I would now like to introduce Orion Williams from Pacific Life Advisory, our sponsor for today's keynote address. Good morning. Try it again. Good morning, y'all. Good morning. I'm from Birmingham, Alabama. We don't say Louisville. We just say Louisville quickly. So first, I would like to thank NAPFA for allowing Pacific Life Advisory and myself to introduce our keynote speaker this morning, Mr. Scott Steinberg, who is a top expert in change, leadership, and innovation. My name is Orion Williams, and I am the managing director for Pacific Life Advisory, covering RIAs throughout the entire Southeast. Now, keeping with the theme this morning about change, leadership, and innovation, I'm going to give you the brief commercial, just briefly, of what Pacific Life is doing to innovate the annuity space for RIAs. Now, I know I said annuities, and some of you are probably going to treat me like the AT&T U-verse person knocking on your door. But bear with me for a second, OK? Now, most of you know Pacific Life as the 150-year-old insurance company. Well, there's a logo. If you watch college football, you see us sponsoring the commercials. But what you may not know is that Pacific Life has a new team, which I'm a part of. We are the RIA team, and we are revolutionizing the tax-deferred investing space. We have created fiduciary-friendly, fee-friendly advisory annuities. This will help you create better outcomes for your retirement income for your clients, and at the same time, from a business scaling standpoint, increase your AUM. Now, most of you are thinking, annuities, oh, they're expensive. They're complicated. They have punitive withdrawal charges. They don't really fit my business model. That might be true of the broker-dealer world of annuities in the past. What we have created has been advisory annuities that allow you to take advisory fees out of them. They're low-cost. They're integrated with your tech platforms, such as Orion, Black Diamond, E-Vizon, E-Money. They are also able to be, as we stepped into the future this week, and I don't know if you saw the press release, but we have now had our first industry partnership with Black Diamond and launched a trading platform to allow you to build models and trade them on the block basis and track what you're building. The advisory annuities that we also have, because some of you are probably saying, well, OK, that sounds good, but I don't have licensing. I gave that up, Orion. We don't need that. Well, here's the great thing. From a licensing standpoint, you don't need insurance licenses or securities licenses. We can partner with third-party platforms, such as our partners at DPL. Shout out to them in Louisville. Or you can come directly and have a relationship with us, with advisors, with managing directors such as myself, and we will custody those assets for you. All the barriers that you thought about annuities have been completely destroyed at this point. We are now innovating and changing and leading the industry when it comes to being able to provide retirement products for your clients, and at the same time, they will count as an asset under management for your firms. Now, on to the good stuff. Scott, I won't keep you waiting, my beautiful bald brother in this. Let me tell you about Scott, because his resume is impressive. I thought I had some stuff. Scott has been hailed as the master of innovation by Fortune Magazine. He is a leading business consultant. He is an award-winning strategic consultant. He's a keynote speaker professionally. I'm trying to get there with you. He is a top consultant when it comes to change, leadership, and innovation. Scott has been a business consultant to over 1,500 brands from Amazon to Zynga. Scott is so well-prepared and so well-known that Scott has been named a defining figure in business and technology, and he is a trendsetter to follow. In fact, he spots trends so well, we're gonna talk about bald, because I see some brothers out here, we're gonna get with that, but when it comes to trends, he has been the master in mind behind over products that have been in 500 million households. That's a lot of households. Scott is also not just a strategic advisor to CEOs and four-star generals, he has also been someone who has defined your own founding of BizDev, the International Association of Business Development, and he's also the leader of Future Proof Strategies, which is a marketing consultant firm. Mid-pandemic, while I was at home with five-year-old triplets in kindergarten virtually, he was listed as a top 25 leader in excellence when it comes to defining his industry. You good, Scott? Scott Steinberg has been seen in over 700 outlets from CNN to NBC, and this morning, he is here to open our minds to change and innovation. Please, please welcome to the stage Mr. Scott Steinberg. Thank you. Appreciate that magnanimous intro. Pretty sure these days I'm mostly a valet and bodyguard to a teenager, but that sounds pretty good too. Anyways, if you haven't met him, by the way, this is my bodyguard Hank here. His tagline is, no autographs. That said, I did want to thank you folks very much for the warm welcome and let you know up front that is a tremendous pleasure to be here with all of you today, even more so as it means that somehow, someway, as Orion was alluding, I actually survived being trapped at home for the last couple weeks with said teenage girl, and in fact, if any of you are parents or single parents like me, you'll know that's even more challenging than it sounds, as you can see here. In fact, as I was telling Orion earlier, I'm pretty sure I actually had a full head of hair before we started Daddy Daycare, but what can you do, right? Anyways, just a little speaker humor here, but all jokes aside, I did want to take a moment out to welcome you to a new age of finance and investment technology, one that's going to be more predictive, perceptive, and incisive, as we often remind, but in addition, thanks to the transformative power of new advancements like AI and automation, I feel like I should also point out that it's increasingly going to be an era that will be defined by its growing emphasis on more human elements of technology as well, and of course, concepts like client experience, context, and customization to boot. Now, mind you, given that it's your 40th anniversary, I also wanted to take a second out up front to thank you for your decades of service and support, and to congratulate you on all that you've managed to achieve in this time period, because if you think about it, in today's increasingly uncertain and unpredictable business world, it's quite an accomplishment to go 25 years and hit a silver anniversary, let alone 40, and make it to Ruby, for those of you who are accounting, which, by the way, I saw this morning actually signifies passion and dedication to your craft appropriately. So, I think it's super important to take a moment out to celebrate all that you have achieved and done in these past few decades, and also to take a moment out to remind ourselves that it's equally important to make sure that we do not rest on these laurels in the years to come, not that I have a big worry that you folks are going to do so, noting how many exciting new changes and opportunities are coming to this business very shortly. Now, that said, before we get too deep into it, if you don't mind, I thought maybe we could engage in a little thought exercise to kick things off. So, if you would indulge me, if you wouldn't mind, picture with me and imagine, if you will, that it's Monday morning, and that you're sitting in your bed at home, you're lying there in the dark, and you've woken up suddenly, and you realize that your cell phone is buzzing, and you look at the clock on the wall, and you realize it's 5 a.m., and you're thinking to yourself, oh my gosh, what's going on? Is this some glitch? Is it a prank? But as you look at your cell phone a little bit more closely, you realize it's not an error. In fact, what's happened is your AI-powered virtual assistant was just checking in to let you know that, unfortunately, Asian and European markets were suddenly on the decline, thanks to unexpected geopolitical developments, and uh-oh, alas, it looks like U.S. markets may very well be the next to tumble. Thankfully, though, as you start to contemplate what's going on, you realize there's no need to panic right away, because smart systems were just checking in to let you know that they had automatically begun connecting with networks of banks and financial centers all around the