Hello Fans of Foresight,

It’s been a great, fantastic, never-better year. 2007 was a wonderful year for the growth of our company, for me personally, for the launch of my book Future Inc, for lots of things. And it’s high time I gave back, expressing  gratitude for what a great time this year is. But where to begin?

I’d like to start with the Record Industry.

Yes, for those of you who catch my live seminars and speeches, you know that the record industry suing teenagers is my all-time favorite case study of what happens to you without a formal system of foresight in your strategic management. A new technology was obviously on the way, and instead of adapting, the record industry has chosen to hide behind legalities and sue its own customers. Everywhere I go, executives shake their heads and laugh when I use this example as a vivid tale of flailing, unwise leadership. The story has got big shot rich corporations, teenage girls, dead people, hapless grandparents, and millionaire attorneys – a perfect cocktail of villany, greed, and unsuspecting music fans.

I started writing and speaking about this in earnest in 2002. It is now 2008. AND THEY ARE STILL SUING PEOPLE EVERYDAY.

Moreover, they are getting more hysterical all the time, now claiming that when you make a copy of your own legally purchased CDs, this is also an "illegal copy" according to new legal briefs filed by the Record Industry Association of America.

Their website says, "If you make unauthorized copies of copyrighted music recordings, you’re
stealing. You’re breaking the law, and you could be held legally liable
for thousands of dollars in damages." So even when you buy the record legally, the illegal bit happens when you get a CD even near a computer. The industry is now asserting that its view of indeed all of information technology will decide whether you get sued or not. The illegal acts don’t just start if you broadcast the music for free, but if you choose to make an "illegal copy" on your own computer.

How much does an infraction cost these days? Just ask Jammie Thomas, sued for $220,000 for just 24 songs uploaded "illegally." Not quite the $2 million they sued 12 year old Brianna LaHara for back in 2003, but this is right up there – and recent, too! 

And for that I’d like to thank the Record Industry. For a little while, I thought I was going to have to rewrite my PowerPoint presentations to show another case study. After all, this MP3 downloading thing has been going on for years – surely there’s another example of terrible management waiting to be told. But thanks to the continued cooperation of the record industry, I can still use this example, since I literally can’t think of anything in modern business management dumber or more sleazy. I know that in 2008 and beyond this case will resonate with all other managers who want to evolve with the future to shape it, and not to flail incompetently.

I hope one day to have to find another example for my talks.

-Garland