“Our intuition about the future is linear. But the reality of information technology is exponential, and that makes a profound difference. If I take 30 steps linearly, I get to 30. If I take 30 steps exponentially, I get to a billion.” Ray Kurzweil No one can predict the future. But one thing is sure. If your company is designed for success in the 20th century, it is doomed for failure in the 21st century. If you want to stay in business you have to be the designer of disruption. You have to re-invent your product, find new markets, stay hyper-relevant, create brand value, leverage better technology and create brand eco-systems. In short, reset the game of your business and become a living brand. In this article, we explore the 10 growth trends set by Gartner and elaborate the opportunities that lie ahead in the rapid pace of technology innovation and the clear challenge for brand and business leaders. Keep in mind though, it is up to us, as individuals and collectives to shape the future. 1. Voice Search Will Increase Digital Commerce Revenue by at least 30% With the rise of personal assistant devices, combined with the improved accuracy of voice recognition technology, voice search adoption is being embraced in the digital commerce. To prepare for the impact of voice search on B2B SEO, marketers should take steps now to begin optimizing for voice queries. 3 tips from Search Engine Land to optimize your site content for voice search 1. Mobile Managed Voice searches are most likely to be conducted on mobile devices, so mobile optimization is more important than ever. But optimizing for mobile goes beyond simple responsive design — you’ll need to improve page load speeds, remove intrusive interstitials, abandon drop-down navigation menus and format videos to display in full-screen when held vertically to improve the mobile user experience. 2. Target long-tail keywords Voice search queries are more likely to be longer than their text counterparts, and use more conversational language. Find relevant long-tail keywords, and target them in site content to cater to natural language queries. 3. Target featured snippets When a featured snippet is populated for a query, voice search devices read the snippet and source aloud. This is a huge boost for brand recognition and authority, as Google essentially declares one company the expert. As far as voice search is concerned, “position zero” is the new page one. 25 Voice Recognition Innovations The next generation of visual search turns a smartphone camera into a visual discovery tool. It uses image as a search query, which allows consumers to search for styles and objects that they would otherwise struggle to define. Popular visual search technologies are Google Lens and Pinterest Lens, but Amazon, Bing and a growing list of major retailers are all investing heavily in this area. Visual search is also a building block for augmented reality and virtual reality interactions. Read the other 10 tips here. 2. Technology Leaders will Self-Disrupt Themselves to Create Next Leadership Opportunity Brands are grappling with disruptive business models, disruptive channels, and disruptive technologies. Examples of market leaders that failed to keep up with innovation include, Borders (failed to anticipate the the e-book revolution), Blackberry (missed out on the touch-screen smartphone market), Blockbuster (busted by Netflix and online movies), and Kodak (which didn’t foresee the huge popularity of digital cameras), are just a few. In hindsight it is easy to see why these companies lost their market lead to more disruptive competitors. But anticipating a future market disruption is much harder. On the other hand, “when Apple released the iPhone, it disrupted the MP3 industry, in which its iPod made it a leading competitor. While the phone created competition for Apple’s own product, it also opened avenues to other industries when it began to replace navigation systems, digital cameras and other previously discrete technology.” Now, Apple is making mega strides in DIY HealthTech. It just so happens, over the next two years, residents of Singapore will be able to collect up to S$380 (£212) in rewards and vouchers while using an Apple Watch app known as LumiHealth to complete fitness challenges. With the onslought of COVID-19, and purchases moving online, brands are gushing towards digitization at breath-taking speed. 3. The Banking Industry is set to Derive 1BN of Business Value from the Use of Block-Chain based Cryptocurrencies Adopting blockchain technology does not need radical transformation in the banking and the finance sector. Australian Securities Exchange is planning to use a new blockchain-based system to manage the Australian financial market at the end of 2020. A recent PWC report states, 77 percent of financial institutions are expected to adopt blockchain technology as part of an in-production system or process by 2020. Delve into Commerce of Fintech Blockchain Disruptors in the 21st Century Trade and Commerce 4. By 2022 Majority of the Individuals in Developed Economies will Consume More Fake Information than True Information Yes, it is happening now as we speak. Liam Porr, a computer science student in Berkley used GPT-3, an AI content generating tool, to produce an entirely a fake blog under a fake name. It was meant as a fun experiment. But then one of his posts found its way to the number-one spot on Hacker News. Few people noticed that his blog was completely AI-generated. Some even hit “Subscribe.” “While many have speculated about how GPT-3, the most powerful language-generating AI tool to date, could affect content production, this is one of the only known cases to illustrate the potential. What stood out most about the experience, says Porr, who studies computer science at the University of California, Berkeley: “It was super easy, actually, which was the scary part.”” Fed with billions of words, this algorithm creates convincing articles and shows how AI could be used to fool people on a mass scale. 5. Through out 2022 Content Created by AI to Devise “Counterfeit Reality” will Outpace AI’s Ability to Detect it. Digital Distrust is our Immediate Destiny Until Face to Face Starts Gaining Traction “While fake news is currently in the public consciousness, it is important to realize the extent of digitally created content that is not a factual or authentic representation of information goes well beyond the news aspect.” Brands need to monitor what is being said about them both in context and content. In the era of fakeness, face to face interactivity becomes paramount. Because, “AI can create counterfeit reality or manipulated media faster than it can detect it.” 6. By 2021 more than 50% of the Enterprises Will Spend More on Bots and Chat Bots Creation The Emergence of “Post-App” era — traditional apps will not go away. 80% of sales and marketing leaders say they already use chatbot software in their customer experience or plan to do so by 2020 (source). They will be one of the many options available to customers. “Chatbots will become the face of AL and bots will transform how apps are built.” 7. By 2021, 40% of the Information Technologists will be Dealing with Business Related Job Functions than Dealing with Technology A New Concept — Versatalist: The Multi-Faceted Role of Tech Worker IT staff who once only focused on closed stand alone systems and data centers now focus on systems in the public cloud as well. “Over the past several years, industrial organizations have started to incorporate cloud into their operations to glean insights from large volumes of data that are helping achieve key business outcomes including reduced unplanned downtime, higher production efficiency, lower energy consumption and so on. The cloud still plays a critical role in enabling new levels of performance through the Industrial IoT, where significant computing power is required to effectively manage vast data volumes from machines. But as more compute, store, and analytic capability is bundled into smaller devices that sit closer to the source of data — namely, industrial machines — “edge computing will be instrumental in enabling edge processing to deliver on the promise of the Industrial IoT.” — Hence, the need for versatality in the IT profession. What Small Business Owners Should Know About Cloud Commerce 8. By 2020 AI Becomes a Positive Net Job Motivator; Creating 2.3 M Jobs, while Eliminating 1.8M Jobs Other Predictions: PwC predicts up to 38% of U.S. jobs could be at high risk of automation by the early 2030s, higher than Germany (35%), the UK (30%) and Japan (21%) (source). Forrester predicts cognitive technologies such as robots, AI, machine learning, and automation will replace 16% of U.S. jobs by 2025. Of those jobs, office and administrative support staff will be the most rapidly disrupted (source). The impact of AI technologies on business will boost labor productivity by up to 40%, according to Accenture (source). “The big game changer is AI, and how much value potential is up for grabs. AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy in 2030, more than the current output of China and India combined. Of this, $6.6 trillion is likely to come from increased productivity and $9.1 trillion is likely to come from consumption-side effects.” “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn” 9. By 2020 IoT will be Embedded in 95% of the New Electronic Product Designs Traditional Businesses will Develop New Business Models Out of IoT A number of small, rural utilities have begun to sell broadband services by leveraging their investments for smart meters in a new way. Large utilities and manufacturers study plans to commercialize their in-house IoT applications for predictive maintenance. Equipment makers are attaching value-added services to devices they sell. Companies initially invest in IoT to save money, but over time they will look to the same systems to generate revenue as well. Questions for you to explore: Why real-time data will rule and how industrial applications could drive market growth, and why the need for edge computing will become more urgent. 10. Through 2022, Half of all Security Budgets for IoT will go to Fault Remediation, Recalls and Safety Failure, rather than Protection The Internet of Things fuses products with communications technology to make daily life more effortless. Think Amazon’s Alexa, which not only answers questions and plays music but allows you to control your home’s lights and thermostat. Or the current generation of implanted pacemakers, which can both receive commands and send information to doctors over the internet. IoT security has been a predominant topic of discussion, both for IoT businesses and their end users, for the last decade. Several widely publicized incidents demonstrated how easy it was for unsecured IoT devices to be manipulated for malicious intent. Get the IoT Checklist “The future is filled with technology-based innovation and disruption. Yet, the pending disruptions are taking on new forms and increasing in speed. Most organizations are struggling to keep pace with the latest technological advances. Before one innovation is implemented, two others arrive. To cope and compete, CIOs in end-user organizations must learn to develop an appropriate pace for digital change.”
