Future Technology Blog | Jump The Curve | Chapter 3: Walk the Escalator

Every Employee is Now a Marketer

Posted on Jun 23, 2010 - 06:05 PM

I’m in Hershey, PA today preparing to give a keynote presentation on the “future of social networking” to PANPHA—the Pennsylvania association of non-profit senior services. One of the key takeaways for my audience will be that in this new era of social media every employee is now a marketer. That is every employee by his or her actions—or inactions—can either enhance or tarnish your organization’s reputation.

In this new era, anyone with a cellphone and a social network has the ability to immediately comment on an organization’s service by tweeting, blogging or sending a YouTube video to dozens, hundreds, thousands or, potentially even millions of people as United Airlines recently experienced at the hands of this clever and hilarious YouTube video by a disgruntled passenger.

For a more concrete example of now every employee is now a marketer, I’d like to introduce you to Zach Fogel—an employee at the Hershey Lodge where I am staying. As a “VIP” representative (every guest is a VIP, I think) Zach called to ask me if a I needed anything. “Yes, as a matter of fact, I do,” I said. “I left the charger to my iPhone at home and I called the concierge to see if the hotel had one but she said, “No.” Zach then informed me he was an iPhone user and that I could use his cord for the evening. To make the situation even more impressive, Zach was on his way home for the evening but took the time to run the cord up to my room.

For this simple action, I am now not only singing Zach’s praises but I am also giving the Hershey Lodge a little free publicity on my various social networks because I think their management understands how every employee is now a marketer.

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A Beautiful Call to the Future

Posted on Apr 20, 2010 - 02:30 PM

At the beginning of the year, I outlined 20 predictions for 2010. (You can read the full list here).

Number five on the list read: #5: A socially-networked song in which none of the band members knew one another prior to the song’s release will become a Billboard Top Ten hit. The band will attempt to conduct a conventional tour but will soon breakup citing “artistic differences.” The real cause: they find they just don’t like one another.

I invite you to watch the video below. It isn’t quite want I had in mind when I made the prediction and I don’t know if it’ll become a top ten hit but Eric Whitacre’s virtual choir singing “Lux Aurumque” is far more beautiful and powerful than anything I could have imagined. Enjoy!

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Stuff Yourself on Digital Crumbs

Posted on Apr 14, 2010 - 06:56 AM

Data mining or reality mining, if your prefer, is going to be one of the biggest trends in the near future. This fascinating article provides an excellent overview of how smart retailers will start using the “digital crumbs” from anonymous cellphone signals to track the location and behavior of people. For example, in a manner that doesn’t violate anyones personal privacy, advertisers will soon know exactly how many people walk by a certain ad at 2:15pm on a Saturday afternoon. This will allow the owners of billboards to price their spaces accordingly.

Reality mining companies will be able to determine not only which stores are most frequently visited in a mall but also which combinations of stores these people travel to. This, in turn, will allow these stores to start putting together clever joint ad campaigns to further exploit these findings.

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10 Jobs of the Future

Posted on Mar 02, 2010 - 06:36 AM

Inventor: Until 1950, “inventor” was listed as an official occupation on the U.S. Census form. The job title will soon return as a new industrial revolution—fueled by advances in material science, robotics; 3-D printing; information technology; and nanotechnology—takes root and unleashes a wave of new (and practical) inventions.

Video-Book (Vook) editor: As electronic books and e-readers become more popular, a new generation of editors who are skilled at providing readers with information in multiple forms—text, graphics, video, etc—will be required.

Data analyst: The flood of new data which the world will soon experience due to the continued growth of sensors; RFID tags and video will create growing demand for individuals who can not only interpret and decipher this data but who can also display it in new and more meaningful visual formats.

Video game designer: As immersive video becomes more common in schools and businesses due to the continued growth of haptics; augmented reality; and virtual reality, a growing number of video game designers trained in these areas will be required.

Virtual nurse: Continued advances in video; real-time monitoring tools; and expanded bandwidth will make it possible to safely and effectively monitor patients from afar. As a result of increasing health care costs and an aging population, more healthcare providers will turn to “virtual nurses” to monitor patients until the services of an “on-location” healthcare professional are required.

Robot Technicians: As robots become ever more popular and people come to rely on them for everything from cleaning to companionship, they will increasingly become seen as part of the family. Therefore, unlike many consumer products, robots won’t simply be abandoned when a new model arrives. Instead, people will demand their existing robots be upgraded. This will require the services of trained technicians who can upgrade robots with the latest software and hardware.

Custom manufacturer: In the hands of creative individuals, continued advances in software; computer aided design (CAD) and rapid prototype manufacturing will lead to more individuals drawing their livelihood from designing and building custom-made products. Among the areas most impacted will be health care and the arts. Specially, bioengineers will soon learn how to design and build new organs (e.g. hearts, livers, kidneys); while artists will use the tools to create new products and new forms of jewelry and art.

Marine biologist: The incredible diversity of ocean is nowhere near being understood or appreciated. A new generation of marine biologists trained in everything from biomimicry to genomics will remedy this situation and apply many of the lessons of the ocean to problems back on land.

Fish farmer: The world’s growing population will continue to put pressure on fish supplies. In response, companies will turn to fish farms as a sustainable method for meeting this growing demand.

Change management consultant: As the pace of technology accelerates and knowledge becomes obsolete more quickly, the ability to unlearn will be just as critical as the ability to learn. In increasing numbers, organizations will call upon the services of professionals trained in helping people adjust to the notion of “continuing change.”

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The Future of Manufacturing

Posted on Jan 11, 2010 - 09:44 AM

In the 1991 hit movie, Pretty Woman, Richard Gere was shown using a huge, bulky cellphone. At the time, it was state-of-the-art and cost about $5000. Today, cellphones are everywhere. I encourage you to watch the video on this crude $950 3-D printer and think of it as Richard Gere’s cellphone in 1991. The technology is only going to get better, faster and cheaper and, by the end of the decade, I expect many people to own 3-D printers.

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Robots’ More “Socially Aware” Future

Posted on Dec 15, 2009 - 10:14 AM

Many people, myself included, expect robots to become more popular in the coming decade. One reason I’m optimistic is because social scientists (such as cultural anthropologists) are discovering how to make robots more acceptable in a variety of settings. According to this article, some hospital workers love robots while others hate them.

The difference is that the workers who hate robots hate them because they are unable to adjust their behavior to the appropriate situation. For example, if a doctor is talking in a hushed tone to a patient’s family in a cancer ward, the robots should also be quiet—but often it isn’t. As computer and sensor technology as well as algorithms get better expect many of these problems to be mitigated. The result: more robots in hospitals; aging facilities; schools and even our homes.

