Can Business Trends Move You into an Anticipatory Age?

Over the past several months I’ve been talking with many potential new clients. It’s always interesting to see what organizations are doing outside my clients’ markets. What trends are transforming the way they do business? Are there future opportunities in these markets?

Because of several long-term relationships with clients, I’m able to call in at the CEO level right from the start with a unique value proposition. After the initial discussion, the conversation always turns to asking me what I see happening in the market. What trends am I seeing they might be able to capitalize on?

CEOs are very curious about the future. I’ve never met a successful CEO who isn’t curious about almost everything. I know what you might be thinking, it’s easy to be curious when you’re in charge. My relationships with many clients go back to 30 years, before they were CEO. They have always been interested in discussing trends and future opportunities.

This is a unique opportunity to use my strategic thinking skills to share trends I see impacting their markets. Everyone wants to know what their future will look like. Don’t you?

They all want to know what their customers, partners, and competitors are doing. Leaders always love a great story. My clients have great stories to share. In some cases, these conversations have led to large business opportunities for both parties involved.

Think about it.  What if I could help you predict the future? What if I could provide you the ability to see around the corners both in your business and personal life? You might be smiling right now. That’s a question Daniel Burrus asks in his programs.  I’ve used it ever since I saw and met Dan for the first time at a program at SARCOM.  I saw it used with our leadership team. That it got a smile, but they were not always smiling. We were fighting for the life of our business.

I was first exposed to Daniel Burrus’s thinking back in the early 1980’s when I read his first book, Techno Trends.  Things began to change for me. He opened my mind to future opportunities through emerging technologies.

I’d like to introduce you to Daniel Burrus. He’s a New York Time s and Wall Street Journal bestselling author for his book Flash Foresight; How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible, which he wrote with John David Mann. It’s a great book, it should be on every leader’s bookshelf. Based on the sales numbers, I think it might already be.

Daniel Burrus has a new book coming out in October, The Anticipatory Organization; Turn Disruption and Change into Opportunity and Advantage. This is a unique opportunity to learn ideas that will transform your organization and life, if you choose to embrace it. He shares how to understand and leverage trends to add certainty to an uncertain world. I’ve read it. I love it.

I’m focused on sharing his ideas to my midmarket, privately held businesses, and early stage entrepreneurs. I believe his ideas can transform how you work with your clients, customers, and partners. He is introducing several new products and services to expand the impact of his ideas.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves. Over the next several weeks, I will share his ideas with you. You can let me know what you think or ask any questions you might have. I know you will enjoy what you see and hear as I share his key ideas and concepts. I believe you will not only enjoy them, but will want to act on them. I know you trust me to provide you with practical implementable ideas every week. This next series of blogs will change how you do business.

You can read more about Dan Burrus at Can Daniel Burrus Help You Build an Anticipatory Organization?.  On Futurist Friday, every week we will share different ideas from his books.

At Market Leadership Journal, we will apply his concepts to what it means to be a market leader, today and in the future. We’ll talk about how to use trends and different tools to add certainty to your planning process.

You can read more about some of his key ideas on several earlier blogs on trends at Developing High Performing Teams.

You may want to consider preordering a copy of his new book. Its available on Amazon’s and Barnes and Noble’s websites. Look for The Anticipatory Organization by Dan Burrus. You’ll want to read and implement it before your competitor.

See you next week where we will share how to define hard trends and what they mean to your organization’s growth.