Eric Garland's Competitive Futures Blog - Latest Comments

Re: You bastards and your eco-criminal MICROWAVE OVENS

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Re: Small companies adding value: the rise of microbrewing

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Re: Brazil: A bright future overcomes inflation fears

Søgemaskineoptimering — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 00:27:24 -0000

And yesterday, we saw a worrying sign of Twitter's corporate future. An Independent ... Can App.netovercome the hurdles? At least it has ...

Re: The future is a social contract

Søgemaskineoptimering — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 11:50:36 -0000

That "social contract" ensured institutional sexism in the labour movement. ... Welcome, Frances O'Grady: you are the face of their future.

Re: Will Vermont secede from the United States?

Eric Garland — Thu, 17 May 2012 23:41:12 -0000

YO JERICHO - stay tuned - I have a piece coming out in The Atlantic on secession movements in a few weeks.

Re: Will Vermont secede from the United States?

BarryDole — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:35:17 -0000

Go Vermont!! Born in Jericho, VT and i support secession! SVR! SVR!! SVR!!!

Re: The state of strategic intelligence: a benchmarking study

Private Detective Agency — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 08:36:22 -0000

The cause for such specificity in national security training is that the national security field and the intelligence field in particular, have become more complex. With the greater demand for intelligence workers and code enforcement and the addition of high level national security jobs, just any college that offers studies in intelligence or national security may not be sufficient.

Re: White paper: Social media and customer relationship management

Mike Bosch — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 08:41:35 -0000

Thanks for sharing white paper.

Re: Your refrigerator has its own email account

Eric Garland — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 09:21:34 -0000

This one is easy - it tells the story of something we saw coming correctly. If you want real intellectual honesty, next year will be the tenth anniversary of a project on the future of nanotechnology that, if we had actually launched it, would have been completely wrong. We fell victim to "Amara's Law," that says people overestimate the effect of technology in the short-run, and underestimate it in the long run. That story will be even more useful - a cautionary tale.

Re: Your refrigerator has its own email account

robin stacpoole — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 08:19:04 -0000

Well, I am impressed. I have met a number scenario analysts and this is the first time I have seen one who has the courage to "look back on his look forwards and learn"

Re: Brazil: A bright future overcomes inflation fears

Dining Room Furniture — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 01:34:23 -0000

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Re: The state of strategic intelligence: a benchmarking study

Tibaut_houzanme — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:12:12 -0000

That the agro-nano questions arise only sporadically, repetitively and wastefully at the state of dreaming of CEOs and C-level executives is an indication of a lack of (but I will make it sound better by calling it a need for) collective wisdom and knowledge management within the company.

Re: The state of strategic intelligence: a benchmarking study

Eric Garland — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:52:40 -0000

Simon, this is excellent feedback that everybody in the strategic intelligence community needs to deal with IMMEDIATELY. At Competitive Futures, we regularly hear from clients that the expectations from internal clients can be absurd. "Can you have a complete analysis of the potential market space in Asia Pacific by next Tuesday? We have a meeting and need something good." This is followed by "can you provide scenarios for the strategic direction of the umbrella market in Thailand? We hear it's going to rain."

There needs to be a dialogue between executives and their colleagues in the information professions: is this stuff valuable enough that you need to really invest in it? If the answer is yes, then there needs to be investment of both money and time. This means that you allot a reasonable amount of time for internal or external staff to provide reliable information, and moreover that you think about your needs in advance. I submit that if you wake up on a random Thursday and need a quick - yet awfully complete - review of agri-bio-nanotech, it may not be all that essential to your future. If it truly is a "strategic" issue (a term that is abused on a regular basis) then that means by definition it is not a quick, operational emergency. Not only should you take time with it - you probably have the time. Six weeks, six months: if it's truly a megatrend issue, it's not going anywhere. The question is how fast you act on it in comparison to competitors.

