Flash Foresight: How to See the Invisible and Do the Impossible

by Daniel Burrus, John David Mann, William Dufris

Today we all face more impossible challenges than ever before. But flash foresight lets you transform the impossible into the possible, revealing hidden opportunities and allowing you to solve your biggest problems—before they happen.

Daniel Burrus is one of the world's leading forecasters, corporate strategists, and visionaries. Over the past quarter century, he has established a reputation worldwide for his exceptional record of accurately predicting the future of technological change and its direct impact on the business world.





Wouldn't it be amazing if you could predict the future—and be right?" writes Burrus. "You can: all you have to do is leave out the parts you could be wrong about! And the amazing thing is, when you know where to look, there's more than enough you can be right about to make all the difference.





From small businesses to multinationals, individual careers to entire industries, Flash Foresight looks at how Burrus's seven radical flash foresight "triggers" have transformed dozens of careers, fortunes, and lives. Both engaging and enlightening, Flash Foresight provides an easy-to-implement blueprint for applying the same strategies to your own business, enabling you to see the invisible and do the impossible.





In the past, flash foresight was useful. Today, as the pace of technological change accelerates almost beyond the point of comprehension, it's an imperative.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Self Help, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Buisness, Leadership

Audio

First published December 29, 2010

About the author

Daniel Burrus is considered one of the world’s leading futurists on global trends and innovation. The New York Times has referred to him as one of the top three business gurus in the highest demand as a speaker.

He is a strategic advisor to executives from Fortune 500 companies, helping them to develop game-changing strategies based on his proven methodologies for capitalizing on technology innovations and their future impact. His client list includes companies such as Microsoft, GE, American Express, Google, Toshiba, Procter & Gamble, Honda, and IBM.

He is the author of six books, including The New York Times and Wall
Street Journal best-seller Flash Foresight: How To See The Invisible and Do The Impossible, as well as the international best-seller Technotrends.

He is also a featured writer on the topics of innovation, change and the future for Harvard Business Review, Wired, CNBC, and Huffington Post to name a few.

He has been the featured subject of several PBS television specials and has appeared on programs such as CNN, Fox Business, and Bloomberg, and is quoted in a variety of publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Fortune, and Forbes.

He has founded six businesses, three of which were national leaders in the United States in the first year. He is the CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology driven trends to help clients profit from technological, social and business forces that are converging to create enormous, untapped opportunities.

His accurate predictions date back to the early 1980s where he became the first and only futurist to accurately identify the twenty technologies that would become the driving force of business and economic change for decades to come. Since then, he has continued to establish a worldwide reputation for his exceptional record of predicting the future of technology driven change and its direct impact on the business world.

Specialties: Technology-Driven Trends, Strategic Innovation, Strategic Advising and Planning, Business Keynote Presentations

Reviews

[Mike Gibbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent book about how to take advantage of the pockets of certainty that we have regarding the future. Burrus does a great job of pointing out different trends that are sure to continue into the future (such as increased mobility, bandwidth, and convergence of features that used to be standalone products into a single product) to use as a way of predicting where the future will lead.

Probably the best takeaway from this book that I had was to remember that when it comes to planning for the future, it's important to factor in the fact that the world in the future will not be the same as the world where you start designing a product, business, or whatever. The future is a moving target, so if you don't factor change into your plans, you'll probably be obsolete before you even get to the market.

[Yiii Yi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't really believe that one person can foresee the future. Predictive power is a later explanation.

But the core of this book is to tell me how we should foresee the future, how to make ourselves more flexible, and how to be able to have a little confidence in the future. Among them, the first point that touched me the most was that it said that you should base your prediction of the future on the pursuit of certainty. This sentence makes me think it is quite reliable.

For example, Bezos once said that every day people say what changes will happen in the future, so why no one asks what things will not change in the future. When we want to do business, we must build our business on certain things that will not change in the future.

The professional concepts provided in it are very interesting. If you treat soft trend as the hard trend by misunderstanding, then there will be Elvis' fallacy and misjudgment for the future trend.

the hard trend is the baby boom, Moore's Law.
Soft trend is those would change and unpredictable trend.

Looking back at the past, summarizing the capabilities, and then looking at the future, we can indeed summarize some events and directions that can be predicted. The most fundamental reason for the sunk cost fallacy is that the ability to predict the future is insufficient. Life should not always bury your head in dealing with crises, but should do some thinking about the future and trends🙌🙌🙌🙌

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of those books where I was "Is this complete bull or is this really insightful?"