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Want to Know Your Future? Ask Your Phone

Posted on Dec 14, 2009 - 09:42 AM

New technology is using “mobility events” to make your smartphone even smarter. According to this article, researchers in the Netherlands have created a system that learns users’ behavior patterns to provide them with an enhanced cellphone service.

The example cited in the article involves your “going to work” routine (i.e. opening your garage, getting in the car; stopping at the local store to buy a lotto ticket, etc) and explains how your phone might be deduce what will happen next. For example, you may drive through an area with poor coverage so your phone will wait to start uploading a large file. Before long, innovative marketers will also be able to exploit this information. For instance, it may know that you also enjoy a Starbucks latte every so often and a coupon for 15% off will be sent to you whenever your with a mile of one of their stores.

I would encourage you to consider how this and related technology may also help senior citizens. I envision the day when your phone will notice that you haven’t called your grandchild in a few days and will prompt you with a reminder. Or, your phone—due to the accelerometers—may also notice that your stride is beginning to wobble and will send an alert to your doctor that you may be experiencing the early stages of a stroke.

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Apple’s “Share-Everything” Future

Posted on Dec 11, 2009 - 10:37 AM

Wired has an excellent article on Apple’s foray into live video streaming. For individuals and businesses interested in contemplating the future, I encourage you to think through the ramifications of “life-logging”—or the idea that more and more people will begin uploading major chunks of their life onto the Internet.

For newspapers and media, it will empower citizen journalists. For travel and transportation-related industries, it might mean fewer face-to-face meetings as individuals grow increasingly comfortable communicating in this new, more immersive format. And for healthcare professionals (and patients) it might portend quicker and remote diagnosis of disease.

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The Future of Police Surveillance?

Posted on Dec 09, 2009 - 10:12 AM

The police officer’s quote at the end of this video says it all: “This technology [automatic license plate recognition] is going to revolutionize law enforcement.” It is impressive technology but the civil libertarian in me is concerned that in the hands of over-zealous law enforcement officials the technology can also be abused.

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Is this the Future of Magazines and Newspapers?

Posted on Dec 08, 2009 - 10:39 AM

Does Sports Illustrated have its pulse on the future of magazines and newspapers? I believe it does. I encourage you to watch this three minute video demonstration of what the company is working on:

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The Future of Politics Will be Augmented

Posted on Nov 02, 2009 - 03:23 PM

It has been said that it’s easy to tell if a politician is lying: all you have to do is see whether his or her lips are moving. I’m not that cynical about politics but when I do hear a politician speaking I would like to know which interest groups have contributed to that individual so I can better understand who they are really “representing.” (This information would be very helpful during the current debate over health care reform.)

Such information is, of course, available through sites such as the Center for Responsive Politics. But in today’s “app-centric” world what I want to see is a downloadable app for my iPhone that allows me to point my phone at a politician (or a picture of that politician) and have the names—and the dollar amounts—of the lobbying organizations that have contributed to that individual appear on the image. To make the app more fun—and, arguably, realistic—perhaps the developer could even dress up the politician in a NASCAR-like racing suit so that their various “sponsors” logos are appended on their suit.

If such an app already exists, I’d love to hear about it. If one doesn’t, my guess is that one will within the next year.

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The Future Can Be Viewed With Augmented Reality

Posted on Oct 21, 2009 - 12:46 PM

I have always been impressed with the work being done at Georgia Tech and recently I had the opportunity to conduct an all-day workshop on emerging technologies with IT officials from around the state of Georgia. I spent a good deal of time discussing augmented reality but I wish I would have known about the video from Georgia Tech which I have posted below. Better than a verbal explanation, it vividly shows how augmented reality might be used to enhance the flow of traffic in the near future.

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The CIA Jumps the Curve—Again

Posted on Oct 21, 2009 - 10:16 AM

Last year, I explained how the CIA was using a Wikipedia-like device to improve the work of it’s intelligence analysts. Well, the spy agency has once again “jumped the curve.” It was recently reported that the CIA has taken an equity stake in a Visible Technologies, a software company which specializes in monitoring social media. There is a wealth of valuable knowledge floating around in all the digital data that is now being created. Those organizations that can figure out how to convert this data into knowledge—and even better, wisdom—are the most likely to succeed.

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To “Walk the Escalator” It Helps to Have a Sense of Humor

Posted on Oct 16, 2009 - 11:59 AM

A while back, one of those all-too-common articles stating what is already patently obvious to most people (e.g. “Study confirms exercise bolsters health,” etc.) appeared in BusinessWeek. The gist of the article was that humor increases work place productivity. No shit!

In that spirit then I’d like to share with you this hilarious article from The Onion, entitled, ”Study Finds Working at Work Improves Productivity.”

Study Finds Working At Work Improves Productivity

I’d also encourage you to watch this short commercial. Better than any of the past articles I have written on ”walking the escalator,” it demonstrates in vivid fashion what I mean by the phrase. Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Broken Escalator - These bloopers are hilarious

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Sur-Prize: The Future Can Be 10% Better

Posted on Sep 25, 2009 - 09:56 AM

F. Scott Fitzgerald once said that the “test of a first-rate mind is the ability to hold two diametrically opposed ideas in your head at the same time.” With this quote in mind, I’d now like to ask you to hold on to my earlier advice of ”Thinking 10X, Not 10%” while also appreciating the beauty of gaining a 10% improvement.

More specifically, earlier this week, Netflix awarded a $1 million prize to a group of researchers who developed an algorithm that lead the company to improve their movie recommendations to their customers by 10%. The result—in the form of increased sales—will more than offset the cost of the prize.

I mention this example because there are so many other industries that could increase productivity by awarding a prize. The most famous example is Gold Corp which earned millions by allowing outsiders to access their mining data in research of new gold reserves. One industry, in particular, that should employ this device is the oil industry.

Just today I came across this article suggesting researchers are trying to employ nanotechnology to help the oil industry increase oil production from existing wells by 10%. Now I’m a big fan of nanotechnology helping the oil industry, but the industry should follow Netflix’s example and award a prize to any researcher (or group of researchers) who can increase the yield by 10% (while keeping the cost of discovering that oil within certain parameters—i.e. $60-a-barrel). What do they have to lose?

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A Walk Into the Future

Posted on Sep 25, 2009 - 08:37 AM

Last week I had the pleasure of giving a presentation on how emerging technologies will transform the aging services industry. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, I was unable to show the audience a series of videos which demonstrated—in vivid fashion—some of the more promising technologies.

