Change in the modern world seems to be happening faster each year. We have had Moore’s Law which predicted the rate of change in computing power and speed, and with the increase in processing power in smartphones, the modern office is in your pocket now. Emails fire at you all hours of the day; instant messaging software is constantly chirping and your notifications from LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are getting silly. In amongst all these distractions, there are big changes happening in the world and if you miss them as a business then you are definitely going to be up to the creek without a paddle.

In The Anticipatory Organization, Daniel Burrus teaches us to separate what he calls Hard Trends, things that are almost certainly going to happen and cannot avoid, such as regulation technological advancement, climate change etc, from Soft Trends, which are events that might happen but on the other hand might not. Understanding the difference between them and comprehending the impact on your business is critical. It enables you to expect the unexpected and turn change into a business advantage. There are also two other concepts that he introduces, one of which is quite revolutionary, which is to actually skip a problem, and come back to it at a point later in time; mad as it may sound, it often means that the problem that seemed huge and urgent at the time when looked at later is much less of an issue. The other concept is Futureview; as Burrus states, you cannot shape your future whilst still looking at your past achievements, instead, you need to be looking at technologies and products that disrupt and innovate to be able to make your business a success tomorrow and beyond.

Overall an interesting book on a new way of looking at ways of changing businesses by properly analysing the trends going on in the world and exploiting the gaps that other businesses have missed.

Paul

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

This is one of those books that is both illuminating in terms of providing fodder for thought, while at the same time giving enough tips for acting upon the thinking. It teaches how to think about identifying trends and how to use them once we have identified.,

If you are running a business or a division of a business, this is a must read book..

For the majority of people that pick up this book and read it, the content will make sense and the reader will relate to the message contained within. The real beneficiaries will be those that take action based on the concepts laid out by Daniel Burrus. It is no longer sufficient to keep up with the pack, even though the pace of change has quickened considerably in everyday life. We are all stakeholders in this new age and the message is clear; Know what's next, Develop opportunities, Shape the future and Accelerate success. If you don't, someone will. This is a thought-provoking read, which makes a great deal of sense and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to contribute to the success of their organisation.