We find ourselves in an interesting business era where being the fastest does not guarantee your organization’s success necessarily. But rather being able to solve the present need and detect the future need for your customers better predicts success. In today’s world, companies that survive are those who are fully aware of the existing realities and also have great wealth of knowledge they want their customers to think they need in the future.
In these present times, we are doing what the major players anticipated we will do.
Clearly, they anticipated that people would love to see the world hence the need for air travel. They anticipated that people would want to communicate with others across the globe hence the need for the telephone and now, social media. The major players also anticipated that businesses will need to go digital as consumers become more digitally inclined and spend a lot of time on the internet.
Today, we are dancing to the rhythm set by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and others who created over a million innovative ideas that have transformed our thinking.
It has become obvious that customers don’t really know what they want. First, they accept what works based on how you sell a product or service to them. They then try and test it, and if they are excited about how it works, bingo! They give great reviews and make referrals.
When the team is overwhelmed with meeting revenue targets and satisfying stakeholders, they are quick to react on market trends or completely ignore existing market changes or disruptions that can impact their business.
The anticipation manager plays a critical role in this regard. The anticipation manager provides strategic information based on insights and research, and proposes suitable customer/client solutions that become useful to the organization.
