MEGA COLLISION OF 15 MONSTER TRENDS IN 2015

No matter what your position, location, size of your operation, the following 15 trends starts to collide and open up amazing and instant opportunities for you. And yet, if you are not fully prepared to recognize and adjust accordingly, they will bite you like a big great white shark in deep water…guaranteed

Dark Television:
A series of new platforms will seriously disturb global traditional TV media. The supremacy of modern television is seriously challenged and being over taken by massive intelligent streaming. The constantly dumb-down often fake ‘breaking news’ blended with silly reality shows are now being replaced by highly categorized intelligent and customized contents with instant online streaming access from all over the world creating your own ‘personalized on demand TV’. The primary sectors impacted will be the traditional TV journalism, advertising industry, mega streaming players, cable operators, global marketing and new personalized channels. Beneficiaries: New global age thinkers and practitioners. Enemies: The old media and hardwired new baron media mentality. Adjustments: Immediately submerge into new streaming culture and become and expert.

Deep Digital Dive:
A new era of advertising and branding is already incubating, but very few will survive the brutality. While anything and everything big and small in life is in a digital blender; digital marketing and branding strategies are increasingly becoming un-differentiated and lost in the digitized hyper data eco-system. The CIO will overpower the CMO and CTO may further scare the CEO the raise the bar of confusion in boardrooms. The new culture of ‘deep digital dive’ appears. The modern craze and of endless “story-telling” a new name for old advertising, such fabrication as a bandage to all marketing problems will too pass. The customer is not looking for stories but rather ‘real value’ and special solutions. Hopefully new and selective strategies will emerge based on honesty and integrity as true exchange of real value. As the general public gets more immersed in the deep digital dive, the real truth will become the new Messiah. All over the world, entire marketing branding is under re-evaluation and ROI is being challenged. Old approaches are simply not working. A total evaluation process of the master ‘value proposition’ is required even before marketing and branding kicks in. Beneficiaries: New global age marketing minds. Enemies: The old branding school. Adjustments: Accept digital strategies and story-fabrications as basic happening and concentrate more on ‘real value creation’ and global-age thinking.

Internet or Spynet:
The other name for the Internet of Everything will be the Internet of Spying or Spynet; as anything and everything online is being interconnected, stored, analyzed and digitized as a basis of micro profiling of the citizenry and all kinds of business activities. Big brother is passé; this is 100 fold more sophisticated. Any notion of escape will easily create the new stuff of modern pulp fiction. Beneficiaries: Protection industry sectors, the government agencies and private contractors. Enemies: the general populace and global intelligentsia. Adjustments: Stop being naïve and deal with new global age issues as all and everything online interactions you do just adds to an open public library accessible to selected powerhouses. They know that you are reading this line.

White Collars and Soft Collars:
Robots start appearing in white collar space, influx of steel collars in production and soft collars in offices becomes as a normal transition. Anything of multiple repeated actions you process today as a daily routine in your office will soon be replaced by robotics. Any organization with large white collars will seek out soft collars as critical necessity. Job-seekers will feel massive rejection by newer, faster and almost free technologies while job-creators will thrive on the constant upgrades. Keep an eye on AI as professional services like ‘medical analysis’ and or ‘legal paper work’ are next on the line. Beneficiaries: New global age processing. Enemies: Bureaucracy and old hierarchies. Adjustments: Explore deeply on what’s the real difference on being a true entrepreneur and liberate yourself. Personal development on soft skills will become a top priority.

Mass Un-Social Media:
As Social Media grows into massive un-social media, a new age of new type of social media emerges, where most of the top features of the top players get combined into one, Wow. The power and size will be amazing. This will also create parallel needs for very small micro personalized pools of like minded circles, reminiscing the very early days of social media. Massive promotional campaigns from the massive new un-social media and constant chatter will become annoying. Beneficiaries: New players from the old social media school. Enemies: Facebook addicts. Adjustments: Seek beyond un-social media and explore new channels and seek your own niche.

