EVERYTHING
YOU
MAY
HAVE
ALL OF THE GREAT TIDBITS FROM BREAKFAST SESSIONS, PRESS CONFERENCES AND MUCH MORE By Amanda Mullen and Anthony Vargas
Photos courtesy of Jesse Grant, Getty Images
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Chris Woods performs at the Jan. 25 NAMM U Breakfast Session.
Daniel Burrus talks about "Trends, Game-Changers and Opportunities."
Scott Stratten speaks at the Jan. 26 NAMM U Breakfast Session.
Chris Woods, Daniel Burrus and Marcus Bell attend the NAMM U Breakfast Session.
Adrien Prevost, Jessica Fichot, Ippei Ichimaru and Sylvan Carton.
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ast month, we offered plenty of information about Thursday, Jan. 24’s “Breakfast of Champions” at The NAMM Show, as well as attendance figures and a couple of other tidbits. This month, we dig much deeper into the show, with a look at two other breakfast sessions and some press conferences. Let’s start with Friday, Jan. 25’s NAMM University Breakfast Session, entitled “Transforming the Music Industry: Trends, Game-Changers and Opportunities,” which was presented by Daniel Burrus. Burrus is a futurist thought leader who has given many speeches on global trends and innovation, an advisor to several Fortune 500 companies, and author of the best-selling books “Flash Foresight” and “Technotrends.” His breakfast session presentation was inspired by his latest book, “The Anticipatory Organization: Turn Disruption and Change Into Opportunity and Advantage.” Burrus’ talk was centered on the concept of identifying disruptive trends in business before they happen and being anticipatory so that you can position your company to take advantage of disruption rather than becoming a victim of it. He warned the audience against falling into the trap of being too busy at work to notice disruptive trends developing until it’s too late. “My biggest fear for everyone is, after The NAMM Show is done, we’re going to go back to our lives and we’re going to get busy again doing what we’ve always done,” he shared. “You’ve heard the old saying: ‘If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always had,’ which is obsolete now. Today, if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get much less of what you’ve always had, because the world has changed.” Burrus identified two distinct categories of disruptive trends: hard trends and soft trends. “A hard trend is based on a future fact. It will happen. You can’t stop it. However, you can see it before it happens,” Burrus described. “The other type of trend is a soft trend. That’s based on assumption. It might happen. No guarantees here.” He identified a number of hard and soft trends. For example, hard trends include the passing of government regulations, the advancement of technology and the aging of populations. Soft trends include things like the increasing cost of healthcare in America and rising global obesity rates. Burrus added that hard trends are based in certainty, while soft trends are based in uncertainty, and that certainty is more conducive to making smart business decisions. He also drew a distinction between “change” and “transformation.” “Change comes from the outside in, forcing us to react,” he said. “Transformation, whether it’s personal or business, comes from the inside out, giving you control, allowing you to shape your future. I don’t want us to be passive receivers of the future — ‘Let’s wait and see.’ Because if you do that, I don’t think you’re going to have a very good future. I think you’re going to be very unhappy. I want you to be active shapers of the future, creating the disruptions and the changes that need to occur.” Burrus also implored the audience to end the generational warfare happening in their offices in order to maximize their companies’ ability to anticipate change and transform their businesses on their own terms. According to Burrus, “Here’s what the war is: If you’re younger, you’re looking at the older people in the organization, and you’re saying to yourself, ‘Man, they’re like a fossil. They’re not changing fast enough.’ […] And if you’re older, you’re looking at the younger people and you’re saying, ‘How is the world going to survive them?’” Burrus suggested that, if the different generations in the workforce would work together, they would see how well they complement each other. “If you’re older, what’s your gold? What’s your platinum? Your wisdom, your experience. But you’re also in the box, and you can’t get MARCH 2019
