Welcome to the future…

THE FUTURE OF BUSINESS IS
DIFFERENT THAN WE MIGHT THINK.
IT’S PART TECHNOLOGY.
IT’S PART PEOPLE. IT’S PART CHANGE.
This special series of cartoons, with
short insights from both Hugh MacLeod
and Brian Solis, will help you
see things differently.

Why this collaboration happened:
Hugh MacLeod is not only a dear friend but also one of
my biggest inspirations. His artwork is a magnificent
harmony of emotion, wit, logic and satire. When I thought
about the future of business, I pictured it beyond words
on a page, I hoped to bring together art with the art of
storytelling. I couldn’t think of anyone other than Hugh to
visualize what the future (WTF) is and should be…I hope
you are inspired by his work the same way I am.
– Brian Solis

Why this collaboration happened:
Besides being a favorite old drinking buddy from the early
blogging/Web 2.0 days, Brian is one of the few people who
really *gets* how all this Internet-enabled social stuff is
changing business — how it’s totally messing and
rearranging its entire DNA — and then also, being able
to explain it to people in a way that (1) they understand
and (2) they can implement. It’s pretty neat stuff.
– Hugh MacLeod

Nothing personal. Just business.
The internet is a collective of people, data, and things.
Understand that it is what it is. Also understand its true
nature and potential are yours to define.

This brave new world is really difficult to get used to at first. But that’s how
it should be…The question is, what are you going to do about it?
We cannot assume that others have figured anything out. The rules are being written
as we go. Seek inspiration beyond the oversimplified. Become disenchanted with
anything that takes complex subjects and breaks them down into “Top 10” lists.

They may still be children in the eyes of the law, yet the way they’re beginning
to interact around technology is already changing the world, including the
boring ol’ adult world we old fogies are occupying.
The impact of Millennials, Generation Z, and every digital native that follows them is
either generalized or simply underestimated. Why? Because their behaviors and
experiences are different and difficult to understand. They are the future and they
are changing the world…their way.

Welcome to the new realities, people.
Studies show that digital natives can text, check social networks, publish
updates all while doing their work. But wait, other studies show that they’re
actually spreading themselves thinner with greater reach but with less depth.
Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Who cares?

The Funnel doesn’t care about people because the Funnel isn’t alive,
the Funnel is a thing. Stop treating people like things.
Today, technology automates and scales engagement. The funnel seems to exist for
the benefit of the funnel. Decisions though are influenced by shared experiences….
Between people…and they influence the new customer journey

They’re not new toys anymore, they’re daily tools. Communicating, researching,
reviewing. No matter what the product is it’ll end up on a customer’s phone.
Are you ready for that?
The Zero Moment Of Truth is when you search. The Ultimate Moment Of
Truth is a shared experience. The future of business and branding is
when those two meet. To Generation C, the smart phone isn’t the
second screen, it’s the first screen…and that changes everything.

Everybody remembers the great epiphanies, almost as easily as they
forget the slow, boring, day-in-day-out schlepping it required to reach
there in the first place.
In a world of shared experiences, it’s not what you say about you, but what others say.
These experiences don’t vanish, they bind to one another, intensifying over time.
Shared experiences influence every moment of truth.

Just as a great book is a window into other possible worlds, the same is true
with great products. They tell us that things don’t have to be the way they
currently are.
Generation C is “always on” – seeing the world through the small screen, often before
they really see it with their own eyes. Following the digital breadcrumbs that Gen-C
leaves behind inspires us to create new worlds that captivate their attention and
imagination. This is how we compete for the future and relevance.

As more and more of our lives are mediated via the device (i.e. the smartphone) we carry
around with us, the more strong attachments will occur. Phones already matter to
Millennials on an emotional level, more than their cars do. Just a matter of time
until phones overtake houses in the emotional food chain etc.
Say it over and over again, because it’s not going back. “There’s no place like home.
There’s no place like home.” I love this image because I’m probably the last
generation to hold up a phone to my ear to talk to someone.

