The Blog of Daniel A Burrus

Executives at Pratt & Whitney, one of the largest jet engine manufacturers in the world, were facing several major problems that were proving to be difficult to solve. The most expensive option when airlines are ordering a new fleet of jets is the engines. One of their problems was increasing their R&D budget so they could continue to innovate beyond their innovative competitors, including GE and...  Read More

We’re starting to see that any company’s competitive advantage is increasingly determined by the quality of the data they have and how they’re using that data to make real-time decisions. This applies to not only humans making the decisions, but also to how they’re allowing the machines they have in their enterprise to make decisions. In other words, they’re deciding what decisions they want the...  Read More

On April 2, 2013, President Obama introduced The BRAIN initiative, in which the word “BRAIN” stands for Brain Research through Advanced Innovative Neurotechnologies. Their initial proposal is for $100 million of the president’s 2014 budget. But they will be spending much more than that, because it is very similar to the human genome project that was started in 1990 and completed in 2003. In the...  Read More

As technology continues to impact our lives, workers in today’s ever-changing labor market need to be prepared with skills to adapt and succeed in the workplace. The problem is, we live in an uncertain world, and because of the high levels of uncertainty we all face, people of all ages and career levels are finding it difficult to know what new skills to learn, what courses to take, and what...  Read More

Technology takes away jobs. But it also creates jobs. For example, Southern California Edison recently finished installing all their electronic meters. As a result, nearly all of the 972 electric meter readers they used to employ were either transferred or are now out of work due to advances in technology. Keep in mind that a senior meter reader can make $68,000 a year, so this is definitely an...  Read More

According to the Associated Press, 50% of the 7.5 million jobs that were lost in the United States during the recent great recession were mid-pay, middle class jobs—that is, jobs paying $37,000 to $68,000 a year. Of the 3.4 million jobs that have been generated since the great recession, only 2% are mid-pay, middle class jobs. Most are low pay. In other words, the middle class jobs did not come...  Read More

Want an easy way to reach your target buyers? Joining or forming an electronic community of interest may be just what you need. What is an electronic community of interest? It’s a hobby-type of environment where people share information, knowledge and insights about a single subject they are very interested in and often-passionate about.. For example, you may find an electronic community of...  Read More

Two types of online communities exist: communities of interest and communities of practice. A community of interest may be people who love dogs, sailboats, or even motorcycles. It’s often a hobby-type of environment where people share similar interests or passions. You can even get granular when it comes to communities of interest. For example, you can find hundreds of communities for...  Read More

Did you know that time travel was possible? It really is. For example, you can visit remote parts of the Amazon River and meet people who are living just as they did a thousand years ago. They still use blow guns and spears as their tools. If you ask them if they’ve heard about “the net,” they’ll show you their fishing net. If a thousand years is too far back, you can go to China or Amish towns...  Read More

Whenever there is a major change in platform, the leaders of the old platform are seldom the leaders of the new platform. For example, at one time, the only way you could use a computer was to use a mainframe. Then, as processing power, storage, and bandwidth increased, our primary computer became a desktop … and then a laptop … and now a smart phone and tablet. Of course, this does not mean the...  Read More

Social media is different than static media, in that social media is a two-way, dynamic communication that builds relationship and engagement. The key word here is “relationship.” All relationships that are positive are built on trust. So for all companies doing anything with social media (especially those that specialize in it, such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as many others whose bread...  Read More

It’s easy to predict that with the explosive growth of people buying smart phones and tablets, we’re going to see mobility have an increasing and profound impact on retail. Currently, the largest retail chains are starting to embrace the ecommerce/mobile shopping revolution and install their own in-store kiosks and allow customers to download their own shopping mobile apps. The problem is that...  Read More

When Apple launched their first iPhone in 2007, one of the comments from the CEO of Research in Motion (the company that created the Blackberry) was, “Why would anyone want to watch a video on a phone?” Obviously, he did not see the future. Failing to see the future, failing to understand the difference between hard trends (trends that will happen) and soft trends (trends that might happen), is...  Read More

We recently learned that Sharp Electronics is projecting a $5.6 billion full-year loss. They warned that the company had material troubles and didn’t even know if it could survive. Panasonic, another classic name that we’ve all bought products from in the past, has a forecast of a $9.6 billion annual loss. This includes losses from products including solar panels, batteries and primarily their...  Read More

A number of articles have been published recently talking about Apple and their 25 percent decline in stock value. That’s certainly a significant drop, causing many people to predict this could mean the end of Apple’s high stock prices. According to many of the articles, Apple has seen their day, will no longer be a leader, is past their prime, and has stopped innovating. I say they’re all...  Read More