As far as the intelligence community's ability to deal with highly detailed requests, it is often a problem...depending on with whom you work.

All great input - thanks so much!

Re: The state of strategic intelligence: a benchmarking study

Simon Farris — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:31:45 -0000

My concern (and observation) regarding strategic, competitive, and/or technological (technical?) intelligence, etc. is NOT whether it is important. I think it is very important. My observation is that when the information is needed, it is needed VERY quickly, and "very inexpensively" (read, free, except for a week, or so, of internal labor). Perhaps I am mistaken, but there seems to be an assumption with the "strategic intelligence community" that there is the luxury of time in generating analyses (and meta-analyses) on emerging technologies for specific markets and strategic sectors, and that the objective of such analyses will be so well defined and so well focused that they can easily be addressed. I have found this (unequivocally) to not be the case. (e.g. "... tell me about the intersection of agri-food and nanotechnology in various key - and relevant - global regions, and tell me by week's end the key research areas we should BEGIN to look at where we can have an impact, where the field is not crowded, and do so using freely available resources and references." Next week, we'll ask a similar question, but the topic will be emerging/"very advanced" technologies that might be utilized in the "forestry industry", with the same cost and time constraints, and conditions, as the previous analysis.). At any rate, these are just the flavour of the inquiries I've seen over the past ten years, or so. I'm not sure the strategic intelligence community is able to handle analyses where "deep knowledge" of the technologies in question is ALSO required. The SI community seems to be much better suited to "more standard" and/or "commoditized" fields.

Re: American college loan debt outpaces credit cards

Abin Clane — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 06:30:19 -0000

I have seen this news a couple of months ago and I think this will just continue to happen as more and more students rely on taking their private student loan. For those who have taken one, they should also consider taking odd and unusual jobs so that they can pay back their loans in time like the article I just read.

Re: Competitive Futures announces strategic alliance with competitive intelligence leader Aurora WDC

Babette — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 02:56:56 -0000

Congratulations. Wishing the two organisations great success in their future endeavours. Best Babette

Re: California population trends: increasing while jobs stay flat

DIANABOL — Sun, 29 May 2011 09:30:37 -0000

you's think a bigger population would create an equal number of jobs.

Re: Where goes the California economy, there goes the U.S. economy

JudgeFedd — Sat, 28 May 2011 13:39:59 -0000

Awesome, Thanks! The result is just what I thought.
The only other dimension is the quality of the jobs. My guess is that many of the recent employment numbers are low paying or temp jobs.

Re: Where goes the California economy, there goes the U.S. economy

Eric Garland — Fri, 27 May 2011 13:32:49 -0000

Ask and ye shall receive:

http://blog.competitivefutu...

Re: Where goes the California economy, there goes the U.S. economy

JudgeFedd — Fri, 27 May 2011 13:19:58 -0000

I'd like to see this chart baselined by California's annual population numbers.

Re: American college loan debt outpaces credit cards

Eric Garland — Thu, 26 May 2011 11:51:19 -0000

Eric Garland
Managing Partner
office: (877) 431-6565
cell: 802.999.8118
Twitter: @ericgarland
Company website: http://www.competitivefutur...
Author and speaker website: http://www.ericgarland.co

Re: American college loan debt outpaces credit cards

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Re: American college loan debt outpaces credit cards

Eric Garland — Wed, 18 May 2011 10:03:08 -0000

Eric Garland
Managing Partner
office: (877) 431-6565
cell: 802.999.8118
Twitter: @ericgarland
Company website: http://www.competitivefutur...
Author and speaker website: http://www.ericgarland.co

Re: American college loan debt outpaces credit cards

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Re: Student loans outpace credit cards in the United States

plumbing — Tue, 10 May 2011 07:43:55 -0000

Thanks for the post!Another issue that needs to have a solution because once it arise it will bring a big problem that may affect the students as well as the government.They need to study and plan for action immediately to solve the issue.