nation to do things like check in on your clients' financial portfolios, to run millions of projections on different markets and asset classes, and on top of it, to dynamically plot proposed adjustments to your clients' plans right there on the fly as well. And by the way, while you're waking up and starting to shake off the cobwebs, you take comfort knowing that automated helpers have already begun reaching out to all your clients and sending them little games that they can be playing through simulations of the market to game out and map out any changes that they might want to make to their portfolios as well, and for that matter, sent them links to artificially intelligent chatbot helpers or digital doubles that are based on your individual personality and insights that they can be asking questions since it's still pre-office hours. And as you're getting ready, suddenly you get another buzz on your cell phone, and you open your inbox to find that it's another note from your little virtual helper letting you know that it has also notified your network of professional advisors and partners to let them know to be on call and that additional resources and manpower may be needed. And you might ask yourself, well, why did it do this? And the answer is because predictive technology correctly surmised that disruption was in the air and put the word out so that you and your team could stand ready, willing, and able to handle a potential flood of follow-up calls and requests that may be coming in shortly. So, interesting little futuristic scenario, right? And it really speaks to the potential of today's most cutting-edge financial planning tools, especially when backed by tomorrow's most cutting-edge AI and machine learning solutions. But even better from my perspective as a futurist, it's just one of many potential near-term visions of the future that we may see in the next five to ten years alone. Now that said, before we dive deeper into the magic of new trends and technologies, I did think it was important to get a couple things straight up front. Number one, as a longtime finance industry consultant, I think I should acknowledge that I know that I'm not the first presenter to stand up here on stage and tell you that a host of new high-tech advancements are going to revolutionize your business. And in fact, I'm pretty sure that right now as we speak, there are entire legions of crypto bros out there in middle America who are crying into their portfolios of NFTs and board shapes right as we speak. Secondly, I'm also not going to presume to tell you folks how to do your business either, given that as financial advisors, nobody knows this industry or the economics behind it quite like you do. And besides, I'm pretty sure that a sandbag is accidentally going to cut loose and fall from the rafters and on my head if I do not preface this presentation by saying that if you want formal business advice, absolutely seek out the help of a qualified industry professional. That said though, as a futurist, what I do know about is change, right? Changes in consumer habits, changes in the commercial landscape, and changes in the general marketplace. And let me tell you, from my perspective, I've never seen a time as such high-tech advancement or business innovation that promises to revolutionize the way that we work and live so thoroughly and so exponentially as the one we're living in today. Let alone at such speed and scale. So just for example, right now we know that AI tools can code simple apps and software programs. But in coming years, what we know as well is that you're going to see artificial intelligence routines that are powerful enough to create their own brand new AI systems. Likewise, as industry professionals, you've probably also seen how machine learning solutions can help you automate processes like filling out forms or plotting financial projections. But in the next few years, what experts tell us is that what passes for today's most cutting-edge financial service solutions is actually going to be baseline table stakes for tomorrow's advisors and investors alike. And they also tell us that entire savings portfolios and investment accounts are going to be fully self-aware, self-monitoring, and capable of self-maintenance all within the next few years here. And in fact, if we blip out about two to three years into the future, thanks to a fast-growing ecosystem of plug-and-play technologies and online providers, what you're going to find is, you should trust me when I say that you're going to have your mind blown by the types of wonderful new things that technology is going to enable us to create and build on the fly going forward. And by the way, you're going to be blown away by just how accessible all this technology is going to make these new tools, these new services, these new features, and how it's going to democratize the act of creation, even for those of us who maybe aren't so technologically inclined to boot. So speaking of, I don't suppose any of you have ever used a smartphone app to instantly assess clients' individual needs and spending habits, and then automatically map out custom savings or investment plans for them on the fly, and do it under hundreds of potential living or retirement scenarios. Or for that matter, use digital twins to quickly create 3D models of investment portfolios, and then wave a hand to make edits with the flick of a finger. But if not, I want you to get ready, because these are all examples of types of high-tech innovations, practical high-tech solutions, that we can already be tapping into today. This is not science fiction, this is science fact. And by the way, looking ahead, it's not hard to see how virtually every piece of office equipment and every single tool in your belt is going to be connected, collecting data, and communicating with one another in the years to come, not to mention actively communicating with you as well. So please trust me when I tell you that the future of financial services is coming on fast, and in fact, in many ways, is taking shape right before our eyes, right as we speak. Meaning that if you folks are not already investing in tomorrow's solutions today, and making the leap forward to digital in your business, there's going to be no time like the present to do so, given that in an age of exponential change, the future is only going to come on more fast and more furious going forward. But let's not get ahead of ourselves too much just yet. I want to digress here. Of course, we have gathered here today to talk about how you can create more successful strategies for building and growing your practice, even in some very fast-changing and unpredictable markets. And I assure you, it's a topic we're going to touch on in the first part of the presentation. But in addition, we've also tuned in to discuss how anyone can learn to think like a futurist more effectively, and use the art of strategic planning to stay one step ahead of the curve as well. And that's a subject that we will dig deeper into in the second part of our presentation. Now on the bright side, as challenging as these concepts may sound, I'm pleased to report that market uncertainty or not, you may be surprised at just how simple the process of future-proofing yourself and your organization really can be when you come right down to it. And in fact, as we recently discovered while researching a book called Fast Forward, all it often takes to be more successful here is just a greater sense of perspective, and for that matter, a greater willingness to make some seemingly simple but also hugely powerful shifts in terms of strategy and thinking. So just for example, anyone else here on a Rolls-Royce? Show of hands? I'm kidding, folks, right? Like I said, I'm a single parent, so I'm pretty sure that's a lot of good money I could be investing in therapy instead if I wanted, right? But anyways, if not, I'm pleased to report that you can now pick one up for just $25,000 these days. However, there is one catch, there's always a catch, in that it comes in the form of a piece of industrial equipment which the company recently pivoted to making. Because despite having a record year in 2019, rumor has it that the firm was having a little bit of trouble selling $400,000 luxury vehicles in the middle of a sudden global economic downturn. Go figure, right? But simply by leveraging its world-class engineering team and supply chain to solve another equally pressing challenge, in addition to how to keep up with the Kardashians, as it turns out, what we saw was