When I learned that my last book The End of Business as Usual was selected for distribution in Japan, I felt that something more than mere translation was needed to help its message resonate with those who read it. In fact, I paused development of my latest book What’s the Future … | Continue reading
The other day, my friend Loic Le Meur shared a hilarious take on Maslov’s famous Hierarchy of Needs, simply called, “Silicon Valley Hierarchy of Needs.” For many, including me, the list of laughably superficial “needs” of those mocked in Silicon Valley are also a little too famil … | Continue reading
I often hear people say… the one thing they appreciate in someone is “how honest” they are …or that they “speak their mind.” But, they’re not the same. Honesty is free of deceit and untruthfulness. The other, is when you say what you think very directly. It’s important that each … | Continue reading
What does the future of CX look like? That was the question asked by CMO.com shortly before the new year. The result is an impressive list of predictions offered by some of the brightest minds working to make the future of CX a reality today. This is What the “CX of the Future” L … | Continue reading
The consumerization of IT has been long in the making. While it’s nothing new, the employee-driven trends of social media, BYOD (bring your own device) and BYOA (apps) in the workplace are only accelerating and proliferating. In addition to managing enterprise technology infrastr … | Continue reading
In 2016, I had the opportunity to visit my mother’s birthplace, Madrid, Spain, and keynote the inaugural Digital Business World Congress (DES). I was invited to present on the business implications of experience design and also the state and future of artificial intelligence (AI) … | Continue reading
Digital transformation is more than hype and definitely more meaningful than just another buzzword. But to see what it really is and what could be, you have to think beyond the role you work in today. Depending on who you ask, digital transformation could be simply described as e … | Continue reading
Diginomica’s Jon Reed is someone I greatly respect. He’s one of the most discerning and shrewd voices on business modernization out there. I recently had the opportunity to speak with him about the state of digital transformation and the importance of change agents in the evolvin … | Continue reading
Sometimes success is a poor teacher. It lulls us into contentment and complacency. Instead of always striving for greatness and relevance, we’re instead focused on iteration and incrementalism, improving what is, to progressively grow our success rather than concurrently challe … | Continue reading
It’s time to design experiences you want people to have, remember and share. Customer experience is the new marketing and customer experiences (what they have, feel and share) become the new “BX” (brand experience). More importantly, CX becomes a way of doing business that permea … | Continue reading
It’s amazing to me how many companies still don’t “see” the customer when it comes to customer experience. While everyone talks about Customer Experience (CX) as the new black, most companies miss the real opportunity to be customer-centric. They don’t actually think about experi … | Continue reading
you’re a geek, entrepreneur, investor, tech reporter or analyst, startup or all of the above, make the trek to STATION F in Paris. If you could take the best of Silicon Valley and put it in one massive, and I mean massive, connected and glorious campus, it would be STATION F. It … | Continue reading
This year, I was given the opportunity to present in Dubai at OMD Predicts, an event that explores the future of media, consumerism and brand. To be honest, it was my first time stepping out of the Dubai airport. In the past, Dubai was only a stop over en route to other countries … | Continue reading
A big part of my work as a digital analyst and anthropologist is to track emerging and disruptive technology trends and study their impact on business and society. In the early 2000s, much of that work was focused on what was Web 2.0, collaboration (office 2.0) and the rise of so … | Continue reading
For the last three years, I’ve made it a point to attend Vidcon, even if that meant missing the prestigious Cannes Lions. Why? Because the roots of shifting consumer behavior, trust and influence are evident to those paying attention. For those who are tracking what’s next, the f … | Continue reading
The funny thing about customer experience is that, for all of its good intentions, it is a bit ironic. Many businesses talk about the importance of customer experience (CX). At the same time, many are prioritizing investments in new technologies and touchpoints to improve engagem … | Continue reading
Leo Bottary is a well-known author and keynote speaker. He’s also a long-time friend of mine. For several years, I had the opportunity to tour the Vistage conferences as they toured the U.S. I nope to experience the opportunity to meet CEOs and senior executives on their home tur … | Continue reading
Digital transformation is the new black. It is one of those catch-all terms that seems to describe any investment in trending digital technologies and modern processes and philosophies. Depending on the role, department and mindset, digital transformation means many things to man … | Continue reading
We live in a world where where information and misinformation is prevalent and weighted equally all too often. As human beings, we are learning how to use social media effectively to communicate and connect. At the same time, we’re drowning in abundance, complexity of choices and … | Continue reading
If you’ve never attended the Next Conference in Germany, plan for the next event. It combines elements of SXSW in a festival, city-wide format where people, technology, music and art converge into an experience that’s anything but a conference. I’ve had the privilege of presentin … | Continue reading
“To thrive in a digital economy, create a safe and empowered environment for employees to learn and take risks.” Technology may be at the core of digital transformation, but it’s severely limited in its promise if it’s not influenced by human beings. Yet, every day, companies inv … | Continue reading
The fourth wall is the space that separates a performer or performance from an audience. A character, actor, author or storyteller “breaks the fourth wall” when they address the audience directly. As an analyst, author, blogger, podcaster and creator, I am by default, in the con … | Continue reading
Retail, like every industry, faces digital Darwinism as technology and markets evolve and disrupt. This isn’t new. But what is clear, executives are not prioritizing bold strategies and investments that save them from their “Kodak Moment,” that moment when consumer behaviors and … | Continue reading
The potential for breakthrough innovation is at its greatest when there’s purpose. And in an age of disruptive technology, humanity is becoming a killer app. Often in my research on digital transformation and innovation, I find the most compelling catalyst for finding purpose and … | Continue reading