A little bit of both.

Out of his seven "radical principles", 4 of them seemed bogus:

Anticipate
Transform
Redefine
Direct

Well duh! OF COURSE one should try to anticipate the future and take appropriate action.

Not exactly a sizzling insight Mr. Futurist. I guess every single book has to have SEVEN principles no matter what.

But the remaining 3 were kind of interesting:

(1) Start with certainty.
Look at what the "hard trends" are. These are things that we know with certainty or very strongly believe are going to happen. Examples are:
(1) Computer processors will get faster
(2) Computer memory will get cheaper
(3) Network bandwidth will increase
(4) The baby boomers will retire

They are based on currently existing facts(e.g. Baby Boomers) or technological or scientific progress.

"Soft trends" may or may not continue. Examples
(1) Rap will remain a very popular genre in 20 years
(2) Gas will continue to be the same price in 30 years
(3) Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook will continue to be just as dominant in 10 years

These MIGHT happen, but they also might not.

So look at those things that you know are DEFINITELY going to happen and see what you can do about them.

(2) Take your biggest problem and skip it.
This is simply the idea that sometimes we obsess over solving a particular challenge but we lose sight of the bigger picture.

Let's say you are about to get fired from your job. You're worried and are trying to do everything to get on your boss' good side. But maybe you should step back and think, "what is my real problem? My real problem is that I need enough income to pay rent and buy necessities and save a little bit for retirement. Maybe I can solve this problem in a different way."

(3) Go opposite
If everyone else is focused on doing one thing, maybe there is an opportunity in doing the complete opposite?

For example if all the firms in your sector are focused on being the lowest cost provider, maybe your company can be the premium quality provider?

Or if all the guys at the party are competing with each other to impress girls by being flashy and obnoxious maybe you'll play up that you are a cool and chill thoughtful guy who is NOT a "bro"?

Basically trying to look where others are not looking.

So it does have some interesting ideas and food for thought, but it definitely feels padded out.

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed large parts of this book as a result of it being somewhat uninteresting, and zeroed in on parts that I found unique.

Much of the wisdom this book offers seems patently obvious, but then again, how often do we forget the things that are painfully obvious and continue to make the same mistakes? There are numerous decently analyzed case studies, a small number of which the author played a direct role in; these are nice but I found they only loosely illustrated the concepts that Burrus elaborated upon. I was also skeptical because Burrus is an industry consultant as opposed to an operator, and while that makes him a good generalist, it doesn't necessarily make him good at strategizing (albeit not being a book about strategy).

There were several interesting concepts I enjoyed exploring including:
- Hard trends, which are things that are certain to happen, e.g. aging demographics
- The eight types of technological advancement: dematerialization, virtualization, mobility, product intelligence, networking, interactivity, globalization, convergence
- Skipping your biggest problem, e.g. your problem is not that you can't afford to go to college but rather that you lack the skills to get the job you desire

That said it presents a good starting point for thinking about ideas, and I would recommend it.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I have ever read. Burrus really opened my eyes to possibilities by advocating looking to the future, skip the main problem, and doing the opposite.

[Shashidhar A.v.b · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book to read if you want to innovate. It gives you amazing tools to approach innovative solutions to problems. You can use the techniques in the book to apply for any problem. It can be a engineering problem or it can be social problem. With the tools given in there you can always arrive at a solution that is futuristic and innovative.

[Mike Corso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent approach to business building. The six or seven main pillars are given too many examples but if you just keep reviewing the essences (anticipate...transform/reinvent....go opposite...etc) you'll manage your own business with more intelligence and ... foresight ;)

[WPO Columbus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Renee T review.

[Rich Schuette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not often you pick up one of these books and get your idea and motivation. This one did it for me

[Enrique Romero · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world does not come with crystal balls. This book will help you get the feel for how to see what is on the horizon before it is on the horizon.

[Murali Krishna]

It gives a structure for u think whenever ur facing a problem hat requires a disruptive solution

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I heard Mr. Burrus at an IT service management conference this year (Pink15). He was exceptionally interesting so I picked up his book. His ideas on hard and soft trending, getting rid of rear-view mirrors, stop worrying about information and constantly driving home the pace of change requires us to constantly change were really thoughtful. I appreciated his insight regarding less cooperation and more collaboration. He makes a compelling argument for changes to our education system, why competition has to change from a scarcity model to an abundance model and finally his examples of future thinking really made the book a great story. This is a book you want to beg college kids to read to give them a leg up on being successful. Just a wonderful book that I could not put down.

