{"id":534,"date":"2021-07-09T16:21:03","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T16:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/?p=534"},"modified":"2021-07-10T05:07:13","modified_gmt":"2021-07-10T05:07:13","slug":"pierce-the-future-through-the-present","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/09\/pierce-the-future-through-the-present\/","title":{"rendered":"Pierce The Future Through The Present"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no greater fear than the fear of the unknown.\u00a0Strategic foresight<\/strong>\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0future thinking<\/strong><\/i>\u00a0<\/strong>exist to help\u00a0tame the imaginary line connecting now and then<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0Competence\u00a0<\/b>alone is not enough;\u00a0<\/span><\/span>character<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0perspective<\/b>\u00a0are also required in equal doses. This means that working with the future needs a lot more than\u00a0hype cycle analyses<\/i><\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0predictions about the future<\/i><\/b>\u00a0of this and that from self-anointed guru-ninja-hackers without any proper training in\u00a0foresight<\/i><\/b>. Developing strong characters is fundamental to ensuring\u00a0an ethos of good ancestry<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Practising future-back management is critical to enabling breakthrough innovation and leapfrogs when the road ahead seems rather foggy.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nurturing a sense of perspective<\/i><\/b>\u00a0becomes the antidote from getting stuck in antiquated ways of working, thinking and behaving. Marketing\u2019s new research and developments can indeed be\u00a0<\/span><\/span>quite distracting given their high frequency and volume.\u00a0<\/span>In trying to make sense of the new and generate brand buzz from it, marketers end up missing out on rather transformational opportunities \u2013 those where the future can be more evenly distributed. <\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

This is rather disconcerting since marketers are often some of the most well-rounded and best-informed professionals in their organisations, with a sharp sense of \u2018what\u2019s next\u2019. Still, many get caught by the glitz of the novel, instead of putting their energy in the grittiness of the foresight process.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, when it comes to crystalising the definition of the 21st century marketer, Google<\/b> conducted an experiment that\u00a0<\/span><\/span>involved interviewing 30 board members from Fortune 1000 companies, having accumulated more than 1300 minutes of audio and over 100,000 words about the role of the CMO (Think with Google 2020)<\/b>, which was then summarised in one long, important paragraph: <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a021st century CMO<\/b>\u00a0is expected to be a\u00a0marketing miracle worker<\/b><\/i>, an\u00a0alchemist<\/i><\/b>\u00a0who combines classic art of\u00a0branding<\/b><\/i>\u00a0with the latest advances in\u00a0data<\/i><\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0measurement<\/i><\/b>. All this while you serve as the connective tissue of the C-suite and stay a step ahead of the rapidly changing landscape of digital technology, cultural trends and shifting consumer expectations \u2013 things becoming ever more important to the stock price. Customers matter more than ever and, since you\u2019re responsible for them, your role should matter more than ever too. But board members do not seem to have one cohesive definition of the role.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what are you to do?<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Internally, steer expectations for your role by defining growth, you have some control over. And recognise that the talent of your team is half the battle to achieving that growth. Hire the best measurement people, because marketing will be held to some metric that is currently beyond reach, and you\u2019ll need them to invent it. There are many ways you can impact revenue \u2013 but be prepared to show the\u00a0\u2018I\u2019m indispensable\u2019\u00a0<\/i><\/b>maths. And do not forget the most visible CMOs also take big risks. Only three percent of board members interviewed were marketers. Likely, they do not hear you. Listen closely and find the overlap between what the board is interested in and your responsibilities. And, instead of building slides about\u00a0<\/span><\/span>everything you do, build one slide that puts you in a position to start a conversation around those common interests and goals.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What is interesting to note is that futures thinking is all over in the paragraph above and yet, nowhere on it. As haiku-esque as a statement, this is the closest to the truth. Strategic foresight<\/i><\/b> <\/b>and futures thinking<\/i><\/b> are not explicitly mentioned, but implicitly dominate the subtext, with clear emphasis on character, competence<\/b> and perspective<\/b> too. Therefore, the opportunity is to nurture the Phewturecast<\/a> seed, and develop the gravitas required for marketers and their peers to encourage and normalise the allocation of foresight investment. If education is key to opening more doors for foresight, appropriate use of language is the red carpet welcoming the long-awaited guests that can help reshape the future for the better.<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

For the ambitious marketers out there, this is just the beginning of your futures literacy<\/span>. Use it and pierce the future through the present.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

BEGINS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.groupisd.com\/story\/<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.brandknewmag.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.brandknew.groupisd.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/hackcellencefest.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.weeklileaks.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no greater fear than the fear of the unknown.\u00a0Strategic foresight\u00a0and\u00a0future thinking\u00a0exist to help\u00a0tame the imaginary line connecting now and then.\u00a0Competence\u00a0alone is not enough;\u00a0character\u00a0and\u00a0perspective\u00a0are also required in equal doses. This means that working with the future needs a lot more than\u00a0hype cycle analyses\u00a0and\u00a0predictions about the future\u00a0of this and that from self-anointed guru-ninja-hackers without any … Continue reading “Pierce The Future Through The Present”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[895,885,882,883,37,896,887,72,897,890,889,78,741,891,892,884,440,880,575,894,176,610,173,305,13,63,886,893,586,888,608,576,879,123,881],"class_list":["post-534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-21st-century-marketer","tag-alchemist","tag-board-members","tag-brand-buzz","tag-branding","tag-c-suite","tag-character","tag-cmo","tag-competence","tag-consumer-expectations","tag-cultural-trends","tag-data","tag-education","tag-expectations","tag-foresight","tag-fortune-1000","tag-future","tag-future-thinking","tag-future-back","tag-futures-literacy","tag-google","tag-growth","tag-innovation","tag-language","tag-marketers","tag-marketing","tag-measurement","tag-novelty","tag-organisations","tag-perspective","tag-phewturecast","tag-present-forward","tag-strategic-foresight","tag-technology","tag-think-with-google"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":537,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534\/revisions\/537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sureshdinakaran.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}