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Richard Watson of NowandNext.com and I have collaborated extensively over the years, including on numerous client projects. Richard is very well-known for his Trend Blend annual series of maps (here are the 2007-2010 trend maps). I collaborated with Richard on several of them but not on the more recent ones, partly as he is now
The cross-over between physical and online retail is not just for innovators and techies. It is the way people shop. In a 30 day period spanning Christmas, 52% of Americans who have mobile phones (and who cares about the rest? ) used mobile phones to help them make buying decisions, according to research from Pew
Continue reading 52% of Americans did mobile phone research while in stores over the holiday season
In a world of instantaneous information flows, managing company reputation is ever more fraught. An interesting article in Techworld titled How to manage your online reputation goes into the issue, describing how pharma firm GlaxoSmithKline had one of its trademarks hijacked by a dodgy company. The piece goes on: “Reputations are more visible – and
Continue reading The headache (and opportunity) of managing your company’s online reputation
A year ago I shared a visualization of our AHT Group Business Model. Following that, I am now sharing our group 2012 Priorities. This comes from the principle of Open Business you can see in the 7 Enablers for our strategy. Our intention is to share more about the drivers of our business. The 2012
Continue reading Open business: Sharing our group priorities for 2012 – Why not?
In December I created a list of 12 themes to frame the year ahead, and then explored the ideas in a number of media interviews. The slides for the 12 themes have been seen almost 50,000 times now, suggesting they struck a chord somewhere. It’s now interesting to reflect on these, especially the response from
Continue reading Dominant themes for 2012: transformation and beyond
I believe strongly in visual frameworks as a way of communicating and engaging with complex ideas. I share these on the web, sometimes use them as central frames for my keynotes, apply them in strategy workshops, use them to shape my own thinking on the topics they cover, and sometimes create private custom visual frameworks
It’s almost the end of the year, so I’ll try to do a few compilations of my most popular posts of the year. Today, on the general theme of the future, here are 12 (+1 for next year) that have attracted the most interest… 1. Zeitgeist 2011: anxiety, mobility, blending, indulgence, immersion, wrath, nudity and
Continue reading 12 most popular posts of the year on the future
There are many themes and ideas threaded through our rich and complex times, so when I choose concepts to represent the heart of the year ahead, there is a lot to sort through and select. There were many dozens of ideas competing for the 12 themes I chose to represent what awaits us in 2012
Continue reading Why luxury defines our society and what to expect in 2012
I think one of the most valuable aspects of our newly-launched book Getting Results From Crowds is the analysis of Crowd Business Models. While crowdsourcing is clearly a fantastic way for organizations large and small to get access to unparalleled resources and scale their operations, it is also increasingly central to many companies’ business models.
Continue reading How to make money from crowdsourcing: A framework for Crowd Business Models
This morning I appeared on the Australian national breakfast TV program Sunrise in their ‘Ask an Expert’ segment, talking about the year ahead. Here is the 4 minute clip. In the brief segment I draw on a number of the 12 Themes for 2012 I recently released. The key topics we discussed were:
Today we are launching my new book Getting Results From Crowds: The definitive guide to using crowdsourcing to grow your business! This has been, in all, many years in the planning and making, and I’m extremely happy with how it has come out. It is definitely my most useful book, and while it’s hard to
Continue reading Launching my new book today! Getting Results From Crowds
Towards the end of each year I share some thoughts on what awaits in the year ahead. It is actually a lot easier to look years into the future than just a single year, as while we can readily discern broad trends, the major events in a year are usually unforeseeable, though they may express
Continue reading 12 Themes for 2012: what we can expect in the year ahead
Early this year I caught up for a coffee with Stephen Browning, Director of Corporate Affairs at News Digital Media and The Australian. During our conversation he told me about a weekly digest of what’s happening globally in digital news and paid content that he compiled for executives at News Limited, to keep them informed
Continue reading Open strategy: News Limited shares its inspirations on the future of paid content
This year I have been drawn significantly into the retail industry, being the lead technology advisor for a major study on the long-term future of shopping centers, and giving keynotes at a number of public and in-house retail industry events on topics including the future of retail shopping districts and social media in retail. We
