If you look through the last several posts on this blog, you may ask yourself, “Is this guy a total drag at parties, or what?” Most of the blogposts these past several weeks indicate a world in traumatic transition, and I guess I can’t apologize for that. The world is evolving quickly and is shaking off old, useless institutions like a golden retriever getting rid of fleas. It’s quite scary and often painful.
I’d just like to say that we here at Competitive Futures are actually more positive than we’ve been in some time. People are just as smart and savvy as they ever have been, the world is in fact more peaceful, and we have a new global system of information exchange that is probably the coolest thing humanity has ever built. The institutions will fall if they don’t match reality, but the future of people, communities, and business is as strong as ever.

That’s not to say that all of this new business and effective government will come easily. In fact, people are going to have a difficult time adjusting from old ways of thinking to new (dare we use the word) paradigms.
We believe that that name of the game in 2009 will be business development in a complex, changing world. There are infinite new ways to profitably serve customers – especially while your competition is at least as confused as you are.
So, banks blowing up? Great. Housing market in disarray. Fantastic. Global warming still progressing? Wonderful. This chaos will be useful to those who are paying attention and starting new businesses – lean, mean, high-speed, low-drag businesses.
I hope that’s a more fun, positive message at parties this Christmas season. It’s what we will be discussing all through 2009.
This is the official trend blog of Competitive Futures, a management consultancy that provides trend research and analysis for business and government around the world. Here, we update you on interesting trends we see as part of our work for our clients.
For managing partner Eric Garland's new author and speaker blog, please consult and bookmark http://www.ericgarland.co