Future Trends and Shepard, part 2

There was discussion about lifestyle trends, ethical consumption(voting your dollars, monetization (time is more precious than money)and work trends.

LIFESTYLE TRENDS
Simply, a commodity identity continuum. That is, does this (or any) product define me? It's probably why people brand shop.

ETHICAL CONSUMPTION: VOTING WITH YOUR DOLLARS
Causes people are willing to spend money to support: bloodless diamonds, free range poultry and beef, oil free products, dolphin free tuna, etc.


MONETIZATION: TIME IS MORE PRECIOUS THAN MONEY
services and entrepreneurs who provide a way for others to save time. There was a reality series on Fine Living Channel that covered this. Simply, someone picks up and delivers back your dry cleaning; Merry Maids; personal shoppers. While they are doing these things, you can be doing something else.


WORK TRENDS
This category was divided into three areas, recruiting, retention and leadership development.

Under RECRUITING they listed five categories of potential employees:

• Creative Class -those who are motivated to a job based on being able to work with other cool and talented people
• From Ethical Consumption to Ethical Careers - for them it's not about the money
• Free Agents - project-based contracts and talent scouts
• Recruiting the Network people are looking for teams, not just individuals.
• The "Retired" Workforce was as interesting to me as the first group. They said that 75% of boomers do not plan to retire but move from "had to do" to "want to do" jobs in retirement.

There were two books mentioned as must reads: A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink (of which we own 64 copies) and Thinking About The Future, by Andy Hines ( the actual presenter) of which we own none. There was also a web site mentioned about value surveys.

These two blogs just about cover my notes from this ninety minute session, so you can see we heard a lot during that time.

Again, questions and discussions are expected.