Each year Beaton Consulting compiles the opinions of large professional service clients – this year 40,000 of them – who collectively select the best professional service firms in Australia. The results are announced at a gala dinner and published in BRW magazine.
I gave the guest keynote at the event, with the intent of providing inspirational yet light-hearted perspectives on the awards.
My theme was “Creating Australia’s Future”, about how professional services firms are at the heart of Australia’s (and all developed countries’) future. Read more →
https://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.png00Ross Dawsonhttps://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.pngRoss Dawson2013-03-14 11:51:322020-06-18 04:06:40Professional services will be at the heart of our economic future
‘Visionary leadership’ is one of the phrases most bandied about these days, yet it is almost always an aspiration rather than a description.
A vision of what is possible is a prerequisite to visionary leadership. That vision can come from an individual, but more often it is the product of many people.
The vision that underpins visionary leadership is definitely not the ‘Vision’ that is encapsulated in a neat phrase and sits alongside the ‘Mission Statement’ and its ilk.
A vision needs to be something that people can ‘see’ in a way that makes them want to move towards it. There are seven primary characteristics to powerful visions that I identify:
– Compelling. Powerful visions must draw people, attract them, make them want to take action and overcome obstacles to achieve it. It must feel worth achieving, worth putting real effort into getting there.
One of the ways in which I use the frameworks I create is as a foundation for my keynote speeches. Since in many cases the frameworks are designed to distil the key ideas in a domain into a single graphic, they can provide a valuable lattice and flow for the ideas in a presentation.
Visual presentation tool Prezi can be a great way to do this, in showing the logic and structure of the framework through the presentation, while allowing me to zoom in through the presentation to illustrate the specific detailed concepts.
https://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.png00Ross Dawsonhttps://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.pngRoss Dawson2013-03-12 12:02:082013-03-12 12:02:08New Prezi: The 45 elements of the Future of the CIO framework
Over the next few weeks I will be giving the keynote at the Tomorrow-Ready CIO Series organized by CIO magazine and sponsored by IBM. The events will be held over breakfast in Canberra, Perth, Sydney, Auckland and Melbourne, with an audience of CIOs and other senior IT executives. Full details on the events here.
My keynote will be on the Future of the CIO. I have recently pulled together my thinking on the topic, drawing in particular on a series of CIO workshops I ran across Europe last year.
https://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.png00Ross Dawsonhttps://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.pngRoss Dawson2013-03-05 11:58:112013-03-05 11:58:11Launch of Future of the CIO framework
Earlier this month Air New Zealand ran its second Social Media Breakfast in Auckland, with close to 1,000 people coming to see Teddy Goff, the Digital Director of Obama’s campaign, and myself speak. The number of attendees had increased since Randy Zuckerberg spoke at the first Social Media Breakfast last July, and now Air New Zealand intends to run the event regularly through this year.
Below is a brief but nice highlights video of the event, including highlighted excerpts from my and Teddy’s keynotes.
https://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.png00Ross Dawsonhttps://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.pngRoss Dawson2013-02-28 12:55:492013-02-28 12:55:49The future of social media: Almost all commerce will become social
One of the reasons that my focus is increasingly shifting to the future of work is that it is in fact a large part of the future of humanity. And if we don’t get this right it might not look pretty.
The two primary drivers of a changing work landscape in coming years remote work and work automation. Almost all work will be able to be done anywhere, and a growing proportion of today’s jobs will be supplanted by machines.
The replacement of human workers by machines is of course a large part of human history, and so far we have consistently created new jobs faster than old jobs have disappeared.
However machine capabilities – including robotics, spatial cognition, and natural language processing – are developing so fast that there is a real chance that there will be insufficient new jobs to replace the ones that disappear.
In the ebook Race Against the Machine, authors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, both of MIT, describe the challenge of the inexorable rise of machines in the workplace, concluding with a rather gloomy view of our ability to respond.
https://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.png00Ross Dawsonhttps://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.pngRoss Dawson2013-02-26 01:04:352024-04-02 23:03:17Our future depends on the humanization of work
Those who are familiar with my work know that I believe in concept visualization to communicate ideas. In fact I first wrote about the potential of 3D for concept representation and communication 14 years ago, in the late 1990s.
For a while we have been developing specifications and prototypes for what I have been describing as a “3D free-form mind map” that will allow people to create and modify 3 dimensional representations of their thoughts on particular topics, unconstrained by the intrinsic hierarchical structure of a mind map. Users will be able to move around and fly through the 3D “thoughtscapes” they create, and share them with the world in a variety of formats.
I sometimes use the example of my NewsScape, pictured below, as an example of a concept map that anyone would very quickly and easily be able to create in the app.
https://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.png00Ross Dawsonhttps://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.pngRoss Dawson2013-02-25 11:36:592013-02-25 11:36:59We're looking for 3D talent! ...to help create a 3D free-form mind mapping tool
A few days ago I spoke at the opening dinner of a strategy offsite for a professional firm, on the topic of ‘Thinking About The Future‘. It is a very common style of engagement for me, being briefed to set the broadest possible mental frame for executives before their in-depth discussions on directions for the business. The session went extremely well in provoking some very interesting conversations during the evening, and I gather driving new thinking through the rest of the offsite.
