Cisco CEO John Chambers is selling a very powerful vision of future growth based on innovation timed to major market transitions occurring in business, government, education and infrastructure.  His current ‘network-based collaboration’ stump speech is CEO Hall of Fame caliber and offers lessons for all leaders seeking to build an organizational culture based on foresight and innovation:

  • Innovate across Market Transitions - The secret to company longevity is the appropriate application of strategic foresight that allows companies to innovate ‘across market transitions’ instead of fighting for market share during economic downturns or mature phases of industry growth.
  • The Network is the Platform – The web is evolving as a platform for unified communication systems and business services.  Business model innovation and operational execution are the foundations for tapping the power of network-based delivery of high value services.
  • Social Enterprise – The way to unleash productivity is to replace rigid org chart based communication channels with social enterprise structures that allow any individual to identify internal expertise, and directly share knowledge and experience across the organization.
  • Video-based Collaboration – Forget about ‘virtual teams’ based on email exchanges!!!   The game-changer in web collaboration is visually connected workers, partners and customers. Video (real-time and recorded) is likely to emerge as the preferred mode of collaboration in the years ahead.

Here are five videos featuring John Chambers exploring the dynamics of the ‘next generation’ organization:
(My favorites include the MIT talk and India Holographic presentation):

2008 Keynote at World Business Forum

MIT Video: Building the Next Generation Company

John Chambers Videos

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The 2010 World Economic Forum (”Davos”) has released a set of 5 minute video presentations from its IdeasLab program. Presentations are limited to 5 minutes (20 slides) so there is no ‘death by powerpoint‘, just good old fashioned ideas sharing from some of the world’s brightest minds.

Here are five presentations from a group of MIT Professors and Researchers on the nature of intelligence via social brain, reverse engineering the brain, collective wisdom, and web scale change:

MIT’s Rebecca Saxe: Social Brain

MIT’s Josh Tenenbaum: Reverse Engineering Brain

Four more videos below

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GM’s Decision to Build Electric Motors Could Shift Conversation on Future of American Manufacturing

by Garry Golden January 28, 2010 Companies to Watch

Forecast & Outlook: Electric vehicles (EVs) powered by the integration of batteries, hydrogen fuel cells and capacitors, represent an enormous opportunity for re-tooling America’s manufacturing base.  The high end of the value chain in automobiles is no longer based on combustion engines or mechanical systems, and has shifted towards electric propulsion, composite materials, energy storage/conversion, [...]

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Company to Watch in Bio Industrialism: Novozymes [Videos]

by Garry Golden January 27, 2010 Companies to Watch

Before we look at what makes Novozymes a company to watch – it is helpful to understand the market transitions occuring in materials science and engineering that drive all major sectors from food to energy to pharmaceuticals.
An Era based Look at Industrialism:
Ores, Hydrocarbons & Semiconductors
The history of industrialism, and our ability to manipulate the interactions of [...]

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Beyond the Military, A Bright Future for Situational Awareness Systems

by Garry Golden January 25, 2010 Companies to Watch

Forecast & Outlook:  The principles of ‘situational awareness’ based on perception, comprehensive and projection might soon support a wide range of applications that reach far beyond military operations and crisis response.   It is a user and outcomes-centric systems approach that could integrate anticipated advances in mobility, ‘smart’ infrastructure, learning systems, policy-making and business intelligence.
Situational [...]

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[Video] The Future of Coal, Carbon and Cathedral Thinking

by Garry Golden January 20, 2010 Companies to Watch

Forecast & Outlook:  Coal is the world’s fastest growing source of energy and leading fuel source associated with carbon emissions.  There is a two-fold path to rethinking our relationship with coal’s carbon molecules based on ‘Cathedral Thinking‘ and ‘Manhattan Project‘ strategies.  The end result and legacy we might leave future generations is a new capacity to better [...]

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Ford 2012 Focus Is One Step Closer To Skateboard Chassis Manufacturing Platform and End of Combustion Engine

by Garry Golden January 14, 2010 Companies to Watch

Forecast & Outlook: The global conversation about the future of transportation will soon shift from a narrow focus on incrementally improving ‘miles per gallon’- to a more substantive and fundamental rethinking of vehicle design and manufacturing based on an era of ‘drive by wire’ control systems, wheel-based electric motors and the integration of batteries, hydrogen fuel cells [...]

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Companies and Projects Exploring the Future of Search and Enterprise Learning

by Garry Golden January 13, 2010 Companies to Watch

Forecast: Our enterprise tools for searching, synthesizing, manipulating and transforming data into knowledge and skills will soon move beyond short keyword text searches into an era of more interactive, personalized and software-guided experiences.  The next wave of enterprise search, collaboration and learning tools will be built around: voice (natural language/conversation), video, location, social relationships, real-time [...]

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[Video] Nandan Nilekani Looks at the Future of India and Ideas to Leverage its Demographic Dividend

by Garry Golden January 3, 2010 Future of Geopolitics

Forecast: Leveraging and supporting India’s ‘demographic dividend’ will soon become the focus of many nations (beyond India) as a driver of economic growth and geopolitical stability in the next fifty years.
Having spent nearly two years of my life living in South Asia (Nepal and India), I will admit a favorable (and optimistic) bias towards [...]

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[Videos] Building a Vision and Marketplace for Lifelong Learning

by Garry Golden December 28, 2009 Foresight & Futures Studies

Forecast & Outlook: Learning Systems certainly have what it takes to become a ‘next big thing’ in the world of business.  (Sarcasm intended!)  Yes, we are still years away from personal learning systems becoming functional and widespread.  But, there are signs that conversations about a learning culture are shifting from  classroom to boardroom.  Company leaders [...]

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