The first issue of CORE Magazine published by Epsilon features some of my new research on disruption, the Novel Economy and new consumerism. I’d like to share it with you below… The Ultimate Disruption: The COVID-19 pandemic led to a seismic shift in consumer behavior As the virus swept the globe, brands changed how they inter- acted with customers due to social distancing and stay-at- home orders. Consumer perspectives about making purchases also shifted with fluctuations in the stock market, skyrocket-…
COVID-19 Gives Rise to the Novel Economy – Not Yet a New Normal
When COVID-19 started to shut down the world and rock humanity to its core, the world was left without a defense mechanism or a playbook. Suddenly, everything was thrust into disarray with organizations and leaders alike scrambling to respond, to find stability, and ensure business continuity. In my research at Salesforce, I focused on how customers (and employees) were evolving as a result of pandemic disruption and how businesses could use these real-time insights to guide organizational and digital transformation…
Giving CX Purpose: Shifting from Customer Experience to the Customer’s Experience
Customer experience is the new battleground for brands. How company’s deliver CX is either a competitive advantage or disadvantage. But, CX is so much more than how we think and talk about it, how we plan for and imagine its future, and how we invest in and support it. Perhaps it’s in how we frame it. We tend to observe it as mission critical, but we organize around it through distributed strategies across the organization. We enable disparate versions of…
The Rise of the ‘Novel Economy’ and the Three Phases to Thrive Against COVID-19 Disruption
I joined Salesforce as Global Innovation Evangelist just as the global pandemic was soaring. The world was unified in its sudden devastation and its urgency to respond to COVID-19 across multiple, critical fronts. As the innovation “evangelist” for one of the most innovative companies in the world, during a worldwide disruptive event, my work seemed inconsequential. It’s been said to never let a crisis go to waste. The only way forward was to start anew. My most pressing agenda was…
Digital transformation: Inventing the Future We Want
Karen Roby is a long-time friend and also a reporter for TechRepublic/CBS Interactive. Every now and then, we spend time together exploring the future of digital transformation and innovation. After I joined Salesforce, she invited me on her show to talk about my new areas of research and thought leadership. I wanted to share our conversation with you here. TechRepublic’s Karen Roby talked with analyst Brian Solis about the impact of COVID-19 on digital transformation. The following is an edited…
Customers Seek Experiences That Enhance Their Current State, Design Accordingly
In a world of distraction, listeners make the best experience and engagement architects. In a mobile-first world, experiences must be reimagined for the small screen. The best experiences will break the fourth wall of digital to deliver real human-to-human engagement. Like software, mobile has eaten the world. But mobile is more than a next-generation platform. Mobile is a powerful unifier. It has evolved into a digital hub for humanity, business and society. It brings us together while connecting us to…
Lifescale Wins The Independent Press Award in Personal Growth Category
Wow everyone! I can’t believe it! Lifescale wins the Independent Press Award for best book in the “Personal Growth” category. This is a book that wasn’t on my roadmap. I wrote Lifescale after I observed in my work as a digital anthropologist that the pervasiveness of digital in our personal and professional lives was proving disruptive. And to be honest, I also wrote Lifescale as a journey to fix my world because I too was disrupted by my digital lifestyle….
The lost art of being present and making important moments matter
Oh, the irony. Recently on Facebook, I was presented with a memory from nine years earlier. It was a picture from my birthday dinner with a pile of phones strewn across a table. It was almost as if there were a sign that directed people to the table with instructions to leave their phone behind. It was December 8th, 2010 and we were once again in Paris for the annual gathering of the geeks at LeWeb organized by Loic and…
Sparking a Renaissance in Human Interactions and Relationships: Making Media and Networks Social Again
What started as a Twitter thread evolved into this post. Human interactions have expanded online over the last two decades. Instead of improving communication and strengthening close ties, it’s made the world move faster, communicate with less depth, and connect with people we’ll never get to really know. Perhaps, this is a time to rethink how we communicate and connect online to improve how we do so in the physical world as well. Community over commodity. Communication is an art,…
Coronavirus is bringing live social media video and humanity back into the spotlight
During a pandemic, when you’re asked to stay home for a long period of time, it’s only natural that humanity would find ways to come together. To say that people would flock to the internet, on-demand video, and social media was a given. When it comes to work, it was inevitable that employees would convene around remote working, messaging, and virtual meeting platforms. Conversations about enterprise social networks (ESNs) from the “enterprise 2.0” days are even making a comeback. Now,…
