The Business Trendsetter Podcast

Despite the reliability of demographic data, and projections, few business leaders use demographics as part of their future planning.  Because most leaders assume demographics won’t change much, and they need to appeal to today’s marketplace.  But we are facing a global shift in demographics that is changing business conditions in every market – right down to the local level. This podcast overview...

US businesses are struggling to find workers, a topic this podcast has discussed many times.  And political divisiveness has been making it hard to implement policies to grow the economy.  To grow your business now could well be a good time to consider Mexico, as a final market or as part of your supply chain. This podcast overviews Manny’s recent trip to Mexico, and discusses the impact of the 3...

Demographics are one of the most important trends for business forecasting.  They are extremely predictable, and offer tremendous insight to future markets.  From the 1980’s onward it was clear there would be a demographic problem of aging in the developed world which would create conflicts as major countries started to suffer declining populations.  Yet, universally no developed country prepared...

Planning for 2024 and beyond, the biggest factor determining your success is where you invest your resources.  Most of us invest in doing more of the same thing, only better, faster, cheaper.  But that has diminishing returns, and for most of us will have low payoff.  Greater success comes from investing in future trends, breaking out of our Lock-in to the past and investing in something new. Usin...

Often leaders push their organizations to be “cost conscious.”  This almost always leads to bad customer service, which can really, really hurt your business.  This podcast digs into how some companies have bad service for years, like Comcast and United Airlines, while profits stall.  Others, like Sears and ToysRUs completely fail.  Yet other companies like Costco and Amazon turn customer service...

Well, McKinsey finally did it.  After a full year of analysis they figured out what we’ve been saying on this podcast all along – that a growth strategy outperforms a defensive strategy, even in recessions.  Wow, pop the champagne corks. All of you readers already know this, and that their #1 method of growing in 2024 is (wait a minute) using automation and AI!!  Wow, I’m glad they finally had tim...

Rising Healthcare Costs, Rising Wages – Are American Employers Prepared?  Healthcare in America is changing – but oh so slowly.  Only in the last year or two has telemedicine become viable.  And costs for so many procedures are wildly out of line with costs for similar procedures in foreign countries.  Meanwhile, only in America do employers pay for health insurance, something that is a government...

What can the Heavy Equipment industry tell us about trends? In today's podcast, we talk with Louis Fernandez, an expert in the heavy machinery industry with years of helping companies find expense-side savings from the operations of a company. We draw from his expertise in the industry to learn more about how important heavy machines are to the economy and how they are integral to the support of e...

Exxon is making a huge acquisition of Pioneer.  Chevron is buying Hess.  Kroger bought Albertsons.  Cedar Fair and Six Flags are merging.  These will all grow the revenues of the acquirer, and revenue growth is a good thing.  So are acquisitions a good strategy? This podcast explains why the bulk of acquisitions are done for the wrong reason.  They are competitors trying to become the “last man st...

If you know how to analyze trends you can get more “bang for your buck” with expenses and investments.  This podcast explains how to analyze the performance of Instagram, Pinterest, Snapchat and Twitter in order to figure out where the best place is to run ads.  After you understand the analysis, the answer becomes really clear. This podcast also analyzes the trend to home schooling, and explains...

Often we hear people say that headlines make trends hard to understand. One headline pitches a view, then another headline pitches an opposite view.  Leaders become confused.  This podcast explains how leaders can move beyond headlines to really understand trends, so they can undertake successful scenario development and make smarter investments.  Focusing on how employees are working, we can see...

Over and again we see big companies, often leaders in their industries, fail. Despite having vast resources, ability to hire top talent, and legions of customers they “blow it bigtime.”  Sears, Hostess Baking, Kodak, Xerox, Fannie Mae, GE – how could they end up a failure? And if they blew it, how can you avoid a bad outcome? The podcast explains how regardless of size, if your business falls out...

War in Ukraine. War in Israel. Threat of war in Taiwan and South China Sea. Near war in Kosovo & Serbia. A House of Representative with no Speaker.  It seems like one of the biggest trends is incredible conflict.  How can business deal with this? This podcast explores how conflicts begin due to differing beliefs based on historical experiences.  In business we often “Lock in” behaviorally, structu...