Just before I spoke the executive group had heard from a well-known economist who was giving them economic forecasts for the next 10 years.
As such, in my presentation I explained why forecasts usually have negative value. I spent a long time working in financial markets, and I have seen market and economic forecasts tremendously abused.
The most important point is that almost all forecasts will turn out to be wrong. The future is unpredictable. Giving numerical values to future economic or market data can easily shut down useful thinking about the reality of uncertainty and the range of possibilities that may transpire. Read more →
https://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.png00Ross Dawsonhttps://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.pngRoss Dawson2013-02-20 11:55:032013-02-20 11:55:03Thinking about the future: Why predictions usually (but not always) have negative value
Back in the 1990s I became enamoured of Bill Gross’s IdeaLab, which was spinning off new web companies initially housed in its own support ecosystem. I loved that it generated and developed its own projects rather than looking outside for ideas.
Since then I’ve closely followed what I’ve thought of as “parallel entrepreneurship”, in contrast to the usual concept of serial entrepreneurship: establishing many ventures rather than doing them one by one.
Despite many leading lights saying that founders should be focused on one venture, I’ve always believed that it is possible – albeit extremely difficult – to launch and run multiple simultaneous ventures. Read more →
Back in the day, Technorati’s annual State of the Blogosphere reports were the reference guide to what was happening in blogging, before Twitter existed or Facebook was open to the general public.
Illustrating the shifts in the landscape and in Technorati itself, it has just launched the 2013 Digital Influence Report, providing insights drawn from surveys including 6,000 influencers (a term that is unfortunately not defined in the report), 1,200 consumers and 150 brand marketers.
Influence has been a key focus for me for many years, with our activities including our Future of Influence Summit and Influence Landscape. Influence is by now a pretty mainstream frame for much digital marketing, yet in the big picture it is still early days, at least to judge by the Technorati report.
The full Technorati document is well worth a browse. Here are a few of the highlights from the report:
Social is still just 10% of total digital marketing budgets, with 83% of that amount on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Influencer marketing is 0.6% of the total spend. Source: Technorati Digital Influence Report Read more →
https://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.png00Ross Dawsonhttps://rossdawson.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/rdawson_1500x500_rgb-300x100.pngRoss Dawson2013-02-08 11:38:262013-02-08 11:38:26The state of influence today: increasing marketing budgets and greater influencer professionalism
This website or its third-party tools use cookies to improve user experience and track affiliate sales. To learn more about why we need to use cookies, please refer to the Privacy Policy.
By clicking the agree button or continuing to browse through the website, you agree to the use of cookies. AcceptPrivacy Policy
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
Professional services will be at the heart of our economic future
By Ross DawsonLast night was the announcement of the winners of the annual BRW Client Choice Awards.
Each year Beaton Consulting compiles the opinions of large professional service clients – this year 40,000 of them – who collectively select the best professional service firms in Australia. The results are announced at a gala dinner and published in BRW magazine.
The full list of winners is here. The magazine’s lead article on the awards Client choice awards: Savvy, digital, global: the face of the new professional, provides interesting insights into the state of the professions in Australia.
I gave the guest keynote at the event, with the intent of providing inspirational yet light-hearted perspectives on the awards.
My theme was “Creating Australia’s Future”, about how professional services firms are at the heart of Australia’s (and all developed countries’) future.
Read more →
The 7 characteristics of powerful visions for effective leadership
By Ross Dawson‘Visionary leadership’ is one of the phrases most bandied about these days, yet it is almost always an aspiration rather than a description.
A vision of what is possible is a prerequisite to visionary leadership. That vision can come from an individual, but more often it is the product of many people.
The vision that underpins visionary leadership is definitely not the ‘Vision’ that is encapsulated in a neat phrase and sits alongside the ‘Mission Statement’ and its ilk.
A vision needs to be something that people can ‘see’ in a way that makes them want to move towards it. There are seven primary characteristics to powerful visions that I identify:
Read more →
New Prezi: The 45 elements of the Future of the CIO framework
By Ross DawsonOne of the ways in which I use the frameworks I create is as a foundation for my keynote speeches. Since in many cases the frameworks are designed to distil the key ideas in a domain into a single graphic, they can provide a valuable lattice and flow for the ideas in a presentation.
Visual presentation tool Prezi can be a great way to do this, in showing the logic and structure of the framework through the presentation, while allowing me to zoom in through the presentation to illustrate the specific detailed concepts.
I have used Prezi in this way for keynotes on The Transformation of Business and The Transformation of Government.
For the current Tomorrow-Ready CIO series of events run by CIO Magazine and IBM I am using Prezi to run through my recently created Future of the CIO framework. The Prezi is below.
Read more →
Launch of Future of the CIO framework
By Ross DawsonOver the next few weeks I will be giving the keynote at the Tomorrow-Ready CIO Series organized by CIO magazine and sponsored by IBM. The events will be held over breakfast in Canberra, Perth, Sydney, Auckland and Melbourne, with an audience of CIOs and other senior IT executives. Full details on the events here.
