Brave New Year

The new year is still young. What will 2013 bring?
Here are three trends/ideas/wishes for the new year by Steven, Sven and Robert:

The commoditization of experiences
Steven Cook

People have realized that they have too much stuff. They don’t want to pay for more features. Businesses now have a stage and their products are the props, with the service as the experience. This has spanned the gap between the offer and the desires of the consumer.

The ability to access greater amounts data will give us more insights to our customers needs. Brands can explore these unmet needs and deliver greater value along with more satisfaction to their customer. There is the chance to create a customized experience which can be adaptive over time and context.

We have already started to see this on the horizon. But, designing transformational experiences will be the differentiator in the market place. The experience economy will be more the norm.

The planet will be hacked
Sven Ellingen

A new generation of founders is striving for long-term meaningfulness, rather than short-term profit. These people play by their own rules and work on ambitious visions of a way, the world could look like. With diverse cultural backgrounds, this new generation is a departure from the “fresh out of college, white, male” stereotype. Digital craftsmen, grounded in the lean startup movement. Wanting to make things, with their hands. Tech as means, not end.

Instead of losing themselves in the next social-mobile-local-retro-photo-filters venture, they are tackling problems of a different kind, real problems: A sailing drone that cleans up oil spills. A bamboo tumbleweed that clears landmines. A self-filling water bottle that mimics desert beetle’s wings.

The best thing is: all of this is already happening.

The end of “cover your ass”
Robert Stulle

Good partnerships in business are driven by trust.

I want 2013 to mark the official downfall of the “cover your ass” approach which is still prevalent as a basic mode of operation in the corporate cultures of so many organizations. This approach puts an individual’s agenda above the outcome of a project. It is aimed at mitigating risk and regulating blame. I believe this needs to stop as it has proven to be neither effective nor successful. If you want to advance your career, deliver great results and if you want great results, infuse your business relationships with the concept of trust.

Looking back at my own personal experience at Edenspiekermann in the last couple of years I see a strong trend away from control-based, contract-driven business relationships towards a new way of engaging in projects: we trust each other. We do not work against each other. We overcome the “client vs. supplier” concept, we collaborate as partners and we share in our success together.

Trust not only generates good karma but it also creates openness, transparency, a sense of being connected and – very importantly – it enables speed. We cut the overhead that is generated by controlling details, covering our asses and managing blame. Instead we are working together to create something amazing.

The results are fantastic. And this is how I love to work.