I once referred to the consumer-facing Internet of Things (IoT) as the Internet of Sh!t. My point was that the entire ecosystem of IoT devices was created through technology-centered devices that were limited in scope, breadth and compatibility. I was and still am an advocate for … | Continue reading
i Every now and then, I am asked to write the foreword for a great book. And, every now and then, I say yes. The deal is always the same. Once the book is released, I ask that I’m able to publish the foreword in full to share with you here. My friends Lars Birkholm Petersen, Ron … | Continue reading
We live in an era of digital Darwinism. As customer expectations evolve and move toward personalized experiences and beyond transactions, companies in every industry must focus digital transformation on not only digital, but also people, purpose, and relevance. Digital transforma … | Continue reading
Guest post by Rebecca Lieb and Jaimy Szymanski, Content: The Atomic Particle of Marketing In the “phygital” world that marries our physical and digital presences, content is ubiquitous. Only by offering content through the lens of context can marketers achieve relevancy to today’ … | Continue reading
Who owns digital transformation within your organization? Is it the C-Suite, marketing, IT, HR? It’s now essential for all stakeholders – no matter their level or role – to become acquainted in the purpose of digital technology if orgs are to succeed in this new economy. We live … | Continue reading
User experience design is now a C-level imperative, whether executives get it or not | Continue reading
Guest post from Michel Lewis (@BizMike), founder of RoomSignal and long-time friend of Brian. Retail is dead. Heard that phrase before? For the last decade we have watched as digital companies like Amazon & Netflix received much of the credit, for putting brands like Borders and … | Continue reading
I recently had one of the most fast-paced, fun and provocative conversations I had in a while. It wasn’t something that happened in IRL. Instead, this real-time conversation took place on Twitter. Organized by Cognizant and Pega prior to #Pegaworld, I joined Ben Pring, author o … | Continue reading
I recently had an opportunity to speak with Juliet Stott of Content Magazine about the impact digital has had on marketing, how customer experiences can help marketers differentiate their brands, and why websites in general, suck. It was such a fun and revealing conversation, tha … | Continue reading
I think the next big thing following massive innovation on the CX front is EX…employee experience. But, to do so requires a level of inward empathy not usually found roaming the halls of the C-Suite. This is something though, I believe, will become more pronounced as the move to … | Continue reading
Several years ago, I embarked on a crazy journey to reinvent the book to make it a physical metaphor for the purpose of the book. I had no other choice. It was a book about designing meaningful and personal experiences in a digital economy. It would have been to ironic to tell yo … | Continue reading
“Experience” is one of those words that is both aspirational while also meaning something uniquely different to each person who uses the word. No matter who you define it, the important thing to remember is that experiences lie in the value of the beholder. The reality is that ex … | Continue reading
I’ve always been fascinated by Hollywood trailers. So much so, that 10 years ago, I was determined to develop a trailer for my next book at the time, Engage!. Since then, I launched every subsequent book with a trailer. You can see a compilation here. With my latest book X, I bro … | Continue reading
“Yesterday is not tomorrow; we can’t innovate, we can’t do new things by opening old doors.” Paul Miller spends a lot of time thinking about the future of work. In fact, he wrote a book on the subject, “The Digital Renaissance of Work: Delivering digital workplaces fit for the fu … | Continue reading
Every day when you get to the office, there is a surmountable volume of work that greets you. The list is usually pretty long, with calls to return, to do items stacked up, emails overflowing, meetings, marketing and sales planning to fill the pipeline. It’s all in a day’s work. … | Continue reading
There are almost too many technology trends to track these days and it’s only getting more complicated to keep up. At some point, one must focus, dive deeper and learn. This year, I’m centering my research and speaking on a few different but complementary areas: Corporate Innovat … | Continue reading
This post started as a review of the new show on Apple Music, “Planet of the Apps.” I realized the world didn’t need another announcement or review of the show. What I will say is this, any show that aims to help entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life and also transform them int … | Continue reading
“You press the button, we do the rest.” These are the touching words of Kodak’s first advertising slogan. Coined by George Eastman, Kodak’s iconic founder in 1892, this tagline almost seems relevant 120 years later. Almost. There was a time in history where uttering those words e … | Continue reading
Over the last year, I partnered with BMC on a new podcast series called “Digital Outliers.” We hand-picked 11 incredible guests working in critical areas of digital transformation and the future of work including IT, humanities and innovation. The result was humbling. Each episod … | Continue reading
el futuro es ahora… La transformación digital es una de las mayores tendencias que impulsan la evolución y modernización de las empresas en todo el mundo. En mis investigaciones, he llegado a definir la transformación digital como la realineación de o la nueva inversión en tecnol … | Continue reading
When I set out to research digital transformation several years ago, I did so with the belief that there was more to the story than technology, IT and modernization. Yet, the name itself implies that change is focused on or prioritizes all things digital. But there’s more to the … | Continue reading
Guest post by Blake Morgan (@blakemichellem), Customer Experience Futurist, Keynote Speaker, Author of the new book, More Is More In X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, author Brian Solis talks about how Disney created its MagicBand—an all-in-one device that connects us … | Continue reading
Several years ago as I was writing The End of Business as Usual, I researched how the customer journey was evolving. Specifically, I studied how traditional touch points compared to digital touch points and more so, how customers were hacking their way to desired outcomes. Along … | Continue reading
Several years ago as I was writing The End of Business as Usual, I researched how the customer journey was evolving. Specifically, I studied how traditional touch points compared to digital touch points and more so, how customers were hacking their way to desired outcomes. Along … | Continue reading