that the global automaker was able to quickly steer its way back to record profits by the end of last year alone. However, on the flip side, when window and door manufacturer Pella found itself struggling to recruit and retain top talent, all it took for this company to turn its fortunes around was for it to institute more flexible scheduling solutions at all of its plants, which essentially allowed longtime workers to scale back to 24, 27, or 30 hour shifts or work weeks, but still retain full employee benefits. And not only did this seemingly slight and innocuous shift in HR policy help Pella boost its employee retention rates by about 50%, these actually proved such a powerful designator, such a powerful source of competitive advantage, that it was able to attract tons of new hires as well and bring on board about 4,000 new people to its manufacturing workforce in the span of about 18 months. So anyways, as cute and as clever as some of these examples are, what I'm getting at is that if even sudden and unexpected change can be that easy to steer around, and if innovative solutions to rising challenges can be that simple to both identify and implement, a few questions that I would put to you upfront before we even start to think about future trends and what's coming next would be as follows. Number one, I'd ask you, rather than reinvent from scratch, how can you and your colleagues quickly iterate and update various strategic initiatives or sales efforts of yours to be much more successful? Second, I'd ask you, in what ways could smart technology help you more rapidly streamline and enhance both front and back end operations, or more swiftly solve pressing problems? And last but not least, when it comes to finding better ways to address all the day-to-day tasks or big-picture strategic challenges that we're all assigned to tackle, what current services and solutions of yours could benefit hugely from even just some slight tweaks in terms of setup and delivery? And what you're going to find is that the more you make a point to ask yourselves questions like these, and the more that you choose to take a proactive role in helping lead positive change in your firm, the more successful that you will be time and time again going forward. And speaking of simple changes anyway, by the way, anyone here a fan of Elmer's glue? I mean, as you may be aware, it's one of the top snack foods available for school-aged kids worldwide, right? I'm kidding. I'm kidding. But anyways, maybe it would interest you to know that for about 80 years, Elmer's Products has been creating adhesives and sealants under the direction of individual business leaders. So essentially, a senior executive would tell this company what products to make and when to make them. But the challenge that Elmer's was having recently was that it needed to become a lot faster about coming up with successful, innovative new concepts designed to appeal to younger audiences, including millennials, more and more of whom were becoming parents. So Elmer's not only created a website where its employees could speak up and suggest new ideas, it also built a team that was charged with sourcing concepts from outside vendors, and they even put up an online portal that you see here where they put out open calls to the general public. So folks like you and me. And incredibly, what we see is that thousands of submissions later, Elmer's is actually cranking out more successful ideas faster than at any point in its nearly 100-year-old history. And in fact, its eco-friendly line of School Glue Naturals products, which was created in partnership with an external chemical supplier who's actually the one that came up with the idea, turns out it's one of the first and most successful products of its kind ever to appear in classrooms the world over. So anyways, just another helpful thought to keep in mind here. If ever you should wonder what it's going to take for you and your colleagues to come up with your next big smash hit idea as well, maybe you don't have to spend tons of time or money here trying to come up with some big AI-powered or high-tech breakthrough if you want to achieve big results here. And maybe you're not going to have to radically reinvent the shape of your business plan either. Perhaps just a slight shift in terms of strategy and thinking will be all it takes to help you turbocharge growth and innovation going forward. Because again, those big picture solutions that we're all looking for, turns out they can become a lot easier to spot when you are simply willing to change the lens through which you are viewing any given challenge and when you are willing to relentlessly attack problems from all sorts of fresh angles as well. Anyhow, what's really cool about these examples to me is that they don't just illustrate the beauty of innovation. They also remind us that it's not rocket science and that the process of finding ongoing success really is often just one of constant reimagining, repositioning, and reinvention. But better yet, stories like these also help demonstrate another important point in that they remind us that even in the most challenging of business environments, all it often takes to conquer even the most seemingly complex and difficult challenges are typically just the most clever and simple of solutions. Now that said, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, I did want to take a brief step back and really rethink what it means to innovate. Because of all the buzzwords we hear used in business today, innovation is of course one of the most widely utilized. But if you were to ask me, I would tell you that innovation is also one of the most widely misunderstood as well. And in fact, if you were to look up the definition of innovation in the dictionary, you may be surprised by what you'd find. So according to Merriam-Webster's and Oxford, innovation is simply defined as the introduction of something new. So think about that for a second. The introduction of something new. I mean, yeah, by that definition, could technically be some new game-changing product or service, but just as easily from a financial leader's perspective, by that same definition, innovation could just be a new way to reuse or rebrand existing resources and capabilities, could be a new approach to managing billing systems or back-end operations, maybe it's a new market outreach or communication strategy, could just be a new method of collaborating with firms and partners inside and outside of your field as well. So for example, when one finance and banking leader suddenly needed to switch to remote work back in 2020, all it wound up doing was partnering with a top cloud computing provider to quickly re-engineer pre-existing templated technology solutions. And doing this actually allowed the organization to quickly and cost-effectively take most team members and services online in less than two weeks. But on top of it, the firm also used computerized tutors to quickly train its staff and bring them up to speed on new AI and automation tools. And what we saw was that within a month, this firm had all but completed the transition to virtual operations. However, on the flip side, when the government of India suddenly needed to teach a billion citizens how to get smarter about stopping the spread of COVID-19, all it wound up doing was simply partnering with local telecom providers to play a 30-second message on how to stop the virus when you picked up your cell phone and called somebody. And in doing this, if you really think about it, they actually managed to save thousands of lives in a matter of minutes. So please do take note, right? And we're talking about innovation here today. We're not necessarily talking about high-tech solutions, rather just more creative and resourceful approaches to problem solving. And by the way, just imagine all the kinds of wonderful and wild new ideas and solutions that you folks are soon going to be able to come up with here, especially when you start to pair your own creativity and imagination with new advancements like AI and machine learning, which, by the way, like water and electricity, are soon going to be just another form of utility that you'll be able to turn on and off with a switch, or for that matter, by using digital twins to reimagine every facet of your business, or VR headsets to meet with clients remotely and walk them through 3D models of investment portfolios, all without ever having to be face-to-face. So in effect, with the computing power suddenly available to automate and switch