The Connection Economy
The rules of 21st century business success

Overview

Competitive advantage is becoming more and more elusive - in virtually every industry. Competing companies offer the same products and services at about the same price and quality, to the same people, delivering through similar channels, and advertising in the same media using similar techniques. And they even swap staff every few years. Competitive advantage is therefore less and less about WHAT a company sells, and more and more about WHO a company is, and HOW it operates. This presentation will help you understand why this shift has happened, and will share the secrets to success in the emerging Connection Economy.

Most companies are desperate for innovation, yet spend most of their time innovating their products and services. This strategy has actually never worked at any time in history, since products are easily copied. Most companies with enduring competitive advantage have focused more on innovating management structures, and have gone against the received wisdom of their industries. It is time again for bold companies to stop trying to simply tweak their business models, and rather chase new approaches to management, structures and systems. We need to overturn the machine age mindset.

Modern management as we know it has changed very little from the systems that were in place 100 years ago. The DNA of this management approach was to get people to do repetitive tasks over and over again. Management as we know it was invented to drive irregularities out of the system, and create conformity. The principles are key: standardisation, specialisation, hierarchy, planning and control, with extrinsic rewards. This model achieves precision, stability, reliability, and discipline. There is just not that much advantage to be mined in increasing these qualities today. While these are all required and necessary, they are not the most important things in companies today. Modern management has given us a lot: efficiency, wealth, size and power. But it is very inflexible and frustrates adaptability, it has squashed creativity and imagination, and has enslaved thousands of people in quasi-feudal environments, shackling them to their jobs.

In the Connection Economy the keys to our ability to thrive include harnessing the very things management is designed to eliminate: creativity, adaptability, resilience, ability to change, realtionships, self-organisation and passionate service. Talented young people will thrive in this type of environment. This presentation and workshop presents a bold new way of thinking about how we do business, and what the future of work must look like if we are to attract and retain a new generation of staff and customers.

This presentation is a fantastic starting point for those wanting to understand the rules of success in the 21st century. The key theme of the presentation is that "who you are" is becoming more important than "what you sell".

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Take Home Value

There is no better basis for a strategic planning session than this framework. It provides participants with a solid understanding of why some of the megatrends are happening, and what lies in the near future. It gives a strategic advantage to companies who want to service their clients better, and also attract and retain the best staff in their industry.

Participants will leave the session with:

• a shared vocabulary for talking about their company and industry, and the keys for future success
• insights into how to gain and sustain a competitive advantage in any industry
• a bold vision for the future of management and business
• inspiration to accept change - at personal and institutional levels
• practical tips to immediately apply in their workplace.

Click here to read what previous participants and clients have said about Graeme and this presentation.

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Practical Business Applications

We live in an increasingly commoditised world. This framework shows clearly that competitive differentiation in almost any industry will come not from what you sell, but more and more from who you are and how you sell. In order to ensure his clients are able to get the maximum benefit from the understanding and "shared vocabularies" that Graeme creates in his presentations, he has worked with an international team of researchers, practitioners and experts to develop a set of Practical Application Modules. Graeme draws on this work to customise his presentations for each client. The TomorrowToday team is able to use these modules as a basis for developing bespoke interventions, workshops and presentations for many different applications, functions and industries.

The following are some of the most successful practical business applications of this presentation, with the most immediate impact on our clients' bottom lines:

• Industry specific application - the generic version of this presentation uses examples from multiple industries to highlight the emergence of the "connection economy". Graeme and the team are able to focus the presentation and related workshop on your specific industry, including doing a competitor analysis and providing specific and detailed applications for your company.
• Strategy - in addition to helping you understand why things are changing and how the connection economy will impact you, Graeme and TomorrowToday can work with your strategic team to develop specific connection economy strategies.
• Leadership - If the environment has changed, then leadership must change too. Graeme and the team will work with your leaders to help them make the personal and organisational shifts required to be successful in the connection economy.
• Organisational Design
• Culture - you cannot change OD without impacting culture.
• Talent - The most important key to success in the connection economy is who you are. Who you are is who you hire, and therefore your ability to attract and retain talented staff is your most important business competency. Graeme and the team will work with you to enhance your recruitment, management and retention of talented staff.

• Audits of an organisation's "connection economy" readiness. The focus is on identifying areas of strength and weakness with regard to the issues dealt with in the presentation. This is an important step in understanding not only what needs to change, but also why.
• Leadership and team development, to assist client facing departments to understand and apply the concepts underlying a connected world.
• Recruitment and retention consulting, with a particular focus on attracting, retaining and engaging talented young staff.
• Marketing consulting, with an emphasis on assisting companies to connect more effectively with their most valued customers.
• In particular, it is critical to extend the 'customer experience' expectation of your consumers beyond your front line staff, integrating it across all channels and all services. This is often not a costly exercise - but it does involve understanding, vision and leadership.
• ... and much more. Click here to see more about TomorrowToday, and contact the office closest to you to discuss the services available.

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Download a summary of the slides

PDF versions of all Graeme's presentations are available for download. Click here for the full list, and to download a summary of this presentation.

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Links to resources

See a video extract of The Connection Economy at YouTube - The Connection Economy extract.

See a video extract of The Connection Economy at YouTube - Connection Economy / Balancing Today and Tomorrow extract: Living in an age of Transition.

Graeme, and the rest of the TomorrowToday team, write regularly on all these issues on their blog. Click here to go directly to the appropriate category at ?iC@TmTd.

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Multimedia used

Graeme uses many multimedia clips in his presentations, including movie clips, songs, adverts and videos. Under the banner of TomorrowToday, he has a performance license for all multimedia used. Where possible, specific permissions have been obtained from the copyright owners. Where no response was obtained to such requests, and where the Music and Performance Rights certificate does not cover the media used, Graeme claims international fair use policies.

Please note that because of these copyrights and permissions, Graeme cannot make any media available to third parties. Graeme recommends AdCritic for all latest adverts. It requires a subscription, but is well worth it.

Depending on the version of the presentation you saw, the following media could have been used - follow the links to purchase the albums or movies:

• Coming soon

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Related Presentations

Either as a follow up to "The Connection Economy", or as stand alone presentations, the following are related in content and approach:

• The Future of Work - Graeme's most ambitious and up-to-date presentation brings the very latest insights, trends and analysis of the global TomorrowToday network directly to you. You will be inspired and challenged in equal measure by Graeme's vision of the future of work, the workplace and workers, as Graeme offers insights into 12 key trends that are shaping and changing the future of work. Create your own specific content package by choosing from these 12 categories of trend tracking, or allow Graeme to customise the presentation for you.
• Invitational Leadership: The Future of Leadership. New times require new scripts. The new realities of business in the 21st century require a new leadership framework. This presentation (or workshop) highlights five critical shifts taking place, in the leaders's context and task, the new metaphors for leadership, what leaders measure and the leader's challenge.
• "Hannah's Rules": The Rise of the Ethical Consumer - the impact that a new generation of consumers will have on business as they care less and less about what you sell, and more and more about who you are and how you sell, and strategies to connect with them before your competitors do.

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