The aim of the ZEITGUIDE is to "help you think beyond your industry and find ways to connect with others." Which is what Create & Cultivate is all about-- helping women connect with others outside their own circles. These connections are vital to building relationships and achieving your dreams.
Grossman & Partners scours this massive world of ideas for the ones that matter. Because as the guide states, "content shock is upon us."
So what's going on? What's getting better? Where are we headed?
1. Tech startup culture has inspired many legacy companies to adopt their principles and methodologies. Companies in legacy industries are trying to disrupt themselves before external disruption arrives. They are calling this “startupification.”
2. "'Lean startup methodology' is an approach to iterating products while avoiding bureaucratic drag on speed." This means that companies that used to release products every five years, are now releasing products annually.
3. Companies are looking to “new architectures” to "increase the flow of information and learning inside and through their walls." Bosses are moving their desks into the center of everything. Spaces are being reimagined because collaboration is in. In a big way. Lone wolf. And businesses are being built around "effective collaboration."
4. Don't say a liberal arts education is no longer vital. Even with the focus on tech in Silicon Valley "a survey of 318 CEOs by the Association of American Colleges and Universities found that 74% would recommend a liberal arts education to prepare young people for the 21st century economy." Crack a book.
5. E-commerce is huge. There's not denying that. But "fashion designer Steven Alan told [Zeitguide], it’s the physical contact with products and real people that often seals the deal. 'The in-store experience offers the unparalleled ability to actually touch products and experience the 3-D vision of a brand.'”
6. Our phones never leave our sides. But mobile is actually dragging down e-commerce and online sales overall. To point: half of marketing emails never get opened on smartphones. As a result businesses are trying to find new innovate ways to drive sales on smart phones. One way to do this is to incorporate social into shopping and "buy it now" buttons so retailers can sell directly through apps.
7. What mobile is working on is innovation in the ad sphere. "Banner ads and highlighted links don’t work on a 4-inch phone screen the way they did for years on a computer." One idea is to offer rewards to consumers instead of bombarding them with ads. "Other creative approaches fuse video and social media."
8. Fashion houses are teaming up "with tech companies to make wearables less geek, more chic...After all, this is a $700 million industry we are talking about that’s estimated to reach $1.4 billion by 2016."
"Unplugging is becoming essential to well-being and maintaining focus."
Twitter.
9. The fashion world is making moves to become more sustainable and responsible. A major question both shoppers and retailers are asking themselves, "can we let go of that 'take, make, and waste' mentality and adopt one reflecting a more circular economy: 'take, make, and reuse?'"
10. "Google Trends showed an interest in content marketing, doubling from January 2013 to October 2014." And "content marketing has ballooned into a $44 billion industry."
11. It's been shown that the efforts from brands to create social change, engenders loyalty with consumers. "Traditionally ads have been a way to open consumers’ wallets but now they’re a way to engage values and interests as well." Think: Victoria Secret featuring transgender model Carmen Carrera in runway shows and ads.
12. "Unplugging is becoming essential to well-being and maintaining focus."
13. There is a lot of debate around GMOs. Over warning labels and prepackaged foods. People are increasingly worried about the foods they put in their body. But there is no debate around the stat that, "In 2050, there will be 9 billion people on our planet, and the U.N. projects we’ll need to grow 70% more food than we do today to feed them." A friend of the Zeitguide put it this way: “'GMOs or people starve.'”
14. "Sales of 'gluten-free' products are estimated to exceed $15 billion by 2016." And yet as "The New Yorker reported in its annual food issue, America’s obsession with a gluten-free diet has, so far, no basis in science."
15. There are almost 1,500 different kinds of Drones on the market. Which means they are going to potentially touch every industry. Brands are busy brainstorming what they can do.
16. Americans may not realize yet just how climate change is going to affect their lives. But "62% of Americans finally agree that climate change is not a thing of fiction."
