As a Futurist: Optimist or Pessimist? Personal view of future world - co...

As a Futurist, why I am an optimist about our ability to transform our future world in a positive and sustainable way. Part of keynote on the $40 trillion green tech revolution which could transform the future of our planet

Building a Better World: ultimate mission and brand value. Motivational ...

Change your life and strengthen your business. Building a Better Business by building a better world. Show how you make a difference in the lives of your customers, clients, consumers. Leadership - motivational leadership styles, leadership skills, leadership quotes, management tools. Biggest ethical test for every culture and every nation: creating a better world, improving life for people. Core value to drive every political debate, underwrites all laws, basis of all team leadership impossible to lead effectively for long without this principle: will the world be a better place as a result of this activity or not? Key to management, marketing, brands, branding, corporate image, reputation and motivation. Applies to leadership and team management in every industry including banks, banking, retail, communication, technology, phone companies, logistics, travel, tourism, freight, manufacturing, health care, pharmaceutical industry, innovation, product development, research, construction, real estate investment, fund management, investment banking and energy, transport and aviation. Whose world? Fundamental principle. If everyone or every business followed this example, would the world be a better place? Define better and world. Example in pharmaceutical industry failure to adequately protect their own patents and intellectual capital in face of public criticism about global health inequalities and social justice. Failure by pharma industry to win the better world argument in media. The most important promise of every business: we will make life better at a price you can afford. Human resources, team motivation, staff engagement and customer engagement. Impact on marketing and customer relationship management, customer satisfaction surveys. How to win war for talent, encourage recruitment, reduce staff turnover, increase staff retention. Executive education and staff training in leadership. The purpose: deliver on the promise. Profit comes from delivering on the promise. Part of keynote on the $40 trillion green tech revolution which could transform the future of our planet, with innovations that will provide answers to global warming if rolled out on a large enough scale. Impact of technologies already available in energy industry, water conservation, carbon reduction, recycling, power transmission over long distances, alternative power generation, buildings management. Conference keynote speaker and Futurist Patrick Dixon -- author of SustainAgility book, lecture for Suez Environmental global leadership team.

How to solve global water crisis: Innovation, Green Technology. Water, U...

How global water shortages will be solved. Drought in Australia, America, Asia, China, Africa, Australia. Crop failures, food price rises, hunger and famine. Forest fires and other results of lack of rain. Virtual water -- water used in energy production, manufacturing, agriculture, farming, food production and processing, textiles, pulp and paper industry. River management, with diversions and dam building is only part of solution. Expect huge growth in water conservation in agriculture and manufacturing. Virtual water and water trading as part of the globalisation of products and food. Link between water use and energy generation -- power station cooling for example. How low cost energy could solve water shortages by reducing cost of next-generation desalination. Part of keynote on the $40 trillion green tech revolution which could transform the future of our planet, with innovations that will provide answers to global warming if rolled out on a large enough scale. Impact of technologies already available in energy industry, water conservation, carbon reduction, recycling, power transmission over long distances, alternative power generation, buildings management. Conference keynote speaker and Futurist Patrick Dixon -- author of SustainAgility book, lecture for Suez Environmental global leadership team.

Euro crisis and Revolution - risks to your business, family and wider wo...

Euro collapse, government debt defaults, risks in Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland. Risks to Eurozone, action by European Central Bank (ECB). Risk to Europe and government instability, protests, riots, civil disorder, fall of government, tension between nations, revolution, war. European Union was created out of the ashes of two World Wars with a big aim to help ensure peace. Video keynote conference presentation by Futurist Patrick Dixon

Marketing Strategy - multichannel mix. Future messages. Marketing trends...

Future marketing strategy is more than about altering a marketing mix for multichannel customers. Marketing needs to change values as well as messaging in a world dominated by instant information and insight / feedback from our online friends and extended social networks. It means an end to hype and spin or exaggerated claims, and a focus on what is true, valid claims, accurate information, detailed feedback from real customers, genuine facts, verifiable data. This a post-marketing world: in the last century, the source of most customer information about products or services came from the marketing team itself. Today, most of the information that a customer ever learns about what you want to sell them is probably coming from other sources. That means we need to completely rethink how we position marketing messages. The very word "marketing" needs rethinking. The future is about personalized, insightful, timely, accurate, sensitive and intuitive advice along the journey of life. Conference keynote speaker and futurist Patrick Dixon, speaking to retail clients of Hermes in the UK on the future of marketing to retail customers.

