As Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore wrote in the Experience Economy: Work Is Theater & Every Business a Stage, the future of business is less about products and more about creating experiences. That’s right. You’re no longer in the product business. Products are a by-product of experiences you set out to create. Products are also social objects that spark desirable relationships between you and customers and also among customers. The future of business is experiences. One year after launching What’s…
The Future of Learning is Stuck in the Past: Why education is less about technology and more about behavior
Here’s a story I haven’t shared much, but I’m doing so now because of an opportunity I recently had to present at the Learning Technology conference in London. Over the last two years, I’ve personally studied learning technology and also learning behaviors to relearn how to engage Generation C through analog and digital media. While writing WTF, I studied the learning patterns and preferences among Generation C and how they differed from less connected students. What I learned reshaped how…
Build Experiences Not Just Products
Music is the one thing that accompanies me on my journeys, experiences, as well as my adventures in writing. While earbuds deliver sound, they do not deliver the essence of the song, the waves of sound, nor the soul of the artist. At the same time, I have a hard time justifying the need to buy overly expensive headphones just to enjoy music the way it was written or meant to be heard. One day I was shopping for headphones…
Business Transformation: Why General Motors is Investing in Customer Experience
As editorial director and conference producer of The Pivot Conference, I have the privilege to meet with the people who are bringing about real change inside organizations. During the 2013 conference, I had the chance to interview Dr. Rebecca Harris (@RebeccaHarrisDr), who leads the Social Media Center of Expertise at General Motors in Detroit. Her role is all about transformation and integration as she works across brands and around the world on social strategy, social tools, social processes, points-of-view on…
2014 – The Embolden Years: Change agents lead the way for digital transformation
Happy New Year! 2014 is upon us and it’s once again time to share our (Altimeter Group) predictions for the year ahead. Except this time, predictions are moved aside in favor of important trends that are on the horizon. Let’s use this time together wisely in the hopes of prioritizing our investments in relevant strategies and the time and resources necessary to bring them to life this year and next. In 2013, Charlene Li and I published several reports, infographics,…
Announcing This Year’s Theme and Agenda for the 2013 Pivot Conference: The Total Digital Experience
Companies at the leading edge of change are recognizing that Social isn’t the catalyst for transformation, it is a shift in human behavior that changes everything. Social and its partner in change, mobile, can’t be limited to particular campaigns or even to specific departments. This revolution impacts employees and customers and all parts of the enterprise. There are no boundaries now; everything is integrated. This year at Pivot, we will be exploring topics that reset our perspective of where we…
Be on your best behavior! Behavioral expert Kare Anderson on how to design idyllic experiences
“If we feel instinctively liked by someone else then we tend to project unto them the qualities we like in other people…and that’s priceless.” Those are the wise words of Kare Anderson, expert on the art and science of understanding and perfecting behavioral cues. As she shares, emotion precedes rational thought. In this episode of Revolution, we learn about the importance understanding what we do and don’t appreciate in others to improve how we connect and communicate. If you’re aware…
I’m proud to announce that my new book, What’s the Future of Business, is now available
It is with the utmost excitement that I finally announce the availability of What’s the Future of Business, Changing the way businesses create experiences (www.wtfbusiness.com). You can get it now at Amazon, B&N, iTunes. It’s also available for Nook and Kindle. It’s been a long journey to this point. Following my last book, The End of Business as Usual, I set out to answer an important question, if this is the end of business as usual, then what‟s next and…
The diffusion of brand, ownership, and experience
Guest post by Ian Greenleigh, author of The Social Media Side Door (Fall 2013) and social strategist with Bazaarvoice. Follow him on Twitter @be3d Products were once contained by physical ownership and access. To experience a product, you had to buy it or try it. Brands extended beyond the idea of physical products into other types of consumer exposure to companies. Non-customers have always had access to brands outside of the ownership capacity, through advertising, word of mouth, and any…
Transitional Marketing and the Connected Interface
Guest post by Scott Forshay, creator and editor of mobi.luxe. Follow him on Twitter @scottforshay There is no first, second, or third screen; there are only screens. Regardless of their uniqueness in form factor or function, these connected screens are simply humanized interfaces allowing us to communicate with and experience a digitally optimized world. While much has been made of defining the distinctions between the various connected interfaces, be they mobile devices, tablets, connected television, etc., what’s been lost in…