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Download the slides here. What Happened when Coronavirus Set In? |
Chatbots Made Mass Entry High-tech companies closed call centers and turned to chatbots created by technology company LivePerson or to AI platform Watson Assistant. “I really think this is a new normal–the pandemic accelerated what was going to happen anyway,” says Rob Thomas, senior vice president of cloud and data platform at IBM, which deploys Watson. Roughly 100 new clients started using the software from March to June. The future of chatbots looks bright. Microsoft recently was granted a patent that lays down a process to create a conversational chatbot of a specific person using their social data. “In an eerie twist, the patent says the chatbot could potentially be inspired by friends or family members who are deceased, which is almost a direct plot of a popular episode of Netflix's Black Mirror.” Robots Repalced Labor Robots started cleaning floors at airports and taking people’s temperatures. Salad -making robot Sally, created by tech company Chowbotics became popular in hospitals and universities, replacing dining-hall employees. Knightscope security-guard robots started to patrol empty real estate. Companies that manufacture in-demand supplies like hospital beds and cotton swabs turned to industrial robot supplier Yaskawa America to help increase production. Robots have been deployed during the pandemic to meet guests at their rooms with newly disinfected keys. “No tip required,” mechanical butler designed by robotics company Savioke got busy delivering towels and toothbrushes. |
In the past, when automation eliminated jobs, companies created new ones to meet their needs. Manufacturers with production prowess, created more goods using machines, needed clerks to ship the goods and marketers and sales people to reach additional customers. “Without technological advancement, much of the American workforce would be toiling away on farms, which accounted for 31% of U.S. jobs in 1910 and now account for less than 1%.” |
In theory, automation and artificial intelligence should free humans from the monotony of the mundane and empower them in intellectually stimulating assignments, making companies more productive and raising worker wages. In practice, this is what happened. “The U.S. shed around 40 million jobs at the peak of the pandemic, and while some have come back, some will never return. One group of economists estimates that 42% of the jobs lost are gone forever.” COVID-19 was simply a catalyst in the process. The Backdrop for the Cause of Concern The U.S. government incentivizes companies to automate, he says, by giving tax breaks for buying machinery and software. A business that pays a worker $100 pays $30 in taxes, but a business that spends $100 on equipment pays about $3 in taxes, according to Daron Acemoglu, an MIT economist who studies automation and jobs. The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act lowered taxes on purchases so much that “you can actually make money buying equipment,” Acemoglu says. Fast forward 3 years, we have a planet programmed pandemic. This is how some companies reacted.
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Facing the Facts There is no denying the fact that automation lets companies do more with fewer people. The most valuable company in the U.S. in 1964, AT&T, had 758,611 employees; the most valuable company today, Apple, has around 137,000 employees. LivePerson, which designs conversational software, could enable a company to take a 1,000-person call center and run it with 100 people plus chatbots. A bot can respond to 10,000 queries in an hour; an efficient call-center rep can answer six, says, CEO Rob LoCascio Though today’s big companies make billions of dollars, they share that income with fewer employees, and more of their profit goes to shareholders. Again, in the words of Daron Acemoglu, “Look at the business model of Google, Facebook, Netflix. They’re not in the business of creating new tasks for humans.” ... Now, that's a sobering reminder. Looking Ahead — 'Reskilling Revolution' The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for change, by disrupting economic activity and fast-tracking automation and digitization, “creating both devastation across labor markets and new opportunities for online learning, redeployment and reemployment.” According to data gathered by LinkedIn, Coursera and the World Economic Forum in the Future of Jobs Report 2020, projects that by 2025, the hours of work performed by machines and people will be equal. Around 85 million roles are set to be displaced by automation – primarily across manual or repetitive roles spanning both blue-collar and white-collar jobs – from assembly factory workers and accountants. |
The most in-demand roles in future job markets include Data Analysts and Scientists, AI and Machine Learning Specialists, Robotics Engineers, Software and Application developers as well as Digital Transformation Specialists, Information Security Analysts and Internet of Things Specialists. The most in-demand skills of the future will include working with people, problem-solving and self-management skills such as resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility. This increase in required self-management skills is clear as workers face a range of pressures to adapt to new, more digital ways of working. Product Management, Digital Marketing and Software Development Lifecycle are among the core set of specialized skills required for emerging professions. According to the report, reskilling for the roles of the future will require a time investment ranging from three weeks to five months. That is the good news. Stay Safe. Stay Positive. Celebrate your uniqueness! |
CNBC, World Economic Forum, Time, MIT News, Forbes, Ernst and Young, USA Today, Edelman Trust Barometer, Forrester, Prosper Insights and Analytics, Autodesk, Bill Gates, Pega, BBC, CareerBuilder, Daniel Susskind, Capittal IQ, Financial Times, Grocerydive.com, popularmechanics.com
The Greek historian, Plutarch had it right; way back in 45 AD, when he said that ‘the mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled’. The spark of that fire can only be relished once you are forced to step out of your comfort zone and thrown into the unknown as in a crisis that we are now.
Crisis can fill your mind with doubt, confusion and inaction or it can fuel your mind with the fire of creativity, rewarded by some growth in intuitive knowledge, strengthening of character, or initiation into a higher consciousness.
A crisis, like the one we are emerging from, triggers new needs and habits.
For instance, the 2002-2003 SARS pandemic in China was a huge factor for the rise of e-commerce giants like Alibaba. Duncan Clark, author of Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built, writes, “[SARS] came to represent the turning point when the Internet emerged as a truly mass medium in China…. Crucially for Alibaba, SARS convinced millions of people, afraid to go outside, to try shopping online instead.”
Having said that, in this article, we draw inspiration from 4 books that can help change the pattern of your brand, land your victory and get you situated for the long haul.
