SustainAgility: Radical Rapid Smart Innovation to protect environment. F...

The $40 trillion green tech revolution could transform the future of our planet, with innovations that will provide answers to global warming if rolled out on a large enough scale. Impact of technologies already available in energy industry, water conservation, carbon reduction, recycling, power transmission over long distances, alternative power generation, buildings management. Conference keynote speaker and Futurist Patrick Dixon - lecture for Suez Environmental global leadership team.

Growth of Budget Brands AND Super Premium. Retail industry trends - Futu...

How sales of budget brands AND super-premium brands are both set to grow. Future of retail industry and trends in sales of luxury goods and services. Economic crisis, austerity, fall in personal disposable income, increase in taxation, rise in unemployment, cuts in government spending. All these economic factors will force more people to buy budget brands. However, expect the wealth gap between the rich and poor to increase in every nation, especially growth in the numbers of super wealthy consumers. These ultra high net worth consumers will drive sales of luxury, premium, rare and exotic items, fast cars, super yachts, private jets, huge properties, exquisite jewelry, privileged access to unique experiences. Impact on marketing strategy and selling techniques. Re-positioning of key brands -- up market and down market, chasing revenues. Patrick Dixon is a trends analyst, Futurist conference keynote speaker on a wide range of global trends including retail industry, consumer insight. Keynote lecture for retail clients of Hermes in the UK.

Mobile Payments - Future of Banking and Shopping, Retail, Telecom - Futu...

Innovation! How to innovate, win competitive advantage. Retail Industry ...

Innovation means doing things differently to serve customers better. How to innovate and why all innovation is about divergence not convergence. Innovation that simply imitates competitors, product features, design or brand elements, just means that all products and services look identical in every way, which means you can only differentiate yourself from competition based on price. Long term sustainable competitive advantage will always come from finding new ways to excell, exceed customer expectations. Technigues for innovation including open innovation and crowdsourcing using wikipedia type models to solve complex innovation challenges. How to encourage innovative teams and processes. Conference keynote speaker and Futurist Patrick Dixon - lecture at Hermes client event for UK retailers on retail industry trends.

Future of Food Retailing, food industry trends, consumer lifestyles. Re...

Food industry trends in retail - small food outlets to major retail chains. Food sales are all about emotion and consumer passion: quality, health, flavour, additives, colourants, natural food, organic food, preservatives, sourcing of animals, animal welfare, sustainable fisheries, fair trade, kosher, hallal, vegetarian, vegan - there are already hundreds of niche food markets. Expect this diversification to continue - with specialist retail food stores, and also with sub-brands inside major stores such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour or Tesco. As we have seen in recent food scares, customers are deeply worried about food safety - especially parents who are concerned about the health of babies or their young children. Therefore expect more regulations about food quality and healthiness, more food labelling, more food safety checks - and more sensational news stories about food safety lapses. Comment on future of food industry by Futurist keyntote conference speaker Patrick Dixon in presentation to retail clients of Hermes at corporate event.

Future food shortages: consumers, retail, farms, energy industry, biofue...

Future food crisis and why there are global food shortages. Population growth is often blamed but we have enough food to feed the world without hunger of famine. Food price crises of 2007-8 and 2011-12 were caused by many factors including flood, drought, failed harvests, damaged crops, disease - but the biggest single change was burning food as biofuels. In 2011 over 40% of all wheat grain grown on farms in America was burnt in vehicles. Over 5% of all petrol / gasoline / diesel sold in Europe is now biofuels, much of it made from food. Biofuels have linked energy prices with food prices with land prices with forestry prices. We have one global market now for energy and food. So if energy prices rise, more food gets converted into energy - or biowaste, or trees.... but all these things affect land use at the end of the day. So if you expect (as I do) continued energy shortages, and rising oil prices, then it is logical to expect rising food prices. The trouble is that while wealthy nations suffer a little, individuals in the poorest nations suffer hugely. History shows clearly that rises in food prices and hunger amongst the population are the fastest ways to destabilise government. No surprise then that in 2007-8 we saw food riots in 33 nations and the fall of one government, and that in 2011 we saw riots and revolution in many nations (Middle East - so-called Arab Sprint). One of the factors that brought street protests was that ordinary people were finding food price rises were the last straw on top of so many other hardships, partly linked to to the global economic downturn, national debt crisis and banking crisis which in turn followed the original US sub-prime crisis. Lesson: global trends are complex, interlinked and minor trends can be amplified rapidly by globalisation and the digital village into radical forces for change. What does this all mean for farming, farmers, agriculture and land ownership? Expect prices for farm land to rise, in line with energy prices. Expect many farmers to switch crops from those supplying food direct to retail food chains, to crops which will find their way into biofuel manufacturing. Video of retail industry future trends by Futurist keynote conference speaker Patrick Dixon - for UK retail industry executives at client event organised by Hermes.

Future Shopping Malls - and death of smaller outlets - Future Retail Tre...

For every retail outlet that opens in a new Mall, another has to close somewhere else - a corner store, high street shop, or market stall. Huge planning implications for town centres, following massive growth of big shopping centres. Impact on consumer choice. How small stores can survive and thrive in niche markets, competing against large retail chains and multinational super brands, by offering unique products and services with outstanding insight into what their customers want, and attention to detail. That means more than market research - a deep intuitive grasp of how customers think and feel, what they are likely to be drawn to. While high street shops are threatened by the big shopping Malls, the Malls too will be increasingly threatened in turn by severe online price competition, mobile price comparison. Expect the largest Shopping Malls, biggest retail centres to focus more on the total leisure experience, creating relaxing locations, entertainment, with a sense of theatre, destinations in their own right for all ages and for a wide range of interests. Shopping in physical stores needs to be a pleasurable, engaging experience which appeals to all the senses - touch, sound, smell, taste. Crowds matter: people watching is part of the fun of the shared experience - seeing what others are doing, what they are wearing, choices they are making. Future retail in physical stores needs to be very personal, since such outlets will tend to be undercut by online price aggregators. Clever branding, marketing and selling promotions will not be enough. Conference keynote speaker Patrick Dixon - giving presentation to UK retail industry on key high street trends and the future of ecommerce - for clients of Hermes.