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I am taking a four-day weekend starting tomorrow. With that and the fact that I just finished a top secret, gargantuan procurement education-related project on Tuesday, I have to admit:for once, procurement is not on the top of my mind.
Therefore, I am going to dedicate today’s post to something totally off-topic. If you only want to read what I write about procurement, you can stop reading now because you’ll only post nasty comments later. But, for those of you who enjoy what I write day-in-and-day-out and don’t mind reading something a little bizarre, feel free to stick with me.
I like to ponder the future in this exciting world. Someone, somewhere must have foreseen the cultural shift caused by the everyone-is-using-the-Internet age from 1995 – 2010. Someone, somewhere must have foreseen the next cultural shift that we’re in today where phones are being used for everything from texting to paying for goods at the store to enabling your home security system to even being used to – get this – call people!
So, what’s next?
I am guessing that we’ll see three things happen in the next ten years or so. Here they are:
1. An “Amazon-for-services” model will emerge as one of the top Internet sites. I love getting gift certificates for Amazon.com. Wow – you can buy such a wide variety of competitively priced things there ranging from books (of course) to musical instruments to furniture and more. But it’s mostly products. If I want a custom-designed t-shirt, I gotta go elsewhere. Web hosting services? Gotta go elsewhere. Concert tickets? Gotta go elsewhere. While consumers buy a lot of products, they buy a lot of services, too. And, currently, there is no “one-stop shop” for services. I predict that there will be and that site – whether it’s Amazon or another company – will be as much of a household name in 10 years as Amazon is today. OK, that’s not too bizarre, right? Well, let’s move on to the next prediction and see if it is a little more “out there.”
2. Everyone’s life, as seen through their eyes, will be streamed and recorded. With today’s social media tools like Facebook and Twitter, we get to learn about what someone else is doing and has done. But these nuggets of information are static and not truly in real-time. That will change. I believe that everyone will be wearing – or will have implanted – a camera between or above their eyes. This camera will stream live video of the wearer’s life – as seen through their eyes – onto a social media site where anyone can watch what anyone else is doing at any point in time. This camera will not only broadcast the video, it will record the video thereby enabling someone to return to any point in their life and watch that moment exactly as they saw it. You think today’s generation has a disregard for privacy? Just wait – today’s little-privacy behavior will look modest by comparison with what’s coming.
3. Bald will be hot for teen and 20-something girls/women for a short time. Throughout the years, hair removal for women has been a cultural part of being feminine with shaved armpits, legs, etc. the norm. This tendency towards increased epilation will extend to hair on the head as well. Each generation breaks down the limits, taboos, and standards of previous generations. A society full of bald young women would be perhaps the most marked fashion departure imaginable. But fashion changes constantly and what is hot one moment is cold the next. So, this is a trend that won’t last long. But I think we’ll see it for a short time.
OK. That’s all the non-procurement stuff I’ll torture you with for now. Time for that four-day weekend to recharge the batteries. I’ll get back to normal programming next week, I promise!
Recommended Reading
Strategic Supplier Management Knows No Shortcuts
The Procurement World Breathes a Sigh of Relief…
Whitepaper Wednesday – Purchasing Salaries in 2011
Green Business Hypocrisy? (You gotta see this picture)
Why Suppliers Don’t Give You The Best Proposals Possible (And What You Can Do About It)
