Where the line of “technological advancement” and “free services” cross, potentially creating a type of devaluation is difficult concern to answer and likely solved through the test of time. From one standpoint the connectivity of the modern internet era has created a plethora of information a nanosecond away yet amongst the avalanche of knowledge at your computer doorstep I see few utilizing it to its potential. A quick review of virtually every social media outlet serves as evidence as amongst the white noise of babble is a sense of over stimulation where valuable information is oddly not so valuable to the majority.

This naturally must change but in fact the great limitation, or at-least the first challenge, is not providing information but urging the public to improve their technological systems so they can be a part of this new frontier.

We live in a remarkable era and while some fret over the future the horizon is a vast one filled with hope and opportunity. However to turn the wheel of hope, to spin the set from the darkest of clouds to opportunity, our society must nurture the spirit of education and the thirst for knowledge whilst finding a level where classic values are embraced but within improved technology.

While dressed up in a bold new horizon, this is in-fact a revision of fellowship, life’s grand table of an honest global village that we all have a place.

Written by John Davies
©John Davies Worldwide Productions, 2011
All rights reserved

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

Though the modern business world overflows with opportunity, the majority of the public nestles in fear of the future and instead clings to the past. While posting “opportunity” in a world grappling with the daily mention of “financial meltdowns” seems impossible to most, connectivity has given rise to truly a global village that further lowers the barriers to business entry.

Yet this Global Village in all its McLuhan grandeur has a sticking point, a link in the chain that seems to have rusted over as it is falling victim to the sins of a society trapped in fear, overwhelmed by arrogance and unready to welcome technological change as well as expanding investment in education.

There is little debate that the financial purse strings to a never ending supply of debt are being cut. Yesterday’s promise means little when the marker comes with another re-upping of debt and the only way to break the cycle is through education, which includes shifting with technological tides.

Dyed in wool contrarians can see this opportunity and like an apple blossom on tree it needs time to mature and ripen. It’s there, you can see it and just need to nurture it properly and the harvest will prove to be a bountiful but you must be willing to invest.

Yet seeing against the grain and nurturing are foreign to many who have been subjected to poor leadership that has laid blame anywhere other than pointing directly towards the mirror and acknowledging errors of the past. The future or at-least the present-day is the fault of collective society that has run amuck with nonsensical spending habits of a stream of widgets but carefully avoiding education or this not-so little thing called a “savings function”.

It is a hard and fast error to reduce funding in education as it only guarantees lowered job opportunities and an endless array of societal problems. The sins of the modern leader is not being truthful and informing the public that without a solid investment in education, the future will be bleak. For regions that do not invest in education or for matter allows budgets to be reduced in the area it is highly likely the only investment your area will see in the future is with low paying jobs, further brought on by a devalued currency. This should not give rise to the idea that education is purely related to job creation as its benefit runs deeps throughout all of society.

Yet the future does not need to be bleak as it merely requires the classic notion of a “flight to quality” but instead of accumulating a blue-chip equity portfolio, invest in education and begin bringing the gaps of connectivity. The social media revolution has put the doorway of opportunity within the grasp of many but now you must turn the handle and awaken to the possibilities of a business frontier where the barriers to entry crumble.

Listen, learn and engage.

Written by John Davies
©John Davies Worldwide Productions, 2011
All rights reserved

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

Within a recent question and answer period I was asked of the prevailing economy and my reason for guarded long-term optimism. I suspect the interviewer was expecting me to tap-dance away from the issue or certainly not respond that the prevailing problems were both easy to predict and identifiable.

The great problem that exists, despite the enormous capabilities of the Global Village, is the flight from creativity and evaporation of pride in your work. We, as a whole, have forgotten how to create and nurture thought but instead cut and paste and run off the market with pride of building and sold as many widgets as possible.

The solution set starts with building, not via sales but relationships. Relate to the marketplace with earnest and for that matter enter your profession not because of the financial bottom-line but your passion for what you do. Where possible repair previous problems, like the darning of socks from a bygone era, by listening to the marketplace and show them you care with a gleaming product you have pride in creating. Stop regurgitating sales pitches in every social media outlet and engage your clientele not because an expert claims it’s the route to a better profit margin but you truly care. Through your actions, the marketplace will be educated on your products and services, not because of sales pitches on the proverbial soap box but everyday commitment and always listening.

By building and creating honest relationships in your community the economy will not only rebound but flourish in time as the old principles of values and ethics in business become the new. Once that is grasped firmly and in conjunction with the super connectivity of our modern Global Village success will be imminent.

