Are you a futurist? Well… perhaps you need to be!
Dust off that crystal ball, that spherical-shaped round thing of power you don’t use enough. You do have one! It’s in your Richard Cranial region;
between your “Audio Flappers”. Yes, that’s right! It’s your Imaginarium,
and therein, lies your power of foresight.
You don’t have to be a soothsayer to predict, for sure, that “change”
is something that will occur at a faster and faster pace as time advances.
I had a fascinating lunch with a lady, Ruth Lewis, last week. (Well, the lunch wasn’t so fascinating but the person sitting in front of me was). Ruth Lewis is a Technology Foresight Strategist. She’s an electrical engineer who went on to complete her master’s in futuristic sciences. Her clientele was business people in Institutional Authorities and businesses at the BIG end of town. Her question of me was; “how do you approach my area of expertise in a way that is not so “highfalutin’” for the Small Business Sector. It needs to be accessible and useful for small business owners?”
Thus, began an insightful melding of the minds on this topic. Get it? Insightful….futurist…yehhh…! Sigh! Anyhow……
READ ON POINT This topic got me thinking about the mistakes I’ve made with my own business ie seeing the writing on the wall, knowing my business would suffer and not pulling my finger out … of my mouth ….to change things up and move with foreseeable future trends.
If you want to be “Ruth Lewis’ddd”, you might want to contact Ruth directly on 0418 951 834
I was in the business of Implementing, training and supporting business owners who were getting used to their Accounting software systems.
I’d been doing it since 1980 in various forms. Yeh, a long time!
During this time, I found that Accounting professionals consistently gave me “the cold shoulder”.
Their kind of foresight told them that these systems were a threat to their business.
They didn’t want to know me, except that their clients wanted me there.
So, they reluctantly worked with me.
Were their fears justified? Was their foresight accurate?
Their foresight was short-sighted, driven by fear and foreboding.
They needed to dig deeper into their crystal ballssszzzss to get a more accurate view.
What really happened?
The progressive Accounting firms, those who perhaps made use of the expertise of the “Ruth Lewis’s of this world, embraced these systems and as a result, “made a killing”.
They were open minded, forward thinking, attended my training courses or similar, got themselves educated and began providing their own training, implementation and support services. They then found that they were inundated with work generated by cleaning up the messes their clients left behind.
You see, suddenly, most business owners were given a great tool; their new accounting software system, but, as we all know, the best of tools in the wrong hands can be worrisome.
These systems eg MYOB, Attache, Integrity, Elite, Peachtree, Arrow (if you’re older, no I didn’t say OLD, like me, and in the Accounting industry, you’d know these names) made accounting and bookkeeping look easy.
However, if you dig deeper into the effects of this, they created a new generation of DIY bookkeepers and amateur accountants who thought they could do it themselves, save on accounting fees and have an instant in house source of information.
Business owners were only partly successful at achieving this.
Where they were unsuccessful is where accountants and bookkeepers found their nirvana.
Suddenly, accountants and bookkeepers got so busy fixing all the errors and training their clients into oblivion.
The bean counters got so excited about this flurry of activity; they dropped their pencils!!
So, back to the question of how a Technology Foresight Strategists can be relevant for small business? It all becomes clear.
If you run a small business, we suggest you …
1. Focus on …
a. What you do best,
b. What you love
c. Why you went into business in the first place
d. What generates the most money for your business.
(If it’s accounting, then you should run an accounting practice, if that’s what drives you).
2. Take time out to think and plan like a Technology Foresight Strategist or hire one to future-proof your business.
If you want to be “Ruth Lewis’ddd”, you might want to contact Ruth directly on 0418 951 834
This is a “no kick back” zone.
We do not benefit from promoting the above or any people, products or services.
Our aim is to provide you with the best tips and hints that may help serve you and your business.
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