The Fall of Constantinople by Steven Runciman The starting of the great Byzantine Empire can be traced back to 330 A.D., when the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium became the focus of the Roman emperor, Constantine I. A “new Rome” was born. It lasted for a good thousand years. The intriguing story spells out how this eastern half of the old Roman Empire managed to survive and thrive for 1000 years. The author illustrates that the reason for its' sustained existence was due to its' complex bureaucracy and intricate diplomatic service at a time when its' enemies were at the best —successful warlords, who were always on the move. Just to put things in the 21st century context, GE is the only brand that is listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Index today that was also included in the original index in 1896. And, that is a bit more than 100 years. In 1892, a merger of Edison General Electric Company (established by Thomas A. Edison) and Thomson-Houston Electric Company created General Electric Company. Today, it is well on it's way in creating Industrial Internet — intelligent devices, intelligent systems and intelligent decision-making — fully merging with physical machines, facilities, fleets and networks. Looking Ahead — Creating Commerce for Sustenance of Mother Earth The Buzz Words — Corporate Sustainability and Ethical Corporate Citizenship Brands that are suited to survive the long haul will do so, by creating a complex eco-system of partnership, performance and ingenuity. The result: Mushrooming of small companies that are helping massive corporations navigate complex infrastructure solutions to re imagine entire components of their business. Loop is one such brand that aim to be the solution to the growing waste crisis. TerraCycle,(Loop's parent company) in partnership with 25 participating brands, officially unveiled the Loop platform in 2019. Another brand, RealReal, a luxury consignment company, is partnering with Burberry and Stella McCartney to create a circular thriving commerce in fashion. |
1929 A Year of Conflict by Hillel Cohen There are always 2 sides to a story. Conflict acts as a catalyst and propagates different versions of the same story. Cohen points out that “all history is constructed”. He opens the door for two competing narratives of the same riot. However, it is up to you: weigh in on the arguments and come up with your own decision. Conflict is a tangible per-cursor to usher in an alternative product or service. Remember, the frustration of waiting for the cable guy to come and set up your TV to work. It not only disrupted your day, it was an exercise in immense patience. The uncertainty of the waiting gap between 1 PM to 5 PM (or whatever that time interval be) gives rise to confusion and conflict.. Conflict Gives Rise to a Cause. The result: Video Streaming Service was born. Brands that are suited to survive the long haul will do so, by studying the conflict that plagues their industry and make innovation happen to resolve it. Looking Ahead — “Banking that has your back.” In a world of hidden fees and added surcharges, Chime is one of the fastest growing internet-only banks that takes pride on being totally transparent and consumer-centered. Of course, Chime comes with the fintech promise of “no fees”. However, the differentiating feature is, it allows people to get their paychecks up to two days early. More importantly—it allows people with bad credit to open and use a banking system. This is specially remarkable when 53% of all Americans have been rejected for a credit card, loan, or car due to poor credit, according to a survey conducted by YouGov/ ScoreSense. As Chime goes after financially de-leveraged customer base, Aspiration is another fintech bank, going after the green customer segment, with features such as planting a tree for any rounded-up debit card purchase or offsetting customer carbon footprint at the gas pump. |
Russian Voices by Tony Parker Consorting with Change. When Tony Parker visited USSR 1990, encountered a country in shambles and the economy barely surviving. People were uncertain about their future. However, today we know that vast opportunities of wealth was created due to this uncertainty. Unfortunately for the “great majority they exchanged too much certainty for too little certainty.” The Third Industrial Revolution witnessed a service driven era when electronics and information technology automated production. The arrival of the Automated teller machines (ATMs) in the 1970s was a disastrous proposal. Yet, branch jobs actually increased over time as branch cost went down, becoming less transactional in nature and more about managing customer relationships. Don't get me wrong. Each industrial revolution has brought in massive disruption, and the fourth wave will not be any different. “We must remember this and use what we have learned to manage the change.” However, the management guru, Peter Drucker would oppose it and say, “One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it.” Today, as the pandemic has confined everybody within the limits of their own circle, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is moving ahead with mighty gusto... The result: Artificial intelligence has emerged in the forefront of this crisis and is being deployed in almost every industry from customer call centers and finance to drug research. While clinical trials can take years, in a matter of weeks, Stanford Institute of Human-Centered AI identified a drug that could be helpful in the fight against Covid-19. Brands that are suited to survive the long haul will do so, by embracing change, doubt, uncertainty and every sentiment that comes with it. Looking Ahead — To stay ahead of change, the critical question today is how can brands simultaneously prepare for unprecedented social, political, environmental and technological challenges—both imminent and distant? |
The Past is Myself by Christabel Bielenberg The Resolve of a survivor — play the cards that you are dealt with. Make intent and ingenuity your new allies. An account of the writer — an English woman married to a German bringing up three children in Berlin during WWII, and what happens when her husband is arrested by the Gestapo after the July bomb plot. “Surviving isn't around us, but in us.” At the turn of the 21st century, the African continent was in the grips of the worst food crisis in history. Today, AGRA report confirms the steady revival of African agriculture. Seed and Science worked together to bring about this change. If sustained, the 21st century agricultural revolution will play a key role in dispersing new technology in the wider economy. The 2008 financial meltdown ushered in the business model of “sharing and caring.” Airbnb emerged as a platform for the eroding middle class. For everyday families, it has generated substantial supplemental income. Fast forward 12 years, the disruptor is now being disrupted! Last year the brand was estimated to be worth more than US$30bn. It was scheduled to go public in 2020. Then came the Covid-19 pandemic. Brands that are suited to survive the long haul will do so, by adapting and acknowledging the changing needs of their target audience. Know who are you surviving for. Get to know the pain and peril of your target audience. Covid-19 has put a complex twist to your marketing efforts. We are living in rapidly changing times. Anxiety and uncertainty are our daily companions. The result: Here are 3 ways to stay relevant during these rapidly changing times The Matter of Immediate Context As business owners and marketers, ask yourself, “In what instances are we comfortable putting our brand alongside the ever changing news content?” Think about the time frame of your communication – are you specific in your message about the current events? If so, consider how you will need to adapt to stay relevant. Are you speaking more broadly about challenge and resilience? If so, your message will enjoy longevity. The Matter of Your Brand Purpose Whether you’re creating work for an essential service or not, it’s important to accentuate your brand purpose with the right tone and expression of your message. If you want to inform and educate, keep it simple. Consider the human context and emphasize the problem that your brand solves. If your brand is not anchored on purpose, maybe it’s a community-based message that you go with. Purpose, Fusion and Participation — the 3 ingredients of brand authentication. The Matter of Creative Coherence Tone, visuals, copy and keywords, are to be carefully assessed. Obviously, re-evaluating creative that shows interactions like hand shakes, hugs, and high-fives makes good sense. Because, now physical distancing is an important tactic for slowing the spread of illness. Think twice about phrases that might carry different connotation — “virus checks,” for instance, have taken on a whole new meaning in light of this moment. |
Wrapping up with a Question
How will you use this moment in time and pivot your brand to serve the bigger context?
Amazon didn’t change the face of global retail market by replicating a physical store online. It created something new, using technology as the launchpad to change the industry entirely while putting consumers’ interests first.
Jack Bogle did not create another mutual fund. He introduced Vanguard’s at-cost quasi-nonprofit structure. Vanguard index fund gives all cost savings back to shareholders.
Started with Vanguard and spurred on by Robinhood and Wealthfront, these financial companies have taken what “was an expensive, elitist, analog and slow process and made it the opposite: accessible, affordable, digital, and instantaneous.”