The pace of change is accelerating so quickly in the field of robotics, however, that the video posted below wasn’t even available. (The technology was just unveiled by Honda this week.) I invite you to watch the 50-second video and then imagine how this technology may soon help thousands of seniors maintain their independence for a few additional years by easing the strain on their legs and backs. Or, alternatively, imagine how some nurses and other professional care-providers may be freed up for other work because they won’t be needed to assist elderly patients as much.

As I said at the end of my presentation I sincerely believe that the aging services industry is going to be at the forefront of incorporating many of tomorrow’s emerging technologies into everyday life. Why? Because, in many cases, senior will be the first to walk into this new future because these new emerging technologies will give them a greater degree of control over their lives.

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Jump the Curve with an XBox

Posted on Sep 14, 2009 - 08:58 AM

I have explained before how many small to medium-sized businesses could save big money using supercomputers, now Microsoft is making it possible for innovative researchers to save thousands of dollars by using an XBox for computer simulations instead of parallel computer processors. It’s a wonderful example of “walking the escalator” by using existing, off-the-shelf technology to gain a competitive advantage.

Speaking of off-the-shelf technology, I invite you to read this inspirational article explaining how two students at MIT have rigged existing technology to take a series of photos from outer space for less than $150.

This is further proof that the future will be cheap. Unless, of course, NASA continues to decide to “piss away” $154 million on ineffective urinal technology.

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The Future is in Your Pocket

Posted on Sep 03, 2009 - 09:56 AM

Later this month I will be speaking to the Texas Travel Industry Association about the future. As I have said before—and will say again—the future is already here; it just isn’t evenly distributed. To this end, I invite you to watch this short video from CNET explaining how augmented reality is coming to a phone near you very soon. Among other things, it will help tourists navigate new environments. Those businesses which depend on tourism dollars would be wise to figure out how they can exploit this new technology—now.

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Calling All Contractors: The Future of Construction is on Your Phone

Posted on Aug 31, 2009 - 09:44 AM

In the recent past, I have written about the future of the construction industry and the future of the cellphone. Recently, a new tool—the Punch List App—has been brought to my attention which addresses the two areas and I believe it has the potential to save contractors, sub-contractors and, ultimately, customers a great deal of both money and time.

I strongly encourage you to read this article, entitled Bringing Your Punch List Into the 21st Century, but a few of the highlights of the technology that jumped out at me included: manipulating 3-D models of a specific room with your fingers; geo-tagging photos of certain problem issues; and attaching audio notes to those photos. The software also has the ability to assign tasks to the nearest employee.

In general, the app should help contractors streamline communications and better organize information—and for that reason alone it is a technology that should be considered now by every construction company, contractor and sub-contractor.

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TED “Jumps the Curve” Goes Exponential

Posted on Aug 07, 2009 - 09:15 AM

I am a huge fan of TED and it’s educational videos. I have now learned that TED is allowing independent groups to sponsor TEDx events in a series of different locations, including my hometown of Minneapolis. It is a wonderful example of “jumping the curve” because rather than trying to tightly control its image and content, TED is reaching out to thousands—perhaps hundreds of thousands—of creative people.

Below is a short video about the program. As it states at the beginning, the TED programs were once viewed by 1000 people a year. Today, 300,000 people download a TED video everyday. Soon, that number will take another exponential leap forward:

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The Future of Manufacturing: An Interview with Futurist Jack Uldrich

Posted on Jul 20, 2009 - 12:01 PM

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Jump the Curve at Half the Price with the Latest Supercomputer

Posted on Jul 17, 2009 - 08:53 AM

Last fall, in this article (Businesses Latest Tool: The Supercomputer) I explained how a variety of businesses were using Cray’s lsupercomputer to not only fundamentally transform their business processes but also save millions of dollars. Well, in yet another example of exponential growth, Cray has now cut the price of its latest supercomputer in half to $12,000. This is still expense but ask yourself the alternative: If the device can help you save big, big money can you afford not to use it? The answer is obvious.

Related Posts

The Future of Manufacturing

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iPhone + RFID Technology: A Practical Tool for the Elderly

Posted on Apr 01, 2009 - 04:17 PM

As society grows older technology will increasingly be employed to meet the needs of our senior population. To this end, below is a cool video demonstrating how radio frequency identification technology (RFID) can help elderly people make calls from their iPhone. (Of course, voice recognition is a simpler and more elegant solution to this particular problem, but I suspect RFID technology will find other innovative uses.)

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Jump the Curve Strategy #13: Catch a Wave

Posted on Mar 27, 2009 - 08:42 AM

(Note to my readers: As promised, I am slowly putting all of my 2008 book, Jump the Curve: 50 Essential Strategies to Help Your Company Stay Ahead of Emerging Technologies, online. Today’s installment is “Catch a Wave.” The previous 12 strategies are posted below.”

On January 26, 2006, a NASA satellite flying in geosynchronous orbit detected hurricane-force winds developing in the North Pacific. Using supercomputers to digest and process the data, officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that massive waves would reach Half Moon Bay, California, on February 7. Organizers at Mavericks, the world famous surfing location, immediately sprang into action and sponsored a surfing contest, and officials at NBC agreed to cover the event live.

The humongous waves arrived as predicted. Using a proprietary wireless mesh network and cameras with 70x zoom lenses, NBC then sent those signals over a fiber-optic cable to the parking lot in Mavericks where thousands of fans watched the surfers ply their trade on a gigantic plasma screen. Hundreds of thousands more watched the action live on the Web via video stream that was transmitted with a directional antenna. As if that weren’t enough, NBC later aired the footage on the 7,000-square-foot screen in Times Square so that the citizens of the Big Apple could gain an appreciation of the actual size of the waves that confronted the surfers that day.

The story is a wonderful example of using existing technology to walk the escalator. But just as the waves of Half Moon Bay grew exponentially larger prior to breaking, so too are all of the aforementioned technologies. To survive in tomorrow’s exponential economy will require more than just walking the escalator. It will require running very fast and jumping extraordinarily high to survive.

With that in mind then, let us return to a time when running and jumping were part of our daily routine--our childhood. As you will see, many of the skills we left behind from that era will have to be relearned in order to effectively jump the curve.

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Jump the Curve Strategy #12: Think Small, Very Small

Posted on Mar 26, 2009 - 12:42 PM

The term nanotechnology often brings to mind Star Trek episodes or conjures up futuristic images of nanobots patrolling our bloodstream in search of deadly cancer cells. While such nanobot-like devices are, in fact, under development, the reality of nanotechnology is, for the time being, slightly more prosaic. The profits it is producing, though, are not, and a number of companies are employing nanotechnology to “walk the escalator” today.