Crazy Hang Outs:
Offices will start to disappear or turn into casual-crazy work spaces. They will be highly efficient, technologically advanced, economically informal, 24-7-365 access, designed like private clubs, rain forests, cafés or techie garages, to be used as and when required by anyone in the organization. The daily time wasted in commuting to attend disconnected meetings and hang out by water coolers will be considered very old fashioned and regimented office work is a dead model. Despite massive urbanization is on the way traditional offices will lose their centrality over creative work-spaces. Beneficiaries: New entrepreneurs will not require floors of offices with art deco furniture to impress clients, a small rain forest set up with a live parrot do. Enemies: The trillion dollars office real estate industry is ready to crush such notions. Adjustments: explore creative options, save on all traditional office spaces and overheads and re-invest in extreme comfort, productivity and go after extreme value creation.

Future Workers:
The next biggest lifestyle altering adjustments are hidden in the new global-age working models. Currently, we are all playing dangerous games of zeros. Very sadly the current 100 million skilled unemployed are already on a trajectory to increase to 1 billion unemployed by 2020; this is the worst part in our history as all our future progress seems designed to crush employment. In addition, the current 100 million unemployed degree holder youth (USA student loans are 1 trillion dollars) becomes 200 million. With lost generations around us there is no single organization, institution or a political leadership in the world with the power to fix it. The ONLY glimpse of hope is the ‘new global-age entrepreneurial nations’ like sleeping giants they are going through a slow metamorphosis and soon to spread their colorful wings in amazement. Often unknown to themselves they are currently riding the technology curves and tsunamis and see the ease of entry to national and global business creation transforming into becoming massive ‘job-creators’ nations. Only the new massive entrepreneurial armies of the new global age of tomorrow have the answer to solve the massive unemployment problems of today. The soon they will interplay. Last century many major nations passed through such ordeals. Currently, this the most serious challenge for any political agenda anywhere in the world. Beneficiaries: Organizations thriving on cheap labor. Enemies: University students of the world and the unemployed masses of the developed world. Adjustments: Explore deeply on what’s the real difference on being a true entrepreneur and liberate yourself. Learn fast to run big or small business like multi-national organizations.

Innovation Boom:
The world is about to see an eruption of millions of new and powerful innovative ideas to amaze the global populace; daily gush of amazing combinations bustling with new collaborations and rapid deployment across the world. Asia will be playing a very aggressive role. The entrepreneurial talent form little towns and villages, entangled with erupting technology with massive online interactions, something that never ever happened in the history before. As for every 1,000 new mega ideas there will shocks impacting further massive job eliminations, but millions new start-ups will pick up the slack but on new short and flexible terms. High and long term paying jobs attached to mega innovations will be replaced by short term high paying projects for the few. Beneficiaries: New global age processing and advance level incubation of business ideas. Enemies: Bureaucracy and old hierarchies, frozen minds and dull operators. Adjustments: If you are not an innovator in some aspect study the subject very deeply and if your organizations doesn't have a Czar of Innovation with an active program with regular reviews you are working for an already dead organization.

Big data – Open data
Data, like a big deep blue ocean is fully filled up, millions of vessels have already sailed out and so are thousands of Titanic. The ocean is just water but to Columbus a test of navigation. Big Data is a mountain of big garbage and in need of intelligent recyclers. Anything like an ‘intelligent answers’ or something like ‘dumb sound bites’ will easily be percolated in this abstract, mysteriously unpredictable and monolithically unbalanced façade. Any answer of any nature being ‘sought’ would instantly blossom as a ‘positive answer’ or equally will get ‘crushed down’ with few similar key strokes. Ask what you want to “hear” and your answer is always guaranteed. The beneficiaries of the process will always be the so called ‘insight and market research sector’ the agenda centric teams controlling special campaigns. Big Data will become Big Noise, like the old news barons of the last century as they compounded and twisted the public opinion into confusion. Nevertheless, Big Data will have some very powerful and useful roles if manipulated with real transparency and integrity. It will also become dangerous weapon in certain hands. Beneficiaries: Information manipulators and also truth seekers. Enemies: Groups and notions scared of exposure. Adjustments: Immediately submerge into new deep date manipulation and truth discovery culture and become and expert.

