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Dr. James Canton

Future of Retail

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The 7 Top Tech Strategies For Competitive Advantage in a Weak Economy

1 By Dr. James Canton
CEO & Chairman
Institute for Global Futures
Copyright 2003

As the economy weakens, every executive will be looking for ways to better leverage technology. Technology can be a valuable tool for deploying new competitive strategies. In fact, the window of opportunity that a weak economy brings can open up new alliances, change market share, bring new customers and alter the competitive landscape if approached in the right way. Technology investments can make the difference. You want to be ready to compete in the future where technology breeds competitive advantage..

Technology offers unprecedented efficiencies to serve customers, communicate with employees, and share valuable resources with partners. These efficiencies brought by technology, especially the Net, and soon wireless services, will enable organizations to sustain higher levels of productivity. This is not to say that organizations should reduce information technology (IT) investments. Some of the best returns on investment will be from those companies whom-- I would recommend in a down market, keep IT spending up. Invest in the future and there will be returns for the long term.

In this new post-industrial era, where every business is an eBusiness, technology can give you a competitive-edge to run faster, innovate smarter and grow richer if you know which IT to use. Below are my best bets on the high tech strategies that will make the difference.

1.    Deploy Customer-Driven IT. Whatever you do, whatever you develop or market, make sure that it really solves a problem, takes away the customers pain or it will fail. Pay attention to customer's needs, wants and desires and give them what they want, anticipate what they will want. Customer focused IT is the secret. Integrate customer touch points, virtual and physical throughout the enterprise..
2.    Use Web Training.  New training is essential and there are many vendors that can provide excellent Internet based learning modules, customized for your organizations' training needs.
3.    Conduct Digital Marketing. Convert your direct marketing to digital marketing using email and the Net to promote and market to customers. This will actually save you money in the long run. Integrate voice and video streaming next for the best impact.
4.    Customer Relationship Design. Create a plan about how to virtually manage customer's needs 24/7, from technical help desks, call centers, and online chat. This will be important to keeping and serving customers.
5.    Develop Wireless Services. Wireless services such as location-based services tied to GPS satellites, instant messaging, using cell phones and personal digital devices will be big this year. This is vital to both keeping employees connected virtually and in serving customers and partners needs.
6.    Build Digital Infrastructure. This is mission-critical to your future survival. As more industrial value chains get connected--banks connected to telecom to merchants to consumers, as digital TV, wireless services and the Internet merge, there will be winners and losers. Get involved now by building out your digital infrastructure so it is ready to be linked with the world.
7.    Create Web Savvy Alliances. There will be an urge to merge this year as the economy forces many companies to merge or create web savvy alliances in order to survive. Collaboration in this new chaotic landscape will be necessary for business survival.

Smartly deployed tech strategies can offer competitive weapons that really do level the playing field and may even set the agenda for the Next Economy. It is no longer abut big or small. It is about how connected you are. How smart you are. And how fast can you move. Remember customers rule and when it comes to deploying IT make sure it is customer-driven. This year maybe tough but the high tech strategies described here can give you the edge you need to win.

Dr. James Canton is a futurist, author and public speaker. He is President of the Institute for Global Futures a think tank that advises the Fortune 1000, a CNN Guest Host, Advisor, MIT's Media Lab, Europe and an Advisor to the White House Office of Science and Technology.
   

Insights & Future Forecasts

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Articles By Dr. James Canton

   

Consumer Trends 2015

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Consumers changing buying behaviors can make or break a company's success. Being in synch with consumers changing needs and wants is critical to business success.

This keynote reviews the top consumer trends that will shape the marketplace of today and the future. Find out what are the key trends that will determine competitive advantage in your industry, from retail to financial services to electronics to energy, telecom, health and entertainment.

Those companies that understand the future consumer will profit from re-aligning their brands, products and services today. Learn how the strategic consumer trends will shape the marketplace of the future--five minutes or five years from today. Profit from the primary consumer research conducted by one of the leading trend forecasters in the nation. Learn how to prepare today for the new future.