Continue reading The future of retail: the rise of omnichannel marketing and sales
I am at a media briefiing by cloud-based ERP provider NetSuite at the very nice Quay restaurant in Sydney. In addition to the interesting presentation by CEO Zach Nelson on the state of NetSuite, we have been given no less than 7 press releases, so a big news day for the company. One of these
Continue reading Latest data: Retailers shift to social media and online
Governments around the world are increasingly recognizing that they have a responsibility for structured thought and research about the future, both to shape their own initiatives, and to assist companies and institutions in the nation to survive and thrive in times of change. Examples of government futures groups include: Egypt: Center for Futures Studies France:
Continue reading How governments research and communicate about the future
Over just the last few years, Australia has established itself as a global hub for crowdsourcing platforms. Early last year I wrote about the phenomenon, pointing to leading service marketplace Freelancer.com, which is now based out of Sydney (see my interview of its CEO Matt Barrie on Channel 7 last week), 99designs, which recently raised
Continue reading Australia’s continued rise as a global hub for crowdsourcing
Continuing my ongoing coverage of the state of equity crowdfunding, news is just out that a Republican bill proposing that crowdfunding be allowed will get support from the White House. This is not too surprising given the White House recently explicitly supported crowdfunding in the context of the Obama Jobs bill, but is still a
Continue reading Latest: Equity crowdfunding coming shortly? Congress offers bipartisan support
The other day I caught up for a coffee with Ryan Wardell, the founder of Project Powerup, a crowdfunding site focused on startups. Project Startup uses the classic crowdfunding model used by Kickstarter, Indie GoGo, Sellaband and other crowdfunding platforms for funding creative projects, in which funders are rewarded by receiving products, services, preferential treatment,
Continue reading Proposal for a new crowdfunding model: Betting to win
I am about to hop on a plane to Hawaii, where I will be running the ‘keynote workshop’ on Creating the Future of Professional Services for global accounting network DFK International’s annual North America conference on Maui. While it’s pretty crazy, I will only be there for as long as I spend travelling to Hawaii
Continue reading Workshop slides: Creating the Future of Professional Services
We have just posted an ad on Elance, looking for editors/ writers/ project managers for some of our existing and forthcoming online publications. Please apply on Elance if this seems like a match, or pass it on to others if you think it might be of interest. If you have questions before applying you can
Today I gave the keynote at an invitation-only meeting of senior executives looking at the future of their industry. My role was to bring perspectives on the broader drivers of change in business. One of the central themes of my keynote was the future of work and organizations. There are of course many facets to
Continue reading The global polarization of work: what we can do about it
The esteemed JP Rangaswami, who was at the very front of creating Enterprise 2.0 at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein and is now at Salesforce.com, has just written a compelling post Thinking about the Social Enterprise, in which he distills the essence of social business. You really need to read the entire post to get the flow
Continue reading Reconfiguring the world of business around the customer
This month’s Qantas Business Radio has a technology focus, including interviews with Nick Leeder, Managing Director of Google Australia, Simon Hackett, Managing Director of Internode, Peter Williams, CEO of Deloitte Digital, Charis Palmer, Editor of Technology Spectator, Ian Hogg, CEO of FremantleMedia Australia, as well as myself. There are some great insights in the various
Continue reading Qantas Business Radio: why crowdsourcing will drive the future of organizations
Continuing our series of conversations between friend and fellow futurist Gerd Leonhard and myself, here are some discursive thoughts on open versus closed systems. Given this issue’s central role in virtually all business strategy today, we find that our clients are consistently asking us about how to think about and build strategies in this context.
Continue reading Futurist conversations: Ross Dawson and Gerd Leonhard on Open vs Closed Systems
Arthur C. Clarke was certainly one of the most prescient people of the last century, anticipating many developments and in fact inventing the geo-stationary satellite on which much of the early media and communication revolution was based. In this fantastic segment from a BBC broadcast in 1964 he confidently makes two predictions, one absolutely accurate,
In my recent keynotes I have frequently used variations on my Transformation of Business framework, which looks at how Technology Drivers and Social Drivers lead to a changed Business Landscape, and in turn New Drivers of Success.