Nano-Tex, a manufacturer of nanofibers, has been treating, among other things, the pants of Eddie Bauer, Lee Jeans, and Perry Ellis for almost four years now. The company’s nano-whiskers, as they are called, infuse the pants with amazing stain-resistant properties. Since 2004, when it treated 20 million pair of pants, the company has now increased that total to an estimated 100 million enhanced-garments.

Nano-Tex and other companies are also treating upholstery and carpeting with nanoparticles, and hotel and restaurant chains are using these fabrics to reduce cleaning bills and limit the frequency with which they have to replace furniture. According to Wilbur Ross, the owner of Nano-Tex, sales of nano-enhanced textiles will grow from $11 billion in 2007 to $120 billion in 2011.

Another industry using nanotechnology today is the paint and coating industry, which employs nanoparticles to create self-cleaning and scratch-resistant paints. In one interesting example, DuPont has teamed up with a small nanotechnology company, Ecology Coatings, to create something called a “liquid solid.” Because the coating can be applied so thinly and so quickly, it is expected to cut the material and energy-related costs of painting automobiles by 75 percent and 25 percent respectfully. As an added benefit, because the nanoparticles also eliminate the use of industrial solvents, it removes the need for the company to obtain environmental permits and comply with certain costly regulations.

Almost everywhere one turns these days, the advances of nanotechnology can be spotted. In 2005, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug using nanoparticles; in 2006 Nanosolar, a company using nanoparticles to manufacture a new thin-film solar cell, broke ground on a massive manufacturing facility; in 2007 IBM and Intel both announced that they would be reformulating their recipe for silicon at the atomic level to improve the speed of existing computer chips by 20 percent while also cutting down on energy consumption by a factor of ten; and last year Nokia announced it intended to employ nanotechnology to make next-generation cellphones.

Exponential Insight

The application of the smallest of sciences can lead to some very big improvements in product performance--and profits. For instance, self-cleaning windows and materials can help a number of companies cut down on maintenance costs, and better-insulating nanomaterials can cut down on a business’s energy consumption. Alternatively, nanotechnology can adversely impact a number of existing businesses. Consider the impact on the dry-cleaning business as billions of garments begin to be coated with stain-resistant nanofibers or the impact of scratch-resistant paints on both the automobile repair business and the insurance industry. If you operate in an industry where the profits are razor thin, the emerging science of the small--nanotechnology--might be able to protect and pad those margins.

Related Posts on Nanotechnology

The Nano Song: A Quicker Primer on Nanotechnology
15 Ways Nanotechnology is Already Making Your Life Better
Nanotechnology & The Future of the Cellphone
Nanotechnology and the Changing Face of the Electric Utility Industry

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Jump the Curve Strategy #11: Park and Save with Robots

Posted on Mar 24, 2009 - 09:16 AM

If you have ever lived, worked in, or visited New York City and had to get around by car, you understand what a hassle parking can be. You might be happy to learn that in 2007 a company opened a new robotic parking garage. What makes the system so special--besides the fact that you no longer have to relinquish the keys to your new sports car to a testosterone-charged teenager--is that the system is so efficient that it can fit sixty-seven cars in a space that previously held only twenty-four. It is able to pull off this feat by packing cars closer to one another (there is no need to leave space to open a car door) and by doing away with ramps and other superfluous maneuvering space. When you consider that it costs roughly $25 a day to park in New York City and multiply that figure by the number of additional cars such a system can handle, it provides some modest idea of how robots can help some businesses “walk the escalator.”

All across the emerging field of robotics, similar opportunities for cost savings are emerging. Robotic vacuum cleaners and floor scrubbers are helping building maintenance companies cut down on janitorial costs; Staples and Walgreens and others are now using robots to transform their warehouses; and the military is now employing robots to disarm roadside bombs and patrol dangerous areas. The video below demonstrates how versatile these robots are becoming:

And, as was mentioned in an earlier post on the future of robotics in health care, robots are now performing more than 50 percent of all prostatectomies. Less understood is that these robotic systems are so good at what they do that patients often have significantly shorter recovery times due to the precision and delicacy with which the robots perform the surgical operation. In more practical terms, this means shorter hospitals stays and fewer nurses to watch over the patients. It also suggests that hospitals can free up more doctors, nurses, and beds to serve other needier patients.

Exponential Insight

Whether you are looking to squeeze a little more efficiency out of an existing operation, fighting a new battle, or are just trying to clean up around the office better, a growing number of robots are available to “walk the escalator” with you.

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Here Comes Intelligent Medicine

Posted on Mar 23, 2009 - 08:54 AM

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Oh Say Can You See … The Future of Retailing

Posted on Mar 19, 2009 - 12:59 PM

The Economist recently published its “Technology Quarterly” which, for my money, is one of the best ways for a lay person to stay abreast of the amazing changes under-foot in technology. A case-in-point is this insightful article, ”Machines that can see.” I recommend every retail client read it.

On the more practical side, retailers and food manufacturers are now using technology (in the form of expression-analysis software) to pinpoint how testers really react to new foods—as opposed to simply relying on what the testers say they thought about the new product. Longer-term, the same software will help advertisers target ads to individual customers in the grocery store. For example, beardless men will receive ads for razors.

Why it is even predicted that the technology will soon help prevent “sweethearting” and bar-code switching.

In a business with razor-thin margins, this is just the type of technology that could make or break a retailer.

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Reliving Flight 1549 into the Hudson

Posted on Mar 11, 2009 - 08:45 AM

Below is an amazing reanimation of Flight 1549—the now infamous flight into the Hudson. What’s impressive about the technology is that not only does it give the average citizen a better feel for what actually occurred that fateful day, more importantly, it will now be used by pilots all around the world to help them train for similar emergencies. (Hat tip to Techcrunch for the original story.)

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Jump the Curve: Save Big Money

Posted on Mar 06, 2009 - 09:28 AM

I have written before about how the mobile phone will soon become a powerful healthcare diagnostic tool (here and here), and I have also written about Google’s impressive foray’s into making the mobile phone a powerful platform which will augment human intelligence. Today’s news brings to light both of these points in spades.

There is now a new $1 iPhone application that will allow healthcare professionals to diagnose more than 1000 diseases from their cellphone. As impressive as the technology is, if you “jump the curve,” I think you can easily imagine a day in the near future when you will be able to do the exact same thing—but without the assistance of a professional. The potential for healthcare savings is enormous.

The second item that caught my attention was this video from Google which shows how a new application they are developing will help users monitor their home energy use from the comfort of their phone. If you watch the video, you’ll hear one Google employee explain how the application has saved him $3000 in reduced energy costs.

