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Volume 1.2 Table Of Contents
- "Look For Subtle Signs Of Changing Conditions"
- Trend Watch: "The Bottom-Up Economy"
- Speaking of Success:
"Look For Subtle Signs Of Changing Conditions"
Sweeping industry changes can impact businesses in obvious ways, but they can also creep up in ways that aren't easy to notice until we're blindsided by unanticipated consequences. Trends such as the "Bottom-Up Economy" (see below) indicate that we need to be on the lookout for subtle and less obvious signs that can indicate unexpected threats and opportunities. For instance, while we're used to looking for competitive threats in market conditions, changes in unappreciated stakeholder issues, such as use of the Internet, can have just as devastating an effect if company leaders dismiss them as irrelevant.
It's easy but dangerous to underestimate threats from changes in factors such as workforce issues, external stakeholder concerns, regulatory trends, business models, and new technology, that can make our old assumptions obsolete. Because of this, even when everything seems to be going well for your organization, it's vital to step back from time to time and challenge your assumptions about which signs indicate danger and which don't. Look for connections between apparently "unrelated" pieces of information to reinforce or disprove your assumptions about how much risk your strategies and initiatives face.
Trend Watch: "The Bottom-Up Economy"
In the January 26, 2004 issue of Fortune Magazine, senior editor David Kirkpatrick makes a compelling case that our economy is moving away from centralized institutions and toward the power of the individual - a trend that he calls the "Bottom-Up Economy." Whether people are fueling a political campaign, determining our next "American Idol", shopping on eBay, or working in partnership with companies to improve their products and services, we're seeing that a shift is taking place. Customers are making their voices heard in unprecedented ways, and demanding to be treated as more than mere consumers. Kirkpatrick states that "this new style of business, birthed by the Internet, is ignored at any company's peril."
Quote: "It is often hard to distinguish between the hard knocks in life and those of opportunity"
-- Frederick Philips