Please feel free to contact me via a comment in this post about the presentation or send me a direct email to andy.ford@culturewav.es. I would love to have a conversation with you about the content, answer any questions, and would be more than willing to engage in a real “talk”. Thanks for checking this out, and while not all my comments might have been represented here, that is what you get when a Southern Boy with a slight case of ADHD gives a talk. Thanks again to IFMA and the cast of sponsors who made this entire conference a grand success. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Consumers are in control of the marketplace
• The multiplex is in constant competition with the video game console – and film studios have recently blamed the Blu Ray HD-DVD battle for flailing DVD sales.
• Consumer’s behavior alerts us to the notion that they are expecting more and more content and context inside their food purchasing decisions.
• Global Understanding: United States Position in the world today means we need to be open to collaboration more than ever. Having the means to communication that we do today, offers us the unique ability to see that we are losing ground, and have the means to remake ourselves.
• The Green Race /Sustainability: Compared to the Space Race/ X Prize Ecosystem/ Green Luxe
• The return of everything from Knight Rider to a classic Hollywood Oscar celebration has us thinking that people are running toward anything that says – NORMALCY.
• And yet on top of this in the pursuit of next Ellen is up in searches 35% and Oprah is down.
• America’s Faithful have been represented by a new study that says they faithfully turnover churches faster than the denominations are gaining new members. They are best represented by the word “churn”.
• http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1716987,00.html?imw=Y
• Mom’s are pushing the “Rat Race Rebellion” into new heights
• Dads are screaming for equal respect in the SAHD category
• And kids are still waiting for their food offerings to be upgraded.
• All of this opportunity and challenge and probably the key question to consider is when do you jump?
Current Culture Clashes
• Current Culture = vertical integration, elaborate hierarchy, and comfortable cronyism
• Anticipating Next = no bosses, always-on negotiation, and open but deeply interdependent production
• 'Deadline' Is Such a Harsh Word
• How to work with your hacker:
• Managers: Thinks concretely. Good at small talk, and at the logistical details needed to run a business.
• Hackers: Thinks abstractly. Good at deep discussions, and thinking about the hard concepts needed to work with technology.
• Managers: Measures own contribution to society by the extent to which he adds to rules and sees that people live by following rules. Tends to equate rules with morality or the good of society.
• Hackers: Far more aware of the limitations of rules. Does not equate rules with morality or the good of society. Very likely to notice rules that are hurting your company--yes, they do exist, and they're more common than you think.
• http://jonathanscorner.com/writing/hacker/printer.html
Fresh Eyes
• Successful adapters see the world with fresh eyes. When the environment shifts around them, they are among the first to respond to changes in the complex web of relations that binds together all species. Then modify their direction in order to take advantage of the landscape.
• This year has been declared the International Year of the Frog in an attempt to highlight the plight of the amphibians, many of which are threatened species. (I’m not saying there is a promotional opportunity around frogs here, but if anyone wanted to run a Frog-leg special and have someone do the work for free to determine the consumer opportunity around this viable protein, call me.)
• Donald Rumsfeld once said, "there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. And we also know there are known unknowns, that is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - things we don't know that we don't know."
Adapt to the Environmental
• Rewired: Not info overload, new ways of processing data. Putting the human element back into tech. Today it’s all about speed and reading/locating info. The Internet is the “Neural Network” for all who desire to know more.
• Let your employees go, straight to you – open your door for Happy Hour, three days a week.
• Couple of site to check out:
• www.popurls.com
• http://www.oddpodzblog.com
• http://www.bubblegeneration.com
• http://www.phoood.com
• http://www.churchofthecustomer.com
• http://www.linkedin.com/
•
Evolve Quickly
• Speed matters. Adapters are often quicker to locate and exploit new sources of nutrition. They find ways to coexist where possible and to outrun, outmaneuver, or outfight competitors where necessary. When landscape-altering events sweep across the environment, some species win simply by making do with what's at hand. Efficiency can be the best survival strategy.
• Consider the evolution of one of the most important input features of the modern computer, the mouse. Now let’s talk about the company that appears to be willing to take some chances and give people what they didn’t know they needed, Apple.
• The folks at Apple seem to consider one word above all others when it comes to design, and that word is Absence. Evolution is not just about adding more features to you already crowded plates, no pun intended. Evolution of a product line, concept, menu strategy, and employee practices should just as actively engage removal of features or functions to enhance and speed up innovation.
Intuition Connects
• Concentrate on making connections.
• Intuition is not as fast as intellect, but it is deeper
• Instinct plays a crucial role. All species possess instinct. But successful adapters seem to have a more refined capacity to intuit the dangers and opportunities in their environment and to act decisively.
• Adaptation is never over. Conditions change constantly in large and small ways, demanding and favoring ongoing adaptations from species -- and companies.
• You have always trusted your gut, but you have probably always used other information as a means to explaining your judgment rather than, “It just feels right.” The consumer of NEXT uses their intuition to explain away almost any situation or solution. When we did a job on the West Coast for…
• http://monster.typepad.com/monsterblog/2006/03/is_there_room_f.html
This is the video from COEX I had the pleasure of speaking at on February 26th in Phoenix in a presentation entitled, "The Advantage of Next: Controlling Tomorrow." The whole thing takes a little time to download, and we'll probably put it up on the CultureWaves website, but I thought I'd drop it here first if anyone wanted to see it. 