And it does not end here. Science and technology is carving up new frontiers.
Rainmaker that harvests fresh water from humidity in the atmosphere is directing their business towards becoming a major global water utility company. It’s model: water as a service.
Now, that is a contextual and purposeful business model, given the fact that by 2030, 47% of the world will fall into severe water stress. (source: OECD Environmental Outlook, 2008)
Thoughts and ideas are welcome.
Until next time!
Right now, if you are feeling inner disquiet and debilitating disharmony, you are not alone.
You have lost your routines, friends, activities, sports, independence, time in nature, travel, and necessary novel stimulation. The best technology can offer is simulation of physical events and or webinars. Like zombies, you are doing your part in attending without much participation and even less expectation. In fact, brands are at a loss on how to maintain it's prominence and be at the center of their clients' decision making process.
The controversy of COVID19 compiled with the uncertainty, the pandemic is proving to be a challenge in providing visibility into fluid plans. According to Newscred, 42% indicated that their marketing team lacked the bandwidth to quickly create new content as the result of shifting priorities with another, 40%+ indicating that managing realignment of budget & people resources is problematic.
For so long we were so focused on tangible goals, that now we are at a total loss on how to go after our goals, garner leads, construct conversation and finally package our conversion. I believe, the clue lies in going beyond the surface and take a dive into the mental construct of your audience.
First, know the basic fiber of human existence. It is fear — anyone and everyone that you encounter in the virtual or physical space is going through it now. We are living in perpetual fear. We fear the fear of death, we fear the fear of unknown, we fear the fear of being not accepted, we fear the fear of failure, we fear the fear of being invaded by trolls, we fear the fear of being judged, we fear the fear of not resonating with our followers, and at this moment we fear the potential pitfalls of the vaccine that is supposed to be one-stop cure of this pandemic. Above all, fear freezes reflexes, warps judgement and multiply mistakes. Worse, it’s contagious. It robs the mind of all it’s powers of acting and reasoning. Second, know your audience want something more than immediate result or joy. They want a lingering sense of pleasure, or that deeper sense called happiness. “This is one of the secrets by which we shape the fulfillment of our designs. The something more assumes amplified power with people who cannot give it a name or who (most often the case) do not even suspect it's existence.” Know, that most people only react unconsciously to such hidden forces. And there in lies our opportunity as designers and marketers, to try new things, elaborate new ideas and flirt with risky proposition. Somehow, some way, we have to call a calculated something more into existence, define it and give it shape, then people will follow. |
Building Your Butterfly
COVID-19 gives you a reason to examine your ecosystem, dismemeber the parts that is not working and design a brand configuration that is strong enough to survive and thrive.
“Caterpillars chew their way through ecosystems leaving a path of destruction as they get fatter and fatter. When they finally fall asleep and a chrysalis forms around them, tiny new imaginal cells, as biologists call them, begin to take form within their bodies. The caterpillar’s immune system fights these new cells as though they were foreign intruders, and only when they crop up in greater numbers and link themselves together are they strong enough to survive. Then the caterpillar’s immune system fails and its body dissolves into a nutritive soup which the new cells recycle into their developing butterfly.”
The caterpillar is a necessary stage for brands to become relevant and sustainable. It is the precursor in defining the new developing reality. The task is to focus on building the butterfly — the success of which depends on powerful positive and creative efforts in all aspects of brand deliberation and brand engagement.
Deliberating During Crisis Means Dealing with New Brand Reality Keep the Momentum Going However, come to acknowledge the fact, that, there is no ideal product but only a solution that fits the prospect's needs and desired outcome. Remember, it is not about differentiation from competitors. Current opportunity in the crisis lies in how “brands can be differentiated for customers”. Throughout this crisis, the brands that prove to be relevant to customers’ concerns about safety, security, and assurance will find competitive footing. How Petco is Ceasing the Moment in Defining this New Reality With pet adoption rates spiking, and with pet lovers spending extra time at home with their furry friends, pet owners are able to ask vets their questions on Instagram live and are definitely appreciating the benevolence that Petco is offering during the pandemic. Resist Shallow Empathy Embedded with Extortion Redrawing the company logo to illustrate physical distancing (a stance undertaken by McDonald, Coca-Cola, Audi, and VW) is all well and good, but what is the point of it if you are not offering a tangible value; “broadcasting bland emails expressing empathy (together with an exhortation to visit their online stores or to upgrade to product protection plans that customers have rejected many times before); and information-light public service announcements are all examples of communication tactics that have been poorly received by customers.” Define Your Brand with Delicate Deliberation Your customers may be confused and in despair. They are not stupid. Stay away from commercially exploitative tactics. Guinness paved the path surrounding St. Patrick’s Day, when the company shifted its focus away from social celebrations and pub gatherings and instead leaned into a message of longevity and wellbeing. Moreover, Diageo’s (owner of the Guinness and Johnnie Walker brands) promise of over $1 million to support bartenders and other affected groups around the world of a good example of incorporating the human element into marketing messages. Being sensitive to the human side of things, and especially job displacements and hardship is important to consumers and resonates. In the competitive world of sports, Nike dropped the subscription fee for its NTC Premium service that provides streaming workout videos, training programs and expert tips from trainers, the sportswear giant announced in a blog post,” notes Marketing Dive. Re-calibrated and Empowered It is during times of crisis that the brand has the opportunity to drive influence if they move with agility. LVMH, was the first to recalibrate its' product by pivoting from producing perfume to making hand sanitizer, a lead that was swiftly followed by many small distilleries. Likewise, a small Danish supermarket used the same algorithm that applied discounts to multiple purchases of the same product (to facilitate “buy one, get one X% off” promotions) to charge a massive premium to shoppers attempting to hoard items in short supply. Leveraged supply chain has empowered Panera Bread to benefit its customers by allowing them to add basic essentials (such as milk, bread, eggs, and produce) to their orders of regular menu items for pickup or delivery. Strive for Search Engine Optimization You are existing in a 24 hour, 365 days online environment. SEO is a vital online marketing tool. More importantly, organic results are more trusted by search engine users. It is crucial to tag your products with the attributes used by consumers to search in their category — such as “antibacterial” or “disinfecting” for cleaning products, and “non-GMO,” “healthy,” “low fat,” or “zero carb” for food products — even mentioning these terms ahead of your own brand names (something that the leading brands would never do). This helps your products rank higher in the search results of consumers who have no strong brand preference in the category. |
Finding Opportunities During Challenging Times
According to Newscred research, there is a significant increase increase in investment in the following channels:
- Virtual event creation - 78 percent
- Web content - 72 percent
- Webinars - 67 percent
- Social media - 66 percent
- Blog content - 57 percent
- Video - 50 percent
This means that marketers are either having to venture more deeply into areas they’ve only dabbled in, like video creation for example, or, more likely they are needing additional resources to help them create the content they need to survive in the coronavirus chaos.
So, brands have a chance to expand their reach through the use of new channels and agencies and freelancers have an exciting opportunity to serve new clients with new and creative services.
Keep your spirits high. Stay Positive!
Seth Godin rightfully puts it, "The cost of inventing, prototyping, manufacturing and especially advertising a new thing, concept, service or organization is a tiny fraction of what it used to be. In some industries, you can do it for 1% of what it used to cost."
So Where Does that Leave You?