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Jump the Curve Strategy #10: Get in Touch with All of Your Sensors

Posted on Mar 04, 2009 - 08:46 AM

In November 2006 two events took place that suggested sensor technology was nearing a tipping point. First, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) announced a plan to install sensor technology in the car of anyone convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol. The organization’s rationale was that in spite of the great progress it has made in the past two decades since it began pushing for tougher laws against drunk drivers, statistics indicated that in recent years the number of deaths caused by drunk drivers has stayed steady. MADD wanted to do better and it believed sensor technology could help.

After the proposal was announced, proponents believed it would still be years before the technology had matured and dropped in price to a point where the major automobile manufacturers would consider installing it. In early 2007 Toyota surprised observers by announcing that it was actively developing the technology and felt such sensors could be installed as early as 2008. Obviously there are privacy concerns surrounding the technology as well as legitimate issues about how people--especially serial drunk driving offenders--might get around it, but Toyota’s announcement proves that sensor technology is now practical enough to be seriously considered for such applications.

The second event took place in Britain when Marks & Spencer, the larger British retailer, announced that it had achieved its goal of 100 percent stock accuracy, following its successful trial of employing RFID tags in forty-two stores to track inventory. The company added that it planned to increase that number to eighty stores by the end of 2008. (By embedding the RFID tags in throwaway wrappers and not the product themselves, Marks & Spencer was able to adroitly sidestep the privacy issue.)

Exponential Insight

In today’s global environment, low-cost sensors and RFID tags have the potential to imbue old products with new capabilities as well as give retailers and others a real advantage in terms of managing inventory. In businesses where the margins are already razor thin, these small tools could make a big difference. To return to the “better mousetrap” idea, it might surprise you to know that the latest and greatest mousetrap is now armed with a sensor that alerts homeowners whenever a rodent has been snared. In addition to freeing people from having to unnecessarily check the devices, the sensors are also useful in better determining where the mice are coming from.

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Jump the Curve Strategy #8: Run the Numbers

Posted on Mar 02, 2009 - 06:15 AM

I am going to go out on a limb and predict that the 2010 NBA champions will be the Houston Rockets. I don’t do this on the basis of any psychic ability. Nor do I do it out of loyalty for the Rockets--I’m a fan of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Instead it is because the Rockets management team is subjecting its entire roster to the power of quantitative analysis.

Quantitative analysis in professional sports is nothing new. It was the subject of Michael Lewis’s best-selling book, Moneyball, and has been cited by baseball experts as the reason why the Oakland A’s, in spite of having one of the lowest payrolls in professional baseball, are consistently among the league’s better teams.

Quantitative analysis is even credited with helping the 2004 Boston Red Sox break the Curse of the Bambino and end its eighty-six-year-old quest to win the World Series. Both teams’ general managers, Oakland’s Billy Beane and Boston’s Theo Epstein, admit to regularly using quantitative analysis to determine everything from how a trade for a particular player will impact the team’s on-field performance to where a certain player should be inserted in the batting rotation on any given day.

Translating baseball’s more linear nature--where it is relatively straightforward to isolate a player’s individual performance by discerning the difference between, say, a single and a home run--is far easier than figuring out the relative value of a basketball player. This is due to the complex ways in which a basketball team’s five players interact with one another while on the court. For instance, is a basket more valuable than the assist that made it possible? What about the value of a rebound as opposed to a blocked shot? And which has more impact on a game’s outcome, a player’s ability to steal two passes a game or his skill in consistently setting good picks?

These have been vexing questions, but economists have now developed an algorithm to help measure a player’s “wins produced” for his team, and the Rocket’s general-manager, Carroll Dawson, has an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management and is applying these algorithms to select the players he believes will best help his team win.

To this end, one of the reasons the Rockets signed former Duke standout Shane Battier had little to do with his 10.1 points per game average or his high shooting percentage (.488); it had more to do with his rebounds per game, his dramatic defensive ability, and his skill at quickly moving the ball around to his open teammates.

Time will tell if my prediction about the Houston Rockets will pan out, but the net effect of this emphasis on algorithms is that it is helping a number of businesses make better decisions today. For instance, Shell Oil is using complicated mathematical algorithms to help determine where to drill for oil, and it likely played a leading role in assisting Chevron scientists locate that company’s new massive Jack2 oil discovery in the Gulf of Mexico. And with Google Trends, businesses of all sizes can analyze and better understand how, where, and by whom its products are being used.

Exponential Insight

Whether you’re looking to improve your on-base percentage, take your game to a new level, or just find a new discovery, crunching the numbers can yield some surprising findings.

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Jump the Curve Strategy #7: Reorganize Your Data Storage Closet

Posted on Feb 26, 2009 - 08:24 AM

At the time this section of my book went to press (2008), Apple’s most recent iPod was capable of storing 80 gigabytes--or approximately 20,000 songs. Assuming that one had the all free time to listen to that much music--and a person very well may if she or he has a daily commute in one of the major cities of world--it would take that person just over a month, listening nonstop, to work his way through every song. Regardless of whether such a scenario is closer to your idea of heaven or hell, I think we can all agree that storing 80 GB of data on a device about the size of hotel-sized bar of soap is, for now, an impressive accomplishment.

Of course, this much data can be used for things besides just listening to music or downloading a recent episode of Desperate Housewives. A number of businesses are already using this capacity to walk the escalator by redesigning and retooling basic business operations.

In 2006, Siemens, the giant German-based conglomerate, purchased all of its medical technicians MP3 players at a cost of $30,000. By the end of the year it had reaped an eightfold return on its investment by cutting in half the number of training sessions it had to hold for those employees. (The cost per training session was $125,000.) More importantly, the MP3 players are being used to help ensure Siemen’s employees stay abreast of the latest advances in their field by downloading and listening to relevant podcasts.

Data storage is by no means limited to MP3 players. Safely and securely housing vast amounts of financial, marketing, and personnel and customer information is a chore, especially for smaller companies. Here again, a number of organizations are walking the escalator by outsourcing this task to companies that have mastered the data storage business. For instance, Amazon and Seagate are both now offering businesses of almost every size the ability to store and retrieve any amount of information, at any time, from anywhere on the Web. The systems are fast, reliable, scalable, and have the added benefit of allowing smaller businesses to dispense with the cost and overhead for the personnel and equipment that are necessary to handle such responsibilities.

The bottom-line is that as data storage continues to grow exponentially the ability to store and access vast amounts of data will change how many simple and common business operations are performed. If you want to survive, it’ll be necessary to reorganize your data storage closet on an increasingly frequent basis.

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Jump the Curve Strategy #6: Let the Computer Do It

Posted on Feb 24, 2009 - 10:03 AM

The incredible power of today’s supercomputers has already been discussed in some detail in this past post. These behemoths are large and expensive to operate. As such, their potential might seem out of reach for the average small to medium-size business.

