Creating What’s Next

“How do we create what’s next for our customers without drifting from the heart of our business?” This is was the central question that was asked and answered during a remote innovation session I led last week for a client-partner.

The sibling to this question is “In what ways can we serve the needs of the world now that leverage our expertise?”  

As the team explored and laid the groundwork for groundbreaking ways to approach the work ahead, we kept one eye to the soul of the business and another to the heart of customer needs. Within this framework, we were creative and productive. We were aiming to serve while evolving the businesses’ offerings. The outcome was a new suite of services for this 30-year-old company, that will likely enable them to thrive for years to come.  This client-partner is obviously not alone in this quest to serve anew. This is the unignorable brave new world we’re in.

What’s next? That’s the edge that we’re standing on now. We’re looking out around the bend of an unknowable world; a blind curve into our future. We, ourselves, along with the world are considering how, when, and at what pace to reopen.

This is stepping into this abyss. This can be frightening. This can be exciting, just like any new adventure we embark upon. 

The question we are asking is not just “what’s next?” but “how do I or we create what’s next?” The future is up to us to create for our business, culture, society, and world. This opportunity is always there for us. The difference now is that circumstances are forcing exploration of and answers to these questions.  

The client-partner new services examples that I described above are just a few. Here’s more:

• A well-known public speaker, who’s shifting their speaking model to online event hosting. 
• A high-end travel company that’s offering highly curated, micro-trips, and a new premium concierge services to ensure deeper safety while adventuring. 
• A non-profit spiritual center that’s hosting global Sunday services virtually.
• A poet-philosopher who usually makes his living from tours and speaking now hosts Sunday morning virtual talks to some 4,500 people around the globe.
• A hospitality-focused PR and events firm that is shifting to a media connection services and event training for when the world reopens.
• A premium gifting company, currently experiencing record sales, who now sources branded COVID-need products like masks, shoe-coverings, and similar products in high-demand so people can get safely back to work.

These masterful stories of innovative evolution go on and on. In order to adapt to the world around us, we need to go beyond thinking-different, we have to be different. In order to be different, we have to let go of old ways of being and adopt new ones.

Go ahead, be daring. Be great. Be extraordinary. Be courageous. Be of service.

The world needs your evolutionary products and services, now.