Future proofing your business The right questions to ask for success

Co-written by Minter Dial and Caleb Storkey, Futureproof, How To Get Your Business Ready For The Next Disruption is out now in paperback (Pearson and FT Press) and on Kindle on amazon.com.

FUTURE PROOFING YOUR BUSINESS: insider tips and tricks for aspiring entrepreneurs

Minter Dial, president of The Myndset Company and business book author, reveals what it takes for a business owner to succeed in an age of disruption

It’s quite astonishing that we tend to make different decisions between how and what we buy when shopping as consumers versus how and why we invest in financial instruments. As much as I consider myself a savvy technologist, my new financial advisor was appalled when he took over my account and saw how little my stock portfolio reflected my tech-forward mindset.

At the heart of this contradiction – if not paradox – is one of the key issues for business and, I might argue, for society at large. If we don’t align the way we invest with the way we consume (and fret about daily life), we’ll stunt our ability to effect real change. Similarly, in business, we need to align our internal culture with our external brand. It’s about having a coherent, consistent and congruent brand. This is one of the four keys to futureproofing your business. The rest is as follows.

1. Creating a strong brand with purpose

In order to pierce through the crowded marketplace, sustain a high level of energy, recruit great talent and create a lasting legacy, there is no doubt that it’s all about having a strong brand that’s attached to a significant purpose. Many companies make the mistake of leaving ‘branding’ down to the logo and a claim. The reality is that a strong brand is a mark of confidence. As such, the first and most important audience is the inner circle of employees. It’s about the little things we do, the way we behave on a daily basis that make that brand come alive. Having a strong sense of purpose will help take the brand to the next plane.

Key thought: Why would the world be a lesser place without your brand?

2. Adopting the leadership mindset

True leaders lead by example. They must observably walk the talk. There are three mindsets that I believe need to be embedded in your company culture. First, as part of your purpose, make sure that everyone in your team feels that they are contributing and doing something meaningful. Second, instill a sense of accountability and personal responsibility, especially when it comes to your sense of ethics and communications. Finally, in this fast-changing environment and faced with a vast number of options, it’s important to display humility and to craft a deeply collaborative spirit within and without the company.

Key thought: Are you, as a leader, modelling the behaviour you’d like to see happen in your company?

3. Finding your cocktail of disruptive forces

With all the new startups sprouting everywhere and the new technologies coming on board, it can be tricky picking your way through. The challenge is not just to avoid the SOS (shiny object syndrome), but to adopt those technologies that are most solidly aligned with your strategic intent.

Truth is that these technologies do not live in isolation. Systematically, it will take a cocktail of technologies in order to benefit fully. For example, ‘big data’, which is going to explode because of the omnipresent smartphone and the burgeoning ‘internet of things’, it will rely on the cloud and AI for smarter analytics.

Key thought: Is your strategy crystal clear, well understood and owned by all your key stakeholders?

4. Getting your slice of the PIE

At its core, it’s about adopting the right mindset. My co-author Caleb Storkey and I created a simple PIE model. It starts with the ‘Personal’ action plan. What should you be doing as an individual to model and demonstrate the desired behaviours you’d like to see cascading throughout the organisation? This means, for example, taking personal responsibility for your own learning, cyber security and personal branding. Secondly, you need to look at the ‘Internal’ functioning of the company and make sure that it’s optimised and aligned with how you’d like to operate and communicate externally toward the customer. Lastly, you need to look at the ‘External’ activities, and see how these technologies can augment and activate your strategies vis-à-vis your external stakeholders, shareholders and, of course, customers.

Key thought: To what extent is your internal culture aligned with your external messaging?

I leave you with a last set of questions. As leadership expert Robin Sharma asks: Is your audio aligned with your video? Do your personal consumer habits and desires match up with your investment profile and strategy? And are you prepared to bring your whole self to work to make the important decisions that will impact your employees, customers, long-term profits and the betterment of society?

For more information, go to futureproof.ly

Is KNOWLEDGE the new STATUS SYMBOL?

From private clubs to luxury cruises, the new status isn’t about who you know, it’s about what you know. Smart is most definitely the new sexy

Words: Lysanne Currie

t’s Friday morning and my regular email newsletter from The Club at the Ivy pings into my inbox. It details next week’s breakfast briefing – free to members, coffee and pastries supplied, numbers limited. This one is on Immersive Technology. Over the past few months, topics have included ‘Investment Post Brexit’, ‘Living Sugar-Free’ and ‘Benjamin Britten’s Operatic Works’. Across town, Shoreditch House’s events programme is just as busy with art talks, an Instagram workshop and a debate titled, ‘Brexit: will fashion suffer?’

Once upon a time, London’s exclusive members clubs were hedonistic havens, places to let loose with likeminded people. Friendships were forged as the sun rose – “bird song and new business ideas,” as one partygoer called their regular 5am finishes. But times change, and 20 years on private members clubs now compete over their cerebrum-stimulating content. Even private parties need an element of intellectual invigoration to be the hot ticket. The super smart founder of Innocent turned investor, Richard Reed, threw a glamorous party for his 40th birthday. While guests were greeted with fine wine, a fantastic venue and mouthwatering canapés, the star of the show was an entertainment programme that included a 20-minute talk by author and School of Life founder Alain de Botton.