[Bill Hunter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure what all the hype is about. Some good points but I found it clunky and a lot of the concepts in the taxonomy presented are reverse engineered into very shallow 'real life' examples.

Burrus is obviously very accomplished and I don't think the book conveys what he's all about very week which is a pity.

The book spends 80% of it's time on some pretty obvious technological 'foresights' and only 20% on the art of strategic foresight itself. Would have loved to have seen more actual methodological analysis.

Read the intro and the conclusions to each chapter if you want to get a good gist of what the books on about.

[Mbogo J · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books with sentence length titles promising heaven are a notorious lot. It's like they know that if they don't sell in the title, no one is going to buy them. Not forgetting they rehash the obvious and give them catchy names and call that hot air "insight". I normally give them a wide berth.
With this one,goodreads kept suggesting it to me based on my previous reads until I finally gave up and read it. It is an amazing book. It does suffer from the follies of its cousins in rehashing the obvious but its central thesis of hard and soft trends allows it to get the full five stars. A good read indeed.

[Dunrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I heard Burrus speak at the Vistage Michigan CEO Summit in September. The book overlaps with his talk a fair bit, and is a good refresher if you've heard him speak and introduction if you have not.
He illustrates his process with anecdotes/mini-case-studies from familiar (= big name) companies such as Apple, Maytag, Amazon, Zappos, as well as the Detroit Public School District and some other educational settings.
His action steps at the end of most chapters are useful, otherwise it is easy to let the narrative flow over you and not inspire anything!

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this as an audio book and kept wishing I had a highlighter handy. There was enough interesting points that were pertinent to my accounting business that I found it beneficial particularly when he talked about dematerialization This as definitely impacted my firm in the past 4 years.

He also encouraged me to ask better questions regarding the future of the firm and how I would like to see technology change the way I do business

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A colleague who I respect recommended this book saying it had significantly influenced his way of thinking. I picked it up and wasn't disappointed. There is tremendous insight into understanding the future and being able to proverbially move to where the pick will be by looking at hard and soft trends.

In today's ever accelerating environment, one needs to constantly change to keep up let alone get ahead. Flash Foresight shows how to thrive in this environment.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burrus highlights some key frameworks for where technology is taking us in the future. A lot of his examples are inspiring, and a lot of them are slightly obvious. Nevertheless, Burrus has some very valuable points in this book and it is worth reading for anyone either in business or interested in technology.

[Teri Temme · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is guaranteed to change your thinking about the future. It lays out the strategy and steps to "see" the future. Fascinating. And because I love learning this is one of my favorite quotes: "...the simple physics of it: when you share a physical resource with someone else, your own store depletes - but when you share knowledge, it increases."

[Warren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Typical business book. The substance could be summed up in a few sentences but then the authors go on and on with their examples with so-called clients like Billy Bob whom they're always having lunch with. If you want a more serious read on foresight there are better books around.

[Jason Vanzin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book about how to stay ahead in the ever changing landscape in which we live. It was chalk full of examples and great insights. Now I have to go back through and take notes on all the parts I highlighted.

[Pravin Boddu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting perspectives.
May be, I have applied some of them already.
Hopefully, in future when faced with a challenging problem, I will have a "Click moment" with one of the strategies from "Flash Foresight"
I liked that he kept all concepts and stories to the point...

[Shimron Trammell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel Burrus may be a bit annoying to some but I found his insights into how to think about "what's next" amazing. A definite read if you are in the product development field or you just want to think about ways to do things better.

[Larry Rinaldi · Rating 5 out of 5]

The insights in this book are plentiful and beyond relevant fornour times. Daniel Burrus shares his experience, knowledge, and ingenious insights about how to live in the future by living today and cultivating flash foresight! I wish everyone could read this book.

[Capa]

Not bad

There is some useful information regarding what you need to be looking at and how to go about coming up with a prognosis for the future. Some things are glossed over, though, and should be fleshed out in better detail, like how to identify hard trends.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

while this book for provide a good framework and background on how to make decisions based upon hard and soft decisions, I feel that the author seemed to come across as cocky at times. Good predictions about the future of technology and how it will continue to impact our lives.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific book for transforming your business to take advantage of the numerous tech/social/environmental changes ahead. An inspiring read.

[Brent Mair]

I made it to page 97 and I think the book will be valuable to me but I've lost interest at this time.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent ideas!

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

good brain caffeine...!