The future in sight – a chance for a change!
It seems a bit strange for a guest blogger to blog about the blog owners. And that is yet what I am going to do: as a guest blogger for Extend Limits I will write a post about Tony’s presentation for the Ordina Open’s Thursday.
Needless to say, Tony is a futurologist and has a perspective far beyond that of (you and) me. Tony’s presentation of last Thursday reminded me of the facts: I am lagging behind…! But it is a chance for change!
Ordina Innovation radar
Tony started his presentation with a selection of the results from the Ordina Innovation Radar Study, a research in which the state of innovation of the Netherlands as well as the innovation directions of Dutch companies are uncovered. According to the results, innovation is and stays very important for Dutch organisations, also in times of a recession. The more surprising was the finding that most attention is being paid to trends that are less innovative and focus more on basic conditions of doing business.
These results are contradictory to what Tony tells us. When listening to his presentation, one is covered in new trends, facts, nice-to-knows, inspiring cases, suitable film fragments… One just gets the nagging feeling one is lagging behind. And that very feeling fits the Innovation Radar results… Still, Tony will get you in the mood of change, you would rather want to start today than wait for tomorrow to starting innovation.
Contradictions
Today we live our lives as we are used to them for years. According to Tony: ‘We go to work, and return home after 8 hours of work have passed. We do our shopping in shops. Advertisements determine our needs.’ And this is weird: we rather would like to work whenever and wherever we like, do our shopping whenever and wherever we like, and determine our needs ourselves. The clear contradiction is very confronting, it makes you want to listen to Tony as he continues his presentation.
What is the future all about?
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It is sheer impossible to summarize a presentation with so many cases, facts, trends and quotes. I’d like to highlight two:
- BANG technology (with B-bytes, A-atoms, N-neurons, en G-genomes) will be of utmost importance. The developments are focused in small things, but the effects will be huge! The developments generate an ever-increasing amoung of information which we will be able to process and organise. The developments enable new technologies such as mini robots swimming up our bloodstream, curing us on the spot. li>Organisations and marketing develop evolutionary. On the contrary, the consumer, media and technology develop revolutionary. The difference between the market and the supplying organisations is growing larger and larger! There is no time to sleep over it anymore!
As Tony shows, it stays quite a challenge to align the every day to-do’s, tomorrow’s decisions (innovation) and the future (vision) effectively in an environment in which the customer is a moving target himself. Transition, also in times of a recession, proves to be a change for change. I believe, after having seen Tony’s presentation, everyone was highly aware of the unlimited possibilities of change and the need for change at the same time. For those of you interested, Ordina’s homepage included a summary of Tony’s presentation.