The anti-Blockbuster way: Disrupt your business rituals before someone else does — by Martin Lindstrom

 

 

Excerpt:

Over the years, I’ve worked with many companies who stubbornly believe their product couldn’t be beat. Some were right. Most were wrong. Very often, some of the world’s most iconic brands wake up to an extraordinary industry shift that takes them by surprise–but which, looking back, could have been predicted. The question is: wouldn’t it be better to intuit what the future may resemble before market forces and innovations “suddenly” wreak havoc with your company a few years down the line?

My advice? Throw a live-wire idea–or two, or three, or four–onto your boardroom table now. Get speculative. Get futuristic. Put on your Spock ears. Grab your TED microphone. There’s no other way to uncover how poised you are for a radical change in your industry’s future. If you’re a technology company, spend some time surfing the web in search of intriguing and even jarring slogans that could smash your entire category–such as Skype’s “The Whole World Can Talk for Free,” or Compaq’s “Has it Changed Your Life Yet?” Now try one or another of these slogans on for size. Do they transform the near and far edges of your business? Next question: Who got there first–you or someone else?

Which is why I recommend that you pre-order your own wake-up call today.

 

From DSC :
This goes for higher ed as well…