This morning I attended a technology seminar, with three leading figures from the world of technology journalism sharing their views of the future.  In my view, it’s vital that you always look ahead for the next big thing, or you end up like Nokia or Kodak, thinking that what exists today might last forever.

One of today’s panel members – Olivia Solon, Associate Editor of Wired Magazine – talked about the trend Collaborative Consumption.  In short terms, what this means is how spare capacity is mopped up by the crowd using the web.  Lots of examples of this are popping up all over, including car shares (one commuter one car who trades their free space), bike renting (let’s say someone rides to work and the bikes sits in a shed all day when it could be rented out), house sitting to name a few.  Capacity is made visible to the crowd either on a short term (one day), mid or long term basis.

She made an excellent supporting point around trust. I’ve been talking about TATT (Time, Attention, Trust and Transparency) for about two years now, believing them to the key social currencies.  If collaborative consumption is to be truly a success, then you are going to need to be pretty sure about the credentials of a stranger before you let them into your home, your car or have them riding away on your best bike!

Sites like e-bay and its payment platform – Paypal – build transparent trust by members giving feedback to build a reputation aswell as a pretty robust process to validate who you are are, before you can get a Paypal account.  This highly visible feedback reduces fears with other potential buyers and sellers.  It works well for e-Bay, so if collaborative consumption is to take off, how can demonstrate your trustworthiness in the future across multiple consumption plaftorms?  Such a thing doesn’t exist today.

If you think about all the on-line transactions you make (Amazon, i-Tunes, e-Bay, Tesco, Council Tax, Utilities) aswell as your social graph (social media) and then imagine all those transactions being aggregated in one place to build a trust rating which is effectively validated through multiple sources validating your public trust persona, then that could be a vision of what the future might look like. It would be like a visible credit report, buyer/seller report and assessment of you as an all round good egg, which is available to others.  That would be a big job, but not beyond the realm of impossibility given the amount of data that now exists.

If we’re truly going to switch from hyper-consumption to collaborative consumption, then the evidence of trustworthiness to strangers will become a big issue.  Let’s see who gets to market first.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery or so the saying goes.  This gave me a few laughs on a short break to Tenerife this weekend when I came across the following: -

1. A Michael Buble tribute act called “Michael Bubble”
2. A restaurant called “Gordon Ramsey’s” offering a three course dinner for €8,95 – their logo was exactly the same as the famous chef – “Gordon Ramsay.”  I did look twice thinking I was about to have the cheapest fine dining meal ever!
3. A Ghanaian looky looky seller (fake watches etc) wearing a Tesco “Here to Help” T-Shirt and badge – he even had Tesco carrier bags if a customer made a purchase!

There is so much talk about innovation today, that it’s easy to forget that imitating or copying a product and trying to improve it is also a tried and tested way of starting a business.

Now, I’m not suggesting that you rip off a major brand owners trademark – you’ll get into serious trouble for that – however significant markets exist for commodity products, where operationally efficient businesses can drum up significant revenues just by doing something better or introducing a complementary product into an existing customer base.

It’s widely acknowledged that in the seventies and eighties that many of the Japanese consumer electronic brands, took existing technology and bettered it.  They reverse engineered products, found ways to either improve them of their manufacturing processes and then launched them in the market, often with another 100 flashing LED lights for full effect!

Many of those brands are now household names – Sony being a great example of a brand that did it well and then went on to bigger and better things, like the Sony Walkman.

So if you’re thinking to try and find ways to expand your business, it doesn’t need to always come as a result of an innovation.  Five ways to further increase revenues could be: -

1. Pick a feature that is the current big thing in the market and see how you could better or improve it (subject to patent).
2. Establish other products that your customers might already sell, that you may be able to supply (always a good one if your customer wants supplier consolidation).
3. Consider how technology you might have developed could be used for other things.  Dyson do this really well, think how they have introduced hand-dryers and vacuum cleaners using their powerful motor technology.
4. See how your competitors might be deriving revenues from complimentary goods and services that you might be able to offer as up-sells or cross-sells.  Classic example for TV’s would be HD cables and cabinets.
5. Consider adjacent marketplaces to your current offering and see if you could move sideways into an adjacent market, rather than trying to do something brand new in a market you may not have expertise in.

Innovation doesn’t always have to be the next big thing, the most radical idea or a game changer.  Small improvements plus complementary products can also increase your capacity to do more business.

