Fast Company - March 2006

I have read Fast Company on and off for a few years - a few of those years I even had a subscription. Good magazine with very compelling articles about vision, leadership, creativity and innovation. On the way to Orlando, I picked up the most recent issue, which was their 10th anniversary issue. The title is "The Fast 50 - The People Who Will Change How We Work and Live Over the Next 10 Years." Basically, it is a look into the future. A look.... into the future....

You

must

read

this

issue.

The issue isn't online right now, they publish the content about a month after it hits newsstands I think. [As they come on line, I will update this post with links.] But here are some snippets.

Demographics

It's the futurist's first rule: You can't understand the future without demographics. The composition of a society - whether its citizens are old or young, prosperous or declining, rural or urban - shapes every aspect of civic life, from politics, economics and culture to the kinds of products, services, and business that are likely to succeed or fail. Demographics isn't destiny, but it's close.

- Leaders miss demographics and how it informs their organizations. Executives aren't trained in demographics (no courses at B schools)
- In the next decade, distribution of age will look like an hourglass, with baby-boomers on top, the millennials at the bottom and generation-Xers will form the middle - this will redefine entertainment, culture, film, television, books and web markets to older class.
- By 2011, the 65 and over population will be growing faster than the population as a whole in each of the 50 states.
- 46% of US population growth in the next decade will come from three states: California, Texas and Florida.
- MTV Desi - South Asian
- MTV Chi - Chinese
- MTV K - Korean
- Expect a proliferation of culture not only pitched to Asians but by them.

China
- By 2014, expected to be the second largest media market in the world.
- China's middle class will rise to 40% of its population by 2020.
- Expected to spend $306.5B on travel and tourism by 2016.
- 400 million rural Chinese expected to migrate to cities in the next decade.

Superculture
- More than 50% of 15 years olds in LA are Hispanic, by 2020, nearly one in five Americans will be.
- The Hispanic niche market will be turned into a mass market, no longer a subculture but a superculture.

Water
In Bangkok, Manila, and New Delhi, water theft is common.
Half a trillion gallons of water are wasted each year during oil extraction.
1.1B people live without clean drinking water.

Various
Average time for a flu pandemic to circle the globe:
- 20th century - 6 to 9 months
- today - 3 months

McDonalds to open first green-building certification for a restaurant in Savannah.

Estimated time required to do "The Wave" in a line around the globe - 1.5 months.

After the introduction of electricity, the US population grew by 15% between 1910 and 1920, but the number of personal servants fell 25%, replaced, in large part, by appliances.

"First came the aristocracy, an elite based on bloodline. Then came the meritocracy, an elite based on academic achievement. Next will be what I'd call an 'artocracy,' an elite based on the mastery of visual arts, music, and drama" - Daniel Pink [author of A Whole New Mind and Free Agent Nation]

Save your lunch money tomorrow, pack a lunch and go buy and read this issue from cover to cover.