My keynote will be on the Future of the CIO. I have recently pulled together my thinking on the topic, drawing in particular on a series of CIO workshops I ran across Europe last year.
Below is the Future of the CIO Framework that I will be sharing at the events. It is now up on my complete list of visual frameworks on RossDawson.com.
Click on the image for the full-size pdf
Read more →
The future of social media: Almost all commerce will become social
By Ross DawsonEarlier this month Air New Zealand ran its second Social Media Breakfast in Auckland, with close to 1,000 people coming to see Teddy Goff, the Digital Director of Obama’s campaign, and myself speak. The number of attendees had increased since Randy Zuckerberg spoke at the first Social Media Breakfast last July, and now Air New Zealand intends to run the event regularly through this year.
Below is a brief but nice highlights video of the event, including highlighted excerpts from my and Teddy’s keynotes.
Read more →
Our future depends on the humanization of work
By Ross DawsonOne of the reasons that my focus is increasingly shifting to the future of work is that it is in fact a large part of the future of humanity. And if we don’t get this right it might not look pretty.
The two primary drivers of a changing work landscape in coming years remote work and work automation. Almost all work will be able to be done anywhere, and a growing proportion of today’s jobs will be supplanted by machines.
The replacement of human workers by machines is of course a large part of human history, and so far we have consistently created new jobs faster than old jobs have disappeared.
However machine capabilities – including robotics, spatial cognition, and natural language processing – are developing so fast that there is a real chance that there will be insufficient new jobs to replace the ones that disappear.
In the ebook Race Against the Machine, authors Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, both of MIT, describe the challenge of the inexorable rise of machines in the workplace, concluding with a rather gloomy view of our ability to respond.
John Hagel of Deloitte’s Center for the Edge has made a great video responding to the book’s ideas.
Read more →
We’re looking for 3D talent! …to help create a 3D free-form mind mapping tool
By Ross DawsonThose who are familiar with my work know that I believe in concept visualization to communicate ideas. In fact I first wrote about the potential of 3D for concept representation and communication 14 years ago, in the late 1990s.
For a while we have been developing specifications and prototypes for what I have been describing as a “3D free-form mind map” that will allow people to create and modify 3 dimensional representations of their thoughts on particular topics, unconstrained by the intrinsic hierarchical structure of a mind map. Users will be able to move around and fly through the 3D “thoughtscapes” they create, and share them with the world in a variety of formats.
I sometimes use the example of my NewsScape, pictured below, as an example of a concept map that anyone would very quickly and easily be able to create in the app.
Click on the image to see large version
Read more →
Thinking about the future: Why predictions usually (but not always) have negative value
By Ross DawsonA few days ago I spoke at the opening dinner of a strategy offsite for a professional firm, on the topic of ‘Thinking About The Future‘. It is a very common style of engagement for me, being briefed to set the broadest possible mental frame for executives before their in-depth discussions on directions for the business. The session went extremely well in provoking some very interesting conversations during the evening, and I gather driving new thinking through the rest of the offsite.
Just before I spoke the executive group had heard from a well-known economist who was giving them economic forecasts for the next 10 years.
As such, in my presentation I explained why forecasts usually have negative value. I spent a long time working in financial markets, and I have seen market and economic forecasts tremendously abused.
The most important point is that almost all forecasts will turn out to be wrong. The future is unpredictable. Giving numerical values to future economic or market data can easily shut down useful thinking about the reality of uncertainty and the range of possibilities that may transpire.
Read more →
Parallel entrepreneurship goes mainstream
By Ross DawsonBack in the 1990s I became enamoured of Bill Gross’s IdeaLab, which was spinning off new web companies initially housed in its own support ecosystem. I loved that it generated and developed its own projects rather than looking outside for ideas.
Since then I’ve closely followed what I’ve thought of as “parallel entrepreneurship”, in contrast to the usual concept of serial entrepreneurship: establishing many ventures rather than doing them one by one.
Despite many leading lights saying that founders should be focused on one venture, I’ve always believed that it is possible – albeit extremely difficult – to launch and run multiple simultaneous ventures.
Read more →
The state of influence today: increasing marketing budgets and greater influencer professionalism
By Ross DawsonBack in the day, Technorati’s annual State of the Blogosphere reports were the reference guide to what was happening in blogging, before Twitter existed or Facebook was open to the general public.
Illustrating the shifts in the landscape and in Technorati itself, it has just launched the 2013 Digital Influence Report, providing insights drawn from surveys including 6,000 influencers (a term that is unfortunately not defined in the report), 1,200 consumers and 150 brand marketers.
Influence has been a key focus for me for many years, with our activities including our Future of Influence Summit and Influence Landscape. Influence is by now a pretty mainstream frame for much digital marketing, yet in the big picture it is still early days, at least to judge by the Technorati report.
The full Technorati document is well worth a browse. Here are a few of the highlights from the report:
Social is still just 10% of total digital marketing budgets, with 83% of that amount on Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. Influencer marketing is 0.6% of the total spend.
Source: Technorati Digital Influence Report
Read more →