Business relies upon ideas.  Creativity leads to innovation, innovation leads to new products and services, new products and services lead to temporary monopolies, temporary monopolies lead to market demand and ultimately profits.  However, time pressures mean we are spending less time thinking and more time doing in today’s “must make every moment count by doing something” world.  Here is a short presentation outlining some reasons why you should spend some more time thinking, five frameworks for creative thinking or problem solving and some tips to get you going.

Yesterday I attended an innovation conference in Manchester, with keynotes from two people coming at innovation from different angles.  For me, innovation is key – or at least the relentless drive to find new ways to do things, or creative ways to to problem solve.  It’s important to keep yourself up to date with the latest thinking and to listen to alternative views, so the conference, organised by Benchmark for Business, was a great opportunity to listen to two masters of their craft.

Business brain Kjell Nordstrom kicked off the morning session with a real macro level view of the world and some of it’s trends.  Nordstrom, tall and wiry, with a mandarin jacket, no socks and espadrilles – was an imposing figure.  You just had to listen as he spoke for nearly two hours, without notes, accompanied by a few visual aids about the new world order he foresaw, socially and at a business level.  Some bits of his talk which I thought interesting were: - 

• The world is now full of “liquid fear.”  That is, we are fearful, but there isn’t a specific threat, it’s a combination of many different things.
• We are in a time of “genuine uncertainty.”
• That capitalism should be renamed “innovism.”
• There are more women in Universities than me.  65%/35% split.
• 52% of the worlds populations live in cities.  By 2040 this is predicted to be 80-85%.  The City will be the new country.
• Creative Destruction is the new term for innovation.  Think i-Phone which blew apart the conventions of the mobile phone industry.
• China’s cost advantage is similar to an ice-cube in the desert.  It has a sell by date.
• De-learning can prove more difficult than learning.  Cultural reality of trying to be more innovative in your culture.
• USA will continue to dominate the world innovation stage as they have a “plug and play” economy. You can become an American in three to four years, regardless of where in the world you originate.
• Temporary monopolies is what you have to spend your time trying to design (capturing a market for a period of time with no competition).

In the afternoon, motivational speaker and innovation expert Chris Barez-Brown took the stage.  Barez-Brown, with a polar opposite style to Nordstrom talked of innovation in terms of unlocking people and your own capability to innovate. In a high-octane delivery, some of his key points we’re: -

•  Innovation should be as easy as going down a waterslide.
• You’re best ideas come when you are in your “alpha” state of mind.  That is, not busy doing stuff but in a more relaxed state.  My example of this is when I’m out riding my road bike, I do some of my best thinking.
• You have to be positive minded.  Don’t dismiss anything, even if it’s been tried before.  Conditions may well be different now.  Seek the value in new ideas.
• Speed is the key.  Momentum is a function of passion.
• Have some belief for your ideas.  No belief, then no momentum.
• Perception is as important as truth.
• You have to have a portfolio approach to risk.  Assume some elements of your portfolio will fail.
• Use external stimulus.  Break habits, go to different spaces, do new things.

Two very different speakers at different ends of the scale.  Nordstrom the superbrain and Barez-Brown the high-energy motivator.  They made for a contrasting day.  What was interesting, is that they were the only two speakers.  No forty-five minute keynotes, both speakers were on stage for a couple of hours, which meant you could go a little deeper into their philosophies.  This is in contrast to the “speed dating” type conferences which are becoming en vogue.

Overall the day was well worth the time investment.  I personally enjoyed listening to Nordstrom as I love the bigger picture view and future forecasting.  If some of the things he predicted come to life, then we’ve got some interesting times ahead.

Coming up with new ideas normally takes the route of sitting with a stack of post-its and trying to fire out as many thoughts as you possibly can.  However, there are a large number of methods/frameworks to assist you and perhaps give you some added stimulation when trying to come up with something new.

Lateral thinking gives you some additional avenues to be creative.  We used some of these on an internal workshop yesterday, let me share three of them with you.

1.  Random object. Pick a random object and then describe how that object is going to help you solve your problem. The fact that it is a random object gets the creative juices flowing.

2.  Breaking the Rules? How would your problem/challenge/opportunity come to life if there were no rules, organisationally or otherwise.  It stops people thinking about what is achievable based upon the business/world works today.

