Growing and Protecting Your Business in the Digital Age
You can learn more about how I see the trends of the online world over at www.SmarterWebStrategies.com But if you’d like to get a sneak peek at the Guidebook that started it all, the details are below. And you can download the full guidebook for free right here.
The Digital TrendCatcher Guide
The Digital TrendCatcher Guide has been designed to help you better understand and plan for the changing opportunities and challenges of doing business in the Digital Age.
It is intended for any customer-focused business owner, manager or planner in business, not-for-profit or government who wants to
- Make better plans for running your business online;
- Enhance your business website;
- Improve your marketing plans;
- Get better at managing change;
- Develop or find highly saleable new products;
- Streamline your business processes;
- Continuously improve your business; or
- Cut through any confusion caused by changing technology.
This Guide is available for free download and free global distribution in its original and unmodified form. It is a 75 pages 2.7 Mb PDF file. You can download the latest version for free now from here.
Digital TrendCatcher Guide Overview
The rapidly changing technology of the Internet and online systems can makes it appear as a confusing and often overwhelming ‘blur’. Find the patterns and you can change the blur to a vision.
To effectively plan for the future, we need to expand the focus of our vision from the short-term ‘technology’ to the long-term ‘trends’; rise above the day-to-day; extend our horizons; and create our ‘Big Picture’ future view based on the long term trends, and their possible or likely impacts on our customers and our industry.
In this guide, Richard Keeves highlights 25 Digital Age Trends that are guiding and influencing the future of online business in a complex system of intermingled stimulatory actions, reactions, causes and effects. The trends often combine together with continual feedback loops to exponentially drive greater change at faster speeds and with increasingly powerful impacts.
Richard explains the 9 Step ‘Future Road Map’ Planning process for using the trends, and then provides guidelines of 20 Critical Criteria for Choosing Technology Solutions so you make the wisest choices you can with your technology selections.
The approach in the Digital TrendCatcher Guide can help you see and understand the long-term patterns and trends that often get lost or disguised in amongst the rapidly changing technology. You will learn how to strategically question your current business thinking and challenge the accepted norms for your business and industry. As a result, you can more quickly and easily develop clearer strategic vision and an ‘on-trend’ roadmap for the future of your business.
Think about your business roadmap before you think about the technology tools to use. Be aware that choosing the most suitable tools and technologies to implement is a business decision as much as a technical one, and should not be just delegated to your IT staff or consultants.
What others are saying about Digital TrendCatcher Guide
“It’s not often you see big picture thinking and business planning clearly linked in insightful and practical ways, with opportunity as the focus.
There’s nothing else like Richard Keeves’ Digital TrendCatcher Guide around and you would expect to pay a lot for it. Don’t be fooled by the fact that it’s free.”
Denny Sterley
Australian Practice Leader, Resilient Futures
“There is no question that Richard Keeves has a deep understanding of the nature of the digital tsunami that is shaping the way we all live, work and play. Like the boiling frog, we have a tendency to acclimatise to change, considering our current situation as normal and largely forgetting the extent and speed of change we have experienced – to say nothing about underestimating what is yet to come. Not only has Richard enumerated the various elements of this wave, he has also given us an understanding of the underlying currents (or Action Principles) which combine to give the wave its power. His insights allow us to recognise potential moves and clues as to how best you might ride the wave.
Whether you simply want a better understanding of the digital revolution or want to apply this to your strategic business planning or competitive strategies, this guide makes compelling reading. I understand it started as a briefing paper and has since evolved into a small book – such is its scope. Those who take the time to study it and apply the knowledge it contains will find their time well spent – it has the potential to make a significant impact on the way you run your business now and in the future.”
David Shelton
Director, Transition Capital
“This Guide highlights trends that cannot be ignored. We need to plan our actions, and need to create our own roadmaps to deal with business opportunities and threats that are now mission critical. Like it or not it is not going away, and is only getting bigger and faster. Richard explains how and why the bar keeps rising. Use his guidance and thought-provoking research to assist you in your business and personal journey.”
John Clegg
Business Adviser , Omnivest Business Consultants
“There is only one constant in today’s world and that is change. Having read the Digital TrendCatcher Guide, it makes me appreciate how much is changing and how much more I need to know. It can be scary. Is the world passing me by? No, it isn’t!
I now really appreciate my contribution to my business. The major contribution we all bring to any business is OURSELVES and our THOUGHTS. By better understanding the trends, I can have better THOUGHTS and can better assist my business. This is essential reading. Then read it again.”
Colin Atkinson
Managing Director, CA Management Services
“This guide echoes sentiments I have had for many years. We get too clouded by what’s out on the Internet. Our focus needs to be on planning and creating better business outcomes, and then use the tools that are available to us.”
David Barnes
Executive Director, Platform Interactive
“Compulsory reading for any executive who is serious about understanding how digital communication is changing the world.”
James Bull
Website Planner, Writer & Presenter, James Bull Consulting Pty Ltd
“As the boundary between the online virtual worlds & our tangible 3D world relies increasingly on our own perceptions, any text we find that helps us clarify the distinctions & how to operate them better is a useful read. Richard Keeves writes clearly, cleanly, & without technobabble. Good stuff.”
Annimac
Futurist & Trend Forecaster, www.annimac.com.au
“The Digital TrendCatcher Guide is a ‘must read’ before making decisions about technology. Richard explains each digital trend with clarity, preparing you to focus on the big picture (where you are going) before deciding on the tools to get there.”
Mark Douglas
Managing Director, Francis A Jones