Pinterest is a social curation site that allows users to create virtual pinboards around topics. It has seen rapid growth, attracting over 2.5 million monthly active users on Facebook. Pinterest is becoming a major traffic driver for retailer websites as each pinned image acts as a link. Future leaders will need to be tech savvy, demonstrate ROI, and have strong ethics and transparency. 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, uses successive thin layers of material to print solid objects like medical devices and prototypes. It could transform manufacturing by lowering costs and allowing for customization. Intellectual property issues may intensify as designs can be copied more easily.

1. February 2012
This edition covers:
• Pinterest-ing
•Future of Leadership
• 3-D Printing Revolution

2. SOCIAL MEDIA/BRANDS
Retailers take note
PINTEREST-ING ➔ Although still very new, the start-up is COMMUNICATIONS TAKEOUT
attracting more and more attention , as its pin
Along came the big bad wolf and he huffed boards are becoming a major source of traffic
and he puffed and he blew the house down. to retailer websites.
Yes, that was a fairy tale but over the last few ➔ Each image is actually a link that redirects
months a new social networking phenomenon the user to the original webpage containing the
has been rapidly gathering oxygen and is even image. When users pin a retailers’ product, the
rattling at the doors of the seemingly image therefore redirects directly to the
impregnable house of Facebook. There are individual product page on the retailer’s
now over 2.5m monthly active Pinterest users website, turning their virtual pin-board into a GET PINNING
on Facebook. source of referrals. 1) Pin content that relates to your
➔ It was just recently discovered target audience
Real and growing that Pinterest is earning affiliate commission Look for ways to create a good mix
➔Curation site Pinterest allows users to create from some of their referral links, depending on between the audience’s interests
virtual pin boards around specific topics – companies that are participating in an affiliate and what your company stands for.
fashion, interior design, travel destinations – programme. 2) Have company related pins
and pin images to illustrate their topic. ➔ A number of retailers and other brands like Find creative and stylistic ways of
➔ Pinterest has added to the lexicon of “like” General Electric, have started to create their showcasing products and include a
and “retweet” with its ability to “pin” content own pin boards for Pinterest users to share price tag with the image. Make sure
and then “repin” it across the site & networks. pictures of products across the social platform. your website is image optimised.
➔ Considering that the word Pinterest didn’t
3) Follow and Engage
exist in 2010, by October 2011 nearly 900,000 Changing the future of search to discovery Search for those users that fall under
has searched for the term “Pinterest” more ➔ Sites like Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, your target demographic and begin
than 2.4 million times. Search data like this can Snip.it, Clipboard and Curisma, etc.,all allow interacting with them through
often be a leading indicator to investors their users to decide what aspects of the web comments or repinning. This will
regarding the viral growth of a company. (text, media, etc.) are worth saving and hopefully result in comments and
➔ In 2011, it was valued through venture sharing, instead of browsing the web from repins of your own content.
financing at$40m and, most recently, just a few Google, or even Facebook for that matter. 4) Observe and research
months later, at around $200m. ➔ These networks allow for self-expression, You can go and explore the boards
➔ A recent infographic from Monetate shows and in doing so, re-sort and re-shape the web of your clients and others that fall
that in terms of driving traffic to retailers’ we see, and that is a very big shift away from under your target audience and use
websites, Pinterest does a better job than traditional search toward social discovery. this information to build a better
Google+. From September to December 2011,
relationship with your audience.
non-subscribed Pinterest users went from 1.68 Warning: Copyright quagmire 5) Social recruiting opportunity
million to 7.21 million people, an increase of The obvious question is who owns the content. See these 7 creative resumes .
329% in only four months. The infographic Whilst Pinterest has a carefully crafted
suggests Pinterest might have built a new model copyright policy it leaves liability for TOP TIPS FOR BRANDS ON
for social media referrals. infringement squarely on members’ shoulders. PINTEREST