up investment strategies, asset classes, and even entire savings plans and retirement portfolios right on the fly, what I'm saying is I think we can only expect greater accessibility, greater flexibility, and greater adactivity from business operations going forward. Now, better yet, by the way, whether you do choose to go low-tech or high-tech with your approach to building your business, like I was saying, you're not always going to have to come up with revolutionary new ideas if you want to get ahead here either. In fact, if you were to study market leaders in every field, what you would find is that time and time again, simple shifts in business strategy and outlook, or even simple shifts in presentation and packaging, are often all it takes to achieve big results. And by the way, if you don't believe me, just ask the folks at Coca-Cola Australia. So even before the pandemic, when young adults down under stopped getting together as often in real life as they did online, and they stopped drinking Coke soda products as much as they had in the past, the company knew that it needed to radically reinvent its strategies for connecting with them both online and off. But rather than take out millions in TV or radio advertising, and rather than spend months trying to cook up all sorts of crazy new flavors, all Coke did was figure out what the 150 most popular boys' and girls' first names were down under, and then it printed them on bottles that it was already manufacturing and selling. And using cost-effective social media outreach tools, it invited citizens to share a Coke and strike up a conversation. And incredibly, what we saw was that within 90 days, not only had Coca-Cola blanketed most of the nation, not only had they increased sales of beverages by double digits, but they had also come up with a marketing strategy that was so clever and so cost-effective that, as you might have noticed, it later came to the U.S. and other countries in a big way as well. Although, of course, as you might have also noticed, there's also kind of a little fly in the ointment, a little flaw in the strategy, in that I think they left the name Scott off the list, which means that every time I go to 7-Eleven, I have to settle for being Steve or Stephanie. But honestly, you can't win them all, right? In any event, as you think about how to grow and build your business in coming years, please do not underestimate the power of innovation to help you kick-start sales, to boost productivity, and to drive added interest from both new clients and sectors of the economy. But again, the beauty of innovative thinking is that it doesn't have to be difficult and that anyone can really make it work for their firm, no matter how big that business is, even in fields that are often seen as highly commoditized or highly crowded and competitive. So just for example, consider the case of bottled water, right? From a purely functional standpoint, we know that products from any two given manufacturers are pretty much the same. Water is water, right? But at the same time, we also know that many firms continue to thrive in the marketplace just by differentiating using creative bottle designs or a clever backstory as a way to leap out at shoppers from the shelf, like our friends Liquid Death, who you see here. So the best part of these types of examples and stories is that what they tell me is that in many ways, it doesn't even matter how unique your services and solutions really are, just how unique that your clients perceive them to be, which means that no matter what kind of R&D or marketing budget you may be working with, success here is often just a clever hook or a successful advertising campaign away. Anyways, long story short, as you can see, the new status quo is one of constant change and constant disruption. It's not going to be so much about a new normal that you might have heard about as a series of next normals, each of which is going to only come on faster and faster in a time of exponential growth and accelerating change. But while concepts like change and disruption can be uncomfortable for many of us, I think it's important to also remember that they can also be hugely powerful catalysts for growth and innovation. And given how easy it is to create positive change and to rebound from setbacks, I think it's also vital to keep in mind that learning to successfully navigate around unexpected events and unforeseen challenges in business, I think we should keep in mind that that's also largely going to be a matter of your personal mindset. And by the way, that's a good thing, too, because across every single region of the world and every industry, what corporate leaders tell us is that the big theme going forward is that uncertainty will be the only certain. In other words, in the next few years, unpredictability will be the only thing that we can actually predict. They also tell us that basically we're all going to be hit with more unforeseen disruptions, harder, faster, and from more angles than ever before. In fact, what experts are saying is that the next 10 years will bring more change than the prior 10,000. And P.S., just in case all that sounds like fun, they also tell us that over 25 quintillion bytes of data are currently being shared each and every day on this earth as well, which in practical terms basically means that over 10,000 times more information is what businesses will be looking to analyze just in the next two years alone. So all of this tells me that the companies that are going to be most successful going forward will not be the ones that keep trying to apply the same strategic approaches over and over in the face of fast-changing market conditions. Rather, they're going to be the ones that look to steadily and surely evolve their strategies in turn and that embrace this idea of sustainable innovation that you folks see here by constantly working to stay well attuned to and one step ahead of changes that are happening in the commercial landscape and consumer marketplaces. And by the way, just in case you didn't have enough reason to switch things up already, please keep in mind that the world of financial services is not exactly known for diving headfirst into and embracing new technologies, even as we know that oncoming shifts in the marketplace are only going to become increasingly merciless at upending traditional industries and business models going forward and do this increasingly frequently. So let me be real clear here, right? In a time where we know we have a growing deluge of AI-powered innovations headed our way shortly, where we know that new hires are increasingly gravitating towards technology-powered fields and where we know that clients are increasingly measuring everything from performance to productivity, not just profits, if you are not creative, currently working, I should say, to make the switch from analog to digital in your business, and if you are not, for that matter, embracing new technologies or data-driven insights to rethink your services and solutions from every angle from top to bottom, I'm going to bet my last microchip that it is high time to get on board with this train or risk getting left behind, especially noting that, as we've seen, the train in many ways is already starting to leave the station. So anyways, keeping all this in mind, it's going to mean that right here, right now, before disruption hits us yet again, this is always going to be the best time for financial leaders such as yourselves to start making a host of new investments in all sorts of initiatives that will drive constant learning and constant growth for your practices and that it's a great time to be encouraging your team to get behind the idea of educating yourselves through a running process of trial and error that will involve constantly testing out new strategies and solutions because what we found in our research is that in uncertain times, the irony is you've got to take more risks if you want to get ahead, not fewer. In fact, he is the new say. However, these risks have to come in the form of small, smart, cost-effective bets that are designed as ongoing learning experiments that can help you gain deeper insights into the shape of changing market landscapes and then help you make better and more informed choices as you steadily get smarter. So if you want to get better about operating in a world of constant change, what I'm saying is not only is today a fine time to start challenging yourselves to think differently, as it were, it's also a great time to start putting