3. How would someone else tackle it? I’ve previously written posts about this, relating to Richard Branson and Michael O’ Leary.  It always delivers great results.

Many of these techniques can be easily learned.  I’ve attended some great workshops with innovation and lateral thinking expert Paul Sloane who has written books on the subject.  Great guy to follow on Twitter, always posting interesting and stimulating stuff.  Main thing is, sometimes brainstorms aren’t good enough on their own and you need an extra little bit of something to sieve out the gold.

Mobile marketing.  Mobile search.  Mobile me.

The next decade will be the decade we remember for it’s advance in mobile technology.  Signalling the shift to location based shopping, services and convenience.  Apps are coming out by their droves and one that caught my eye recently was this one from Red Laser which I think gives an indication of where it’s all heading.  Using an i-Phone, you simply scan a products barcode, the app then identifies it and presents the current web pricing for that product from it’s database.  Instant price checking and hugely convenient.  Just one thing to do, scan the app.

From the user feedback so far, it seems the pricing isn’t perfect in their back end database, that can soon be corrected.  It’s the process that interests me more. Another shift in the way people shop, instant comparison pricing and perhaps a decision to not “buy it now” but buy it when you get home, if the price is significantly different.  Retailers watch out.

Mobile search is where it’s going to be at, presenting your website in a mobile friendly way.  Manchester Search specialists theEword have already cottoned onto this and have a tool in development which will effectively convert your site into a mobile friendly version, which I consider to be an essential step for all businesses moving forward.  Pay per click and search engine marketing also takes on a new persona, with specific activity needing to be done in parallel to your conventional SEM.

What’s evident is that the future is about mobile, the customer journey, convenience, location based marketing and immediacy.  If you’re not working on “mobilising” your digital resources, you should be, it’s where it’s all heading.

Richard Branson has just acquired your business.  He’s decided to run your business the Virgin way.  Tomorrow, he’s visiting to start the process.  Panic!

Aside from rushing around with the duster and filling cupboard boxes to stick out sight, what do you think he’d find?  What would he tackle first?  What stuff would he chuck in the bin? What structures are going to get busted up?  Who is going?  Who is staying?  How is marketing going to change?  How are you going to get more intimate with customers?

Point being.  Do you think he would do a better job of it than you currently do?  Would he add an element of “pzazz” to the brand that has been lacking for a while?  Would he inspire you to do great things?  To speak up with that idea you had to do something different?

This simple exercise which is used a lot in inovation workshops is a great way to get thinking about your business.  The things you should tackle.  Implementing the changes people would love to see.  Of course, we can’t all be Branson, he’s a special fellow.  However, you could take the essence of the way he does things and have a crack at doing something new.  If you don’t think differently every now and then, you’ll end up in a pickle, indifferent, undifferentiated and blended into a crowded marketplace.  Kick on.

Insider Magazine Editor – Michael Taylor - gave me the opportunity to write a blog for their readership following the IoD Award win last week.  Here’s what I had to say: -

“Against a backdrop of impending public sector cuts, and the impact that they may have on the wider regional economy, it’s easy for business leaders to get into a negative mindset and prepare for the future by salami slicing costs rather than looking ahead more positively.

When times are tough, leaders can become distracted. There’s a lot of pressure out there. Too much pressure leads to stress; too little, to boredom. Optimum pressure leads to optimum output, any sportsperson or psychologist will tell you that.

Salami slicing leads to too much pressure because everyone becomes focused on cutting what exists today, rather than doing something new like re-inventing a process, challenging your business model or looking outside of your industry convention. The flame of innovation dims. Research and development is cut, sustainable investment is cut, and hope is cut.

We need continued investment and good leadership in the private sector over the coming years. The regional and UK economy needs us to grow, take up the slack, keep things afloat. Salami slicing won’t lead to growth. It’s about finding new customers, new markets and coming up with new ideas. Having a decent plan A and B, being positive, but realistic.

By preserving time to think, by challenging your people with your problems, by living your values and creating a little space, innovation can glow brightly and provide you with new or renewed direction. The results could be far greater than any deep cut. At Brother, we call this 141 per cent – thinking bigger and bolder than the competition.

Creativity, leadership, knowledge and talent management, innovation and belief are just some of the key ingredients needed to keep one step ahead. For me it’s about identifying your critical capabilities (your major strengths) and your competitors’ critical vulnerabilities (their major weaknesses), then deploying your main effort to exploit both. Marry that with a clear vision, some decent intelligence and the right people (in the right seats) and you’ve got a good chance of doing something special.