3. Do you speak global?
HR/WAR FOR TALENT
➔ Increased globalisation will pose many
FUTURE OF LEADERSHIP challenges for CEOs, not least dealing with COMMUNICATIONS TAKEOUT
Who wants to be a millionaire CEO? complex multi-cultural and diversified
There was a time not so long ago when most demographic issues .
senior executives would aspire to CEO
status. With it came increased responsibility Techno/multi-media savviness
but also considerable financial rewards. ➔ There may still be some companies where
Then along came Enron and other well- CEOs are not tech savvy, but this will become a
known corporate scandals and suddenly the must-have skill of the future. Not least because
top job lost some of its allure. Particularly of technology’s ability to shrink the world and
when the concept of ‘the buck stops here’ deal with a complex set of stakeholders.
could actually lead to a CEO being marched
10 LEADERSHIP TRENDS IN
off in handcuffs on national TV. ROI BUSINESS (see link below)
➔ Perhaps the strongest pressure facing
Charismatic, celebrity leadership leaders in the future will be to demonstrate
ROI. Demonstrating and quantifying the impact
1. The rise of complex
➔ It is tempting to see the demise of Steve
Jobs as representing the end of an era in of leadership development investments is challenges
terms of charismatic leadership. It is hard to likely to emerge as a priority for organisations. 2. The innovation revolution
foresee other leaders reaching those iconic 3. The art of virtual leadership
heights. Work Life Balance
➔ Lloyds Banking Group CEO recently had to 4. Collaboration nation
➔ Indeed, it may be argued that the cult of
celebrity leadership, when it is linked to take time out due to stress. In the past, this 5. The world of interruption
personal betterment at the expense of the would have been seen as a sign of weakness 6. Authenticity is the next
company, is to be avoided at all costs – as but more attention will be paid in the future to
celebrity
witness Royal Bank of Scotland. the well being of senior executives.
7. The fallout from the baby
Ethics and transparency to the fore Feminomics and CEOs boom – part 1
➔ One thing is certain and that is that ➔ In virtually all markets many fewer women 8. The fallout from the baby
transparency , integrity and authenticity are than men are active in the labour market,
leading to a shortage of women CEOs. This will
boom – part 2
qualities that will be absolutely essential for
any successful leader of the future. continue to be an unmet challenge. 9. Leadership for longevity
➔ Only 12% of CEOs say they see poor 10. What’s next?
The end of the fat cat retention of female talents as a key business
➔ The all-pervasive nature of new media, challenge over the next three years and 56% of
businesses say they have no plans to change 10 LEADERSHIP TRENDS IN
along with citizen mobilisation (as seen in the
#occupy movement) will make it increasingly their policies. Only 11% of CEOs globally are BUSINESS
hard to hide any misdemeanors or for planning significant change to policies aimed at [Source: Center for Creative
massive bonuses to be accepted. attracting and retaining more of female
Leadership]
employees today.

4. DIGITAL / MANUFACTURING
Medical devices
3D PRINTING REVOLUTION ➔ By far the biggest adopter of additive COMMUNICATIONS TAKEOUT
technology is the medical devices sector and,
Dictionaries have multiple definitions of the around the world, many patients sport hip
verb “to print” but none of them remotely replacements, dental crowns or even cranial
conjure up images of objects like prosthetic implants that have been produced by clinicians
jaws, jewellery, lampshades, iphone covers , on laser-sintering machines.
shoes or even museum exhibits — all of which Indeed, the largest-volume application of
can now be printed with the help of special 3D additive manufacturing is in the production of
printing machines. hearing aids, with customised hearing-aid
casings now almost exclusively made using
Manufacturing at the click of a mouse additive techniques. 9 WAYS 3D PRINTING CAN
➔ Printing in 3D may seem bizarre. In fact it is ➔ The biggest spur for adoption of the CHANGE THE WORLD (see link
similar to clicking on the print button on a technology in the medical world is not
computer screen and sending a digital file to an
below)
customisation, but economics. With additive,
inkjet printer. The difference is that the “ink” in because the component is built in particles, 1. Medical Procedures
a 3D printer is a material which is deposited in densities can be changed and surfaces made
successive, thin layers until a solid object
2. Advances In Research
porous so that it’s not necessary to go through
emerges. secondary processes. It’s a lot cheaper. 3. Product Prototyping
➔ The general term the industry uses for this is 4. Historic Preservation
“additive manufacturing”, but the most widely Ideas and intellectual property issues 5. AEC
used devices are called 3-D printers. ➔ Perhaps the most exciting aspect of additive
➔ The printing of parts and products has the
6. Manufacturing
manufacturing is that it lowers the cost of
potential to transform manufacturing because it entry into the business of making things. 7. Food Industries
lowers the costs and risks. No longer does a ➔ Ultimately, this suggests that success in 8. Automotive
producer have to make thousands, or hundreds manufacturing will depend less on scale and 9. Accessories
of thousands, of items to recover his fixed costs. more on the quality of ideas. Brilliance alone,
though, will not be enough.
9 WAYS 3D PRINTING CAN
A new industrial revolution ➔ Good ideas can be copied even more rapidly CHANGE THE WORLD
➔ Mass-manufacturing identical items may not with 3D printing, so battles over intellectual [Source: Mashable]
be necessary or appropriate any more, since 3D property may become even more intense. It
printing allows for a great deal of customisation. will be easier for imitators as well as innovators CONTACT
Indeed, in the future some see consumers to get goods to market fast. Competitive
downloading products as they do digital music advantages may thus be shorter-lived than Elaine Cameron
and printing them out at home, or at a local 3D ever before. Strategic Research & Trend Analysis,
production centre, having tweaked the designs ➔ As with past industrial revolutions, the EMEA elaine.cameron@bm.com
to their own tastes. That is probably a faraway greatest beneficiaries may not be companies Don’t forget to follow on Twitter:
dream. Nevertheless, a new industrial but their customers. http://www.twitter.com/FUTUREPers
revolution may well be on the way. p