Is change coming at you from the outside in, or the inside out? My experience in working with top leaders from business, government and education on five different continents is that the majority of change comes to us from the outside in. For example, when a new law is passed, we have to make changes in order to comply with the new law. When a new competitor comes into our marketplace offering...  Read More

The Communication Age is here, and it’s time we harness it. Why? Because informing is a one-way conversation between you and your employees, customers, or other stakeholders. And let’s face it…you can send somebody a new policy, a new training manual, a new brochure, or even an email and not know if it had any impact. Did they read it? Did they act on it? Did they embrace it? You don’t know. ...  Read More

There is an amazing window of opportunity that has opened up that will help speed the development of the gamification of education and training. If you are not familiar with the term, gamification refers to using advanced simulations and skill-based learning systems that are self-diagnostic, interactive, game-like, and competitive, all focused on giving the user an immersive experience, thanks to...  Read More

3D printers, or additive manufacturing as it is also called, have gone beyond printing prototypes to printing final products ready for use such as jewelry, chairs, human jaw bones, and parts for jet engines to name just a few. 3D printers work by using lasers to deposit and fuse a thin layer upon layer of materials such as plastic or metals to create a solid object. Recently, Professor Lee...  Read More

What if you could deliver your product to your customer the moment it was manufactured? What if your customers could manufacture a replacement part whenever they need one? What if doctors could manufacture a body part, personalized for the individual patient, in the hospital at a moment’s notice? Thanks to 3D Printing, you can! I have been covering 3D Printing (also called Additive...  Read More

Demographics provide an excellent source of hard trends that can give us a powerful window into the future of any nation. If you look at Asia in general, it has an aging population that is unprecedented in human history. What might surprise you is that China is the centerpiece of this hard trend due to its sheer size. Currently, China has 8.5 million elderly and 180 million people over age 60....  Read More

Now that we have over a billion people on Facebook and millions of tweets being tweeted every day, it’s time to think about how you could add a social element to your existing products and/or services to engage with a much larger audience. For example, how about social books where you make the book both social and interactive? As the author is writing the book, he or she could post it on their...  Read More

A lot of companies have mobile strategies, but they’re often focused around smart phones and smart tablets. As such, they spend much time and money developing apps they can use within their enterprise. Realize, though, that mobility is far more than apps, and it’s far more than tablets and smart phones. Actually, mobility involves many technologies that are coming together, giving us anytime,...  Read More

The pace of technological change is accelerating rapidly. In the case of social media, it is rapidly becoming social multi media, meaning we have the addition of photos, graphics, animation, music, video, and more. Why is this happening? Because social media really isn’t about the word “media”; it’s about the word “social.” It’s about sharing. And as you know, we have lots of different ways...  Read More

Apple is known for keeping future versions of its products (especially the iPhone) a close secret. Is it possible to predict what the iPhone 6, 7, and 8 might be like? The fact is, using the science of Hard Trends, we know a lot about those future iPhone versions yet to be created and released. Think about it. Will the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 7 have a faster processor than the iPhone 5, 4, 3, 2,...  Read More

The recent recession forced many people out of jobs and back to the classroom to learn new skills. As a result, we now have an impending student loan debt crisis . Current reports show that U.S. student loan debt is surging above one trillion dollars , surpassing credit card and auto loan debt. Additionally, the majority (80 percent) of student loans are government-guaranteed, with 30 percent...  Read More

According to the Newspaper Association of America , 2011 was not a good year for newspaper advertising , with total revenue down 7.3%—almost $2 billion, and a percentage point more than the previous year’s loss. To be blunt, that’s not surprising. In fact, what is surprising is that it was only down that much. Let’s face it, the newspaper publishers still haven’t quite understood how to...  Read More

My IdeaConnection Interview with Vern Burkhardt "One thing you can know for sure about the future: in any battle with the past, the future always wins" Flash Foresight , page 170 [Vern's note: Technology forecaster and business strategist Daniel Burrus is offering IdeaConnection readers a free, no obligations 6-month subscription to Technotrends Newsletter , now in its 28th year of...  Read More

So many people are focused on Facebook’s upcoming IPO that they’re missing another investment opportunity that’s staring them right in the face: Apple . Why Apple? Apple is about to launch their iPad 3 . Plus, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the iPhone 5 will be coming this year , as well as a new Apple TV that’s been upgraded , a Macbook Pro that’s based on their wildly...  Read More

There are lots of great business books out there but, as a small-business owner, you may not have time to read them all. Luckily, we were able to get some of the country's best business writers to distill their business theories into one short and sweet New Year's resolution for you. Even if you only pick one or two, you'll be on the road to building your business in 2012. Stay current on...  Read More