A little convergence and last notes from 2017

Well, it’s end of 2017 and it has certainly sped by. Here is a big “Thank you” to all our clients, partners, friends and colleagues. 2017 has been a year of changes, some positive, some not so but generally, it has been in the right direction. Change is never easy – personally or for an organization. Even practitioners like us find change always a challenge. The brain likes predictability and it doesn’t like change very much. Yet, it is change that challenges us and makes us stronger. So, as 2017 passes, let us look forward to 2018 – not fearfully or worried about the changes it might bring but with the audacity to face it and know that we are all stronger together than we think.
Finally, just a little note about convergence and cross-industry pollination. During a dinner discussion one night, there was a fact raised about how cross-industry pollination creates innovation. That is certainly very true. Cancer treatment and research for example, is now using human genome analytics, big data and AI to match treatments better and more accurately with more success than any process before. The algorithms that told you that people who bought this two items also liked these few items is now being used for cancer research and treatment. The Apple iPhone is also an example where almost everything before has already been invented and used — touch screens, icons, email and applications but putting them together in a single device was revolutionary.
So what does a theme park and a science center have in common?
Crowds. Lots of people. I recently visited the National Science Center with my son and we realized one serious Customer Experience flaw. Yes, I had to bring up CX. There was a serious queue and crowd control was awful. After the visit, I looked back and the issue is simple but probably would require them to redesign part of the exhibits and building layout. Any theme park consultant worth his or her salt would tell you the same thing. Theme parks move thousands of people in and out per hour and they’re the experts in this. A good theme park will always have a big entrance to funnel everyone in quickly and then channel them through key areas – food and souvenirs are big revenue generators. The National Science center had a single entrance, pretty narrow and they had to divide it further to allow people leaving to get out. This made the entrance narrower and people got upset.
So sometimes when a problem arises, the solution may be in another totally different industry.
Happy New Year 2018!