All posts by terop

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About terop

Futurist and IT Strategist. Public speaker, PhD (Industries of the Future), author ("Jobs. Future. You."), teacher (IT, leadership)

Strategic Foresight: Six Global Megatrends that are affecting us all

Futures, Scenario Planninng, Strategic Foresight

We all feel that the world is changing, but how?

We all inherently seem to know that things are different on a number of different levels. Whether at work, or “third sector” organisations, in the interactions we have with the world around us, or more broadly what we see happening in the economy.

These changes can be thought of as trends, and if they are long enough, deep enough and pervasive enough they are called “megatrends”.

And there are six megatrends that are affecting all of us.

  1. Globalisation 2.0
  2. Climate Change
  3. Individualism
  4. Digitisation
  5. Demographic changes
  6. Converging technologies

Globalisation 2.0: think how the first wave of globalization was all about the USA & Europe. With the growing middle class in Asia, Globalisation 2.0 will be focused in this region

Climate Change: think globally, think sustainability, think about resources that were once abundant and the impact of this upon the bottom-line

Individualism: do you really know your customers, your employees, your volunteers? How are you meeting their needs? If you dismiss this point, you don’t get the shift in attitudes.

Digitisation: the blurring of the boundaries between all aspects of our lives

Demographic changes: a rapidly aging population. How does this dynamic affect your customers, your employees, your volunteers?

Converging technologies: what will the impact be as information technology, nano technology and biotechnology merge?

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“The only constant in life is change”, Heraclitus (500BC)

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For more, visit Dellium Advisory, follow on Twitter, connect using LinkedIn, or review my IT-centric blog.

Strategic Planning: Who are your customers?

Strategic Planning, Strategy

When you study strategy, strategic management and other aspects of forward view of the organization you come across a lot of models and frameworks.

You have Porter’s “Five Forces”, the Boston Consulting Group’s “Growth-Share matrix, the Balanced Scorecard, the innovation funnel, the Harman Fan, and more besides. You no doubt have favourites, have perhaps massaged some of them to fit your circumstance, even seeing one or two as meaningless.

Well, Derek Abell’s perspectives on customers stands out to me.

Derek taught and performed research at Harvard Business School, and the same in Europe. From 2003 he was establishing business schools throughout Eastern Europe and Russia as well as consulting to many international organisations.

His theory, which has been established in practice, is basically when looking at your customers, there are three components:

  • Customer needs
  • Customer groups
  • Distinct competencies that you have in meeting these needs

So, who are your customers, what are their needs & what do you bring to the table?

For more, visit Dellium Advisory, follow on Twitter, connect using LinkedIn, or review my IT-centric blog.

Strategic Planning: What is your vision?

Strategic Planning, Strategy, Vision

The vision statement indicates the characteristics of your organisation in the future and can help answer many questions about what it does.

Now, it is important that a vision statement be able to stand the test of time and provide guidance to decision makers as they determine the direction of the organisation into the future. It’s vital that your vision statement is a reflection of your intent.

Most vision statements include some aspects of three important elements:

  • a core ideology
  • an envisioned future
  • recognition of service to stakeholders

The core ideology of the vision statement contains a statement about the firm’s values and “reason for being.” The envisioned future is a statement that describes what the organisation will be like if it achieves its most important goals. What does success look like. Whilst the final part of the vision statement is the recognition of how the organisation serves its stakeholders, including owners/creditors, employees and customers, as well as the community and society.

 

 
For more, visit Dellium Advisory, follow on Twitter, connect using LinkedIn, or review my IT-centric blog.