Anders Sörman-Nilsson's Programs

Digilogue:  That Perfect Place Where the Digital Meets the Analogue

As some organisations careen recklessly into the digital future and others are left behind by remaining steeped in the ways of old, thought leaders are coming to realise there is an important middle ground. Most often that’s where your customers and clients want you to be, the place where digital and analogue converge – the ‘digilogue’. In the digilogue it is understood that digital satisfies a customer’s mind while analogue soothes the heart.

Knowing where this place is demands:

1. an understanding of the parts of your business that simply cannot be allowed to go digital
2. an intimate knowledge of the customer experience, of the touch points that thrill them, that speak to their hearts and not their heads
3. an understanding of how your organization tells its story to its public
4. a recognition of the artisanal skill, or customer service, that keeps customers coming back

Consider Apple, then imagine the brand without its experiential retail outlets. Its entire business could be carried out online, and much of it is. But the Apple stores create a vital relationship tool that allows brand supporters to touch, feel and live the brand.

Or consider the feeling of ringing a customer service line only to be sent through a number of computer-operated, voice recognition menus, compared to the feeling of being immediately answered by a competent human being.

Dive into digital 100 per cent and you’ll struggle. Stay off the digital wave and you’ll disappoint your customers. We expect you to make great coffee at your café, but we also expect an app to tell us how to get there. Every business must know where its middle ground lies, where the old-school artisan meets the efficiency and power of the future. This customised presentation will help your people find where that place is.

Check Yourself

• What do your customers and clients love about your business? What really touches their hearts and makes them come back again and again?
• What comes between your business and its customers, from physical boundaries to processes they must go through before they utilise your services? How can these be simplified digitally?
• What is the story of your business and how do you tell it? How did your business begin? Who are the characters in its past? What does it do well and how did it earn its stripes?
• How often does your business slow down and re-connect with itself, just as a person does when they’re on holiday?

What’s In It For Me – what will you learn?

Here’s what you’ll take back to the office:

• How to identify the parts of your business that must remain untouched by digital, and the parts that should be digitised
• How to think globally (digital) and act locally (analogue)
• How to provide unparalleled analogue experiences, the types that kick-start word-of-mouth and social media marketing
• How you can best develop your brand by telling your company’s story in a way that connects with our digital minds and analogue hearts, and why this is increasingly vital

WAVES OF CHANGE: GLOBAL TRENDS THAT WILL DISRUPT YOUR EXISTENCE

Waves of change are rolling towards us and you’d better be prepared.

• But how do you spot the waves, or identify what’s going on in the market?
• How do you sense the direction of the currents, or establish what it means for your business?
• And how do you best position yourself so you’re not washed away, or choose a market position and ride the wave?

Will you surf to success or drown in a riptide on an unpatrolled beach, while swimming outside the flags?

Unfortunately for business leaders today, change doesn’t care whether you like it or not. It happens ceaselessly without your permission.

The waves of change threatening every business are:

1. Digital Disruption– managing the tension between the analogue and digital touch points
2. Media Madness– realising that every company must think like a media company
3. Data Driven Dominance– working out how to turn data into competitive knowledge

The ignorant and apathetic are swamped and go belly-up, but those that know how to recognise opportunity, innovate and welcome change will soar. Plus they’ll enjoy every moment of the journey.

Check Yourself

• How aware are your leaders around which customer touch points should be digitised and which must be left alone?
• Do your teams know how to use traditional and non-traditional media to actively engage with hyper critical customers, talent and prospects?
• Does your organisation mine the data you are currently collecting about your customers and turning it into a strategic asset?
• Does your organisation’s offering actually matter in today’s market and, more importantly, will it truly matter tomorrow?

What’s In It For Me – what will you learn?

1. Which new markets you should target, and how to identify and engage them
2. How to utilise specific forms of new media in order to communicate powerfully and engage audiences
3. How to step back and deconstruct your own business model to identify new, non-traditional partnerships
4. How to sort through the data storm to turn customer insight into intelligent and strategic business assets
5. How to build an innovation strategy that disrupts your competitors

WELCOME TO                  DECODING TOMORROW

Welcome to the first re-instalment of Decoding Tomorrow, Missy. If you’re receiving this, you would have most likely heard me speak on the disruptive trends that are coming your way or the innovative players that are paving the way for the exponential future. This newsletter will be a monthly update on all the latest news, tips, opinions, foresights and predictions that will shape the future of business and our world – tomorrow – as well as sharing insights from brands that will change the way we think. However, if you don’t want to receive these early warning signals from beyond the horizon, please feel free to unsubscribe below. Let’s start decoding tomorrow… Thanks, Anders Sörman-Nilsson (EMBA / LLB) Global Futurist and Innovation Strategist

AVANT-GARDE IDEAS THAT ARE SET TO EXPAND THE MIND AND INSPIRE A CHANGE OF HEART:

Each month I’ll share with you the incredible ways companies, entrepreneurs, brands and even governments are transforming our world, keeping you up to date with all the futuristic trendsyou need to know about. Here is a smorgasbord of innovations which make science fiction feel like science fact: China has just reached a humankind first by growing plants on the moon. This is a major step towards being able to successfully conduct missions into space deeper than ever before. It’s something that’s been discussed for some time, but Sydney has made it happen: Driverless trains are now paving the way for AI driven transport. This month Sydney’s first driverless metro train completed its first full journey. For those on the quest for a good night’s sleep (as the parent of a teething toddler, I am!), Philips has created theworld’s first and only clinically-proven wearable solution. Maybe something that my toddler, Lucien, could do with…

READ. THINQUE. ADAPT.

The beginning of the year is always a popular one for future gazing, and as a futurist it’s an excellent time to nail mypredictions / preparations for the year (or ten! #10YearChallenge) ahead. Here are my top 5 predictions for 2019 and beyond: Travel in a biometric age: By 2021, I believe it will take little more than stopping to pose for a photo to board an international flight, and Virtual Reality already allows us to take virtual holidays, as I shared in this interview with ABC Radio. In a few years’ time, we’ll even be able to taste, smell and feel our holidays through VR headsets, and if you don’t believe me, try mindful meditation – the original form of virtual reality. We are all cyborgs: Robo-advisors will be everywhere. Actually, they are already here (but unevenly distributed as the saying goes). We have seen a few examples, with humanoids believing they are faster, cheaper and more impartial than humans, according to a recent global study of financial services customers, but it’s nothing compared with what’s to come! Given the Australian Royal Commission’s findings into banking, tomorrow’s robots will be more humane and empathetic than the human bankers of yesteryear… Head here for further predictions for the year. I was fortunate enough to be invited onto Australia’s most popular breakfast show, Sunrise, to talk with the hosts about my predictions for the year ahead and the near horizon beyond… click below to take a sneak peak. Thanks so much for reading this month’s Decoding Tomorrow. As a global futurist, I spend my days deciphering exponentiality,and turning provocative questions into proactive strategies to provide businesses with what they need to thrive in a disruptive future. I have been lucky enough to work with some of the world’s leading brands including Apple, Jaguar Land Rover andBooz Allen Hamilton to enable them to look to, and profit, from the future. Get in touch today to see how I can help your business prepare for what the future has in store.

Anders Sörman-Nilsson's Books