Trends and discontinuities report from the European Innovation team of Whirlpool Corporation - created at the end of a 3 months focused effort in May 2000 -

1. 09-05-2000
Discontinuities
Summary findings

2. 09-05-2000
Discontinuities
From
• How old are you?
• Standalone, dedicated rooms
• Product to service
• Alignment
• Drugs are bad
• Environmentally friendly
• Old
• Matter
• Linear relationship
• Two mutually exclusive poles of attraction
• 9 to 5 office work
• Ownership
• Being subjected to nature
• Time = money
• Average
• Stand alone dumb objects
To
• How old do you feel?
• Networked home
• Experience economy
• Creativity
• Drugs are cool
• Environmentally zero tolerance
• New beliefs
• Software
• Borderless relationship
• Complementary multipolarity
• Flexible time, work from home
• Just use it!
• Playing God
• Time = life
• Hgh end/ low end - polarisation
• Connected intelligence

3. 09-05-2000
age doesn’t matter
Title:
Age doesn't matter
Headline:
From: How old are you?
To: How old do you feel?
Description:
The desire to be, look and act younger is stronger and stronger. Also
the desire to stop aging is very strong. Life expectancy is rising. Value
and the amount of elderly is increasing as well.

4. 09-05-2000
age doesn’t matter
From: How old are you? to: How old do you feel?

5. 09-05-2000
alive home
Headline:
From: standalone, dedicated rooms
To: networked home
Description:
Due to many reasons, the role of the home is changing:
1. Home is becoming a place where to work, to meet people, to rest, to play, to
surf the web, to chat -physically and virtually- , to learn, to interact with (smart
appliances)....
2. Home will be a cocoon, not a constraint: it will be easy to change; it will not
create problems, but solve them.
3. Home will be more flexible, due to increase flexibility in lifestyle: families are
more flexible (one parent only, divorced parents, less children...), traditional
roles (mom as an housewife, dad at work, kids at school) are disappearing and
new roles are rising

6. 09-05-2000
alive home

7. 09-05-2000
customized experience
Title:
From product to service to experience economy
Description:
From buying the ingredients and making a birthday cake to ordering a birthday
cake to having someone organising the party and "throwing in" the cake.

8. 09-05-2000
customized experience

9. 09-05-2000
creativity revolution
Title:
creativity revolution
Headline:
From: alignment
To: creativity
Description:
With the acceleration in speed of change in the business environment and the
world overall, old systems of hierarchy, top down and centralised management
are being replaced by fast, flat and bottom up ones.

10. 09-05-2000
creativity revolution
From: alignment to: creativity

11. 09-05-2000
cool drugs
Title:
From drugs are bad to drugs are cool
Description:
The accellerated pace of life has put more pressure on the individual. The need
to use time effectively and to it's fullest is increasing. Therefore the youth of
today`s Europe (tomorrows consumers)are increasingly resorting to drugs in
order to make the most of their spare time (Raves, clubbing ..). This is
especially true since the reasons for not taking drugs (side effects, addiction
and social stigma) are disappearing. Marihuana is already "almost" legal and
considered less harming to f.ex. alcohol.
A lot of these new drugs are designer drugs like extacy.

12. 09-05-2000
cool drugs
From drugs are bad to drugs are good

13. 09-05-2000
green world extremist
Title:
Green World Extremist
Headline:
From: Environmentally friendly
To: Environmentally zero tolerance
Description:
"Zero tolerance" means that environmentally friendly is just an entry ticket and
who does not comply is not even in the game. The new challenge is
environmentally beneficial. There is an increasing and widespread awareness
about the huge impact of human activity on the Earth and our quality of life
possibilities. Sustainability is questioned. The interdependencies are so
complete that there is no place to hide (from pollution and for polluters!).

14. 09-05-2000
green world extremist

15. 09-05-2000
my holy trinity
Title:
My Holy Trinity (Body, Mind and Soul)
Headline:
From: old
To: new beliefs
Description:
Static traditional values and faiths do not fit the discontinuous nature of the
world. Technology is empowering us beyond imagination, but does not guide us.
We are left with a quest for meaning that takes on new directions. A deeper and
personal search for balance at all levels. The solutions need to address at the
same time the needs of the body, mind and soul. It is a 360 well-being concept.
It is about making an individual connection to the rest of the universe and with
the human story: past and future. Look, feel, being good.

16. 09-05-2000
my holy trinity
From: old
To: new beliefs

17. 09-05-2000
nanotech
Title:
Nanotechnology revolution
Headline:
From: matter
To: software
Description:
Nanotechnology will revolutionise the world of products. It means manufacturing
from the molecular level up. Products will be assembled atom by atom and
software will have all the information necessary so matter will be software.

18. 09-05-2000
nanotech

19. 09-05-2000
boardless relationship
Title:
New level of relationship
Headline:
From: linear relationship
To: borderless relationship
Description:
Establishing relationships is changing in all segments of our life- family life, work
and community. Information is being exchanged constantly in global
communities, family, friends and neighbours, and also between people who
don't personally know each other. The relationship between different ethnic,
linguistic and religious backgrounds is changing. Family is becoming a
"relationship platform", with a peer relation between parents and their children.
From top down hierarchy to pizza pie model of organisation - regional and
global institutions move from vertical to horizontal, from hegemony to diversity.