Written by John Davies
©John Davies Worldwide Productions, 2011
All rights reserved

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

She wore black not because it was this season’s look or it was featured in the endless log-rolled “newsworthy” stories of celebrities. She would not have cared of such nonsense in her day because she had style and knew that was not something you buy with your already over-burdened credit card but how you looked at life.

Yet style, along with values and “thinking” are sputtering today, a daily death rattle is heard as  “tweets” and “status updates” serve as evidence as sheep follow along to what they are told. Thinking, conceptualizing thoughts have become a rare breed as soft lead pencil and tablet were replaced with cut and paste.

If I am too harsh on the epidemic of cut and pasting, then where pray tell are the opinions of many, the right, the wrong and all the in between? They are missing and in its place, the ever-present cut and paste of a quote and banal commentary where every corner is filled with someone doing sophomoric stand-up without realizing they already are the punch line.

This not so little thing of Social Media has and will continue to change the world. The opportunities of a super connected world defies words but it requires more than cut and pasting, more than a fascination of oh-so darling celebrities and more than a smarmy fascination with this years Lolita.

Style goes well beyond the cut of the cloth or for that matter, why she wore black but of the type of people we are, our walk through life and the not so little thing of joie de vivre. Stemming the erosion of style or that matter quality of life oddly starts with appreciation each another and our world right now is in the ultimate of turning points where the hand of fellowship reaches across the globe in a second.

Have style, engage and share your thoughts and remember, sheep are led to slaughter and later served with mint sauce.

Written by John Davies
©John Davies Worldwide Productions, 2011
All rights reserved

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

The low haze frequency drone you hear is the sound of a generation, lost without guidance in learning what was once common social skills and now titillated with yet another tale of vampire, zombies and any other “entertainment” project a budding Lolita can be cast into.

The sheer banality of what constitutes entertainment and please I cannot bring myself to call it “the arts” reflects the long-term spiral of education in our society as well as plummeting social skills and lack of appreciation of true art. With near pitchfork and burning torch fervour much of the mainstream turns its collective back on the arts and education, gleefully accepting drivel from the media and entertainment sector like the condemned chimp at the zoo barraged by peanuts from tourists. Yet this lost generation who laps up karaoke, gothic tales and anything else they are convinced to embrace via the endless layers of marketing, requite with paid paparazzi to feed the addiction to celebrity’s, are not products of their environment but victims of the lack of true leaders.

Education is far more than building a career and improves all of society and quality of life. While I do not wish to lower the importance of enhancing your career, when education is allowed to erode, hope for the future is merely a pastel coloured dream and another election-day promise that can never come to fruition.

Yet education is not simply fine libraries and galleries but social graces and of particular concern to note, the art of conversation. While the ability to converse as never been greater with the advent of social media on the contrary it seems to be on the verge of extinction. From every corner of the online world, comments and posts are more of street corner vendors announcing their daily offerings or the ever present insightful quotation, proof positive of the brilliant thinking process associated with “cut and paste”.

The route to prosperity, a far cry from those focused on gasping for air in recovery, comes through all approaches to education. Investing in education is the one investment that will always reap large dividends and the only item you cannot go over budget.

Written by John Davies
©John Davies Worldwide Productions, 2011
All rights reserved

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

There are no quick fix solutions.

While I know this goes against the common grain of the marketplace, each generation’s insistence of addressing problems with a short term approach only digs the hole a bit deeper. With each year the problem burrows deeper and wider and soon the escape route is merely a politician’s pep rally speech that will be unmet in office after garnering the votes.

What is needed is what the mainstream does not want to hear or cast their vote for as to solve present-day economic, societal and environmental woes will require a long-term plan that includes some very challenging changes to lifestyle of the present.

The days of borrowing from the future for the present are gone but as the asset bubble continues to deflate over the balance of the decade many opportunities will be presented. Yet to harvest these profits you must be prepared with a long term vision.

For well more than thirty-years much of the world has forgotten the simple notion of nurturing and later reaping a rich harvest in the future. Economic success and the overall improvement in the quality of life does not occur via quick fix solutions but rather through investment in infrastructure, education and prudently showing patience during the growing season.

This is the ultimate twist of perception of present day woes, while many will use the term “recovery”, desperate to claw away from the extended economic slide, it is time of astute investment. Think not of “recovery” but of prosperity in the future that as time will prove out, will come to those who planted the seeds of success today.

