So out of the blue my boss appears at my office door and says, "Brendan, tell me what H&K Canada will look like 25 years from now." Then adds, "I'll need that by tomorrow."
Clearly I'm being punished, though am still unsure for what exactly. But it's an interesting question nonetheless, and one that has literally kept me awake at night, as here I am at 5:00 am-ish EST plugging away at this... Quite frankly, I could use your help to finish and/or vet this list I've started...
Here's some thought-starters, from one person's perspective, in no particular priority of importance. What's interesting is that without getting into the weird stuff such as moon-based H&K offices, a lot of this is happening now, in Canada and around the H&K network... However, I think it will only be refined and further entrenched in 2030.
So here goes... In 2030:
1. We will offer clients a "Consumer-Generated" media relations offering in addition to, and in conjunction with, our traditional "Mainstream" media relations services. Will they ever be completely integrated?
2. As is already happening in other parts of the network, our service lines will become increasingly specialized on niche audiences and industries -- broadcasting to narrowcasting -- GLBT, Seniors, Youth, Ethnic, Obese, Aboriginal, etc.
3. Whereas the Economist recently identified employees as "unintended guardians of the brand", in 2030 employees -- and increasingly customers -- will be the brand, and will need to be cultivated as such.
4. We will be able to accurately measure the impact of our activities on the bottom line
5. Non-financial drivers (reputation and brand, management experience, governance policies etc.) will overtake financial drivers as determinants of a corporation's "value"
6. We will consult regularly into the c-suite as that is where our clients will sit -- as chief reputation officers, chief marketing officers and chief communications officers.
7. "Change Communications" will simply become "Communications" because change, to abuse an over-used euphemism, will be the only constant (yeah, kick me).
8. We will always be "on" -- increasingly having to react and respond to events happening at any time, anywhere in the world -- whether in Toronto, Saskatoon, or Mumbai. Traditional press cycles and time-lags will be a thing of the past.
9. We will be cultivating conversations and two-way dialogs, not simply one-way interactions.
Let's keep this list going... as I'm sure this is only the thin edge of the wedge...