systems and solutions in place that will give your teams the ability to help surface great ideas from the bottom of the organization on up, not just flow from the top down, and to give them all the support, all the training, and all the encouragement that they need to fully explore all of these opportunities. So just for example, Dell EMC is a leader in the field of IT and big data. So huge company, has about 150,000 employees worldwide. But when EMC has a huge, hard challenge it just can't seem to solve, it routinely puts it to its general workforce in the form of an innovation contest. So workers are invited to suggest ideas for innovative new solutions and peers can vote on which of them are going to be turned into real-world prototypes and real-world solutions. However, when I got to talking to EMC's head of innovation, he told me something that really struck me and stuck with me, in that many of the firm's best, most successful new ventures were happening now when employees worldwide, on their own time and on their own dime, were teaming up to bring ideas that they had found on these contest websites to life that were not technically contest winners. So basically, people just saw a great idea and they decided to run with it and make it happen. So as you can see here, when it comes to innovation, nobody really has a monopoly on it, right? Great ideas can come from anyone, anytime, anywhere throughout the organization. And by the way, as you can also see, when it comes to innovation, even if you are an experienced team lead, it's often going to pay to take a step back and let your team take the lead here. So in effect, the more that you encourage your peers to speak up and to take smart chances, and the more incentive that you provide them to do this at every turn, the more that you're going to find that change is a lot less difficult to deal with when you make a point to constantly stay in motion and change your business strategies in tune with shifting times and trends as well. Now by the way, just in case you are not big risk takers by nature, I do want to remind you that in the face of rising changes, sitting still and applying the same business strategies over and over and over again that continued to work in the past in the face of all these new and emerging changes, turns out that's going to be every bit as much of any strategic gamble that you could elect to make. And in fact, it's often the single biggest risk that you could ever choose to make, noting that your competitors are constantly learning from changing markets and deploying their own innovative new approaches and strategies as well. Even more so in a world where experts tell us that trillions of dollars are now set to flow from baby boomers on down to their children via the great wealth transfer, and that the needs of future generations like Y and Z may not be the same as those of your current clients, and essentially that the services and advice that you offer them going forward probably are going to need to be adapted to reflect that. So wherever possible, I'm going to encourage you to champion a culture inside your organization that empowers intrapreneurs. And by intrapreneurs, I mean entrepreneurial thinkers within the business to constantly experiment with new ideas and approaches, and I'm going to encourage you to constantly look for ways to upend your own business strategies and operating models before a competitor forces you to have to do so. So to this extent, staffers should always be encouraged to tinker, to play lots of small smart bets, and to iterate until one or more pay off, and make a point to capture learning and insights at every turn, sharing best practices and resources at the company-wide level as they go. And by the way, just in case you think this type of change and innovation and growth can't be accomplished, let alone quickly, I want you to remember that banks, government agencies, and insurance firms, rumor has it they're highly regulated and controlled as well, but at the same time, we know that in many cases, they've been using AI-powered solutions, crowdsourced offerings, and other emerging technologies as a way to drive growth and transformation for nearly a decade at this point. And by the way, better yet, an ever-growing range of plug-and-play technologies and tools is going to help assist you with all sorts of tasks like maintaining oversight and regulatory compliance going forward. But again, the beauty here, though, is that if you are not ready to take huge chances, again, you do not have to think big. You can get ahead by learning to think small as well. That's because evolutionary changes. Again, simple shifts in business or operating strategy can often collectively prove every bit as powerful at driving positive results for your firm, especially over time as those revolutionary changes, those moonshots that we're all theoretically pursuing in parallel. And by the way, just to think about how much faster and more frequently you're going to be able to come up with these little, small evolutionary changes than those few big revolutionary leaps that we see every few years from time to time. Anyways, all that being said, what I'm getting at is that elasticity really is the name of the game here. Because if you think about it, flexibility really is the essence of future-proofing in an uncertain business world. And as you may have heard, agility is also fast becoming the ultimate source of competitive advantage, which, by the way, means that going forward as quickly as markets and best practices are going to evolve, it means that your capacity to quickly change and evolve in ways big and small as a business is only going to become increasingly important to your odds of surviving and thriving in tomorrow's market. Now, ironically, though, here's the rub. Here's the good news, right? We know that people, like organizations, are often hardwired to, like, comfortable and familiar approaches, right? And let me tell you that that means that despite all this continuing disruption that we see going on around us, that most are going to continue to remain slow to adapt or rethink their business strategies, even in the face of all this ongoing change. And that's going to create all sorts of wonderful new opportunities for clever and forward-thinking folks, such as yourselves, to get out in front of your competition and run rings around them. So put it all together, and what we see is that today's most successful firms don't just constantly make a point to reimagine the roadmap to success and rethink best practices based on evolving insights and market feedback at every single turn. To successfully navigate disruption, we know that they're also brainstorming and testing out new strategies and solutions for getting ahead, and that the reason they're doing it is as a safeguard of sorts. They're essentially using it as a way to gently tap their toes in different strategic directions And it's only when they find firm ground that they ever commit to any pathway forward. And in addition, I should also point out that they're also routinely making a point to invest in digital transformation, like you see here, as a way to both stay one step ahead of and predict what is coming next for the marketplace as well. So in essence, not only are these firms constantly finding ways to get ahead by redesigning their businesses to be more easily pivotable, turns out they're also always finding ways to get ahead by leveraging forward-focused and data-driven technology tools as a way to stay more agile and better attuned to evolving commercial landscapes. But again, luckily, a growing range of simple cost-affordable solutions can help provide you and your partners with all the tools and insights that you need to stay one step ahead of the curve and bridge the gap from today till tomorrow. So keeping this in mind, as a business leader, I'm not only going to encourage you going forward to constantly think about how you can outsource many tasks to smart technology. I'm also going to suggest that when it comes to your clients, you always be thinking about how you can leverage your own internal data and your own proprietary tools and technologies in ways to help them transform their financial outlook as well. So keep in mind that running disruption is only going to continue to be par for the course for the coming months ahead, which means that rapid-fire innovation will only become more important to maintaining competitive advantage going forward as well. But again, noting that many of today's most