This is true to a degree, but there are ways around the problem. Companies such as Amazon.com, which in 2006 introduced its Elastic Compute Cloud initiative, have begun to address this issue and are now renting access to massive computing power for as little as 10 cents per CPU hour. This means that 700 CPUs can be had for as little as $70.

In practical terms, this means a one-time problem that could benefit from having a few billion calculations run on its behalf can now be done fairly easily. IBM is also beginning to make supercomputing available to the masses.

One firm that took advantage of IBM’s program potential was SmartOps, a small company specializing in inventory optimization for other companies. It had a problem that involved over 70,000 SKUs (stock keeping units). Running the problem with a regular computer would have taken six hours, but with the help of an IBM supercomputer the problem was solved in seventeen seconds. The task proved so efficient that the company began to experiment with how other variables might impact the inventory, and quickly it was able to construct an even better solution.

If renting such computing power is still beyond your means, there is, again, the kindness of strangers. It might amaze you to know that the amount of computing power sitting idle in America at any given moment is the equivalent of thousands of supercomputers. Innovative organizations and individuals are now tapping into this power by asking people to use their computers when the owners are not using them.

The best known example is SETI@home, which is using over 1.2 million home computers to process signals from outer space in its search for intelligence life. A slightly more down-to-earth application can be found in the example of David Baker, a professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington, who is “walking the escalator” and is using distributed computing to search for a cure for cancer.

After his wife was diagnosed with cancer, Baker began looking for a solution to her problem. To pursue his research he realized that he needed an incredible amount of computing power. Not being a wealthy man, he put his request for computing assistance out on the Internet. Today he has more than 60,000 computers toiling away on his behalf, and he hopes to increase the number tenfold in the future.

To benefit from this approach, one doesn’t always need access to ten of thousands of computers. In the spring of 2006, Stefan Krah, an amateur code breaker, was occupied with cracking an old, unbroken Nazi code from World War II. Like Baker, Krah laid out his problem on the Internet and explained why he needed some extra computing power. Within a day he had five computers, and shortly thereafter 2,500 people had deemed his project of enough interest that they allowed Krah to use their computers. In almost no time, the computers quickly ran through 150 million permutations and cracked the code. All it revealed was the location of a long decommissioned (or destroyed) German submarine, but one can see the potential of the application of distributed computing for science and business in the next decade.

Exponential Insight

Searching for extraterrestrials and deciphering old World War II codes may not be on the top of everyone’s agenda. However, the fact that people are pursuing such tasks and, more importantly, that thousands of people are willing to open their computers to help find the solution indicates that not possessing a supercomputer is an insufficient reason for standing on the escalator. Who knows? By tapping into the power of computers you just might find something that is out of this world or discover a small secret that could help you in your next battle with your competitors.

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Jump the Curve Strategy #5: Bet On It

Posted on Feb 23, 2009 - 01:58 PM

In the summer of 2003, members of the United States Congress went apoplectic when news broke of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) program to help predict terrorist attacks and assassinations by allowing people to bet money on the likelihood of such events. (DARPA is the central research and development organization for the Department of Defense.) There is, of course, something unseemly about wagering on a tragedy, but what is ironic is that such systems have proven remarkably successful at predicting a variety of outcomes because people’s financial interests are appropriately aligned with accurately assessing the odds of the event occurring. Thus, properly used, the system could help prevent the very thing that Congress wanted to stop from happening.

The program was terminated, but a number of companies, including Google, Pfizer, and Microsoft, now regularly make use of such systems to allow employees to make bets on the outcome of everything from when a product might launch or assessing the prospects that a particular department will meets it quarterly sales goals to determining whether a new TV commercial will be a hit.

What is unique about such systems is that managers receive a different type of information than they might ordinarily receive from their subordinates. For example, a few years ago a Microsoft business manager kept telling her boss that a product was on schedule to launch on time. When the boss inquired why so many of the manager’s own employees were betting that the product wouldn’t launch until the following year, the manager was forced to admit that the program had run into hurdles. As a result, additional resources were committed to the project and, while the project was still late, Microsoft was at least able to get it to the market faster than otherwise would have been the case because of the unique insight that the market-based system afforded company managers.

Exponential Insight

Managers are, of course, encouraged to always listen to their employees’ words, but frequently what employees are saying is vastly differently than what their money is saying. By creating a system that aligns their financial interests with the company’s, managers can glean some useful information.

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Jump the Curve Strategy #4: Just Wiki It

Posted on Feb 22, 2009 - 03:16 PM

The earlier point about how P&G has increased its productivity speaks to another new mechanism that can increase productivity: wikis. Established on the premise that all of us together are smarter than any of us individually, wikis provide a powerful tool for helping companies collaborate on projects, manage group information, and incubate ideas on an accelerated basis.

The concept has grown so popular that even the process of writing of books is being wiki-fied. In the fall of 2006, I accepted an invitation to participate in the writing of a book entitled We Are Smarter Than Me, which attempts to demonstrate that a community can write a more compelling book than an individual expert.

I can’t say I contributed anything terribly profound, but I did add the following example to the chapter on open-source ideas:

Scott Adams and Dilbert. In 1998, Scott Adams, the creator of the comic strip Dilbert, became the first cartoonist to publish his e-mail address in his carton strip. Whether it was by strategic intent or dumb luck, Adams now regularly supplements his comic strip--which chronicles bureaucratic absurdities, management ineptitude, and bouts of corporate stupidity--with poignant insights and stories from his legions of fans who send him more than one thousand e-mails a day. From this pool of ideas, Adams has been able to augment his own extraordinary creativity to create more cartoons strips, and he also draws on the public’s input to provide better content for his books, Web site, and blog.

Whether it will be accepted, modified, or deleted is now in the hands of the community. The more intriguing result will be if the project works and the community creates a compelling book. My hunch is that it will because wikis offer an easy-to-use mechanism for tapping into a wider base of knowledge. Wikis also allow ideas to be shared, modified, amended, and otherwise improved on a faster basis than any conventional system.

One company that is employing a wiki with some success today is GlaxoSmithKline, which uses one to allow employees to share information during clinical trials for its new drugs. By providing people with the opportunity to supply their colleagues with more context, updated information, and even advice, the company’s management is using the wiki to help GlaxoSmithKline successfully avoid traps and pitfalls that have hindered it in the past. The net impact is that faulty drug candidates are being pulled quicker, and successful ones are reaching market sooner because regulators’ questions and concerns are being addressed in greater detail at an earlier stage. The former outcome saves the company money; the latter helps it make new money.