All of a sudden you have 50 more competitors, all selling the same stuff, all competing for the limited attention and delivering at best, an okay product with too many features that perhaps results in mediocre benefits for your end-user. So what are you to do?
We all acknowledge that we are living in a fast changing environment. Technology has permeated the everyday life of the marketer. And, we have all come to the grasp that, marketing is no longer about "creating a myth and selling; now it's about finding a truth and sharing it.” Because, you cannot be selling a myth in a transparent, technological age where everyone is watching your every move. At the end of the day, people expect truth, transparency and real-time engagement. This puts a huge burden on marketing. But, it also helps your organization to be more open "to ways to deliver on the purpose outside the specific products you sell while at the same time being very clear about what is part of the purpose and what is outside the purpose." Above all, find a way to be relevant to your end users all the time. Google and Apple have achieved high brand capital because we engage with them all the time. It is seamless, it is sub-conscious and it has become a part of our social psyche and our social behavior. These brands do not have to fight for our attention. They have embedded themselves in our daily doings.
John Hagel, management consultant from Deloitte & Touche states that the business of creating wealth is no longer about funding or innovation or about the supply chain management. The new battle ground is the battle for human attention.
Failing miserably in getting people to pay you attention.
"The new scarcity = attention; there has been a profound shift in business economics from shelf space as the key scarce resource to people's time and attention."
Marketing has changed from pushing brand advertisements out to enticing and pulling brand advocates towards you. John says, you do it in 3 steps:
Attract - Design, develop and understand the context of the need of your target audience. Then, motivate people to find you and give them some compelling reasons to do business with you.
Assist - Educate your end users. Find ways to help people, both before and after the purchase of the product. Even if that means, that you have to send business away to some one else, because their solution is a better fit than yours.
Affiliate - "Instead of one-to-one marketing, the affiliate idea suggests bringing in any and all participants that could be helpful to the prospective buyer at relevant points in time. It’s about creating a broader ecosystem of participants who can be more and more helpful to the customers you’re trying to reach.That’s a very different model that goes against the most basic assumptions of traditional push-based marketing."
So, what you do with this information? How do you make it for you?
For starters, know your existing customers. (For example, I am a lifer when it comes to using Adobe products. Yet, every single time, I log into Adobe cloud they are clueless as to who I am and what programs I use or better yet, I get an e-mail from them expressing my interest in their products. Sorry Adobe. Hopefully you are working towards getting better at it.)
- Start with getting to know 20% of your clients. Who are they? What does a typical day in their life look like?
- Do you know what products or services they consume? Do you use this information to optimize your revenue and create new revenue paths?
- Do you engage with them on an on-going conversation?
- Do you connect with them to co-create new products and services?
- And, above all what are you doing to inspire them to become your brand ambassadors? In other words, what are you doing in acquiring and holding their attention?
"If you define your product broadly enough, in the context of how it is actually used, engagement is possible across a much wider range of interactions."
For example, if we are in the business of design and building exhibits., in the broader context we could say, we help our clients to market their products. We get involved in the strategy session involving pre and post show exhibiting. In actuality, we help our clients develop ways to keep the conversation going even after the trade show have long ended. Now you see, we no longer constrained within the box of designers, builders and manufacturers, we have transformed ourselves into idea generators and skilled educators.
The digital medium allows us to gather phenomenal insights on our customers and cater tailored solutions depending on their needs. So do not wait for your customers to come to you for solutions. As Hagel puts it, be the trusted adviser to them and say, “You know, I have some information about you and based on that information I can give you some recommendations that are going to be really valuable to you and save you time and money." This is yet another way of holding the attention and maximizing the tenure of your value in their eyes.
We are living in very interesting times. In an era of cross-disciplinary pollination, we are undergoing through a tectonic shift in mindset. Since, marketing is in the forefront of it, you, marketers have to be now acquainted with the new metrics.
Hagel predicts, the new ROI is no longer Return on Investment, it is Return on Information.
It’s starting to track carefully how much it costs to accumulate information about a customer and divide that by what I can earn by using that information more effectively. And, the traditional Return on Assets has to be phased out by the emergence of the new player, Return on Attention.
"It is the economic value of that attention, which is the value of the relationship that you can expect based on that attention."
Driving this attention on a continuous basis lies the evolutionary growth of your brand.
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In other words, "we are the ones we were waiting for".
Today, we are expected to be more creative in problem solving; not, when it comes knocking on our door; but by looking into the far horizon and anticipating it! One of my favorite writers Daniel Burrus says, you need to be pre-active to future known events rather than be proactive, which means taking positive action now. Now wonder, some brands were ripe for the march of robots when the pandemic striked.
Keep reading and you will get the drift.
It is a compilation of research that I have used for my study and my projects. And, now, I have put it in a way that is hopefully palatable for you. My writings are usually, introduced by a big visual to satisfy the artist in me that more often is in conflict with the designer in me. And, in this case it is no different. But I do say, the content of this article is rich with resources that is sure to enrich your existence in some shape or form. Enjoy!
As our world wide web of connections have grown broader, our interactions have become shallower. We are living in an an age of alienation that would have been unimaginable to our previous generations, and yet we have never been more connected. A society that is consumed by novel modes of socialization, we have less and less of actual society.
"We live in an accelerating contradiction: the more connected we become, the lonelier we are."
Perhaps to combat this, more of us are walking away from the instant gratification of the 'likes' and making more time just to 'be'. This "state of being attentive to and aware of what is taking place in the present” has given rise to ethical decision making. As a result the ethical status of the things we do, buy and support are becoming increasingly important. Yet, ironically this has given rise to "guilt-free" consumerism.
Will robots make you irrelevant? The future is here. How some brands are coping with change.
Sure, we are divided by countries, culture and casualties. But, we are united by one factor. We are all merchants of consumerism. There is not two ways about it. We see how it defiles our planet, yet, we are torn apart between the values that we hold and the actions that we take, that run counter to those kind of values. This tension has given rise to a "new kind of consumption: one free from worry (or at least with less worry) about its negative impact, yet that allows continued indulgence."
A recent global study identified 2.5 billion of these 'aspirational consumers' (representing one third of the global consumer class). These consumers are defined by their love of shopping ( 78% ), desire for responsible consumption (92%) and their trust in brands to act in the best interest of society ( 58% ). BBMG, GlobeScan and SustainAbility, October 2013
This guilt-free consumerism has given rise to high status, high priced, high valued cross-sectional creativity. Now, your old pair of jeans may launch a limited edition area rug priced at USD 599, while averting gun violence, all as a part of a day's work.
The ‘Internet of Things’ has brought about some daring imaginations to life. Any uniquely identifiable embedded computing-like devices can be inter-connected within the existing Internet infrastructure. Due to the ubiquitous nature of connected objects, any number of devices may be connected to the Internet.
And once connected – monitoring your health, saving you money, doing your errands or for that matter doing anything extraordinary that ‘connected objects’ can do, will be done for you. Just to give you an idea, machine washable shirts will be able to monitor your breathing and your heart rate, as you walk, play or hike. As you are driving to work, the ECG heart rate monitor that is embedded in your drivers' seat, can help avoid mid-journey driver heart attacks and subsequent accidents.
“The Internet of Things will add USD 1.9 trillion dollars of economic value to the global economy in 2020.”
Gartner, October 2013
Stay Centered, Drive with Passion, Value Relationships
Recently, I have learned a new term MYCHIATRY.
