Look up and ahead: the owner of the drone that just gave you a speeding fine will be.
I learn so much from Peter Diamandis’s online group. I joined it because I knew my knowledge of exponential technology was weak and I wanted to learn. It’s part of my constant curiosity mindset.
All people who have at some point in their lives held the role of Creative Director have this mindset. We know that we have to have a database of a mind. We have to absorb as much knowledge as we can about what is going on in the world so that we can join the right dots at the right time to come out with that ground breaking campaign just when it’s needed.
Today this is not just the role of a Creative Director. It’s an essential component of organisational culture. Whether you describe it as developing an entrepreneurial mindset, an agile culture, or activating creative thinking — it’s hugely important to be able to stay relevant, move and aborb change at the speed with which it’s happening all around us.
Enough of pontifiating. Let’s look at an example which caught my eye from Peter’s recent shares.
Drone technology. Drones are being used by both the French and UK traffic authorities to identify and clamp down on more dangerous and bad driving. According to Peter’s blog, when French police spot a traffic violation using the drone’s camera, officers can track the vehicle before sending traffic cops to stop the vehicle. Since the trial began in the summer of 2017, they’ve stopped as many as 15 to 20 cars per hour and handed out “hundreds” of fines. This is a good thing. Of course we want safer roads.
Drone designers have a great market and business in surveillance to improve safety. The second bonus for hard-pressed local and national exchequers is that traffic offences raise quite a bit of revenue. The more fines a drone can issue, the more revenue. So the double edged sword kicks in: we want better drivers and fewer accidents, but hey — that revenue is useful.
What’s on the horizon? Yep, driverless vehicles. If autonomous cars don’t break laws, cities won’t be able to earn revenue from traffic violations. When local councils are shaping future visions for our cities, we want them to consider all options for a thriving future. Perhaps driverless vehicles are part of that, I’m not sure — it’s not my specialism. But I do know that all of these decisions are fraught with complexity which is making them ever harder to do. Driverless vehicles would unquestionably reduce traffic and even parking fine revenue.
Who has to watch out and keep an eye on driverless vehicles? Firstly the drone makers who are currently doing great business in traffic surveillance. It’s not happening tomorrow but this burst for the drone industry has a short life span compared to the traditional life span of businesses created in the 20th century. And secondly the city planners.
And this is the point. You have to design cities, businesses, sub brands, sub divisions of your overall business to operate lean, leverage the market while they can and always be monitoring a thousand different potential impact points across the old economic, political, industrial, social, technological and environmental (epistle) landscape.
The best way to do that is to foster a systems thinking and creative thinking culture.
Welcome to our world. If you want to activate systems and creative thinking inside your organisation, get in touch. All our interventions are designed to foster the right mindset to deliver against the circular and regenerative future economies. Contact us on hello@weactivatethefuture.com.