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

Cast one foot forward into the realm of the modern online business world and despite all the technological advances certain corners look no better than back-alley game of three-card Monte.

Along the golden route from go-go dot come world the internet was discovered as the vast frontier for business and quickly those based upon half-truths and log-rolled initiatives jumped on the opportunity. Sometime after the non event of Y2K occurred many of these ventures took flight and gained a level of financial success despite not grasping an older theory of providing value in services and products.

The frontier days are grinding quickly to a halt and off in the dusty horizon is opportunity but with it comes a number of riders. With the stream of money parched, the public is slowly teaching business the classic notion of building an asset base, seemingly forgotten for quarter-century that ultimately comes via providing a necessary product or service, of good quality and a reasonable price.

The pendulum has swung back but not merely in favour of consumer but businesses that respect the needs of their clientele and provide not just value but value-added service. Reaching out via social media, not to shout day specials like huckster calling over a mark but an earnest business owner, showing pride in work and ready to compete with their product.

Pride, value and service are each at the bedrock of business of the past and now the future as we look beyond recovery and towards prosperity.

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

The ability to nurture is one of the most overlooked skills in today’s marketplace. Whilst the technological revolution has accelerated connectivity and provided an apparent ease of doing business and reaching clientele, the ability to nurture is never more important.

With super connectivity, an ability to reach your client comes within an instant, yet with this ability there is a need to nurture these relationships with earnest intent. The minefield of various social media outlets, notably Facebook and Twitter, serve as evidence of those who treat said avenues as an opportunity to meet and greet the marketplace with others shouting out the moments’ sale offering.

As social media moves into the future the near Neanderthal approach of screaming sales, including the obvious log-rolled affiliate program, will slowly disintegrate and only those who foster open, earnest relationships with clients will prosper. As positive is the improvements ushered in with technological improvements, this retracing of building business relationship is extremely positive and will further bring about more creative solutions to marketplace needs.

This draws an interesting set of crossing business paths as while systems accelerated and bridge all communication barriers, they must be used to return traditional notions of adding value to your community.

The paradox of bridging the communication gap is that as connectivity accelerates those who slow down and get to know their clientele will prosper and additionally enjoy a more enriching career.

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

While methods of communication have shifted radically during the digital age, the problem of using it properly primarily, with respect to fostering relationships, is growing and must be solved for it is the wheel that churns hope for the future.

We reside in an era where information is streamed consistently, an unyielding wave of every minute of every day. With such information readily available, the assumption was that the creative wheel would be turned en masse but in-fact has birthed the habit of “sameness”, a global village where the few cultivate original thought and drones, “chop”, cut and paste and increasingly do not “engage”.

While the phrase “social media” suggests a grand new world of technical complexities, once you are past the subtle nuances it comes down an age old custom of knowing your community and earnestly relating to his members. Though the hors d’oeuvre may come in the form of an “app”, the similarity is obvious as building relationships has been and always will be at the root of success. You might forget the delightful canapé that was served but developing granite solid contacts as something you should never pass on.

Yet engaging in conversation seems to be curious failing ground of many corners of social media where engagement is showing stress signs. Is it information fatigue, a possible point in the long life of the communication revolution or merely a misunderstanding in the Global Village we must open the doors and meet our neighbours?

It is big neighbourhood of limitless possibilities, now just engage.

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.

As the world continues to grapple with an ongoing shaky economic environment, many question the role of political leaders. While that naturally is a matter to be considered, problems in the economy run much deeper than recent decisions and least partially due to long term unravelling of business fundamentals being taught.

Businesses, both large and small are meant to enhance the lives of their clients and community through their products and services. Providing value is phrase with deep recesses that speaks of the companies’ commitment to quality and being responsive to their client needs.

Nearly one-half century since Marshall McLuhan discussed his theory of the “Global Village”, our world is connected within an instant online with the realm of Social Media effectively a possible welcoming handshake at every corner.

Yet a quick glance at some portions of the Social Media realm lack a welcoming handshake and instead are loud speaker recording, plastering every listener with earshot of sales, promotions and endless promises. From the endless free e-copy of a very expensive book, oddly that never appears to be available anywhere other than where it is given away, to obstructive data mining and log-rolled affiliate sales, social media is not being used as a handshake in the Global Village but a pounding of the door by a snake-oil salesman.

While some wait for economic recovery the direction to look towards is success and with that sincerity of your product, adding value to your community and nurturing your business garden in the Global Village.

John Davies is available on his personal page on Facebook and Twitter.