Compass360 Consulting's Predictions and Prognostications.

Source: wikimedia.org

Following is our list of 12 predictions for 2011:

• Certain regions in the U.S. economy (especially N.Y. city, certain parts of New York state, Colorado, Texas, and Washington State) are on the up-shift;
• Netflix will temporarily hit its threshold of saturation;
• The New England Patriots will obviously play in the 2011 Super Bowl;
• IPTV will continued to be the hot technology while the use of cable technology continues to decline;
• Digital publishing of high-tech books will overtake its printed counterparts;
• The incremental use of automated processes and robotics in the service economy;
• Gold surpassing the $1500 barrier while the value of the U.S. dollar continues to drop;
• The rising prices of batteries, hybrid cars and other high-technology products that use batteries;
• The rising prices of various energy sources, commodities (wheat, oil, cocoa, copper, etc) and food;
• The rise of more state government driven user fees;
• The continuing drop of housing prices at various U.S regions; and
• Chinese software companies introducing their brand of web software to western countries.

Interestingly, one can only expect the political blow back from the rising prices to be quite brutal in 2012.

To the well-informed, most of them are obvious. The key is to take advantage of those points before it becomes a prevailing reality.

Here are some more interesting but obvious predictions regarding to the cyber economy from McAfee Labs, Cisco and an Infoworld's columnist. (updated on 12.31.10)

In our cyber economy, most of us are overwhelmed with many dots of information. Identifying the crisises and the opportunities is always the challenge for most people. The successful opportunity finders are those experienced people who can filter the order from the disorder and determine what are the priorities.

Following are the keys to finding the order:

• View the big tangible picture in terms of the terrain, its cycles and the people within it;
• Recognize the relevant strategic factors (dots);
• Examine the connections between the events, the people and the ideas;
• Analyze the integrity of the data; and
• Deliberate the preliminary decision.

We believed that having a comprehensive strategic process is how one becomes effective in a complex world.

We always meet people who know the current state of their surroundings. However, the majority of them rarely understand the cause and the effect of their situation and the rate of change. Without properly understanding the risk-consequences of their situation, they usually take their circumstances for granted.

When a negative event impacts them, they rarely understand the cause of it. Their usual response is to grind out the course of the situation. This decision usually takes a great quantity of time, effort and resources.

Those who anticipate the on-coming causes, are usually ahead of the herd. They are so prepared that they rarely lose their focus of their time, their energy and their resources.

The successful people are those who frequently connect the dots and reap the rewards. They are usually ahead of the curve.

Summary

Following are some questions for you to think about:

• Do you know the strategic factors that connect you with your vendors, your clients, your alliance and your competition?
• If you know your grand settings, how do you take advantage of it?
• Do you know the current and the future profit opportunities that are within your competitive terrain? If so, what are you doing about it?

By understanding the significant connections with the big tangible picture, one gains insights to do the following:

• Maximizing on new profit opportunities;
• Minimizing on current costs; and
• Ensuring quality

Conclusively, he/she will work smarter not harder.

If you are interested in learning more about our strategic process, please contact us at:

http://www.formspring.me/Compass360CG