Dr. James Canton
CEO
Institute for Global Futures

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News Reports on Dr. James Canton

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Future of the Internet

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The Extreme Future Of Health Care

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Complex new technologies are rapidly reshaping business, markets and customers. This multimedia keynote examines the key trends and technologies that are revolutionizing health care and medicine. The digital convergence of genomics, embedded devices, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, nano-biology, nextgen optical networks, super computers and longevity tech will create a new health care landscape. Are you ready for the changes that lie ahead in the future?

How will the health care organization of the future integrate these technologies? What will be the demands of the future health care customer and how can organizations plan today to prepare? Health care organizations are struggling with how to enhance their service in an era of the digital health customer. How will health care change in the post-genomic society? What are the top technologies that will offer opportunity?

As the convergence of advanced technology, from quantum computers, to the next generation Internet, to smart agent networks reshapes the health care marketplace of the future; technology will offer many challenges and solutions. A review of the best of breed customer companies and technologies will be highlighted. Find out from a leading futurist and CNN Guest Host what are the key trends that will give your customers, organization or industry a briefing on what's next for technology and how it will affect you.

Dr. James Canton
CEO
Institute for Global Futures

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The Extreme Future Reviewed

1

Industry Week

The Future Isn't What It Used To Be


Industry Week's Editor-in-Chief, David Blanchard, Reviews The Extreme Future

Every once in a great while, somebody will write a book that as soon as you pick it up, you find it nearly impossible to put it down. That happened earlier with this book, and it’s happened again with The Extreme Future by James Canton. Somehow I missed this book when it came out in hardback a year ago, but a fresh new paperback edition is now available and if you have any interest at all forecasts, predictions, prognostications and the occasional blind guess, this book ought to satisfy you.

James Canton is a futurist, which means he gets paid to think about stuff that hasn’t happened yet, based on his analysis of what has happened and what is currently happening. Don’t get hung up on the word “futurist,” because it’s got nothing to do with horoscopes or guys like the Amazing Kreskin; futurists don’t just “make stuff up” – they apply exhaustive analytical studies to vast databases of historical information to arrive at their conclusions. True, sometimes (a lot of the time?) they get things outrageously wrong, but more often than not futurists are looking at trend lines as opposed to identifying exactly when something might happen. So to use a trivial example, a futurist wouldn’t be able to predict exactly when the Chicago Cubs will next win a World Series, but they’d be able to tell you that if the Red Sox and the White Sox could win in consecutive years, then the likelihood that another historically underachieving team could also win seems to be at least statistically possible.

Now, I’m no futurist myself but I was once invited to speak to a group of people who were all clients of a futurist. I had contributed a few items to this futurist’s newsletter on the topic of business applications of various advanced computing technologies (virtual reality, neural networks, that kind of stuff), and within about 15 minutes, I shut off the overhead projector (this was back before the days of PowerPoint presentations) and ended up moderating a very high-spirited discussion amongst the group, some of whom were convinced that virtual reality was a complete joke while others already had success stories they could share. It became a day-long Q&A session, one of the most fascinating exchanges of opinions I’d ever participated in.

James Canton talks about virtual reality in his book, as well as other “weird science” (his term) technology trends like nanotechnology, robotics, artificial life, teleportation, even a self-aware Internet. But what the book really does is serve as a wake-up call to people who want to believe it could still take decades for sweeping changes to occur. The book is kind of an antidote to Thomas Friedman’s largely optimistic The World Is Flat, as Canton’s tone is much more alarmist.

According to Canton, these are the Top Ten Threats That Could Kill America’s Future:
  • Religious fundamentalism
  • Damaged environment
  • Limited immigration flow
  • War and rampant terrorism
  • Poor education system
  • Lack of high-tech skills in the workforce
  • Reduced funding for R&D
  • Dysfunctional health care system
  • Weak defense and security infrastructure
  • Attacks on privacy and individual freedoms
   

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