Exponential Insight

It is often hard for employees to be productive when coworkers constantly interrupt them with questions. A wiki can minimize such disruptions by allowing employees to create an ongoing database of common information. Questions and answers can be posted directly to the site where they can even be given more contextual depth. For instance, comments can be left and related Web sites and documents can be hyperlinked into a wiki. As more people begin contributing increasing amounts of information to the wiki, the utility and value of it will increase proportionately.

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Jump the Curve Strategy #3: Look to the Kindness of Strangers

Posted on Feb 21, 2009 - 09:44 AM

The notion of building a better product--a better mousetrap, if you will--is a powerful one, and more often than not the central figure in the story has been the lone individual who is frequently portrayed as diligently laboring away in his basement or garage devising a new or improved product. The importance of individual skill, initiative, knowledge, and capability will always remain important, but a new dynamic is now growing in power and it lies outside of domain of the individual. If one replaces the term mousetrap with mountain bike, this idea becomes clearer.

It may surprise you to learn that the popular off-road mountain bike wasn’t invented by a single person toiling away in his garage. Rather the bike morphed over time as a variety of committed, dedicated, and passionate cyclists began tinkering with their bikes to help them better meet the stringent requirements of their off-road pursuits.

First someone decided that the bike should have large balloon tires to better withstand the rough terrain. This was followed by thumb-shifting derailleur gears to allow bikers to more easily navigate steep mountain slopes. Next came motorcycle lever-operated drum brakes (to better stop while moving downhill), and eventually flat handlebars and lightweight tubing were added to confer additional advantages.

The lesson in this story is twofold. First, products evolve. Secondly, evolutionary advances are often developed by the people who rely on the product and not employees of the company manufacturing the product. There is nothing new or radical in this idea, but today’s technology has now sufficiently advanced to the stage where businesses can do a much better job of reaching out to those users to harness their ideas and speed up the evolutionary progression of their products.

At the forefront of this trend is the open-source movement. To fully understand the potential of the open-source movement, however, we will focus on something tangible: gold.

In 2002 GoldCorp’s CEO, Rob McEwen, wasn’t fully convinced that, in spite of what his company’s experts were telling him, there wasn’t more gold to be mined in his company’s main Red Lake mine.

To test his hunch, he proposed to do something radical. He wanted to open up his company’s geological data--which in the gold industry is a closely held proprietary secret--to the world’s most knowledgeable mining experts and give them a chance to determine if there might be more gold in the mine. As an incentive, McEwen offered a sizeable financial prize to anyone who could make a compelling case as to why his company should look for gold in a particular location. If the person’s hypotheses proved correct, he or she would be awarded the money.

Over the objections of his board of directors, McEwen posted his company’s information on the Internet. Within days the Web site generated 500,000 hits, and 1,400 people from over fifty countries entered submissions. The company then selected the five best entries and began mining. Goldcorp struck gold on four of five selections. Today the company has increased its market capitalization almost fourfold, and Red Lake mine remains one of the world’s more profitable gold mines.

There is no shortage of other companies tapping into the open source movement. Lego and iRobot, the maker of the robotic Roomba vacuum cleaner, are allowing their best customers to see and experiment with early beta versions of products, and they are listening to their suggestions about how to improve these products. IBM is opening up its patents to outside lawyers and even its competitors in an effort to speed up the patent-approval process, and Proctor & Gamble and a handful number of pharmaceutical companies are using a Web site called InnoCentive.com to post some of their more intractable problems in the hopes of tapping into the expertise that exists within the broader research community.

In fact, back in 2000, P&G, which has a large research and development staff of 8,000, announced an ambitious goal of having half of its new products and technologies come from outside the company. Seven years into the initiative, the company reports that 35 percent of all new products bear at least some input from outsiders. Moreover, it reports that productivity of its in-house staff has increased by 60 percent.

Exponential Insight

Right out of college I served as a naval intelligence officer and was privy to classified photos from supersecret satellites flying above the earth. Today anyone can go to Google Earth and download comparable photos.

What is more interesting is that with this information citizen-sleuths are now making discoveries that have eluded even the best intelligence analysts. In 2006 the Associated Press published a story about a man who had a passion for viewing Chinese landscape. One day he discovered a peculiar topographical feature in a remote corner of northwest China. Something looked familiar about it, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Eventually he realized the site was identical to a strategic piece of real estate along the Sino-Indian border. From this he correctly deduced that China had replicated the territory to better practice attacks against the target in India. In the exponential economy, secrets might actually yield more value by being declassified.

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Walk the Escalator with IBM

Posted on Feb 16, 2009 - 12:41 PM

If you’ve read my book, Jump the Curve, you’re familiar with the phrase “walk the escalator” which, succinctly defined, means “using existing technology to improve an existing product or process.” Late last week, IBM announced the creation of a new “strategic carbon management” consulting service. Among many other things, the service will help companies reduce energy and water costs. IBM has used the services on itself and, last year, cut costs by $310 million!

Obviously, not many companies are as large as Big Blue, nevertheless it is obvious to me that just as companies can save big money from supercomputers, they can also save big money by using IBM’s services. According to this article, for an average cost of $300,000 to $500,000, IBM can cut a company’s over all energy usage by 30 to 50 percent.

To date only one company, UK-based construction group Morgan Sindall, has signed up for the service.

Related Posts

Concrete’s Solid Future

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To See the Future Look in the Mir:ror

Posted on Jan 30, 2009 - 11:18 AM

To understand where the future is headed, I invite you to check out this 3-minute YouTube video which shows how the “internet of things” is becoming a reality:

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Concrete’s Solid Future

Posted on Jan 29, 2009 - 12:26 PM

Did you know that concrete is the most abundant man-made material on earth and that it is responsible for 5% of the man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) that is emitted into the atmosphere each year? I didn’t until recently when I began speaking to a number of construction-related companies and associations, including Dayton Superior, Kraus-Andersen and, most recently, the Associated General Contractors of Minnesota.

As a result of these engagements, I have begun paying a great deal more attention to this “everyday” material and the more I study it, the more confident I’m that, in spite of the on-going recession which has hammered the concrete and construction industries, I’m convinced concrete has a very solid future.

Specifically, there are five technological advances which of each, individually, will deliver great improvements; but, taken collectively, could revolutionize the industry. In no particular order here are the five technologies:

#1: “Green” Cement. Cement, which is used to make concrete, does not strike the average person as a “green” technology but thanks to research from such companies as Carbon Sense Solutions and Calera, I’m convinced that CO2 will no longer be seen as just a “global warming” output, rather it will become an input. In the process, the industry could become a green hero.

#2: Nanotechnology. Engineers at the National Institute of Standards recently patent a nano-additive which will slow-down the penetration of road salt and salt water. The technology holds the potential to double the life of concrete. With an estimated $54 billion spent on road each year in the U.S. this is no trivial advance.