advanced technologies are increasingly becoming available in off-the-shelf drag-and-drop format, like I was getting at, a growing number of tools are going to enable you to affect positive transformation in record time to boot. So for example, when travel booking startup SnapTravel went from achieving record growth in February of 2020 to then watching bookings plummet and having to lay off hundreds of staff a month later in March, it quickly turned to plug-and-play AI and analytics tools to see where customers were spending. And these insights not only convinced the firm to scrap its existing marketing plan and to switch to texting personalized offers to shoppers' mobile phones, they also convinced SnapTravel to roll out a VIP suite of services that was more expensive than its prior offerings, if you'd believe. But what it did was offer users access to a human concierge who could help out with what were at the time very complex bookings, and the company also instituted an optional tipping system where grateful travelers could, if they wanted, leave the business tips. And incredibly, as a result of these small and seemingly counterintuitive tweaks, not only did SnapTravel return to profitability again in less than 60 days, what we found is that it's also been posting up record high returns ever since. So again and again, as example after example really reminds us, constantly steering your way to success, whatever tomorrow brings, that's not about having more money, more manpower, more cutting-edge solutions. Really it's about being more adaptable, more resourceful, and ultimately more resilient. So anyways, as you can see from all these examples, futures only becoming more uncertain and going forward, having to deal with change and unpredictability only becomes a bigger part of running a modern business. The good news being that like we've also seen, as much as unexpected events often threaten to steer us off course, learning to successfully navigate around these challenges is often far simpler than most of us would suspect. So in this next brief part of the program, I also wanted to talk about how you can get better about learning how to think like a futurist and learning how to spot and adapt to whatever is coming next. And just FYI, quick thought before we begin here. If we know that a huge tidal wave of change is in fact headed our way shortly, it means that we know that we ultimately get two choices when it comes to dealing with the huge tidal waves of disruption that it's going to bring with it. Number one, I think we know it means we're either going to get really good about learning how to surf those suckers, or number two, we're going to make the choice to idly sit back on the shore, sitting there twiddling our thumbs, watching as competitors potentially learn to surf that wave more ably instead. So personally, if it were up to me, I'm going to recommend breaking out the surfboards and swim trunks. Because if you think about it again, no matter how uncertain the road ahead is, like we touched on, you guys always have the ability to steer things toward more positive outcomes. So while learning to anticipate the future and plan around it maybe seems challenging and esoteric at first, I just want to urge you to remember as we go through the rest of this part of the program that we are all innovators at heart, and each and every one of us in fact possesses the essential skills and qualities that we need to regularly identify smart ways to move forward, even if unfortunately that sometimes means having to find ways to do more with less. The good news being though that as our research finds, turns out you don't even have to be particularly talented or brilliant in order to do this either, just a little bit more strategic about your approach to problem solving and a little bit more pointed in the questions that you choose to ask. And in fact, as much as we all love to heap admiration on the Steve Jobs and Elon Musks of the world, as it turns out, what we found is that succeeding in a business environment that's this fast moving and unpredictable as the one we live in today, turns out it's not really about having to be a single minded or even a visionary leader anymore, rather it's about becoming what we call more of an anticipatory leader. And by an anticipatory leader, I mean someone who's not only more skilled in envisioning the future, but also more clever and resilient when it comes to constantly steering an organization towards positive outcomes. So in effect, what I'm saying is that going forward when it comes to maximizing your insight and maximizing your opportunities, you absolutely positively do not necessarily need to be a genius to get ahead in tomorrow's business world, rather you just need to be a little bit more clever and ingenious instead. But let's not get too deep into it just yet. If you don't mind, before we proceed, I just wanted to ask a brief question and pause for a second and think about what exactly is a futurist? So hilariously, I've heard all the rumors and the innuendo, I know that most folks tend to think of us as the corporate version of late night psychics, the misclios of the business world, right? But this idea that we're in the business of reading tarot cards and tea leaves, turns out it could not actually be further from the truth. And I probably shouldn't tell you this, I might get kicked out of the secret club, we do have one, but our dirty secret is that futurists do not actually predict the future for a living. Rather what we do is carefully study the state of the marketplace and society, looking for new and emerging trends that businesses should be keeping on their radar. And then by asking partners pointed questions about these breaking developments and their potential impact on their business, not to mention by designing little puzzle solving scenarios that our clients can work through, we actually help our partners figure out the best plan of attack to take going forward and the best strategies for accomplishing their objectives. Now on top of this, the other cool part, even better for those of you who are hoping to think like a futurist more effectively going forward, turns out you do not need formalized training or education to do a futurist job, or even a good publicist for that matter. In fact, what I would argue if you were to look a little bit deeper, is that in fact, we are all futurists at heart. So hear me out on this one. If you think about it, when we get married, it's not uncommon to assume that it will last a lifetime, right? Just like when we make an investment, it's not uncommon to assume that it will pay off in the long run. But of course, as all of us are aware, and the price of Bitcoin so often cruelly reminds us, we also know that these assumptions typically don't pan out quite the way that we predict, which constantly forces us to have to rethink our strategies and reconsider the future possibilities to as a result. So in effect, in this context, what I would argue is that a futurist is simply someone who makes a point to challenge all of these types of assumptions a little bit sooner and more regularly, consider all of the potential strategic possibilities in advance as well. So the bottom line really is that if you folks want to think like a futurist more effectively going forward, mostly all you need to do is make a game of asking yourselves more what if questions. And in addition to asking yourselves all of these what if questions, to also simulate and to role play your way through different future focus scenarios or business possibilities much more often. And in fact, the more that you do this, the more purposefully and routinely you approach challenges this way, the more you're going to discover that the type of critical thinking that futurists use really is just a basic mental muscle of sorts, and like any muscle, it's not only one that you can get in the reflexive habit of using, but one that you can also strengthen through repeat exercise. So just for example, the PGA recently asked us to take a closer look at the future of golf. So curiously, as successful as this 600-year-old sport has been, the challenge it's having these days is that it's having trouble connecting with young people, generations Y and Z, who often say it's too time-consuming, too expensive, and too difficult to master. But the trouble is these younger generations are going to be the single biggest audience for the sport in the next three years alone. And anyone here want to take a guess as to what the average human being's