The democratisation of luxury has played a key part in this shift from the material to the mindful – everyone can now buy designer handbags and supercars so the elite now use much more tacit signifiers of their status – intellectual capital and knowledge. Digital trend magazine Aeon revealed that, according to US Consumer Expenditure data since 2007, the top 1% of the country has spent less on material goods and more on ‘inconspicous consumption’ – health and knowledge.

“This whole trend is interesting because it's part of the experience economy,” said Helen Brocklebank, CEO of Walpole, the alliance of over 200 British luxury brands and cultural institutions from Claridges to Cliveden, Dunhill to Debretts. “It's immensely chic to be smart at the moment – think of Serpentine CEO Vana Peel and her super smart, connected circle. If you have wealth enough to buy anything you want, brains become the thing money can't buy.”

Tanya Rose, CEO of luxury marketing agency Mason Rose, added that time pressures also play a big part. “The lines between social networking and selfimprovement are blurring as time gets tighter. Events have to work harder – if I can learn something valuable, test a trend or develop personally, it’s winwin. We are all looking for depth of expertise, quality of information and the opportunity to discover something new and life-enhancing.”

And luxury trend spotter Nick Scott, former editor-in-chief of The Rake magazine, agreed: “Status without intellectual substance increasingly seems vacuous in a society which is becoming more of a meritocracy with each passing generation.” »

Travel trends

Knowledge is so desired by the world’s top tier that luxury brands have to work hard to keep their edge. The super wealthy residents on the largest yacht on earth, The World, crave learning both on their expeditions and back on board. The World constantly raises the bar with their event programme – last month they introduced their new quarterly Nobel Laureate Lecture Series which kicked off with a lecture by the 2014 Nobel Prize winner and inventor of the blue LED, Dr. Shuji Nakamura. “This programme offers residents the opportunity to personally connect with internationally-renowned Nobel Prize Laureates,” explained CEO Pamela Conover. These are in addition to The World’s itinerary-inspired lectures and breakfast forums where on-board residents discuss current affairs with lecturers and local dignitaries. “Our programmes enrich the residents’ intellectual exploration at the highest academic levels – they often comment that living on The World is like getting an advanced degree.”

Ultra-luxury cruise line Seabourn’s similar ‘Conversations’ programme has brought speakers including Lord Digby Jones, Apple’s Steve Wozniak and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Walter Robinson on board to lecture and mingle with guests. And in 2014 they introduced a partnership with UNESCO which gives Seabourn clients special access to their sites for ‘truly remarkable learning experiences’.

“The UNESCO partnership provides our guests with opportunities to experience World Heritage Sites as few travellers can,” explained Seabourn president Rick Meadows. “Imagine the conversations and memories among the guests, after taking advantage of these limited access and behind-the-scenes experiences.”

Seabourn’s Conversations programme offers an on-board education that can’t be bought

Lord Digby Jones

Steve Wozniak

Bill Bensley’s ‘chemistry department’ bar revolutionises mixology

Shinta Mani Wild will be the epitome of sustainable tourism

Luxury DNA

Interestingly ‘knowledge’ is now starting to play a part at the conception of new luxury products. Award-winning hotel designer Bill Bensley created the JW Mariott in Vietnam’s Phu Quoc (read our insider’s review in Escape) in the same physical format as a university campus. “The beach bar is built into the ‘old chemistry department’ filled with periodic tables and busts of the world greatest chemists,” Bensley explained. “Everywhere one looks, knowledge is presented in a spectacularly amusing manner!”

Another of Bensley’s hotly-anticipated launches, Shinta Mani Wild, sees him take learning to the next level, mixing it with conservation and sustainable tourism.

“I’ve bought a 1,400-acre logging concession in the middle of Cambodia’s Cardamon National Park,” he says. “We’re building the Shinta Mani Wild, a low impact high yield project for just 30 guests maximum.” Bensley is working with Wildlife Alliance, Fauna & Flora International, The Royal University of Phnom Penh and the Cambodian Government to bring his new conservation model to life in 2018. Guests will be able to choose from myriad activities including exploring South East Asia’s last wild estuarine ecosystem by boat or accompanying rangers and researchers as they study the wild forests and their inhabitants.

“Just the bragging rights that guests will have in aiding to preserve this natural habitat for thousands of wild creatures including the last of the wild Asian elephants is enough reason to travel half way round the world!” Bensley reflected.

Walpole’s Helen Brocklebank concured, knowledge is now catnip to the elite, the discreet status symbol of the privileged. “In a digital world where everyone can access everything at the touch of a finger, we crave an experience that can't be reproduced, a moment that's yours alone. The way you feel in that moment becomes increasingly valuable. Right now, it's about what you know even more than who you know. Knowledge is the capital that counts.”