Welcome to this 6th issue of our newsletter “Weak Signals and other Trends”. Each week, I sift through hundreds of sources of inspiration to track where we’re heading. We discuss those trends and signals every Saturday at 9am EST on Clubhouse.
Je souhaite la bienvenue à tous nos abonnés francophones qui nous ont rejoint en grand nombre cette semaine… je vais sans doute ajouter dans les prochains numéros une section francophone!
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This is what I noticed this week, thank you for reading and sharing the word.
Business disrupted
Illustrations and examples that show our industries and business models are changing…
Musk is about to disrupt completely yet another industry: launching satellites into orbit, and promising to deliver high-speed broadband internet to as many users as possible. A global blindspot unfolds as the world ran out of a critical technology that powers our cars, phones, and more. Walmart’s Fintech Ambition: A Super App, Not The ‘Bank Of Walmart’.
We keep you informed as we spot other disruptive trends on Twitter.
Our Future
Illustrations and examples that show our industries are changing…some trends are tech related, others not so much.
What you need to know about Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC). The New Era of Social Media Isn’t About Feeds and products like Clubhouse and Twitter’s “Super Follows” offer a new kind of engagement. The invisible warning signs that predict your future health. China’s ‘Sharp Eyes’ Program Aims to Surveil 100% of Public Space. Communal living for urban communities. Algorythm auditing. The distance-less future, and you. You are what you sweat. The ‘megascale’ structures that humans could one day build. Where might autonomous trucking be available first, and how would it proliferate? Shops return to rural Sweden but are now staff-free.
Competitive Intelligence
Military Unit That Conducts Drone Strikes Bought Location Data From Ordinary Apps. A new ad-free, private search engine, Neeva. Beneath the Surface: Monitoring the Deep and Dark Web. An AI-Powered Competitive Intelligence tool for the automotive industry. A masterclass to understand how to test new ideas. 20+ SWOT Analysis Templates, Examples & Best Practices.
Our next course on Advanced Search Techniques for Customer Insight and Competitive Intelligence is here. Our next program will take place on April 26-27 and 28, 2021 (10am-12pm EST).
Weak signals
Weak signals are indicators of a change, a trend or an emerging risk that might become significant for the future. They allow us to run hypothesis, expand our thinking, and challenge assumptions. How will you interpret those in your industry?
A view of how creators will run their business. Qoves is a “facial aesthetics consultancy” that promises to look at images of your face to tell you how beautiful you are—or aren’t—and then tell you what you can do about it. We miss touch so much, that an artist Transforms Famous Paintings Into Realistic 3D Furry Artworks . Google has invented a tool which allows you to hear colour. Chipotle Partners E.L.F. Cosmetics To Launch Vegan Makeup Collection. Unilever drops word ‘normal’ from beauty products.
Challenging assumptions: World’s first circular tennis ball hits courts this month. New Zealand growers create new brand for apples damaged by hailstorm. A ship hovering high above sea off Cornwall or how our senses can fail us.
Join us on Clubhouse at 9AM EST tomorrow to discuss how to interpret some of those weak signals.For those who missed it, we will have this 60mns morning discussion each Saturday at 9am EST ( look for @competia or follow our club “Trends! And weak signals”). Here is a summary of last week’s conversation.
On our radar
In this section, I will share some of the content I come across as I work on specific mandates for our clients. This week:
Post-covid leadership: a number of our clients are trying to figure our how management will change with a remote workforce and in a post-pandemia environment: The role of experimentation. The career optimism index. The Future of Team Leadership Is Multimodal. The covid-19 leadership guide. The future of work after COVID-19 .
Lawtech: professional firms, and particularly law firms, are finally realizing that digital transformation will be key to their growth, if not survival. For a client this week, I dove into #lawtech: Comparing the Performance of Artificial Intelligence to Human Lawyers in the Review of Standard Business Contracts. Changing the lawyer-client relationship. Using machine learning to predict decisions of the European Court of Human Rights ($).
Hodgepodge discovery
IKEA launched Live Lagom, and ‘lagom’ is a Swedish way of living that revolves around only taking what you need. Persuading the Unpersuadable . Burger King social media crisis around Women’s Day. A fantastic curation of francophone newsletters. Hyper-accurate positioning is rolling out worldwide. Gentryfying: burning man is planning a sustainable, permanent space called fly ranch. Virginia’s privacy law is an insight into the future. Science is studying conversations. Social media: Twitter is testing an ‘undo send’ feature for paid users.
Feeling good
Create your own jazz. Bucketlist: a map of world heritage sites by Mapstr ( we use that app to log places to visit on our retail discovery tours). Flow chart fun. I knew it: Observing nature in your backyard is not dull but radically significant. Magical Photos of Fireflies Lighting Up a Forest in Japan. Search images in films.
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