There is nothing more important to a sustainable business than revenues. Revenues are the barometer of how you are doing compared to all competition. If you aren’t growing your revenues, you are dying.  Even if you are making profits.  Nobody ever saved their way to prosperity, but you can thrive on growing revenues even when earnings are shallow and unpredictable. This podcast explains how a 20+...

 Reflecting on U.S. Labor Day, the work world has been impacted incredibly by the Baby Boom Generation. That large group of workers meant supply of labor exceeded demand for some 4 or 5 decades, which nearly killed unions.  But now that the demographics are upside down, with demand for labor consistently exceeding supply, union activity is up, support for unions is up, and employers have no option...

Are EV’s still a long time away from becoming mainstream?  Will regulators and developers take action any time soon to correct the imbalance in commercial real estate vs residential?  Is the aging demographic in the USA – and elsewhere – really going to matter in the short-term?  How you answer these questions depends quite a bit on your understanding of marketplace tipping points. Most people thi...

At least 100 dead, and over 1,000 missing going into 2 weeks post fire on Maui. It is an unmitigated disaster.  Although Mother Nature played a role, there is much business leaders can learn from how the fire developed and how Maui’s leaders reacted, failing to mitigate bad outcomes. All businesses need good scenario plans accounting for impending events – good and bad.  But too few actually prepa...

As we ended July and start August the media has largely reported that the EV market is not meeting expectations.  Companies like Rivian and Lucid are not meeting analyst expectations for sales.  Tesla and Ford are dropping prices, and inventories are up while gross margins are down.  Reading this news would lead you to think the EV trend has gone bust.   This podcast teaches us how to analyze tren...

 We all get trapped in our daily world.  Our location, our contacts, our responsibilities can often create a commonality to what we do and the decisions we make. And we often fail to realize how this localization creates an internalization which makes it hard to think creatively.  We do more of the same because of the rut we’re in.   This podcast was recorded with Manny in Panang Malaysia, where h...

Meta just launched Thread as a competitor to Twitter.  This makes enormous sense, because it is a natural sustaining innovation Meta can add as a platform extension to generate new revenues.  This was proven when Thread became the fastest growing app of all time (beating ChatGPT.) And Twitter has weakened as advertisers have lost faith in the new CEO, making Thread a great alternative for them to...

Predicting trends isn’t nearly as hard as people think.  This podcast explains the foundational elements that help any forecaster understand the impact of a trend and develop accurate future scenarios. We know that AI (Artificial Intelligence) is creating a Punctuated Equilibrium in business practices.  Just like the pandemic and the emergence of the internet, AI has application to all business pr...

All 3 have had recent disruptions that required rethinking their future. And wins went to those good at Scenario Planning.  This podcast overviews how Spark Partners scenario, planning even before the pandemic, predicted that crypto-currencies would face a difficult reckoning in the future.  That there was enormous risk, with limited upside, for gambling in tokens controlled by unregulated crypto...

Tesla and Ford made a deal to let Ford use the Tesla charging standard (NACS) on their Mustang Mach-E and other electric vehicles.  Why would Ford want to use Tesla’s technology? That’s the content of this podcast – and the lesson it can teach small businesses. We often have a great idea.  But then it doesn’t seem to sell.  This podcast explains why.  We overlook what it is we ask of the customer....

There’s been a lot of confusion about what ChatGPT and other AI tools can do.  Some people think it’s the end of humanity. Others think it will be greatly productive.  The important thing to know is that, like the internet, this is a big advance in technology that will create a lot of opportunities for better business operations and growth. ChatGPT is basically a word calculator.  If we use calcul...

Peloton went from a crowdsourced start up to a billion dollar Unicorn in 6 years.  6 years later and the company is teetering on failure.  How could management have blown it so badly? This podcast overviews how most management teams during good times focus far too much energy on improving their single Value Delivery System.  They over-invest, and then aren’t prepared when sales slow.  When times a...