New markets: older customers - ageing population in Europe / EU. Retail ...

Why older customers are an important retail market for consumers. Meeting the needs of older shoppers in design and layout of stores, shopping malls, and in signage. Most people over 50 cannot read small type without glasses yet most printed material used in marketing is designed for younger eyes. Conference keynote speaker on retail and consumer trends - Futurist Patrick Dixon lecture for Hermes retail clients in the UK.

Growth of Budget Brands AND Super Premium. Retail industry trends - Futu...

How sales of budget brands AND super-premium brands are both set to grow. Future of retail industry and trends in sales of luxury goods and services. Economic crisis, austerity, fall in personal disposable income, increase in taxation, rise in unemployment, cuts in government spending. All these economic factors will force more people to buy budget brands. However, expect the wealth gap between the rich and poor to increase in every nation, especially growth in the numbers of super wealthy consumers. These ultra high net worth consumers will drive sales of luxury, premium, rare and exotic items, fast cars, super yachts, private jets, huge properties, exquisite jewelry, privileged access to unique experiences. Impact on marketing strategy and selling techniques. Re-positioning of key brands -- up market and down market, chasing revenues. Patrick Dixon is a trends analyst, Futurist conference keynote speaker on a wide range of global trends including retail industry, consumer insight. Keynote lecture for retail clients of Hermes in the UK.

Mobile Payments - Future of Banking and Shopping, Retail, Telecom - Futu...

How mobile payments will impact future of banks, banking, back end payment processing, credit card transactions and retail customer spending. Smartphones using encryption and biometrics will enable telecom companies to compete with banks and credit card companies for retail payment transactions. Expect wireless payments using smartphones to grow rapidly. Despite this, some customers will continue to prefer cash because it allows anonymous purchases and is convenient for smaller purchases. Mobile payments could generate commissions of up to EU2 billion a year in countries like France, Germany, Italy and the UK. What would happen if -- say -- Vodafone formed a partnership with Google, Nokia and American Express? Implications for financial services, small loans, large ticket purchases of white goods, cars and other big items. Conference keynote speaker and Futurist Patrick Dixon speaking at retail trends conference for Hermes clients. Future of banking and financial services.

Innovation! How to innovate, win competitive advantage. Retail Industry ...

Innovation means doing things differently to serve customers better. How to innovate and why all innovation is about divergence not convergence. Innovation that simply imitates competitors, product features, design or brand elements, just means that all products and services look identical in every way, which means you can only differentiate yourself from competition based on price. Long term sustainable competitive advantage will always come from finding new ways to excell, exceed customer expectations. Technigues for innovation including open innovation and crowdsourcing using wikipedia type models to solve complex innovation challenges. How to encourage innovative teams and processes. Conference keynote speaker and Futurist Patrick Dixon - lecture at Hermes client event for UK retailers on retail industry trends.

Filling the supermarket trolley: customer journeys, future retail trends...

How retail chains and supermarkets persuade customers to buy, Manipulating the customer journey around the store with well-placed special offers, combinations of products, eye-catching displays and other retail marketing promotions. Experience of Tesco, Safeway, Sainsbury, Morrisons, Carrefour and Wal-Mart. Video by conference keynote speaker and future trends analyst for retail industry conference - Hermes client event in the UK - Futurist speaker Patrick Dixon.

Future of Food Retailing, food industry trends, consumer lifestyles. Re...

Food industry trends in retail - small food outlets to major retail chains. Food sales are all about emotion and consumer passion: quality, health, flavour, additives, colourants, natural food, organic food, preservatives, sourcing of animals, animal welfare, sustainable fisheries, fair trade, kosher, hallal, vegetarian, vegan - there are already hundreds of niche food markets. Expect this diversification to continue - with specialist retail food stores, and also with sub-brands inside major stores such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour or Tesco. As we have seen in recent food scares, customers are deeply worried about food safety - especially parents who are concerned about the health of babies or their young children. Therefore expect more regulations about food quality and healthiness, more food labelling, more food safety checks - and more sensational news stories about food safety lapses. Comment on future of food industry by Futurist keyntote conference speaker Patrick Dixon in presentation to retail clients of Hermes at corporate event.