A rising trend amongst consumers is to manage ones' mental well being. After all, this is a natural progression of Mindfulness. Now, technology is providing us with that extra little push to combat our daily stress and get to know our true calling.
For example, you have melon – it connects to your phone to help you track and train different mental states, including focus, meditation, and relaxation. Real time tips alert you when you need to take breaks to maintain your focus, relaxation or meditation. Then, you have shadow, that records and remembers your dream.
Tracking dream and sleep patterns allows you to make connections between your past and the future. Over time, you will see a pattern emerge that will clue you on the the life that you ought to be living.
You have another device called, mico whose sole purpose is to inspire you by playing music that speaks to your sub-conscious.
"The single most-important content marketing opportunity that brands face today is to create moments of inspiration to send people on a journey." Andrew Davis
Pioneering advances in technology and a leap in the creative evolution are now at cross-roads. The result, brands are doing more. More brands are emerging as 'story doing' brands. Powerful stories with different narratives across multiple platforms, allowing the message to drench our sub-conscious, inspiring us to take charge. We are no longer satisfied as passive on-lookers, but active (or passive) participants in the story of the brand.
When, Beijing Subway introduced 40 ‘reverse vending machines’, which enable passengers to offset their travel costs by recycling plastic bottles – it set in motion the active participation of the consumers in the folds of it's 'story doing'.
And, when Nike’s launched it's concept store in Shanghai, a creative concept in the retail business was born. This store is entirely constructed from trash, including drink cans, water bottles and old CDs and DVDs. The store can be adapted to different retail layouts and the no-glue construction ensures all materials can be re-reused.
We are living in an age of hyper-change and hyper-connectivity. We are becoming global, flatter, local, cosmopolitan and hyper efficient. Above all, we are discovering ever-smarter ways to solve our perennial problem of limited resources. With this growing awareness of limited resource comes imagination and fearless creativity. I say fearless, because we are pushing our ideas to chart new, untapped territories, all because, NOW WE CAN.
Somewhere, along our journey we were led to believe that creativity is only for the chosen few. When in fact, the truth is; somewhere within us resides a poet, a painter or for that matter an aspiring ballerina. It is for us to decode ourselves and find out who we are, why we are here and what is our rightful place in this grand creation.
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When asked why poetry? His answer simply was: "I did not think. I just felt."
"Kepler was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week, no weekend rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talks, my song;
I thought Kepler would last forever: I was wrong."
When a hardcore scientist combats his sadness with poetry, it makes you wonder of the magic that lies in the echoes of poetry. Often, we are enthralled by its mystery. Why? you may ask. The short answer is "Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood." It is the language in which you explore your own wonderment. It gives you "the illusion of having had the experience without actually going through it." It is a powerful vessel that engages your emotion, inspires your will and makes you do.
Emotion – once a largely ignored field of cognitive psychology – has become accepted as a major spring of consumer behaviour. So much so, that many advertisers now view the creation of emotional engagement as their primary objective. – David Penn, md, Conquest Research
Major leaps in neuroscience has overturned the traditional view of consumer being driven by rationality to the one being dictated by emotions and subconscious.
The science of the our firing neurons teaches us these key lessons:
- Human brain process at a sub-conscious level, far beyond the conscious awareness.
- Most of this subconscious processing is emotional, not logical. Because, logic resides in the realm of conscious decision while emotional is the seat of sub-conscious or the non-conscious. It is not outrageous to say that we think with our hearts.
- Our sub-conscious form the vast majority of our decision making. Our conscious choice represents only a minority.
Know the uniqueness within you, unveil the creativity within you, and your poetic grace
If emotion is the driver in decision making then, our responsibility is to find ways to perpetuate it. And there lies the limitation in traditional approaches.
Because, "When you ask someone about an emotion, you change the emotion." And requesting consumers to quantify or rank emotional responses, such as on a scale of 1 to 10, is even more difficult for them.
Source: Marketing and Neuroscience What Drives Customer Decisions
Here is where memory metric plugs in.
In order for memory to work, you need to be recalling memory and creating memory all at the same time. So, you bombard those neurons with creative repetition and arouse the synaptic nerves with poetry. Yes, Poetry. Let's just try this. Shall we?
Read the poem below and as you are reading be mindful of the visuals that your neurons are formulating to help you digest this information. How do you feel? What do you see?
Every word in this poem strikes me with its' aching beauty. The truth is tender, yet glaring. I am haunted by the words “unanimous blood" – that we are all, even in our difference, part of this complex interconnection. It reminds me of the basics: the oxygen that sustains us and our memories that write the poetry of our tiny lives.
[The Salvadorian revolutionary poet was twice sentenced to death and jailed by the State for his beliefs and both times he evaded fate. The escape would become an essential part of his myth: the revolutionary the dictatorship couldn’t kill, the trickster poet favored by the gods. However, at forty he was eventually murdered. Perhaps he wrote with this eventuality in mind. With eyes wide open, a joke dying on his lips; in this poem and in others, "he expressed the vividness and universality of that which sustains us: poetry and bread."]
Using fMRI imaging, Professor Adam Zeman, a cognitive neurologist from the University of Exeter Medical School, led an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the fields of psychology and English. They found that emotionally charged writing, like poetry [not prose] aroused several regions in the brain, predominantly on the right side; very similar regions that had previously been shown to produce the “shivers down the spine” emotional reaction to music. Also poetry, not prose, was found to activate areas of the brain associated with introspection and recollection. These preliminary findings does point to the fact that it is poetry that lights up more regions of your brain, thus paving way for more synaptic connections. And we all know, “neurons that wire together, fire together.”
If you feel nothing. You do nothing.
And, poetry makes you feel. It makes you "laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toenails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone and not alone in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own. All that matters about poetry is the enjoyment of it however tragic it may be all that matters is the eternal movement behind it – the great undercurrent of human grief, folly, pretension, exaltation and ignorance – however un-lofty the intention of the poem…"
Today, you are inundated with insurmountable mount of data—demographic data, purchasing data, search data, social data, and web data. With this data you are able to understand the need, desires and the mindset of your customers based on their behaviour and their journeys.
With your creativity you make the engagement interesting and desirable, not just functional and utilitarian. And, poetry strengthens you in your creative journey that prevents your brand from fading into mere commodities in both engagement and product experience.
In her book, What Poetry Brings to Business, Clare Morgan and her colleagues demonstrate how the steaming creative energy, emotional power, and "communicative complexity of poetry" contributes directly to human innovation and problem solving. “Poems put down their roots in the no-man’s-land between thinking and feeling,.. the borderland where logic shades into the non-logical, where a world defined and delineated by language gives way to the more diffuse territory of what psychologists sometimes call ‘the feeling state’. This is the same strange land, in which twenty-first-century business executives and [marketers] routinely find themselves, a world in which facts and data are never enough and there is rarely a right or a wrong answer. "
For the first time in the written history of mankind, we are flourishing in a society (i.e the matured economies) of having more than enough. This "more than enough" is being spent on products and services that have more than mere utilitarian function.
As we transition from an Information Society towards a Dream Society, we expect more from the brands and the companies that we do business with. We now value one "human ability that can't be automated: emotion." We want to be inspired. We want products and services that have a design, a story and a heart.
Don't just persuade and promote.
Empower me — Make me dream, make me laugh, make me cry, make me high!