Population Rich Nations:
The global economical balance will shift towards population rich nations which are mostly emerging economies over knowledge-rich nations mainly developed economies. Nations with hundreds of millions population of energetic, business-hungry natives to explore and deploy the entrepreneurial skills in search of global spotlight will significantly enjoy the influx of cheap technology. Mathematical models show some extra ordinary shifts over the next decade. According to McKinsey the emerging economies by 2020 will spend 30 trillion dollars yearly this would create a new landscape of new global economy. Beneficiaries: New global-age, Asia friendly operators. Enemies: The old localized centricity. Adjustments: Study the world map daily and circumnavigate the earth slowly.

Global Name identities:
The mathematical propagation of online interaction clearly proves that great ideas can now travel to the farthest corner on the planet and touch millions with fascinating ease. It also proves the critical need and the magic of owning an iconic, one of a kind, proprietary name identity with the right matching domain name as the most important and valuable assets for an organization to have . There are some 1,000 books written on branding; most circles around this issue but recommend general branding makeover exercises of already dysfunctional names but never ready to face the truth change the name identity in the first place. With 250 million domain names in use by some hundred million businesses around the globe seeking global attention, only the globally workable and proprietary name identities would become the most cherished items. With the largest majority of business names from the past totally unfit to cope with the new global-age demands massive opportunities exist in global-age name identity exercises. The image supremacy of any organization can only be assured today only when there is an unchallenged name identity in their vaults. The diluted, look alike or sounds a like name are nothing but noise lost in the jungle. Beneficiaries: Very small number of elite hassle free global name identities owners with intellectual property umbrella. Enemies: Agencies of the world still locked in the last century beliefs. Adjustments: With 250 millions great and odd shod names in the play become a world class naming expert, study deeply the new and revolutionary gTLD ‘dot domain names’

Export-ability:
If your ‘value proposition’ has any legs it should be able to run in all directions, fly or swim oceans, just jogging in your local park is just not good enough. Outbound global exportability is the now the new required measurement of global-age execution. Your local and national markets are important but more is your global presence, today even small SME must be able to operate in dozens of countries. With billions of people online it is logical to open unlimited additional markets and serve them in the best possible way. New series of global standards on supply chain and exportability will continue to emerge. Beneficiaries: New global age supply chain and logistical processing, global interactive marketing and selling. Enemies: Mediocre producers, myopic marketers and non-believers of the new century realities. Adjustments: Create 24-7-365 culture; add 100 new countries as potential targets and start studying them closely.

Image Supremacy
The old concept of applying ‘hard asset centricity’ is like having massive machinery bending pipes to create designer furniture piled as inventory but avoiding ‘soft power asset management’ issues like mind bending exercises in the boardroom to study design and ask the right questions, why the pipes have to be bend in the first place. Today the developed countries have massive manufacturing plants disconnected with global-age realities and ‘hard asset centricity’ does not allow any room to mobilize ‘soft power asset’ management. A new revolution is just around the corner, where core vision intertwined with innovation, imagination and human talent will become a more powerful soft power guide over manufacturing plants. Study the sad fall of hard asset centric Detroit city, now just out of bankruptcy and balance it with soft power German Auto industry. Global manufacturing will gravitate to soft power centricity in response to quick mood swings of global audiences rather than being locked into a maze of twisted manufacturing and hard asset ideologies. Businesses are extremely comfortable talking about their speed of production and height of warehouses of unsold inventories rather new global-age mind share of the populace and what they actually need and why. Businesses are so proud of cutting costs rather creating real additional value and this disconnect would become increasingly obvious as new thinking will emerge to create image supremacy in the relevant market places. Beneficiaries: Soft power asset management thinking. Enemies: Hard asset centricity. Adjustments: Study the difference deeply; however image supremacy pursuit is definitely not for everyone.

