All Ears: What the IIAB team is listening to this May

These days many companies are faced with having to revise their strategies and overall beliefs about the markets they operate in. It is as if COVID-19 has put a magnifying glass on top of a development already taking place, a development towards acting and strategizing with more creativity, and agility.We also see this as an example of how a clearly defined human need, which in this case is maintaining our health, becomes a clear driver and guide for change that people can relate to and instantly get behind.

A popular meme currently flourishing on LinkedIn presents a simple multiple-choice question. “Who is driving the digital transformation in your business? A) CEOs B) CTOs C) COVID-19?”.

Ever wondered what happens behind the closed doors of people’s homes? If you are in a business looking for new innovation opportunities you should. The private nature of the home may make it seem off limits, but all the more reason why you as a business should concern yourself with what goes on there.

With the prospect of us soon being able to roam outside of the four walls of our home again, it is important for us to explore which new consumption patterns this recent extreme home-focus will create, and which ones will last. For almost a decade IS IT A BIRD has specialized in gaining insights into people’s lives in their homes and translating this knowledge into new opportunities for developing products and services. More than 1000 visits to people’s homes all over the world, through collaborations with companies like VELUX, Nike, Novo Nordisk, Danske Bank and Ørsted, have provided us with a solid understanding of what is at stake in the setting of the home in terms of usage, behaviour, attitudes and emotion. In this article we give you our take on 7 business areas where the early indicators of lasting change are currently forming within the confined space of our homes.

In pandemic times as these cleaning and hygiene is as important as ever. Throughout history epidemics and pandemics has urged science to discover new links between human behaviour and virus/bacteria which has guided our cleaning practices, physical surroundings and human perceptions of health and disease. The plaque led to understanding quarantine as a means to limit the spreading of disease. Cholera made us rethink water supply and sewages. COVID-19 has already made significant changes to our behaviour in terms of washing hands, not touching surfaces and keeping a social distance. As we recover from the effects of COVID-19 organisations and cities might rethink their cleaning standards to be even more thorough, costly and time consuming in order to meet the assumed expectations and regulations. But how is this done properly? How do we balance health, safety and sometimes irrational human behaviour? How do we prioritise and get most value for our money?

During this crisis the biggest overlooked problem has been our lack of vision and spiritual imagination.

Digital transformation is my new pet peeve. If I were to plagiarize the Danish poet Søren Ulrik Thomsen’s poetry collection ”The worst part and the best part” (from Danish: Det værste og det bedste) this term would surely be in there. The worst part is that the term is thrown around without much reflection. As something to be feared if you work on the organisation side and something to be harvested if you work on the consultant side. A recent American poll shows that digital transformation is the number one concern among CEO’s.

All businesses, no matter if they are public or private, are put into the world to create value for humans: customers, users, citizens. In order to do this in both a valuable and effective way, you have to understand why humans do, as we do. Understand the complicated mix of context, identity, culture and language. This is where the theories and methods of the humanities can help us to understand how we as humans experience and act in the world.

A few days ago I heard the new director of the Confederation of Danish Industry, Lars Sandahl Sørensen, give a speech to the Danish Management Society. A speech which was refreshingly visionary. One of his key messages was that businesses need to resolve the issues of linear and rational thinking in order to be successful in the future. What Lars Sandahl Sørensen did not give a clear-cut answer to however, was what should replace linear thinking. Here is my take on where we should look for the answer. It is not in a new Excel sheet or an MBA from a fancy business school abroad, or within the Danish Management Society for that sake, but rather, within a completely new perspective.

On a recent trip to Germany, I scanned through a catalogue from one of the large DIY retailers. I saw around 10 pages covering smart home devices. Last year it was a mere two pages. The market for smart devices is obviously growing. But it also made me speculate; how many of these first-generation products are actually going to survive in the long run?

We believe it is time to bring the discussion about the future back to where it belongs. It belongs to us - the humans - and not technology. Humans shape technology and technology in turn shapes us, but humans are the starting point.

At IS IT A BIRD we love imagining how the world could look in times to come. It’s what we work for: a belief that we are helping to shape a tomorrow that holds even more meaning and value for people than today.