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This piece is in honor of the horse. After all, it is 2014 . It is the Year of the Horse!
In doing my research, I was astounded to find the unfading nature of this symbol that spanned across centuries and influenced cultures across the globe. Ancient wisdom traditions have used symbols to communicate between the two worlds: the seen and the unseen. The horse has been used as the super highway between them.
Why? perhaps, they are a projection of our dreams about our higher selves – free-spirited, strong and beautiful. They remind us to nurture our spirit the dwells the flesh, to emancipate ourselves from our mental slavery and possibly to inspire us into thinking that we are not prisoners of this three dimensional world but "voyagers through it."
In the Hindu scriptures our 5 sense perception has been compared to the horse.
"Know the self as a rider in a chariot,
and the body, as simply the chariot.
Know the intellect as the charioteer,
and the mind, as simply the reins.
The senses, they say, are the horses,
and sense objects are the paths around them....
When a man lacks understanding,
and his mind is never controlled;
His senses do not obey him,
as bad horses, a charioteer." ... Katha Upanishad {translated by Patrick Olivelle (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996
To know the self that dwells the flesh, curb your sense perception. Journey inwards, explore the richness that is you. It is beyond time, space and all material consumerism. "The internal universe, the real, is infinitely greater than the external, which is only a shadowy projection of the true one. This world is neither true nor untrue; it is the shadow of truth. It is imagination – the gilded shadow of truth." Swami Vivekanada
This eternal truth is reflected in the sentiments of Harvard neurosurgeon: “Our eternal spiritual self is more real than anything we perceive in this physical realm, and has a divine connection to the infinite love of the Creator.”
― Eben Alexander, Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon's Journey into the Afterlife
In buddhism the horse is a conduit of the mind. It symbolizes the energy or "prana" that runs through the channels of the human body.
In the mountain hermitage which is my body, In temple of my breast
At the summit of the triangle of my heart,
The horse which is my mind flies like the wind
He gallops on the plains of great bliss.
If he persists, he will attain the rank of a victorious Buddha.
Going backward, he cuts the root of samsara.
Going forward he reaches the high land of buddhahood.
Astride such a horse, one attains the highest illumination
[Milarepa's "Song of the galloping horse of a yogi." Translated by Losang P. Lhalungpa]
In Greek mythology, Pegasus carries the divine thunderbolts of Zeus. It unites the heavens and the earth. It carries the treasure of the mind. It was his hoof pawing the ground that the Hippocrene (horse-springs), the inspiring fountain of the Muses sprang forth. "Everywhere the winged horse struck hoof to earth, an inspiring spring burst forth"
The 'ancient midddle-men' of culture - the Phoenicians were also known as the 'horse people' by the Greeks. These astute sea seafarers adorned their mighty ships with horses’ heads in honor of their god of the sea, Yamm. These horse heads were purposeful tributes to the might of Yamm and were used on the ships to reign in the chaotic force of the sea.
The great Pharoah Ramses II glorifies his horses for the victorious battle against the Hittites. In utter devotion he proclaimed, “Henceforth their food shall be given them before me each day when I am in my palace ....” The horses were loved and adored for their unshakable spirit. It is said that the warriors of the desert when "mounted on their finest Arabian steed, proved to be invincible as Islam's power spread throughout the civilized world.".... “They spurned the sand from behind them – they seemed to devour the desert before them -- miles flew away with minutes, yet their strength seemed unabated . . .
Over the ages the horse has been cherished for its loyalty, speed and unyielding valor. Because of their sensitivity, consistency, and patience, the various creation myths have endowed them with elegance, poise and mysticism. They inject us with unshakable strength and assures us that “we have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The Labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god. And where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. And where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.” Joseph Campbell, The Hero With a Thousand Faces
With your "beauty unsurpassed, strength immeasurable and grace unlike any other"– it is up to you to decide as to how you will ride the horse.
Illustration inspired by Andy Scott.
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I often daydream.
Because, daydreaming gets a bad wrap in our culture as it is deemed unproductive, my ego likes to call it visualization: daydreaming with a purpose. The creation happens in my mind before it gets down in paper. It is an arduous process of engaging the sub-conscious with the varied research and ideas both of the possibilities and that what is impossible and somewhere in between. It is a constant communication of "what ifs" and "maybe(s)". At the end, somehow, some way the sub-conscious takes the myriad transmission of thoughts and comes up with a solution. It works like a charm without fail. Perhaps writers appreciate its importance better than most of us because a "fair amount of what they call work consists of little more than daydreaming edited."
Always fascinated by the workings of the brain, today I get to explore the necessity of daydreaming in all our creative pursuits.
This is how it goes.
We all had our personal "Aha" moments. Suddenly you have an answer to a problem that you were long working on. It creeps onto you, apparently appearing from nowhere and creates a shift in your mental perspective that instantly transforms the way you perceive a problem. "It could be the solution to a problem; it could be getting a joke; or suddenly recognizing a face. It could be realizing that a friend of yours is not really a friend." says psychologist John Kounios at Drexel University in Philadelphia. These sudden insights as proclaimed by neuroscience requires some complex neural connectivity. By monitoring brain waves, psychologist Joydeep Bhattacharya at the University of London's Goldsmith College, saw a pattern of high frequency neural activity in the right frontal cortex that identified in advance who would solve a puzzle through insight and who would not. "It's unsettling," says Dr. Bhattacharya. "The brain knows but we don't."
Neuroscientists has come long ways but they cannot determine as to what makes us more inclined to the Eureka experience only at some moments. However, they all agree that these Insights does favor a prepared mind. You are more likely to have more insightful moments if you are in a relaxed and contemplative mood. While in the public baths, Archimedes observed that the level of water rose in the tub when he entered the bath. This observation is known as the Archimedes Principle: "An object partially or wholly immersed in a fluid, is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object." Based, on this principle big sea faring vessels are built. He was not the first person in history to get a sudden flash of inspiration, but Archimedes is the man who made eureka famous. "Eureka! I have found it!" The moral of the story: when you are stuck while working on a problem, walk away and do something completely different and that will help your mind wander away from the problem at hand. Perhaps, that is why Einstein played the violin and spent a huge chunk of contemplative time in nature.“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
"People assumed that when your mind wandered it was empty," says cognitive neuroscientist Kalina Christoff at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. As measured by brain activity, however, "mind wandering is a much more active state than we ever imagined, much more active than during reasoning with a complex problem." Daydreaming or mind wandering as some researchers call it is an essential part the creative process. It drives Insight. When you are driven by insight you create transformational changes. Here are some examples that have changed course of civilization because the masters involved in it were guided by insight.
When you are driven by insight you do not make transitional change. You are the harbinger of transformational changes.
Special Relativity
"For years Einstein had been trying to reconcile - or prove one of - two seemingly contradictory theories about space and time. One day while riding a street car home one day, he was struck by the sight of Bern's famous clock tower. The answer was simple and elegant: time can beat at different rates throughout the universe, depending on how fast you moved."
Alternating Current
Nikola Tesla knew in his guts there had to be a better way than the direct current that was designed by Thomas Edison. It somehow eluded him. "One day he was out for a walk (quoting Faust, according to legend) when it just came to him. He used his walking stick to draw a picture explaining how alternating current would work to his walking partner."