attention span is? Shout it out. What do you think? Thirty seconds. That's an optimist. Turns out it's eight seconds, okay? The goldfish's is nine seconds, to put things in perspective. So thank you very much, Fortnite and Snapchat, for your contributions to humanity. But anyways, given that some of you probably have teens or 20-somethings at home, it's pretty clear that fundamental sea changes are happening in this business, that new innovations like cooler equipment and better shoes are actually not going to solve here, or that the sport doesn't really lend itself towards the type of hyper-social and short-form experiences that today's youth culture thrives on. Which is exactly why several brands like Topgolf and Driveshack have actually become the hottest thing happening in the business just by asking themselves a more pointed question. That question being, what if we just made playing the game of golf a little bit simpler, and what if we helped people get to the fun parts of the sport a little bit sooner instead? So if you haven't visited, right, these one-stop entertainment destinations which combine high-tech driving ranges with restaurants and event spaces, yeah, they feature all sorts of new equipment and futuristic upgrades. But ironically, if you dig a little bit deeper, what you would find is that their single biggest core innovation is simply introducing a business model that makes the game of golf shorter, more social, and more accessible to the entire family. So again, a little bit of critical thinking is all it often takes to more accurately see the future taking shape, and a knack for asking better questions, all it really takes to successfully plan around it. Now happily, you folks can start to think like futurists more effectively right here, right now, the minute that you leave this room today, just by asking yourselves three simple questions. First off, financial gains aside, how can you always ensure that you are finding ways to win with every opportunity that you pursue in life and business? For example, by gaining new capabilities, experiences, or resources that you can then apply to other personal or business ventures. Second, just how adaptable are the business strategies and solutions that you're considering pursuing? And if they fall short, just how readily can you repurpose tools, technologies, or insights gained from all these ventures in new and novel ways if needed, or for that matter, use them to pivot to new opportunities? And last but not least, where and to what extent could your efforts in any given personal or business arena quickly translate over to other contexts, other audiences, or other markets? So in effect, what I'm saying is before you make investments of any kind, including time, effort, and energy, what I'm asking you to do is look beyond the financial growth opportunities alone and to consider how well are all these initiatives going to support you in pursuit of your overall bigger picture strategies and goals. And if sudden unexpected developments call even the best laid plans into question, just how quickly can you use all of these opportunities as a springboard to new ventures? Now briefly, in addition, I should also point out that we now live in a world of growing business intelligence and automation, which means that data has also become the lifeblood of any modern organization. And in fact, if you look, if you find that over 15 billion devices are now connected and talking to one another, it's going to mean that data holds a lot of clues to where the future is headed as well. But ironically, studies tell us that less than 10% of organizations are currently utilizing this information, and less than 1% of businesses even know what key insights that they should be keeping an eye out for as they go, meaning that if you want to get better about learning to spot and adapt to whatever's coming next, I'm going to argue that a big piece of being future ready is helping yourselves and your partners become more data literate going forward. And as part of these data literacy efforts to learn about how to get better about tapping into all these mountains of information that you are collecting at every turn. And by the way, since we're focused on the future, just a couple quick mega trends we already see taking shape, these big picture shifts, like we said, the rise of AI and automation. So for the record, these are the fastest growing technologies that we've ever seen in human history. It took chat GPT about two months to rack up 100 million users. That is a feat that it took TikTok and Instagram two and a half years to accomplish by comparison. So all of this, of course, makes me excited to see the many ways that you'll soon leverage machine learning, digital twins, and predictive technology to create all sorts of financial planning and investment solutions on the fly going forward. But in addition, we also know as well that computer vision, intelligent sensors, and 5G high-speed connectivity are on the rise as well. And that makes me just as stoked to think about how much smarter and more self-aware all your offices and operating models are going to become just in the next three to five years here. Now mind you quickly, people often ask me, thanks to all these mind-blowing advancements, how soon will I be replaced by an automaton? How quickly will it happen that a robo-advisor steps in and kicks me out of my job? So ironically, I should point out while it's true that new technologies like AI and automation are currently the worst that they will ever be, in other words, like any technology product, they're only going to improve and get smarter and smarter from here on out. I think we should also point out that technology is just a tool, right? It's only as good as its operator, even as polls like you see here are telling us that privacy and security-related concerns are currently topping clients' biggest lists of AI worries. They're more worried that their identity will be compromised than that an evil supercomputer will take over humanity. What that tells me is that on the one hand, the trust is only to command increasing value and importance with the audiences that you serve going forward. And by the way, that as the first and most trusted port of call for millions of clients, that it's going to be an area of competitive advantage that you can continue to hang your hats on going forward. But also on the other hand, what it tells me is that noting the future belongs not to machines, but rather humans working alongside the machines. While I don't see AI coming and taking any of your jobs in the near future, what I am worried about is that if you don't bring yourself up to speed and get used to all these new technologies and tools, it's very possible that a human who knows how to work with these technologies more effectively very may well come for it. So all that said, one last point I do want to touch on, especially since we heard so much about diversity, equity, and inclusion going forward, I also want to point out that when you go about planning for tomorrow, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of needing to create expert communities of diverse consulting advisors around yourselves. That's because none of us can accurately predict the future 100% of the time. What you're going to find is that these days, practicing futurism really is a more collaborative and communal affair. That's going to require us to cultivate diversity of thought and perspective amongst our teams, to seek out myriad opinions on pressing issues wherever possible, and to involve experts from many different domains as we make important decisions going forward. So what I'm getting at is that championing this idea of diversity and inclusion, this concept is not just about what you can see in terms of age, race, or gender. It's also going to be about championing diversity of thought and opinion as well, because I don't think it's really hard to get our heads around the idea that it's going to be awful difficult to think differently going forward if, in fact, everyone around us is thinking the same way as well. But again, the more that you surround yourself with a large and diverse network of advisors as you're working to envision the future going forward, the more successful that you will be. So all that being said, when it comes to finding ways to get ahead in tomorrow's marketplace, when it comes to finding ways to adapt to future technologies and trends, like I was saying, all the tools, all the know-how, all the capabilities really are within