20. 09-05-2000
boardless relationship

21. 09-05-2000
kapital world
Title:
One Centerless Capital World
Headline:
From: two mutually exclusive poles of attraction
To: complementary multipolarity
Description:
Globalisation is enabling at the same time convergence and divergence,
standardisation and differentiation. At the macro level, as much as capitalism
and free market economy is becoming the only economic paradigm, at the
same time the sources of cultural models and creativity are fragmenting and
originating from what we used to consider the peripheries of the world.

22. 09-05-2000
kapital world

23. 09-05-2000
work@home.net
Title:
Work@home.net
Headline:
From: 9 to 5 office work
To: flexible time work from home
Description:
Going from home to the office, in well-defined time, is no more a necessity. The
necessity is to get results and successes.
Enablers of this disco are the new technologies: fast and cheap communication,
low cost and micro end user tools.
Flexibility is a new way of life and a cause.

24. 09-05-2000
From 9 to 5 to flexibility
work@home.net

25. 09-05-2000
just use it!
Title:
"Use ownership"
Headline:
From: ownership
To: just use it !!
Description:
The increasing of rental services from companies, expecially for mass produced
or luxury products, is changing the consumer not to own products themselves
but only the usage and service..
This discontinuity can also be explained as the shift from commodities to
experience, in which the use is much more important than possession.

26. 09-05-2000
just use it!

27. 09-05-2000
genetic
Title:
From being subjected to nature to playing god
Description:
The unravelling of the human genome and other advances in genetic
engineering are allowing us to alter nature, including us humans, in a profound
way. This is going to have profound influences on all parts of life. It places in
human hands the capacity to redesign living organisms, the products of some
three billion years of evolution. We essentially get the possibility to play god

28. 09-05-2000
genetic

29. 09-05-2000
timeeeeeee
Title:
From time = money to time = life
Description:
Time will become more valuable than money; people are struggling in balancing
the information overload, rapid change in industries and technology and
managing careers with family responsibilities.

30. 09-05-2000
timeeeeeee

31. 09-05-2000
multiplicity
Title:
From average to high end/ low end - polarisation
Description:
The gap between the have`s and the not have`s is widening - in all aspects.
Polarisation of/in;
- ages; young-old.
- natural reserves.
- incomes; middle class shrinking.
- countries and between continents(GDP/capita).
- wellfare.

32. 09-05-2000
multiplicity

33. 09-05-2000
connectivity
Title:
From stand alone dumb objects to connected intelligence
Headline:
From: stand alone dumb objects
To: connected intelligence
Description:
All objects that surround us are becoming connected. They will have computing
power (computer chips) and will communicate with each. The world around us
will be "smart", it will recognise us and make information available everywhere
and anytime.

34. 09-05-2000
connectivity

35. 09-05-2000
Always-On Generation
Headline: From Internet as a database to Internet as a communication tool
Description: the new generation stays online for different reasons than their
elders. They use Internet for instant messaging and they have become
completely dependent upon Internet to complete their studies and to access
audio and video.
Opportunity:
appliances with Web-pads

36. 09-05-2000
Shared work spaces
Headline: From videoconferencing to shared work spaces
Description: a kind of remote meeting that is suited for most day to day tasks:
shared work spaces. In these meetings rooms participants chat and share on-screen
presentations and documents.
Opportunity:
also for household use?

37. 09-05-2000
Feeling Safe
Headline: From security devices considered too expensive, intrusive and time
consuming, to security devices considered absolutely necessary
Opportunity: home safety devices

38. 09-05-2000
Wireless Services
Headline: From wireless carriers to wireless services
Description: Combining powerful brands and customer service experience will
compete against incumbent wireless carriers. Result: bifurcation of the industry,
with some operators and selling services directly form the net.
Opportunity:
Can Whirlpool sell their
customer service expertise?

39. 09-05-2000
Renewable energy
Headline: From oil and coal To renewable energy sources like wind, solar and
fuel cells.
Description: Developing countries looking to improve their electrical
infrastructure will install wind turbines, solar panels and fuel cells. This will lower
energy generation cost
Opportunity:
appliances adapted to
new energy sources

40. 09-05-2000
Gadget madness
Headline: FROM expensive traditional devices TO inexpensive, multifunction,
portable computer devices
Description: prices for displays, memory chips, microprocessors etc have
dropped tremendously in the past years. This will spark the emergence of
inexpensive, multifunction, portable computing devices.
Opportunity:
appliances could be the cradle
for multifunction gadgets

41. 09-05-2000
On-line learning
Headline: From e-learning for school applications, to e-learning for home
applications
Opportunity: IFU online, cooking classes online...

42. 09-05-2000
Personalization
Headline: From mass production goods, TO customised products and services,
TO custom tailed experiences
Description: theme funerals and theme weddings, design-it-yourself shoes,
create your own cereals etc.
Opportunity: personalised products

43. 09-05-2000
Ethnic Foods
Headline: From traditional cuisine TO ethnic foods
Description: After Thai and Korean, Caribbean and Middle Eastern dishes are
becoming popular
Opportunity:
Ethnic recipes in cookbooks,
Ethnic grocery

44. 09-05-2000
Boomburbs
Headline: From ‘suburb’ to ‘boomburb’
Description: A boomburb is home to between 100,000 and 400,000 residents,
yet still feels distinctly suburban.
Opportunity: anything to do with servicing and constructing new households

45. 09-05-2000
Luxury trickle-down
Headline: From certain products and services only for the rich TO affordable
also for the middle-income customer
Description: A middle-class consumer with more wealth and a sense of
entitlement.
Opportunity:
affordable ‘luxury’ products