So, if you’re going to cut anything, cut the amount of time you’re chained to your desk and get out and meet some new people, cut unnecessary processes and release unnecessary pressure, cut ties with unprofitable customers and win some new ones, cut a new plan and go somewhere new and cut yourself a break. Then, we’ll have a fighting chance to take up this slack and get right back on track.”

I’m not trying to get down with the kids (innit), I’m describing an approach to problems.  Some people call them challenges, whatever you call them, we all have them.  Solving them can sometimes be technically challenging, fun or stressful.

Working within a Japanese business for over 15 years, I never cease to be impressed by the way they approach problems.  Everything is always de-constructed, rigorously reviewed, all potential outcomes are scrutinised and the best possible solution applied.  You could call it an art or a science, either way, it’s impressive to see.  The core element is that the problem is always broken down into constituent parts such as what elements are in their control or outside of their control, problem analysis is used to identify the best approach, problem by problem.

Which approach you use depends on the complexity of your problem plus the speed and resources required, potential impact on your business model amongst many things.  Over the years, I’ve witnessed BIG problems get solved by creativity, logic or just sheer effort.  The main thing is not to be daunted by problems.  If you’re not being presented with problems regularly, you may not be trying hard enough.  You might not be pushing your barriers as far as they could go.  Your potential may not be fully realised.  Growing businesses embrace problems, tackle them, solve them and move on.

“Now everybody, before you enjoy your desert, let me show you a short film which shows you the surgical procedure I used to insert the implant into the eye”. Not many people can stomach the sight of surgery at the best of times, but between your dinner courses, that’s a new one on me.  However, that’s what happened to me on Monday night at a dinner hosted by leading Consultant Opthalmologist Paulo Stanga, to showcase the pioneering surgery being carried out at Manchester Eye Hospital (you can read a bit more about the procedure by clicking on the link).

Giving someone back their sight is a pretty special thing.  This new technology – developed by California based medical company – Second Sight – aims to do that.  Imagine a pair of dark glasses with a small sixty pixel camera hidden within the frame, attached to a transmitter. The transmitter sends the images to a small receiver implanted within the eye and attached to the retina.  As the camera transmits the images, the electrical signals are then passed up the fibre optic nerve to the brain, where they are decoded.  Clever stuff.  In reality, this low resolution image would allow someone one stage away from total blindness, with only recognition of light, to see shape outlines or follow  a white line on the floor.  Mr Stanga showed us the full video of the procedure and results on some of his pilot cases at the eye hospital.

What fascinated me was the technology behind it. Why only 60 pixels for example?  Answer – This is the limit of the actual transmitter size and the actual number of electrodes you can safely fit onto it without incurring additional heat within the eye.  Could the retina or fibre optic nerve carry higher resolutions if the technology were improved? – of course.  Tonnes of questions were coming to my mind.

One thing that I did think of was this. If this camera device is transmitting electrical signals to the brain to decode, why couldn’t this technology be used to input other information into the brain?  Let me explain.  In a world where geotagging is now the norm, where google are mapping the world in photo form or 3d flyrounds is considered part of everyday life, why not use augmented reality to input both sets of data to the brain to process?  This would potentially give a blind person a blended image, of real time and virtual time.  With the virtual information being taken from a small geotagged wireless processor attached to the subject somewhere.  It sounds  a bit crazy,  however seeing this effective “input device” to the brain just made me think that all the location based technology that exists, might have uses in the medical sector, such as this.  In my mind, it was almost like the human equivalent of a USB port.

Bearing in mind that this is first generation technology, you have to say that it is a breakthrough.  If it can be commercialised after trials, it will impact many thousands of blind people across the globe.  As the processors are improved and more electrodes added, image resolution can improve and vision along with it.  What made me really excited is that this is being pioneered in Manchester, by Mr Stanga.  For the region to truly be considered a technology hotbed, we need more innovation like this.  Whilst the core technology is from the states, the surgical procedure is being further developed and refined in the eye hospital under his watchful eye.   It was well worth sitting through dinner (including the gorey bit) to hear this story,  I’m always in awe of people like Mr Stanga who devote their lives to medical science, putting patients first and driving for new answers.  A very genuine and clever man.