strategic planning Archives

As the World Turns: Why Population Trends Matter to You

As the World Turns Issue 113, June 15, 2023 We’re taking a pause to share several trends that we believe are bellwethers for a sustainable future. And we’re not including climate change, although it clearly ranks high on anyone’s list as a cause for concern. We’re talking about two trends that don’t get much attention: population shifts and life expectancy. Here’s the big picture from the UN: The world’s population is expected to increase by two billion people, from 7.7…

Kevin Novak

June 14, 2023

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Are You Ready? – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

Are You Ready? Issue 112, June 8, 2023 Wrong question. Are your customers ready? Is the market ready? Actually, the real question is a fusion of both. Is the customer base in your market ready to adopt what you have considered building and offering as you seek to stabilize, grow, and expand your organization? Put another way, is what you are contemplating developing something nice to have or necessary? Then add a layer of complexity to that: if the customer…

Kevin Novak

June 7, 2023

What Happens When You Make Assumptions? – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

What Happens When You Make Assumptions? – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

What Happens When You Make Assumptions? Issue 106, May 4, 2023 Does your organization have what it takes to succeed? For example, how many times a day do you make an assumption? On a scale of magnitude, perhaps it’s the assumption that the sun will rise each morning and gravity will still be in place at night — to assuming that other people will drive responsibly and the trash in your neighborhood will be picked up. Assumptions are based on…

Kevin Novak

May 3, 2023

What Do Top Performing Organizations Get Right? – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

What Do Top Performing Organizations Get Right? – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

What Do Top Performing Organizations Get Right? Issue 105, April 27, 2023 For anyone that insists on predictability and familiar expectations, today’s disruptive marketplace can throw a wrench into a rigid planner’s world. Will there be a recession? Is inflation going to abate? Are current economic conditions the new normal? Will customers continue to pull back on their spending? There are so many moving parts to evaluate and consider for aligning organizational purpose, direction and focus. Since we are hardwired…

Kevin Novak

April 27, 2023

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

The Distortion of Time – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

The Distortion of Time Issue 103, April 13, 2023 With our celebration and awe of emerging tech (think generative AI), there is a basic issue that we rarely consider: the distortion of time. What we mean is that we are in such a hurry to develop and adopt new tech that we frequently leapfrog over its actual relevance, usefulness or even its consequences to our organizations and business models. Let alone do we address the potential legal or policy issues…

Kevin Novak

April 13, 2023

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

How to Master the Art of Storytelling – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

How to Master the Art of Storytelling Issue 93, February 2, 2023 Origin Stories Storytelling and narrative have become the buzzwords of modern marketing. You’ve heard it before: What’s your organization’s brand story? Make your organization come alive through narrative. Help customers relate emotionally to your business by telling a story. And possibly the most ominous: Tell your story, or else your stakeholders will write it for you. Storytelling has been around as long as humans; the 50,000-year-old cave paintings…

Kevin Novak

February 2, 2023

When Less Is More – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

When Less Is More – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

When Less Is More Issue 92, January 26, 2023 “We’re too big to fail.” Try that one out on Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg. If there were ever two visionaries with an overabundance of hubris, they’re the ones. Although the concept of “too big to fail” technically refers to an organization that is so important to a financial system that a government would not allow it to go bankrupt due to the seriousness of the economic repercussions (Wiki), one could…

Kevin Novak

January 26, 2023

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

Forging a Pathway Into 2023 – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

Forging a Pathway Into 2023 Issue 89, January 5, 2023 Two of the most important qualities we need (personally and professionally) to make good decisions are perspective and context. In order to move forward, both give relevance to how the past informs the present and can be predictive of how to plan for the future. If we take three tenses, we can reflect on what we have learned and how those insights can guide us today and tomorrow. Having said…

Kevin Novak

January 5, 2023

Value in Every Page: The Truth about Transformation

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

It Was the Best of Times …and Maybe the Worst – Ideas and Innovations from 2040

It Was the Best of Times …and Maybe the Worst Issue 86, December 15, 2022 It’s that time of year for stories. We’ve all got them: holiday merriment, missteps, and mayhem. All the stories that we remember and pass on from our portfolio of family and personal legends. We have a few stories as well. In our new book, The Truth About Transformation, we have an entire section devoted to dispatches (aka case studies) that are some of the most…

Kevin Novak

December 14, 2022

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Ideas and Innovations Newsletter

The Shape of Things to Come – Ideas + Innovations from 2040

The Shape of Things to Come Issue 79: Oct 27, 2022 As we contemplate the end of another year, now is a good time to revisit the opportunities and shortfalls of technology. And to clear up some popular theories that may be losing ground. As we have said many times, technology is no panacea or silver bullet, it is simply a tool to augment our intelligence, make our solutions smarter and help us measure what matters in a way that…

Kevin Novak

October 26, 2022

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