As an analyst and research firm focused on disruptive trends, we’re frequently asked what we’re paying attention to, and what we’re currently researching.

Altimeter Group’s analysts believe the following three disruptive themes have the potential to significantly impact organizations and consumers alike over the next three years. They’re the overarching themes of all the research we produced this year, and will heavily influence our attention and coverage in 2013 as well.

Below, the three themes we believe should be top-of-mind for all organizations, as well as links to our relevant research:

The Dynamic Customer Journey:

Today, the new customer is empowered to make faster, smarter, more-informed decisions using technology – for instance, by accessing real-time information on a mobile device and connecting with trusted peers across open and closed social networks. After all, how many devices do YOU have within reach right now? How many screens? Which are you paying the most attention to, and why are you changing the channel? To meet the needs of you, the dynamic customer, organizations must transform their rigid sales, marketing, and customer service programs and adopt an intrinsically more flexible, organizational, technological, and go-to-market approach. Companies can’t keep up with this empowered consumer, who are bypassing brands and relying on themselves and each other to make better decisions.

Altimeter Research on Dynamic Customer Journey:

• The Social Media ROI Cookbook: Six Ingredients Top Brands Use to Measure the Revenue Impact of Social Media (Susan Etlinger)
• The Converged Media Imperative: How Brands will Combine Paid, Owned, and Earned Media (Rebecca Lieb and Jeremiah Owyang)
• The Rise of Digital Influence: A “How-To” Guide for Businesses (Brian Solis)
• Content: The New Marketing Equation (Rebecca Lieb)
• Make an App for That: Mobile Strategies for Retailers (Chris Silva)
• A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation (Jeremiah Owyang)

The Adaptive Organization:

Organizations continue to operate in industrial-era silos that are more appropriate for the factory floor than a digital world. Rapidly shifting social, cultural, and technological disruptions are putting strain on inflexible process-oriented companies, who are unable meet the needs of dynamic customers. Ready or not, organizations must respond quickly. Companies that can proactively adapt organizational and leadership structures will not only be able to manage this disruption, but also anticipate and leverage industry innovations to their advantage. Insight value is derived from ‘real-time’ optimization as well as sharing learnings horizontally to inform other business initiatives. In order to be successful, enterprises must be able to move at least as quickly as their customers. For traditional, siloed organizations, this task is a daunting one.

Altimeter Research on the Adaptive Organization:

• Building a Solid Platform for Enterprise Mobility (Chris Silva)
• Guarding the Social Gates: The Imperative for Social Media Risk Management:
• Making the Business Case for Enterprise Social Networks (Charlene Li)

The Sentient World:

More and more inanimate objects project and process data as they connect to one other, and a network of autonomous interactions will emerge. Soon enough, our devices will be able to manage, analyze, report on, and most importantly, anticipate how humans can experience their day to day lives more intelligently and efficiently. We are shifting from a world of inanimate objects and reactive devices to a world where data, intelligence, and computing power are distributed, ubiquitous, and networked. A variety of market forces – sensor, data capture, computing power, the shrinking of these technologies from a size, cost, and time perspective – are empowering consumers and organizations alike. Who will deliver the content for, and based on, these interactions? Who will manage the data that results? The nexus will be where signal and noise firmly differentiate, and where both consumers and organizations can access and utilize this information to make rapid decisions.

Altimeter Research on the Sentient World

• Power to the People: Identify and Empower your Mobile Workforce (Chris Silva)
• More to come…

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