These are truly extraordinary times

A financial downturn that is likely to be deeper and longer than any other. Global impacts with speed and connections never before imagined. A social and environmental crisis that is potentially even more serious. And a fundamental shift in the world’s business landscapes.

  • From west to east ... the rise of the new creative economies
  • From large to small ... the influence of individuals and entrepreneurs 
  • From masses to niches ... the long tail of specialist markets open to all
  • From business to customers ... the demand to work on customers terms



It’s time to press the “reset” button

Whilst the Chinese use the same word to mean threat and opportunity, Einstein reminds us that we cannot solve problems with the same thinking that created them, and Picasso sees turbulent times as the most exciting times, because everything changes.

  • $21 billion wiped off stockmarkets, spreading like wildfire, affecting 6.5 billion people
  • Stagnated growth, -2% in USA and -8% in Russia, +4% in India and +7% in China
  • 2 billion people "at the bottom of the pyramid" but with $5 billion spending power
  • 50 million acres of forest, 100 million acres of farmland, destroyed every year
  • The need to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2020, or face climate disaster
  • 9 billion population by 2050, with the largest rise in the new middle classes
  • Whilst computing power continues to double, and chip size half, every 18 months
  • 3000 ad messages daily,  kids can do 5.3 things at once, decisions in 2.6 seconds 

From the eco-architecture of Masdar City to the social entrepreneurship of Grameen Bank, the nanotechnologies of Hydrabad to the 21C fashions of Shanghai Tang, people are starting to make the connections, to recognise the opportunities of a new business world. 

So where do we start?

Closing our eyes, battening down the hatches, sticking to our traditional core? These are unlikely to be the solutions of winners. The upturn is not likely to be here for some time, and the future will not be like the past. The crisis is really the crying pains of a rapidly changing world.

  • How are your customers changing? In their priorities and profit?
  • Should you reduce costs? Or invest in driving innovation and growth?
  • Will your existing markets survive, or should you look to emerging spaces?
  • Should you focus on core capabilities, or work more flexibly through partners?
  • Who are your new competitors, off and online, locally and from across borders?

We need to rethink what matters most, which rules to retain and which to break. We lived in a comfort zone, riding on a long wave of underlying growth, where the future could be predicted based on the past, and the economic frictions of inefficiency became opportunities for profit.

None of this works anymore. We need to rethink.



Open your eyes

How can your business respond to this new environment? Who will be the winners and losers of these reshaping markets? Where should you focus your efforts, which customers and markets? And what does it take to be a leader in times of crisis and change?

  • Obama rewrites the rules of politics in a networked, disrupted world
  • Fiat seizes new opportunities amidst the ruins of Chrysler and Detroit
  • Air Asia launches low-cost, high quality air travel for the new global markets
  • Brawn GP shows that a small youthful team can beat McLaren and Ferrari
  • Asus disrupts the technology world with its small, limited-function notebooks
  • Baidu challenges the supremacy of Facebook in the social media world
  • Zopa, the online peer to peer network, becomes the fastest growing bank
  • Virgin Galactic prepares to launch space travel for the masses next year

In the future we will look back and see how 2009 reshaped the world. Just like 20 years ago, when a series of unconnected events - from Tiannemen Square to Robben Island, the launch world wide web and the fall of the Berlin Wall - transformed our world, and our mindsets.

Now is the moment to rethink, to seize the opportunities of the new business world.

Rethink ... reset, refocus, recreate

  • "Rethink" is an exciting new series of books from Peter Fisk, author of the bestselling Marketing Genius, The Good Growth Guide and many others.

  • "Rethink" is a provocative and inspiring theme for conferences, seminars and workshops around the world by international speaker Peter Fisk

For more information visit www.theGeniusWorks.com

Contact Peter Fisk at peterfisk@peterfisk.com