This week’s post is a more personal and reflective one, triggered by giving my last formal TrendWatching client presentation last week.
You’ve probably read a bunch of reflective articles recently, as it’s now a year since it became clear that the pandemic was going to be a truly seismic global disruption. This isn’t a pandemic retrospective, although for the record I think my posts from a year ago hold up pretty well ;)
Instead I’ll be looking back further: at the 10 years I spent leading TrendWatching. I’ll share a few insights learned along the way, but mainly I just want to say a public thank you to all the people that made it possible, hopefully without it turning into too much of a weepy Oscar acceptance-style speech.
While there was never a moment where an envelope was opened and my name was read out, quite frankly it sometimes felt like we had won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I lost count of the times that we’d marvel as a team at how freaking amazing our jobs were: we got to travel the world (both via 💻 and ✈️), speaking to fascinating people, reading endlessly about new innovations, joining the dots between them and then crafting stories about where the world was headed. Sure, some days were faintly ridiculous (the infamous team meeting about dropping the ‘nose’ from our winky faces ;-), but we also got to advocate for a more sustainable, inclusive, and human-centered approach to business to some of the most powerful business people on the planet. That was a huge privilege and I’m forever grateful to every single reader, client, event attendee and conference organiser that gave us those opportunities.
There are many things I’m proud to have done over the last decade: delivering 100+ keynotes and workshops to some insane audiences, big and small; being the lead speaker on a stupidly ambitious and intense 12-city global event tour at just 27 years old; speaking at venues like the Sydney Opera House; sharing stages with everyone from Priyanka Chopra to Kofi Annan; writing a book that sold tens of thousands of copies; and many, many more.
Looking back however, the things I’m proudest of are the things I didn’t do. The reports, newsletters, workshops, events, client projects, innovation toolkits and more that I never touched, because one of my incredible teammates was doing them. Brilliantly.
I mentioned above how we often marvelled as a team, but I also marvelled at our team, constantly. One of my mantras internally was that as a small team we couldn’t do everything that our clients wanted, but that we could be the best in the world at the very small slice that we focused on. And we were.
One memorable moment was when both Netflix and Google shared how their data had led them to identify certain counter-intuitive trends, that we – with zero proprietary customer data – had spotted over a year before (for the trend geeks reading, it was Post-Demographic Consumerism and Heritage Heresy :)
But beyond successfully spotting trends (kind of table stakes!), clients consistently told us the thing we were the best in the world at was making trends accessible. In Trend-Driven Innovation, we laid out a trend methodology that scaled. Virtually no one we hired was an established trend watcher, yet within months they were presenting at the highest levels. And they got invited back! After writing the book, we kept landing bigger and more strategic client relationships. And I use the term ‘we’ loosely, I barely came into contact with our three largest clients. I didn’t have to.
Writing this now, I’m still in awe of the team and culture we built. My colleague Max’s recent similar post is the ultimate example of this, being both pithier and funnier than mine 😅
While we were spread across every continent and were diverse in terms of race and gender, my biggest learning from the past decade is the magic that emerges when you work with people who you respect deeply, but who see the world completely differently from you. From design to client services to content, we built a team that cared. Everyone stood up for their work, each other and our clients. Combined, we were like Captain Planet.
If I was giving this as a speech, this is the part when I’d be choking up. The memories! Dancing to Gangnam Style in Gangnam itself; running an event for 300 people in Chicago two days after Trump was elected; hanging out with clients-who-became-friends everywhere from Indian tea rooms to Icelandic concert halls to Turkish bazaars. There are too many teammates, clients and spotters to thank personally. I’m incredibly fortunate to have built such strong relationships with so many smart and curious people.
There is one person however, that I want to call out by name: TrendWatching’s founder, Reinier Evers. Thank you for putting your faith in me, and by extension in the rest of the team. As the OG trend watcher, I can’t wait to see where you take things next.
Now for my next adventure. As well as finishing my next book, The Future Normal, I’m beyond excited to be sinking my teeth into an even bigger new opportunity. I’ll still be watching trends, but through a new lens as Director of Content Strategy at Founders Forum.
Brent Hoberman has built an amazing team that produces the most prestigious tech event in Europe. The FF community is truly mind-blowing, featuring the most game-changing and ambitious entrepreneurs in the world. The chance to lean into this and help exponentially increase its reach and impact is spine-tingling...but more on all that soon!
For now, to everyone who enabled me to ride the TrendWatching rollercoaster over this last decade, THANK YOU 🙏
Please keep in touch, my DMs & inbox are always open and I hope our paths cross again soon.
Hi Henry, can we have possibility to focus on new generations, like Zed Gen e youngest Millennials? We are working with this cluster - please see www.forumyoung.it - and we'll be pleased to develop some international sections also together with you :)