We all know we’re living in interesting times as technology boils under the sea change in our economy, but it’s rare that we can see it very clearly. As a business person, it’s important to see such future trends clearly and this presentation by Mary Meeker, Wall Street analyst turned Kleiner Perkins Venture Capitalist, gives us an unusually insightful look into our past, present and future.
The Future Is Now
I’m not going to try to summarize her awesome assessment of what technology is doing to our society. This is one of the few 88 slide presentations I really believe is worth viewing from beginning to end (yes, really, and I have the attention span of a gnat so I don’t say this lightly). There are so many awesome trends she spots here, but I will summarize the ones that struck me personally as important and interesting (sing with me: It’s my blog and I can pick what I want to….)
- The mobile web is the future (The slides and graphs say we are literally sitting in the middle of the inflection point where handhelds are overtaking fixed location machines, with vast implications for how we reach and interact with our users and customers.)
- Mobile-enabled business models to undercut and redefine “the way we do things” are becoming more possible every day (really, even getting your car washed has a new model, check out slide 66.)
- Asset-light lifestyles are awesomely possible without compromising quality of life (If you’re not a techno-geek like I am, skim past the charts and graphs to check out the section starting on slide 59 and see if it helps you re-image your life.)
Really, though, take 10 minutes and go through this presentation.
One Woman’s Application Of The Future – The Thinking Behind InPower Women & InPower Coaching
I personally found this really encouraging. I AM a techno geek, not just as an early adaptor, but as an entrepreneur as well. I’ve been working on cutting-edge business models and product-service offerings for the last 25 years because I am so excited about this shift and change (ask me how I worked on the team to invent the Internet business model in 1993 before the Internet!)
Partly because I like it and partly because I think it’s smart business, I am developing my InPower Coaching business based on many of these assumptions. Here is a brief peek under the covers and how I’m building InPower Coaching and InPower Women to take advantage of these trends in support of YOUR personal and professional development. (No, this is not a beautiful and elegant video, but it was easy to make to give you a peek under the covers!)
If you’re interested in trying out this new-fangled approach to professional and personal development, sign up for our next free webinar designed to help you get a handle on your 2013 goals and intentions – and achieve them!
Personal Power Growth & Life – Excited About DownScaling My Life
I’m also personally really intrigued with what all this means for moving into an “asset light” existence. I love how Mary Meeker describes the potential here. My husband and I are shooing our youngest son off to college next year and really looking forward to selling the house and downscaling into a lighter living space and pattern. We want to travel and focus less on stuff and more on experience. It’s not always as easy as it looks but even now as we get rid of stuff and plan to downsize, I find myself excited about it and gaining energy from getting rid of STUFF. As I get rid of stuff, I find my personal power growing as my energy frees up to focus on the experience of life instead of the maintenance of life.
Can this kind of downscaling and reorientation be done with young children? I believe that it can because I know people that are doing it, but I do admit that it’s a bit harder. I do think that a judicious use of the new technology can help us dramatically improve our work-life balance but I know that you need a flexible employer to really make the changes that work for you personally without sacrificing your professional success. I will say that when I was in a corporate environment, I was always pushing the edge of professional flexibility in pursuit of personal balance and used technology as the catalyst (my first cell phone weighed ½ a pound and the car battery was bolted into my interior but it let me do conference calls on the way to daycare.) I don’t believe it ever hurt my professional prospects and as an entrepreneur a mobile presence has been crucial to helping me maintain a professional image even when I work in my pjs (now, for instance).
This is another reason I’m working to build my coaching and women’s empowerment business online. I love the idea of being able to do business and help people from anywhere easily. I’m all about quality and learning to get rid of “quantity thinking.” This is a challenge for our stuff-centric economy and lifestyle, but these new trends mean it will be more and more normal for all of us to focus on the quality stuff. I’m personally really excited about the possibilities!
How are you adapting to the new tech-enabled economy? What changes is it making in your lifestyle and business? How can you think about using 2013 as the inflection point for your life as the technology takes into a brave new world full of asset-light and new business model possibilities? Would love your thoughts.