Chemical Composition of Neurotransmitters
In the 1900's scientist hypothesized that nerve impulses were transmitted chemically. It was the dream of Otto Loewi that gave the direction to conduct an experiment to prove so. The story goes that just before Easter Sunday in 1920 "Loewi dreamed of an experiment he could do that would prove once and for all how nerve impulses were transmitted. He woke up in the middle of the night, excited and happy, scribbled the experiment down and went back to sleep.
When he woke up, he couldn't read his notes. Luckily, he had the same dream the next night. The experiment and his later work earned him the title, the "Father of Neuroscience."
Television
Legend has it that the back-and-forth motion of the till, while plowing the potato field inspired Philo Farnsworth to lay down the ground work of electrical television. "Farnsworth realized that an electron beam could scan images line by line - simply put, that was the basis for almost all TVs until LCD and plasma screens came along. He went on to demonstrate the first operational, all-electronic television system in 1927."
Polymerase Chain Reaction Process
The 3 hour drive from his office at Berkley to Mendocino helped Kary Mullis was an important factor in formulating PCR, a process by which tiny bit of DNA can be exponentially amplified. "That amplification allows for all kinds of applications - everything from the diagnosis of hereditary diseases to catching criminals and paternity testing."
Coordinate Geometry
René Descartes, the father of modern philosophy - "I think there for I am." ( I would love to counter that: I am there for I think) was in the habit of staying in bed till noon. "One day, while watching a fly flit around above his head, Descartes realized he could describe the fly's position by saying how far it was from the walls and ceiling." The Cartesian coordinate system — allowing reference to a point in space as a set of numbers, and allowing algebraic equations to be expressed as geometric shapes in a two-dimensional coordinate system (and conversely, shapes to be described as equations) — was named after him.
Microwave Oven
Legend has it that Percy Spencer had his dose of inspiration when a candy bar he had in his pocket melted near the radar set that he was working on. A quick flash of insight revealed microwaves being emitted by his "magnetron could penetrate the exterior of a food and cook it from the inside - unlike using plain old heat from an oven, or fire which cooks food from the outside in."
Velcro
One day George de Mestral took his dog for a walk in the woods. When he and Fido got back, Mestral noticed burrs all over his pants. The tricky little devils would not come off. "Chance favors the prepared mind," and boy was Mestral prepared. Looking at the burrs under a microscope, he saw that they had tiny hooks that had attached themselves to the loops of thread in his pants. Rest is history.
The triumph of human civilization rests on many such stories.
Try this.
Spend a portion of your day in silence. “Letting silence into your day gives the daemon [muse] a chance to be heard from.” Contemplate silly far fetched ideas. Wear the cloak of contemplation as your daily companion. It will serve you very well.
"Pay attention the next time you’re not paying attention. A well-timed daydream may be the most productive thing you do today." Brian Clark
And, so I start my journey… Let's see if I can pull if off… (funny, how the critic always have to have the last say)
We designers are immersed in this cycle of continuous creation, radical rejections and ebullient exaltation. It is a part of our daily life. A life of ceaseless seeking that we lead. We do not know what that is. All we know, this is not good enough and there is more to it. Martha Graham puts it very eloquently, "[There is] no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others."
In this search for something that is transformational and transcendental, the brain often puts up an instant resistance…."oh no, that cannot be done." But, if you trick the brain into believing that you are just tinkering with the idea; the brain not only relaxes, it gets stimulated by “what ifs”, “what then”, and “why not”.
The intimidating big picture of creation, completion and acceptance gets buried somewhere in the cortex and eventually make it’s journey into your sub-conscious. Once, the sub-conscious takes over, the process of effortless creation ignites into motion and unleashes the creative force that is within you.
Modern science is just now figuring out the profound power of sub-conscious in our daily lives. This non-verbal space of highly productive action and associative connection is very much conscious in our current stream of consciousness. This is the space that gives birth to Effortless Creation.
There’s a concept in Taoism, “wei wu wei”, which is often translated as “action without action” or “effortless doing”. "Do less and accomplish more." is the cardinal principle of the vedic science. Inspired, by this high science Dr. Deepak Chopra in his book The 7 Laws of Spiritual Success mentions that "when your internal reference point is the ego, when you seek power and control over other people or seek approval from others, you spend energy in a wasteful way... When your internal reference point is your spirit, when you are immune to criticism and unfearful of any challenge, you can harness the power of love, and use energy creatively for the experience of affluence and evolution."
I believe, when Mexican Yaqui Indian sorcerer, don Juan Matus told Carlos Castaneda, "…most of our energy goes into upholding our importance.... If we were capable of losing some of that importance, two extraordinary things would happen to us. One, we would free our energy from trying to maintain the illusory idea of our grandeur; and two, we would provide ourselves with enough energy to ... catch a glimpse of the actual grandeur of the universe." he had the vision of the coming future. Seeking approval of others is so rampant in our age of tweets and likes and subscribes that we have forgotten the uniqueness of our own creativity.
The goal is to master the law of least effort and nail it down so that it becomes part of your daily living. It is not a step by step guide but a set of precepts that you might want to incorporate as a part of your life style. (This is not me talking. This is the high knowledge that has been handed down by the ancient seers and has successfully been put into action by the leaders of our times.)
- Undertake Action that is Prescribed by Passion. Do, because you are excited about it, not because you should or some one else wants you to.
- Question yourself. When you are dreading to do something. The very act of questioning will lead you to certain answers. For example, I absolutely despise recycling designs. But sometimes I am asked to do exactly that. Now, the onus is on me to furnish a design that speaks to specific brand attributes. The end goal should always be for the greater good… does not matter if the design gets acknowledged by the clients or not.
- All You Control Is Yourself. When we try to control others, failure, frustration, and conflict follows. Be like the water that flows around the obstacles with a minimum of effort.
- Stay in the Moment. "This moment — the one you're experiencing right now — is the culmination of all the moments you have experienced in the past. This moment is as it is because the entire universe is as it is." Radical acceptance of this moment makes you aware of the seeds of opportunity that is contained in this moment.
- Explore Possibilities. When we have our minds set, and our vision set, on one destination, we are often blind to other possibilities. Cultivate an explorers' mindset.
- Find Sweet Spots: If you find the right spot, achieving something takes very little effort. For example, planting a rose bush in a pre-conditioned soil takes minimum effort. "Finding these spots of maximum effectiveness and minimum effort takes mindful effort, which is why effortless action isn’t mindless action.”
- Defend Defenselessness: A tall oak tree cracks and collapses in the storm. A reed bends and flows with the storm and survives. Resist the urge to defend your point of view. Resist from defending your point of view. Commit to follow the path of non-resistance. "This is the path through which nature's intelligence unfolds spontaneously, without friction or effort." This was the path taken by Mahatma Gandhi to bring down the British empire to its knees, paving the way for India's independence some 60 years ago.
When you have the exquisite combination of the above factors, you will experience life flowing with effortless ease. “Effortless action is a way to not only achieve focus in a world of chaos, but to be effective without stress, to respond to any situation with economy of effort and action, and to pursue our passions while beating procrastination”.
Leo Babautam, Focus: A simplicity manifesto in the Age of Distraction
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I think, write, do and deliver on design, marketing, and technological trends. I help clients in marketing their products for attention retention and ultimate conversion.
In my writings I am often an explorer, a mapmaker — sometimes, a voyager of the human mind and other times: a creator who is tormented by the inner longing to expand, express, and delight!
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Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly. Franz Kafka