10 Things That Are Changing Business Forever

This world isn't slowing down any time soon. I'm my eyes, you need to figure out how to learn faster, consume data more efficiently and continuously. You also need to understand the trends and ask why more often.

Below are the major things that are going on right now as of early 2014. You may not see these companies ever again and some may grow into the biggest in our world, either way it's difficult to ignore them. Technology startups are the bread and butter of this new economy, the new wild west is made up of Facebook, Google and some Jungle company called Vine.

If we've missed a major company or trend in the list make sure to let us know in the comments below. That would be appreciated.

#DigitalDarwinism

Three of my favorite books on the future of business strategy. The Impact Equation is all about what matters in your marketing efforts. A great read with a lot of social under tones.

Social Intelligence is about the skill set you'll need in the future. How to learn in the future and how humans get along in general. Empathy is fundamentally one of the most important attributes we can possess.

The Business of Belief gives examples of companies and leaders who are practicing what they preach and actually creating visionary organizations. One of my all time favourite books.

Enter Vine. The Social video sharing service based on videos that are 6 seconds or less. Too short to work you say? No one will try it you say? Well I'm sorry but you'd be wrong. Vine is very popular among high school students, agency's are using and it just might be the next big thing is social. You decide for yourself.

Here's a clip from an agency that put together 100 different Vines from all over the world. It's pretty cool!

Google undertook a lot of the work in Zero Moment of Truth but that's because they're sitting on a mountain of data. I think every marketer needs to read ZMOT, it's an eye opener for what we're coming up against in the marketing world. Things are going to get a lot more complicated than they get simpler. believe me. All you can do if try to educate yourself on the companies at the front of the innovation, companies like Google.

It's a short read and I'm pretty sure you can still download it free. You won't regret it!

A short trailer about the groundbreaking of Zero Moment of Truth

There are several moments of truth, some you can control, others you can't. You must thoroughly understand your companies zero moment of truth if you want to survive in the future.

It's been a long time coming, Canada's Internet revolution. Neighbours to the epicentre of technology on Silicon Valley, Canada is one of the highly regarded technology fore-runner in the world.

Many start-ups set up roots here because of the crop of young thinkers graduating from some of the finest post-secondary institutions in the world. Canada is very much a part of of the internet revolution.

Here's a website called JustDelete.Me a website that shows you the steps involved in deleting yourself from social media websites. By now, if you're like me, you've signed up for every different social media website that invited you to for the past five years. Now it's time to put a stop to those annoying emails saying "you haven't been to MySpace in while, what gives?"

I think this is a really cool idea for a website. And something that is extremely useful to many people.

The next generation of apps we're experiencing now are solving our problems, they're saving us time and/or money. Dash is an app that record your driving patterns, it gives you tips on how to save money, when in an accident it'll notify emergency responders, and also give you an estimate as to the cost to fix what happened to your car.

The future is looking bright for the app market, more competition means better apps for users. Check out Dash, I'm downloading it right meow.

It's bigger then the money.

You can just be in business for the sake of business anymore. Michael Porter was wrong (the only purpose of a business is the be profitable), I don't agree with that at all. And my theory is that the nicer the company, the easier the growth curve. If all you focus on profits then no one will care and if no one will care, eventually all your customers will go somewhere else for a cheaper price(eventually).

So how do you make them care?

It's in your culture. From the boss to the person who answer the phone, your culture will dictate if your people care or not. The companies of the future, the companies who "get it" will move the status quo forward, they'll champion causes and actually make an impact in their community.

At Wiegers Financial & Benefits in Saskatoon, they run a yearly fundraiser called "CabaRaise" a Cabaret style fundraiser that raises money for the Saskatchewan Children's Hospital Foundation. Last year they raised $225,000 for the Foundation, how amazing is that?!?

I found out about them because their email signature on all company emails talk about CabaRaise. I think that is such a smart thing to do, make your email signature talk about the one thing your company believes in.

The best part is if you're sitting there saying "what the heck does my company believe in?" maybe your company needs a purpose, a reason for being. It could be a non-profit, a charity, or you could create it yourself.

Another example, at Leopolds in Regina, they gave away $20,000 to non-profits in the city that their own employees nominated. In $1,000 increments, they helped out 20 different organizations. I think this is the next evolution of marketing, an extremely effective way to show people you care.

Interactive gaming consoles, characters reacting to what you're doing, and images as real as life. The new gaming consoles will so so advanced we now have no reason whatsoever to leave the house. Ha!

Be prepared to see some amazing things coming of the gaming industry.

We talk it for granted that walking comes fairly easy to us. For a computer it poses a difficult problem we're only beginning to solve now.

And there's even computers that can't lose at rock, paper, scissors. Crazy I know!

No matter what you can't beat this robot. How frustrating!

Technology like a nano spray that won't allow even the smallest drop of water stick to a glove, it's small innovations like this that can mean something major in time. Moore's Law is coming into effect, every 18 months we're doubling the capacity of our storage devices, this impacts everything from eduction to entertainment.

The fact that people can purchase a product from anywhere in the world, take about it, Snap it, and the rest of the world can see it, changes many corporate realities.

If you build it will they come? Better understand what "they" want and work tirelessly to keep trying to what they achieved last week.

Time to make your product or service findable, trustable, and remarkable.

This presentation is called Finding Your Mustache: how to standout in a clean shaven media world. All about the information revolution and how customers are getting smarter and pickier and how companies have more data but don't use it to their advantage. Bob Dylan was right, the times they are a changing. I find people either get or they don't, there's very few in between.

I hope you enjoy, let me know what you think of the speaking.

Cheers!

Jeph

I did this presentation for a Saskatchewan Trade and Export conference. I had a lot of fun! Part 1of4.

Jeph getting a little long winded... Part 2of4

Still talking.... Part 3of4

Finally he's done! Part 4of4