I recently ran a workshop on the future of business at the strategy offsite of one of the world’s largest professional services firm. During the evening I had a very interesting conversation with one of the regional directors about how professional service firms are tapping external networks. For over a decade I have written and
My friend and fellow futurist Gerd Leonhard, who runs The Futures Agency (which I am part of), was recently in Sydney for a speaking engagement. We took the opportunity to record a series of conversations on the future. Here is our conversation on the future of money. The key points we make are:
Below is an excerpt from my book Living Networks that describes how to develop effective strategies in what I call the “flow economy” of information of ideas, where today almost all value resides. You can also download the complete Chapter 7 on The Flow Economy from the book website. While the examples I used in
Continue reading Strategic positioning in the flow economy: 3 action steps
Last night I flew into Sanya, at the southernmost tip of China, to give the keynote at the NICE Interactions 2011 conference tomorrow. When I walked up to give my passport to the immigration official, on the counter in front of me was a box with 4 large buttons. There were green 2 smiley faces
Continue reading China leads the world in customer service, starting at its borders
Crowdsourcing is rapidly gaining visibility as a mainstream business topic. The current issue of Outsource magazine has a good article titled The Road of the Crowd. It was written by Steve Bynghall, who produced the recent IBF24 event run by Intranet Benchmarking Forum, and who is collaborating with me on some projects. It’s a good
Continue reading Crowdsourcing goes mainstream, shaping organizations and the future of work
This morning I gave the keynote at the MyBiz Expo 2011, on Business Opportunities of the Future. I had been interviewed for the cover story of February edition of MyBusiness magazine on which industries will prosper and shrink in the decade ahead. I shared some thoughts on the blurring boundaries of industries, and some specific
Continue reading Keynote: The Business Opportunities of the Future
Yesterday I was interviewed by fellow futurist Eric Garland for a podcast series which was also featured on the World Future Society website. You can listen to the podcast on those sites or below (note that I have had some problems with the plug-in). Our discussion ranged across global demographics, shifts in manufacturing, robotics, and
Continue reading The role of a futurist is to help people gain perspective and transcend boundaries
I gave my keynote on How Technology is Transforming Business for Australian Institute of Company Directors this morning here in Beijing. Based on the responses of the 500+ company directors in the audience, they absolutely understand the need for change. Here are their answers on audience response units to questions I posed during my presentation.
AHT GROUP VENTURES & FEATURED CONTENT
About the Blog author
Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, strategy advisor, and bestselling author. He is Founding Chairman of AHT Group, which consists of 3 companies: consulting, publishing, and ventures firm Advanced Human Technologies, future and strategy firm Future Exploration Network, and events company The Insight Exchange.
Ross is author most recently of Implementing Enterprise 2.0, the prescient Living Networks, which anticipated the social network revolution, and the Amazon.com bestseller Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships (click on the links for free chapter downloads). He is based in Sydney and San Francisco with his wife jewellery designer Victoria Buckley and two beautiful young daughters.
Books By Ross Dawson (Incl. Free Chapters)
Articles and Reports
Future of Media Report 2008
Future of Media Report 2007
Future of Media Report 2006
Executive Insights into Enterprise Social Network Strategy
Future of the Media Lifecycle
Future of Media: Strategy Tools
Executive Insights into Enterprise 2.0
Web 2.0 Framework
Trend map 2007+
Extinction Timeline
SAP White Paper: Service Delivery Innovation
White Paper: The Seven MegaTrends of Professional Services
CNET/ University of Virginia White Paper: How Technology Purchasing Decisions Are Really Made
PM Network magazine's lead article on virtual teamwork (440KB), featuring Ross Dawson on the cover
Microsoft Strategic White Paper: How To Lock-in Your Clients (1.1MB)
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AHT GROUP BUSINESS MODEL
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Recent Media Appearances
- Feb 3, 2012 – Sky Business February 3, 2012
- Feb 3, 2012 – 2SER February 3, 2012
- Feb 2, 2012 – Radio Australia February 2, 2012
- Feb 2, 2012 – National Radio February 2, 2012
- Jan 30, 2012 – ABC24 January 31, 2012
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