Jim Blasingame

Business futurist, award-winning author, speaker and columnist

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Leadership

As The CEO, You’re The Futurist Of Your Company

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“For time and the world do not stand still. Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.” – John F. Kennedy

Was America’s 35th president encouraging each of us to be a futurist? Some people dismiss that term as pretentious and stuffy, but as a small business owner, holding that attitude will hold you back. Because as the CEO, being the futurist of your company is your most important assignment.

To be a futurist, you don’t need a fancy education, nor do you have to be a genius. Futurists aren’t inspired by God, they’re not clairvoyant, psychic, or have ESP. But they do look at the world differently than everyone else. Futurists see things others don’t because they’re looking for those things.

Perhaps it will help to introduce the product of a futurist, which is foresight. A futurist’s job is to deliver foresight to an audience. As a small business futurist, your audience is made up of four groups that need to believe in your vision for the future of the enterprise: family, employees, customers, and bankers – in that order.

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What’s Latin For Delivering On Digital Customer Expectations?

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Why do we put locks on exterior glass doors? Why would a business extend credit to a customer with merely an illegible signature on a purchase ticket? Why do we make promises to customers based on the future performance of vendors?

Yes, there are laws and consequences that address missteps or misbehavior in all of these scenarios. But are those elements really what make us extend and expose ourselves?

Post hoc is Latin for “after the fact.” Laws, regulations, contracts, and other such elements are part of the post hoc process when Humpty Dumpty falls off the wall. They remediate, redress, and reconcile – after the fact. But as important and effective as they may be, they’re not really what drives our behavior.

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The CEO Paradox: Getting Out Of Your Own Way

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Paradox: when two associated things – words, traits, situations, etc. – seem illogical and/or contradictory, but may, in fact, be true, compatible, or justified. Examples: “You have to spend money to make money” or “less is more.” Here’s a digital transformation example: “Using artificial intelligence to get closer to customers.”

Contemplating the paradox is fascinating, but never more so than how paradoxical humans are. Consider these human paradoxes:

  • Your intense personality can seem aggressive, but the other side of your paradox is an outgoing nature with a handy sense of urgency.
  • You’ve been called a workaholic, but the rest of the story is that others benefit from the fruits of your labor.
  • You may seem unorganized, but your creative paradox sees order in clutter.

We humans are at once a sweet and sour but always spicy Brunswick stew of paradoxes. But most of us don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it because paradox sounds negative and we don’t like dwelling on our negatives – just the good stuff. And there’s the rub.

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Prepare for 2021: Five Critical Questions for Business Startups and Veterans

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Let’s play “What’s wrong with this picture?”

DATELINE: New York – December 11, 2020: Millions of small businesses hanging on by a thread after being shut down by state and local politicians reacting to the coronavirus pandemic.

DATELINE: Chicago – December 11, 2020: Thousands of small businesses closing for good after being shut down by state and local politicians reacting to the coronavirus pandemic.

DATELINE: Washington – December 11, 2020: “There’s a business startup boom. The third quarter of 2020 records the highest new business applications we’ve ever seen.” (U.S. Census Bureau).

That was a softball, wasn’t it? Next time I’ll throw you a real curve.

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The New Regular: Claim this Powerful Pandemic Present

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This is the 17th edition of my New Regular series, devoted to helping your small business successfully navigate the uncharted, post-pandemic economy. When normal tried to pass as “new” on Twitter, the cancel culture came apart and the account was immediately suspended.

Protomarket was born 10,000 years ago when Og and Gog dropped their clubs and said, “Let’s stop fighting and do business.” At that same moment, something else was born that became the second most powerful human force: Trust. Only a mother’s love is more awesome. Everybody knows that.

Fast-forward to 2020 and trust is still the abiding nexus of every human interaction. Arky Ciancutti, M.D., my friend and co-author of “Built On Trust,” says, “We are a society in search of trust.”

In life, the expectation of trust is non-negotiable. Humans may be illogical about love, but we’re not confused about trust – we require it. 

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The New Regular: What Really Matters During a Pandemic

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This is the fifteenth edition of my New Regular series, which has the sole purpose of helping small business owners emerge into the post-pandemic economy successfully and happy. Normal is now as relevant as an employee-of-the-month parking space during the shutdown.

In any other year, my column this week would be about the national holiday which for at least 126 years has provided America’s workers with a paid day off on the first Monday of September. Also noted would be that half of those Labor Day celebrants – over 70 million – would be paid to not work by America’s 6.5 million small business employers.

But this year, in the throes of a coronavirus pandemic threatening our lives and the economic shutdown attacking our livelihoods, the Labor Day needle registers low on the concern-o-meter. Instead, my thoughts keep coming back to something emphasized earlier in this series: Perspective. Part of the New Regular is keeping what’s happening to us this year in perspective. With that in mind, I’d like to tell you a couple of stories.

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