#Dispatch 007: look outwards

Gaining inspiration from the wider world and cross-pollinating ideas across sectors

As a trends researcher I have lost count of the number of times I have waxed lyrical about the benefits of looking out into the wider world to learn, to find inspiration and to avoid the tunnel vision that can so easily take hold in businesses.

Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

👀 Understanding the bigger picture and where we fit in to it offers us perspective.

We see ourselves, as well as the landscape that is experienced by those around us; our customers, competitors and peers.

This is important because the activities of those around us influence expectations, needs and opinions. We are not operating in isolation.

📖 To stay relevant and to succeed in what we do we need to learn from what others are doing.

By doing our research and by having conversations, both within our competitor sets and also cross-sector, new opportunities to innovate emerge. The result? Development of valuable products, services and marketing messages.

There are a multitude of ways to cross pollinate ideas, share knowledge and help each other.

Image by Galletitia_arts from Pixabay

🖇️Here are 5 examples of those who have done/ do just that: