“Future Proofing” Your Company for Next Year and Beyond
Recently, industrial heavyweight companies Fujifilm and Hitachi announced plans to incredibly change the future of their respective companies by significantly investing in the area of Stem Cell research and development. These are marked departures from their traditional areas of focus.
In their announcement they said while Stem Cell research and development is a small sector now, it is expected to grow in Japan to $950M by 2020 and to $120B worldwide by 2030. This is a bold move based upon their view of where the world is going and their Vision for how they want their companies to look like in the future.
How does an organization foster such visionary thinking? How can a leader move past the constraints of their current operations to embrace a future that is very different from today? I call this open-ended process, re-conceptualizing a business.
“How Ought the World to Work”
I have found that a great way to jumpstart the re-conceptualizing process is to reflect on or ponder about “how ought the world to work” in the context of 
the environment in which your business operates. This involves focusing on your Customer and envisioning the best way they could have their need met (i.e. how ought the world to work from the standpoint of their need?)
At the beginning of your re-conceptualizing process, absolutely do not limit or consider the meeting of your Customer’s needs in the context of how your existing business operates. In fact, it may be helpful to pretend that your business does not even exist! In essence, imagine in a perfect world the best possible way that your Customer’s goals could be met.
One of our clients, a Physician recruitment and Physician office training company, used this unconstrained view of their company to begin the process of re-shaping their organization into an online Portal for all things related to operating a Physician Office practice.
How Would an Ideal World Operate?
This step will require you to expand your thinking and develop your thoughts regarding how an ideal world would operate pertaining to your market and your Customer’s needs being fulfilled. In imagining how ought the world to work or operate, it may be useful to reflect on the “true values” of life, the “truths of life,” the entire concept of excellence, and how excellence would be manifested in your market.
Here are ten innovations from 1995 to 2010 where someone asked – What is the best way that our customers’ needs can be met?
- iPod
- YouTube
- Smart phones
- Groupon
- All-electric cars
- Civilian hypersonic aircraft for space tourism
- Apps for smart phones
- Civilian use of GPS
An Unconstrained Point of View
To properly complete the re-conceptualizing process, you must first examine and determine the ideal solution from an unconstrained point of view – you want to think outside the box and not limit your possibility thinking. By thinking about all the various options that could meet your Customer’s needs, you will be able to generate the greatest number of options, possibilities, and alternatives for enabling your Customers to achieve their goals.
While some of these ideas may be unrealistic from a technical standpoint or pricing perspective, the ideas will spawn other ideas, thoughts, and concepts that may be more practical. One way of looking at this step is that it is a uniquely targeted method of brainstorming related to what you can do with your business. The outcome from this uniquely constructed method of brainstorming is then eligible to become your renewed Vision for your business.
Generate Multiple “Ideal Solutions”
Please remember that the above process may not yield just one ideal solution; it may present multiple ideal solutions. In fact, this exercise of looking at how ought the world to work may provide you with an array of options, which may include variants of ideal solutions. At this point in the exercise, do not let your possibility thinking be constrained by costs to deliver or price points in your market; the goal is to develop as many excellent ideal solutions as possible.
An example of this is when one of our clients, a large HVAC company, went through this process they ended up with several very different options for moving forward. They allowed themselves to fully flesh out each one independently and once they had considered the advantages and disadvantages of each one, they choose one that over the past 8 years has generated a 10-fold increase in revenue.
Get Inside Your Customer’s Heart and Mind
Keep in mind that to fully understand what your Customer’s needs are and how they sense their needs, you must get inside their hearts and minds. To 
fully comprehend your Customer’s needs, you must understand and address their perceived short-term, intermediate, and long-term goals, and the related emotional state that they perceive they want to be in as a result of achieving their goals.
This entire concept of getting inside your Customer’s heart and mind is the foundation of preparing for 2017 and beyond because the world is changing and changing fast and your organization must be ready for these changes.
In next month’s Newsletter, I will cover the remaining four steps of “future proofing” your company by looking at how ought the world to work.
If you need assistance with how to use this concept of “How ought the world to work” to transform your organization, please contact us using the below information.
Fountainhead Consulting Group, Inc. is an Innovation and Business Planning firm. During the past 17 years we have shown over 1,200 companies how to achieve their goals by using our unique, comprehensive and systematic, innovation, business planning and growth Structure of Success™, Innovation Academy™ and FastTrak Innovation Program™ methodologies. Using the components in these methodologies, each month we examine an aspect of how to transform your business or organization into a true 21st Century operation.
Office phone: (770) 642-4220
www.FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
George.Horrigan@FountainheadConsultingGroup.com