#3: Stronger Concrete. Engineers in Liverpool recently tested a new fiber-enforced concrete that was found to absorb a thousand times more energy than traditional concrete. With terrorism an ever-present threat, the idea of making our embassies, government buildings and other strategic buildings and bridges more secure sure sounds good to me.

#4: RFID Technology. Yes, radio frequency identification tags. A handful of innovative companies are now experimenting with deploying RFID tags directly into concrete. Why? Because they want to know when the concrete has cured so that construction workers can safely move on to the next phase of building. The technology has the potential to shave days and weeks off of large-scale construction projections. It might also mean a few less road construction workers idly standing around.

#5: Rapid Prototype Manufacturing. Does the idea of printing a concrete slab sound ridiculous to you? Don’t laugh, Caterpillar is already working on the technology and the creator of the technology believes that in the future it will be possible to build a full-scale house in a few hours. In other words, the first little pig (you know, the lazy one) might be still be able to avoid the wrath of the wolf—who won’t be able to “huff and puff” and blow his house down.

#6: Translucent and Self-Consolidating Concretes: These material science advances are already beginning to gain a foot-hold in the industry so I won’t belabor the point but as customers, designers and architects begin to realize that concrete comes in more than one flavor and that more flexible designs can be made from it, I’m confident it find an ever increasing number of uses.

Interested in other construction-related articles from America’s foremost futurist, Jack Uldrich? Check out this past post:

15 Ways Nanotechnology is Improving Our Lives Today

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Bet on the Future

Posted on Jan 15, 2009 - 01:49 PM

In my book, Jump the Curve, I write that one way to assess the future is to let people bet on the outcome. It is based on the “wisdom of the crowd” idea. Well, now a new website, Nostrodamical, is putting the idea to the test. It’ll be interesting to see how the technology evolves. What to bet it’ll be successful?

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Is the Future of Robots Inside You?

Posted on Jan 13, 2009 - 08:24 AM

The answer is yes. According to this fascinating article, robotic researchers in Japan are already experimenting with the idea of leaving small, tiny microscopic robots inside people’s bodies. The rationale is simple: If they do need to conduct an internal examination or operation sometime in the future they won’t need to create an incision because the robot will already be inside the body.

To appreciate how advanced robotic technology already is consider this quote from the article: “In Thailand last year, a robot - remotely controlled from Kyushu - successfully removed lymph nodes from the abdomen of a dead human body in a joint venture between Kyushu University Hospital and Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.”

To gain a deeper appreciation of robotics check out some of these past articles by America’s leading healthcare futurist, Jack Uldrich:

Our Robotic Future
The Future of Hospitals (Robotics)
The Robot Will See You Now

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New Wind Company Seeks to Jump the Curve

Posted on Dec 01, 2008 - 10:05 AM

Is it possible that a wind turbine half the size of a conventional wind turbine could generate a comparable amount of electricity? According to this article the answer is yes.

To better understand how this new turbine can also use less land; operate at higher wind speeds; and reduce transportation costs, I invite you to watch this short five-minute video.

Related articles:

Unlearning May Be Blowing in the Wind

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IBM’s Five Future Predictions for the Next Five Years

Posted on Nov 26, 2008 - 09:04 AM

IBM has put together a nice, short two-minute video outlining five technologies that will become more pervasive over the next five years:

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Augment Your Reality in 3-D

Posted on Nov 24, 2008 - 10:07 AM

I don’t know if you’re like me, but even though I have a massive pile of paper on my desk I can often find exactly what I’m looking for. One reason for this is because the brain has a spatial organizing system. The accelerating rate of technological change is making it increasingly difficult for me to organize all of the information I have.

No need to worry, researchers at the University of Massachusetts are now developing a personal organizing system that allows people to organize digital records in 3-D. The example cited in this article is the idea of posting a receipt for a business trip to Paris next to a photo of the Eiffel Tower. The device that will allow you to do this is the cellphone which, as this video shows, is becoming very good at facilitating “augmented reality.”

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Retailers: Using Technology to Build Trust

Posted on Nov 14, 2008 - 10:02 AM

Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal ran an article describing how some grocery chain retailers are now using sanitized washing machines to disinfect grocery carts. (Surprisingly, shopping carts are among the dirtiest public places.) From one perspective this an excellent way to establish a high-level of trust with a store’s customers. From another perspective, it could send an unintended signal to customers that its shopping carts are somehow dangerous and thus could end up being counter-productive.

So, what is a well-intentioned grocer to do? One answer could lie in the esoteric field of nanotechnology. A number of new nanomaterials are now being made that have self-cleaning and even anti-microbial properties. Therefore, a more elegant solution to germ-ridden grocery carts, could lie in constructing them out of nanomaterials. (In this way, the carts could simply clean themselves without drawing any unwanted attention to the cleaning process.)

This is just one example of how new emerging technologies can help retailers establish a higher level of trust with customers. Best Buy and other retailers are now deploying kiosks in their stores that allow customers to conduct quick and easy price comparisons with competitors products. Even though many people do extensive research online before they make a purchase or can use their cellphone to do the same thing, the kiosks sends a great signal that Best Buy is using technology to bring a higher level of transparency to its business. Imagine further then that the kiosks can dispense an electronic coupon to match or better the competitors price. How far would that go in developing trust?

In the near future, RFID technology will also be deployed to enhance trust. Many consumers are becoming increasingly interested in the entire life cycle of their meat and agricultural products. With RFID technology consumers can learn everything from the farm that a chicken was raised on; to whether it was fed any antibiotics; to how long it was in transport before it arrived on the retailers shelf.

As wireless technology, RFID and in-store electronic displays all become more prevalent, the opportunity exists for retailers to build an ever deeper level of trust between themselves and their customers. The only question is whether retailers are willing to embrace the immense opportunity sitting before them.

Interested in other grocery-related articles by America’s leading retail futurist, Jack Uldrich? Check out these past articles:

Tesco Jumps the Curve
The Future Face of Retail
Watch What You Eat—Literally
The Future of the Grocery Store
Retailers are Beginning to Jump the Curve
Pump It Up: Retailers Use Google to Bolster Customer Loyalty
RFID Gets Untracked

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Strategies for innovating into the future:

Global futurist and author Jack Uldrich offers essential strategic information on nanotechnology, robotics, biotechnology, RFID and many other future technologies to help you prosper as exponential trends converge at this unique moment in history.

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Jump the Curve Strategy #6: Let the Computer Do It

Jump the Curve Strategy #5: Bet On It

Jump the Curve Strategy #4: Just Wiki It

Jump the Curve Strategy #3: Look to the Kindness of Strangers

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