Future food shortages: consumers, retail, farms, energy industry, biofue...

Future food crisis and why there are global food shortages. Population growth is often blamed but we have enough food to feed the world without hunger of famine. Food price crises of 2007-8 and 2011-12 were caused by many factors including flood, drought, failed harvests, damaged crops, disease - but the biggest single change was burning food as biofuels. In 2011 over 40% of all wheat grain grown on farms in America was burnt in vehicles. Over 5% of all petrol / gasoline / diesel sold in Europe is now biofuels, much of it made from food. Biofuels have linked energy prices with food prices with land prices with forestry prices. We have one global market now for energy and food. So if energy prices rise, more food gets converted into energy - or biowaste, or trees.... but all these things affect land use at the end of the day. So if you expect (as I do) continued energy shortages, and rising oil prices, then it is logical to expect rising food prices. The trouble is that while wealthy nations suffer a little, individuals in the poorest nations suffer hugely. History shows clearly that rises in food prices and hunger amongst the population are the fastest ways to destabilise government. No surprise then that in 2007-8 we saw food riots in 33 nations and the fall of one government, and that in 2011 we saw riots and revolution in many nations (Middle East - so-called Arab Sprint). One of the factors that brought street protests was that ordinary people were finding food price rises were the last straw on top of so many other hardships, partly linked to to the global economic downturn, national debt crisis and banking crisis which in turn followed the original US sub-prime crisis. Lesson: global trends are complex, interlinked and minor trends can be amplified rapidly by globalisation and the digital village into radical forces for change. What does this all mean for farming, farmers, agriculture and land ownership? Expect prices for farm land to rise, in line with energy prices. Expect many farmers to switch crops from those supplying food direct to retail food chains, to crops which will find their way into biofuel manufacturing. Video of retail industry future trends by Futurist keynote conference speaker Patrick Dixon - for UK retail industry executives at client event organised by Hermes.

Future Shopping Malls - and death of smaller outlets - Future Retail Tre...

For every retail outlet that opens in a new Mall, another has to close somewhere else - a corner store, high street shop, or market stall. Huge planning implications for town centres, following massive growth of big shopping centres. Impact on consumer choice. How small stores can survive and thrive in niche markets, competing against large retail chains and multinational super brands, by offering unique products and services with outstanding insight into what their customers want, and attention to detail. That means more than market research - a deep intuitive grasp of how customers think and feel, what they are likely to be drawn to. While high street shops are threatened by the big shopping Malls, the Malls too will be increasingly threatened in turn by severe online price competition, mobile price comparison. Expect the largest Shopping Malls, biggest retail centres to focus more on the total leisure experience, creating relaxing locations, entertainment, with a sense of theatre, destinations in their own right for all ages and for a wide range of interests. Shopping in physical stores needs to be a pleasurable, engaging experience which appeals to all the senses - touch, sound, smell, taste. Crowds matter: people watching is part of the fun of the shared experience - seeing what others are doing, what they are wearing, choices they are making. Future retail in physical stores needs to be very personal, since such outlets will tend to be undercut by online price aggregators. Clever branding, marketing and selling promotions will not be enough. Conference keynote speaker Patrick Dixon - giving presentation to UK retail industry on key high street trends and the future of ecommerce - for clients of Hermes.

Retail impact of online price comparison using mobile devices, smartphones, aggregator sites. Shopping patterns and customer behaviour. Online sales growth from retail sites, where customers compare prices in stores or shopping malls and then buy online or from a competitor store nearby. Aggregator sites will grow rapidly, creating strong price competition, eroding viability of physical retail outlets, especially in electronic consumer goods, white label products, computers, textiles / fashion and in any other area where customers like to try before they buy.

Five seconds to win a customer. Moments of Truth: Future Trends in Retai...

Why every second counts in retail - and how companies lose customers faster than they realise. Vital trends for the future of retailing from Futurist keynote speaker Patrick Dixon. Marketing and selling to customers should be fast, easy, convenient and satisfying. Keep your customers happy, listen to them, keep close to how they are really thinking about your products and services. In a time-poor world, customers are increasingly fed up with companies that waste time, make them wait, keep them on hold, make them stand in line. Premium customers expect instant service, rapid help, total commitment, expert advice and 100% delivery on your promises.