It’s so easy to see the customer as only the sum of the current transaction, as opposed
to a fully realized, complex human being, in it for the long term.
Customers are on a journey that either brings them closer to you or further
away from your brand promise. Unlike the linear imagery of a funnel,
today’s journey is an ellipse that doesn’t end if you don’t let it end.

Real human engagement has to come from inside you; it cannot be faked. But for it
to come out of you there need to be a “you” in the first place, Q.E.D.
What are the likely engagement scenarios your business needs to plan for to
build a frictionless and beneficial journey? Help? Entertainment? Support?
Advice Validation? Focusing on anything less than everything isn’t engagement,
it’s marketing disguised as compassion.

To paraphrase Maya Angelou: People eventually forget the price, people eventually
forget the quality, people never, ever forget how you once made them feel.
In a connected society, all markets are the culmination of shared experiences.
If you think about what it is that people share online, you’ll realize that
conversations are actually the manifestation of experiences. Why would you
leave them to chance?

The best companies start off by solving REAL problems. Understanding what a real
problem is, requires understanding what real human suffering is. Or at least,
understanding the real human condition. That requires empathy.
I love the TV show “Undercover Boss,”. Executives undergo a humbling journey to walk
in the footsteps of customers and employees. These CEO’s admit to “forgetting what it
was like…” and it’s hard to blame them for it. They live in a world of spreadsheets and
PowerPoint charts. Help them see what’s changing so they can feel it.

We human beings LOVE to confuse what happens inside the skull, with what happens
outside it. Maybe because being confused is better than being afraid, better than
admitting “I don’t know.”
If you think about it, everything that’s shared in mobile and social networks is emotional.
The EGOsystems in which we’re connected is alive with observations, reactions, calls to action,
and everything else we go through in life. Experiences can be contagious. Create the
experiences you want people to have, feel, and share.

The business world is A LOT more complex than it was. A few of us are NOT O.K. with
remaining complacent and pretending the old rules still apply.
Ignorance + Arrogance = Irrelevance. If you don’t believe things are changing,
if you undermine those fighting for transformation, be warned that you are
expediting your own irrelevance.

Innovation doesn’t begin with a spreadsheet. Innovation doesn’t begin with an MBA or
a seven-hour strategy meeting. Innovation begins from a place inside our deepest,
most quiet selves.
Innovation comes from an aspiration to fix something that may or may not be broken,
to create something from nothing, to accomplish feats not possible yesterday.
Innovation begins with a feeling and it will change the world.

Don’t wait around for the answers to magically appear. The answers will only come
with practice, Grasshopper.
Sometimes the best place to start is with a blank canvas,
to answer the questions that only you can answer.

Hugh MacLeod has been drawing art about life and business for twenty years.
He was one of the most popular bloggers in the early days of social media, earning
a loyal following of the best and brightest of Silicon Valley. His work has informed
an entire generation of entrepreneurs. He has created work for the largest
companies in the world including Intel, Microsoft, HP, Roche, Pearson, Dell, Havas
Worldwide and Rackspace, just to name a few. Hugh has written three books
published by Penguin, including a best seller, Ignore Everybody, which began life
as a free online manifesto that has been downloaded over four million times.
Brian Solis is principal at Altimeter Group, a research firm focused on disruptive
technology. A digital analyst, sociologist, and futurist, Solis has studied and
influenced the effects of emerging technology on business, marketing, and culture.
Solis is also globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and
published authors in new media. His new book, What’s The Future of Business
(WTF), explores the landscape of connected consumerism and how business and
customer relationships unfold and flourish in four distinct moments of truth.

An in-depth look at
the future through the
cartoons inspired by
“WTF: What’s The
Future of Business.”
Like what you see?
Use code: WTF15 for 15% off your next purchase at
gapingvoidart.com