We need to stop lamenting and start capturing
Being on the road and participating in many conferences and forums, I come across many with lamentations on the way things are going: Kids don’t read books anymore, the music industry is under attack, our attention spans are reduced, no one is reflective anymore, on and on…
I tell them yes, you are right; things are changing, but that is the nature of evolution. We are evolving as we speak –like it or not. I go on to say, this very exchange of ideas, this very moment is evolution at its core.
There is proof of this emerging everywhere. The digital natives think differently than most of us digital emigrants. Brain research is starting to emerge that shows how kids are using different areas of the brain to process thoughts. Further, their patterns of technology-use are drastically different. A few examples: increasingly they are cutting the cord on fixed line telephony, they rather text and IM than email, they are skimmers of information and bore quickly with long form text, they are definitely more visual, they play with their mobile devices.
So, my dear beloved blackberry that never leaves my hip and is a good friend when I am alone in business trips, may have to change in order to serve the new generational behaviors, How, I don’t know, that is for RIMM to figure out.
This may be a logical leap that some may not accept, but I nevertheless will make it: as we evolve, so does our soul and our valuation of what touches us deeply. And products and services that touch the soul will be the ones that will have the greatest and longest run.
The rise of young social entrepreneurs and social businesses is proof that the new generations are looking for more meaning on what they do and how they do it. New technology that “enables us” is also proof that there are hidden explorations waiting to be untied…
My last entry touched on the anecdote with the iPhone and how its enabling qualities did touch our collective souls that night in Philadelphia.
Is the iPhone a soulful product? I would say maybe, in an ephemeral sort of way due to its capacity to enable us to be better and “do better”
This is a trend that needs to be captured by all of us in Innovation. Not necessarily driven by monetary gain and profit, but because it is where things are going. In the end the mercantile dynamics will play out by themselves.
It would not be the first time this is so; if you don’t believe me just look at Google and YouTube…
I tell them yes, you are right; things are changing, but that is the nature of evolution. We are evolving as we speak –like it or not. I go on to say, this very exchange of ideas, this very moment is evolution at its core.
There is proof of this emerging everywhere. The digital natives think differently than most of us digital emigrants. Brain research is starting to emerge that shows how kids are using different areas of the brain to process thoughts. Further, their patterns of technology-use are drastically different. A few examples: increasingly they are cutting the cord on fixed line telephony, they rather text and IM than email, they are skimmers of information and bore quickly with long form text, they are definitely more visual, they play with their mobile devices.
So, my dear beloved blackberry that never leaves my hip and is a good friend when I am alone in business trips, may have to change in order to serve the new generational behaviors, How, I don’t know, that is for RIMM to figure out.
This may be a logical leap that some may not accept, but I nevertheless will make it: as we evolve, so does our soul and our valuation of what touches us deeply. And products and services that touch the soul will be the ones that will have the greatest and longest run.
The rise of young social entrepreneurs and social businesses is proof that the new generations are looking for more meaning on what they do and how they do it. New technology that “enables us” is also proof that there are hidden explorations waiting to be untied…
My last entry touched on the anecdote with the iPhone and how its enabling qualities did touch our collective souls that night in Philadelphia.
Is the iPhone a soulful product? I would say maybe, in an ephemeral sort of way due to its capacity to enable us to be better and “do better”
This is a trend that needs to be captured by all of us in Innovation. Not necessarily driven by monetary gain and profit, but because it is where things are going. In the end the mercantile dynamics will play out by themselves.
It would not be the first time this is so; if you don’t believe me just look at Google and YouTube…
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