base your strategies on what you know about the future)

Change from the outside is classified as disruption. Change from the inside is disruptive. The latter of the two is the kind of transformation that allows you to direct your future and seize your destiny, and the only possible way to become the disruptor rather than the disrupted is by becoming anticipatory.

Based on the certainty of Hard Trends, this is about asking yourself what problems you are about to have and what problems your organization will face in the immediate future and more importantly, what problems your customers will face. Then, look for creative ways to pre-solve problems before they happen.

When you anticipate your future challenges and opportunities, you can redefine your product or service to capitalize on the Hard Trends you see unfolding and become the disruptor. Keep in mind that disruption and change is always headed our way no matter what. It will burst through every industry and every institution, transforming everything and leaving nothing untouched in its wake. Those who see it coming will stand strong and grow.

Transform (Use technology-driven change to your advantage)

Changing means continuing to do essentially the same thing, only introducing some variation. Build it a little bigger or smaller and faster, for example. This has worked for many industries; however, the record industry or even television providers can’t survive simply by changing. Embracing change is no longer enough: we need to transform.

Transformation means doing something utterly and radically different. In terms of television providers, Spectrum and DirecTV have changed the way we watch TV, by giving you seemingly unlimited options with OnDemand and allowing you to record live TV. However, their astronomical prices have caused their folly, therefore YouTube TV and Sling TV are now transforming how we watch television by keeping their costs down while offering the same if not more of what Spectrum and DirecTV have offered. This transformed how we watch everything.

Ask yourself how you can expect your own field to transform. Equally important, ask how you can give your current and future customers the ability to do what they can’t but would if they knew it was possible. Your answers to these questions will help you begin crafting strategies to transform how you sell, market, communicate, collaborate, and innovate.