Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist
As you know, the U.S. banking system has been challenged this year. Three large “regional” banks collapsed, and not a few experts have opined that there will be more banking-sector bloodshed going forward.
As you may remember, in our online poll last week (see below) we asked about concerns for your bank and the U.S. banking system with this question: “In light of the 2023 bank failures, have you been concerned about your own bank?” [Continue Reading]
A few weeks ago, I introduced you to how Blockchain works. This offering is about how it can create digital trust. But first, let me remind you – Blockchain is a complicated topic, so thanks for your continued focus.
To understand Blockchain, we must first contemplate the primordial role of trust. Just as every chemical process in the human body takes place in the medium of water, every human interaction – each one – takes place in the medium of trust. As civilization, societies, and markets evolved, all were made manifest by the existence of, and singular devotion to trust. It’s the cornerstone, the keystone, and the capstone of our civilized existence. As the original open-source model, trust is the intangibly awesome foundation of equilibrium and creator of order.
This will be on the test: For 10,000 years, humans required analog trust. In the Digital Age, humans will require digital trust. As open-source technology beyond cryptocurrency, Blockchain is enabling trust’s metamorphosis from analog to digital, as it becomes synonymous with digital trust.
For Satoshi Nakamoto, creating Bitcoin was easy. But making his peer-to-peer cryptocurrency deliver on[Continue Reading]
As the sun rises on the first day of July, one of the most amazing athletic competitions in the world is set to begin. Since 1903, the Tour de France has been the pinnacle of professional bicycle races, and arguably the most grueling of all sporting competitions.
Contested over 23 days, this race has 21 stages, each averaging more than 100 miles. That’s right. Only two rest days. These superathletes from all over the world navigate diverse road conditions, rain, wind, heat, and legendary mountain ranges – five total, including no less than the Alps and Pyrenees – that God surely created for us to ski down, not pedal up.
As the sun rises on the marketplace, millions of small business owners are set to mount one of the most grueling competitions in the business world – merely by opening up. Against all odds, they start, run, and grow their operations in rude conditions few Corporate America CEOs ever face. But unlike the Tour de France, the Tour de Main Street lasts 365 days, not 23. And sometimes, no rest days.
Combining admiration for both of these types of superhumans, we can identify four common elements required to compete successfully in both tours. [Continue Reading]
For 10,000 years, customers refined their search for products and services down to a couple of semi-finalist sellers based almost entirely on the classic competitive value proposition: price, product, availability, service, etc. I’ve termed this period the Age of the Seller.
That was a nice trip down memory lane, wasn’t it?
The new prime differentiator today is no longer the competitive model, but rather a customer’s appraisal of how relevant a seller is to them, often before they even know if a seller is competitive. So, does this mean that sellers no longer have to be competitive?
Not at all – no one will pay you more for less. But consider three new marketplace truths: [Continue Reading]
The first Plantagenet King of England, Henry II, is important to America’s small business owners because he’s considered the founder of a legal system to which entrepreneurs owe their freedom to be.
His intelligence only exceeded by his ambition, Henry’s attempts to consolidate all of the 12th-century British Isles under his rule necessitated the need for order. And while his motivations were for his own political expediency rather than to empower the people, Henry’s subsequent reforms actually gave birth to the legendary English Common Law, which ultimately replaced elements of the feudal system that included such enlightened practices as trial by ordeal and inquisition.
By the 18th century, [Continue Reading]
Small business owners know all about that metaphorical business reptile – the ubiquitous alligator. They slither in from everywhere, continuously chomping holes in your business, tearing apart projects, taking a bite out of performance, and eating away at momentum.
We know three things about these caustic crocodilians: 1) every small business has them; 2) they don’t go away on their own; 3) besides the operational intrusion, they take an emotional toll. And as good as we may get at minimizing the business damage alligators can cause, we’re too often not as good at dealing with that emotional thing.
As the CEO of your business, if your enterprise is to survive, let alone flourish, you have to deal with each alligator that pops up. To paraphrase Rudyard Kipling, your business’s sustainability and organizational effectiveness depend on the ability to keep your head when all around, hungry alligators are trying to take it off.
To keep your head and at least stay even with the alligators you must do three things. [Continue Reading]