Higher Education Lowdown:
Higher Education in certain areas is collapsing at an accelerated rate; by 2020 the current ‘value offerings’ of majority of degrees will neither be recognizable and nor acceptable. The global-age has brand new rules to nurture new talent and create marketable skills for the new demands something that still do not appear in most university curriculum. The university leadership and faculties seem to have become their own worst enemies and their denials increasingly become the proof of the collapse. This reaction is not new, as this is when the top leadership of Music industry laughed at the change of times and eventually disappeared within few years. The trillion dollar disruptive education industry is still filled with massive brand new opportunities. Beneficiaries: Revolutionary and free high value educational delivery ideas. Enemies: Bureaucracy, old hierarchies. Adjustments: Create your own new philosophy and zoom into the right value and educational skills and seek out matching venues, the choices are amazing. Explore deeply on what’s the real difference on being a true entrepreneur and liberate yourself.

Special Forums & Events:
Special event pushing special agenda; in order to fully appreciate global age knowledge, thinking and execution, high-power special events designed to assemble the best thought leadership, debates and discussions on all frontline issues explore how and why they are succeeding in their targets. To foster new thinking and ideas such high value events offer the best stage to showcase ideas, innovation and growth of fast track basis. Such events demand high-quality moderation, agenda and speakers. The global mobility of intelligentsia in vertical markets provide amazing opportunities and if properly harnessed they are the magic glue for rapid advancement. Beneficiaries: New global agenda setting. Enemies: Old conference models. Adjustments: Study how fast and how deep such special event ideas are expanding and pushing special agenda.

Online World:
With 3 billion online users understanding of the new art of online behavior management applicable from sales, connectivity and relationship to social patterns of consumption will create brand new standards demanding new and special skills. New retail power and brand name identity will have new definitions. The century old retail mantra ‘location, location, location; is now replaced by ‘presence, presence, presence’ it is no longer important where your location is but rather how well your brand can skate on global e-commerce highways. It’s more about your e commerce presence, the value of your website, accessibility of domain and image supremacy of your name identity. The Big Box Retailers and marginal shopping malls will lose their luster over mega specialty malls. Beneficiaries: Small and innovative talent from the farthest corners. Enemies: Cement structure based retail. Adjustments: Become expert on the traffic of 2 billion online users and how to develop soft power name brand empires in cyber space.

Summary:
The most significant part of the 15 Monster Trends is they collide like old jalopies creating massive junk but some coming out on the other side like a brand new shinny formula cars. These are amazing just times, packed with mega opportunities…just be prepared

Special Note:

"AARM is conducting high level Exclusive Executive Briefings on 15 Monster Trends of 2015, led by Naseem Javed, and highly pertinent in-depth webinars and special seminars in various vertical markets. If your organization is being impacted by some of the above monster trends kindly drop me a line and I will send you pertinent information on the right events..." Robert T. Stacey, President AARM robertstacey@aarm.org

About AARM
AARM is a worldwide network of business associates and executives who are deeply involved in Marketing, CRM and related subject areas, originating in 1995 as The Association for the Advancement of Relationship Marketing/Relationship Management - AARM, is a not-for-profit association serving industry and commerce. AARM taps into thousands of individuals in the Customer Relationship Marketing arena worldwide with major representation of 58% in the Senior Executive category and 42% middle management. www.aarm.org

Author:
Naseem Javed, a corporate philosopher, author, syndicated columnist and now leading image supremacy movement to create dramatic shift in entrepreneurial innovation and business performance. www.imagesupremacy.com