Events
The Emergence of 'Enoughness'
Wednesday 14 February 2007
I mentioned this concept a couple of years ago and now I am beginning to see a major shift in customer sentiment. This is, I believe, the start of a significantly different time for businesses in dealing with their customers as a result of a whole series of smaller issues coming together. Enoughness appears to be emerging as a result of what I refer to as a 'Cascading Discontinuity Set' - the small and seemingly unconnected elements merging into a major shift in customer behaviour. Enoughness will fundamentally change the consumption driven business models now in play and there will be winners and losers on all sides and this isn't just a theoretical futuristic assessment - it is a very real phenomena
At some point, many people ask themselves 'how much is enough'? This seemingly innocuous question suggests profound implications for the way the western world operates and as a Futurist I am becoming aware of what those implications might be. Enoughness is NOT the same as Altruism. I define altruism as the giving away of something you have. Philanthropy is, by and large, an altruistic act, and is by and large one that is the domain of wealthy individuals.
For the average person, making a donation to a worthy cause is fine but Philanthropy is not an option. But 'Enoughness' is. Enoughness is an emerging attitude that sees people choose NOT to buy into the 'buying' paradigm. In particular it overturns the 'upgrade' and 'replacement' model of consumer behaviour, a model that stock markets around the world rely on. A model that share prices, and CEO salaries, rely on. A model that may no longer hold sway as it once did, should this 'enoughness' paradigm take hold in the way that signs suggest it is starting to.
I'd be happy to chat with you about some of those signs and the implications for consumer behaviour. Feel free to call Marcus Barber at Looking Up Feeling Good pty Ltd or email him here
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Events
Tuesday 8 May 2012
Have just spent a few hours discussing the Future of Money, hosted by James Bibby at Microsoft in Sydney and facilitated by Peter Vander Auwera from SWIFT/Innotribe. I'd like to flag that everyone understood that the session was way too short for such a big topic and everyone would agree that we just scratched the surface (not that the scratch would leave too much of a mark just yet). The session was a kick start for a group from a wide variety of interests: banks, payment providers' IT specialists and some specialty consultancies.
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Wednesday 2 May 2012
Ernst & Young and GreenBiz have completed a survey of business executives looking at the development of Corporate Sustainability around the world. The report shows that there has been a clear rise in awareness; that employees are a core source driving sustainability actions; that reduction of costs is a core appeal and that return on investment in sustainability actions is required to be judged in the same way as other corporate investments. For me this poses a dichotomy of thinking - the environment was built up over millennia and our use of it has taken just a couple of centuries yet we judge sustainability actions at the same 'speed of delivery' criteria. That poses a challenge and is perhaps an unrealistic set of expectations.
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Tuesday 24 April 2012
On the eve of ANZAC day here in Australia ABC Radio Darwin's Vicki Kerrigan chats with futurist Marcus Barber on the future of war - what the future triggers of war might be and how war will be fought
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