your reach, and you'll be able to access them more frequently with less time, effort, and energy, and less expense going forward. So all in all, not too shabby if you think about all the examples and stories we touched on today. In many ways, I'm kind of tickled to think that the next Albert Einstein might be sitting with us in this room today, because actually, if you think about it, ultimately what I'm getting at is that practicing the art of futurism really is just about practicing more foresight and critical thinking. But again, happily, like we talked about, we all have the ability to think like a futurist just by making slight shifts in perspective here. And the more that you practice doing it, the more effective about learning to spot and react to emerging trends that ultimately you're going to be. So keeping this in mind, I suspect the two main questions you want to be asking yourselves if you want to remain a leader in the financial services space are simply as follows. First off, are you doing everything you can to stay tuned into emerging trends or shifts that you see happening in the marketplace? And number two, are you giving yourselves all the tools and technologies that you need to quickly and effectively respond to these changes, not to mention also proactively and routinely make some important changes of your own in turn? Because again, ultimately in the end, as it turns out, it appears that you don't actually need a crystal ball or superhuman intuition to figure out what is coming next or to get out in front of it. Rather, simply learning to exercise a little bit more planning and a little bit more forethought is all it's going to take to help you see around the corner. So as for me personally, I'm stoked to hear about all the many new forward-thinking ideas that you folks will be coming up with here shortly. In the meantime, please do me a favor, just remember to think fast going forward, because trust me on this one, at the speed that we're now moving, at the rate that AI and automation are now coming on, it will not be long until tomorrow is in fact today. So thank you again for your time and attention. I really do appreciate it. And with that, I think I'll turn it back over to you, Barb, unless we have some questions. Yeah, let's see if there's some questions from the audience. Anybody? Yes, sir. Question. Thank you. So like I said, interesting presentation. But the thing I'm sitting here asking myself is, what do I take away from this that I can use, other than I need to be thinking about the future and strategizing and that kind of thing, which I feel like I do anyway. So I mean, is there one or two or three things that you could give us that are a bit more, I don't know, concrete isn't the right word, but I guess more actionable in terms of how we approach our day, our week, our year, that sort of thing? Yeah, absolutely. Good question. So the first off would be to embrace new technology, tools, and trends. And I know that sounds grandiose, but what I'm getting at is that AI, automation, machine learning, these tools are increasingly becoming available off the shelf for next to no money. In fact, you've got companies who are offering solutions free. And by the way, if you look at ChatGPT, you can see there are already about 1,000 plugins that can help you add services and solutions in a matter of seconds. So I really want you playing with them and getting to know these technologies the minute you leave here. And by the way, just to give you an idea, when you do bring them to bear, for example, in marketing strategies, we actually, in about 72 hours, generated 1,000 pieces of content that people might be searching for on the internet. And in about a week, we're able to generate six figures of business all at a total advertising cost of zero dollars and cents. So there are many ways to practically use these innovations. Beyond that, something else I would encourage you to do is to think about your positioning, your presentation, who you're targeting, are there niches that you could better be speaking to? How do you begin to get clients' children more involved in discussions and begin to expand the range of solutions that you offer? I'm also thinking that as we adapt, as we're constantly thinking about changes in the marketplace, we also have to say, okay, what are we doing that's truly unique? How do we differentiate ourselves in the eyes of our clients and customers? Because what you're gonna find going forward is that if something can be easily replicated or outsourced to technology, increasingly it will. There's still a human factor. People trust working with other people, but at the end of the day, if they see you as too close to a competitor, you're gonna be lumped in this bucket of highly commoditized and it's gonna command less and less worth going forward. Really, you're either here or here. There's no in between. You're either seen as unique and offering something that others simply can't, or you're seen as another also-ran. So hopefully that makes sense. Yes, sir. I'm interested in your opinion. Do you believe, like Ray Kurzweil, that all the exponential growth has come into some sort of singularity? And if so, what would be your best guess of timing? Yeah, so they actually, so you're asking at what speed are we gonna reach the singularity where basically technology is indistinguishable from humans and so forth. Experts say that's gonna take about 100 years. So unless you're planning on sticking around longer, which is entirely possible, too, because they are hacking and re-engineering lifespans, I think we're okay. We don't have to worry about R2D2 coming for our job. But I do think, again, that we really need to think about how we can use technology to integrate with our operations in every facet. And by the way, that's a big piece of this, too. We often talk with industries like oil and gas and construction, you know, you have these industries that have been doing well for a couple years and they just forget that they're leaving money on the table, that they could be saving trillions just by thinking about how they streamline and make their business operations more efficient. So I really do want you guys to constantly think about that and also think about young advisors and people who are new to the profession. You know, more and more we're seeing folks succeeding going forward by learning to mix and match all these new tools and technologies off the shelf. I mean, essentially what happens is that in coming years, we're democratizing that act of creation and you're not necessarily gonna have extensive experience or training necessary in order to effect big leaps forward. That's what's coming. Yes, sir. So it's just a comment on a practical tip. Go to Google, ask how to open chat GPT account and then get in there and play with it and then say, explain asset allocation to a ninth grader. It'll help you as a communication tool. It's just an example of how to use it. Yeah, I mean, I think essentially what we're saying is if you think about it, what happens is the future often seems very distant and then seems to come on very quickly. So ironically, even AI is 80 to 90 years old, but it's only like November of last year that anybody really starts to pay attention. And then we wanna act like, whoa, this came out of nowhere. I don't want that to happen to you and your businesses. So again, it's really about investing part of your time, investing your day, about looking forward, maybe investing 20% of your effort in tomorrow's growth activities so you're not robbing your future essentially by not taking the time out here and now to invest in it. The other thing that I also think we should point out is this stuff, it takes a little bit to learn, but it's maybe not as time consuming or difficult as you think. We also say that you should create personal listening posts for yourself when it comes to new tools and technologies. So maybe you invite your clients in to talk about what they're seeing or your partners. Maybe you've got online thought leaders you're following on social media. Maybe you're taking classes, attending conventions like this. What we're saying is that you really need to create a system, a radar for yourselves of these listening posts and take, if you can't, an hour every day, at least a few hours every week to think about tomorrow today. Anybody? Barbara? Okay, thank you. Thank you.

Scott Steinberg

change

leadership

innovation

annuity

tech platforms

partnerships

data analytics

emerging trends

keynote presentation