Industry lens
Daily Inspiration often became a place where broad foresight was tested against a specific industry.
For Agriculture Food, the useful material is not simply a list of technologies. The recurring question is how changing science, economics, customer behavior, regulation, skills and digital capability alter the industry’s assumptions.
Recovered industry essays and observations
2023-01-11 — Daily Inspiration: “It’s time to move from triage to tomorrow!”
“It’s time to move from triage to tomorrow!” - Futurist Jim Carroll Next month will mark 3 years since individuals and organizations began to go through the largest disruption they will ever know. With lockdowns, a staggering loss of human life, work-from-home, and the rapid emergence of a digital lifestyle and e-commerce infrastructure - we all had to learn to adapt quickly. As I close out this series of 23 Trends for 2023, I’ve been thinking long and hard as to what the final, all-encompassing trend should be; to be honest, I’ve had several.
2023-10-23 — Daily Inspiration: Innovation and Culture - “Give yourself permission to try new things!
“Give yourself permission to try new things!” - Futurist Jim Carroll My wife and I attended the Celebration of Life for the father of one of our good friends at our ski chalet, Cedric Gyles. Although we only briefly met the man once, we knew that the relationship that our good friend John had with his dad was special and that this was a significant loss; we thought it important that we show John and his wife Jane our respect by attending. We ended up with so much more than we expected, learning more about a man who did justice to the phrase ‘a life well lived.’ My good friend Scott Kress, who we also ski with, commented: “When you read his ob
2023-12-18 — Daily Inspiration: 24 Strategies for 2024 #16 - “Fail at fewer first impression failures”
“Fail at fewer first impression failures” - Futurist Jim Carroll Futurist Jim Carroll is running a series that began November 27, 2023, and will end on January 1, 2024 - ‘24 Strategies for 2024.’ Rather than running a trend series for the upcoming year as he has previously, this series will examine a number of his personal beliefs on how to best align yourself with the future. There will be a post each weekday, excluding weekends and holidays, until the series runs its course. You will find it on his blog at https://blog.jimcarroll.com, or on the website https://2024.jimcarroll.com The people you meet are often not who you think - we all suff
2024-10-07 — Daily Inspiration - Creativity & Innovation : “See differently and you’ll innovate brilliantly!”
“See differently and you’ll innovate brilliantly!” - Futurist Jim Carroll Most people see a ketchup bottle. Creative people see trends & innovation! Last week, I spoke at the Manufacturers Association for Plastic Processors conference in Indianapolis; my topic was the impact and opportunity of artificial intelligence technologies in the manufacturing industry.
2025-01-03 — Daily Inspiration: (Grading My 2014 Predictions About 2025) - “Sometimes you need not be right you just need to be bold!”
“Sometimes you need not be right you just need to be bold!” - Futurist Jim Carroll Welcome to 2025! Back in 2014, I wrote a series of predictions about 2025 - in a document titled, of all things, ‘25 Trends for 2025’. (Intuitive!) At the time I wrote it, most of the news media were busy, as they are every year, contacting futurists, trend forecasters, and guys like me to bang together their year-end articles about “what comes next?
2025-01-22 — Daily Inspiration: Global politics and trade - “A “blast from the past from 2009 - “Canada announces end of economic relationship with US, & a bold new strategy to 2020”
“Sometimes, satire can become all too real” - Futurist Jim Carroll There’s no doubt that there might not be a lot of logical, rational stuff going on in the next few years. That’s why I keep stressing that volatility is the new normal. With that in mind, I can’t help but reach back to a post I wrote in 2009, which I reshared in 2013.
2025-02-10 — Daily Inspiration: The Future of Insurance: “New risk demands new thinking. Uninsurable risk demands bold thinking”
“New risk demands new thinking. Uninsurable risk demands bold thinking.” - Futurist Jim Carroll In just about a month, I’ll head to California to headline a major insurance conference. The fact that I’m speaking in a region that is home to one of the largest insurance losses in US history is not lost on me, and in fact, will provide form for much of my talk.
2025-05-23 — Decoding Tomorrow: Your Daily Future Inspiration – “You can escape the mediocrity you once embraced, but will you ever fully eradicate it?”
“You can escape the mediocrity you once embraced, but will you ever fully eradicate it?” - Futurist Jim Carroll It’s been a wild voyage bringing these two books to print in just a few months, and I’m loving the feedback and comments from those who have picked up copies. (Are you in? You can grab copies at the Mediocrity website !) But while working on them, I’m always thinking.
2025-05-29 — Decoding Tomorrow: Your Daily Future Inspiration – “There is no shortage of big opportunities.. There is a shortage of bold leadership!”
“There is no shortage of big opportunities.. There is a shortage of bold leadership!” = Futurist Jim Carroll One of my fellow futurists recently included this line in a post I read - “We should be pulling more photons from the sun.” He wrote it as an observation when he was flying into an American city, and saw an absolute dearth of solar panels on the roofs of homes and buildings. Solar energy - the infrastructure at least - has become desperately cheap and tremendously productive, and we are missing such a big opportunity.
2025-09-24 — Decoding Tomorrow: The Way Forward: #2 Agriculture- The farmer of the future is part biologist, part data scientist, and part roboticist—but is still 100% an optimist who plants a seed and believes in tomorrow.”
“The farmer of the future is part biologist, part data scientist, and part roboticist—but is still 100% an optimist who plants a seed and believes in tomorrow.” - Futurist Jim Carroll In 2025, the headwinds are severe, and the path forward seems shrouded in fog. We’re living through one of the most volatile and unpredictable periods in recent memory. With that being the case, I am writing this new series, The Way Forward: A Trends and Transformation Series, taking a look at the trends redefining industries, and actionable strategies organizations must pursue to align to these realities.
2025-09-26 — Decoding Tomorrow: The Way Forward: #4 Healthcare: “Yesterday’s medical breakthrough was a new drug. Tomorrow’s breakthrough is the intelligent algorithm that designs the drug, the connected device that delivers it, and the data stream that confirms it worked.”
“Yesterday’s medical breakthrough was a new drug. Tomorrow’s breakthrough is the intelligent algorithm that designs the drug, the connected device that delivers it, and the data stream that confirms it worked.”- Futurist Jim Carroll In 2025, the headwinds are severe, and the path forward seems shrouded in fog. We’re living through one of the most volatile and unpredictable periods in recent memory.
2025-12-02 — Decoding Tomorrow: Mastering 2026 – #9: “Know this: if your goals feel ‘realistic,’ you are thinking too small.”
“Know this: if your goals feel ‘realistic,’ you are thinking too small.” - Futurist Jim Carroll We are on Day 9. You’ve committed to the pivot (Day 7), and you are increasing your execution velocity (Day 8). You are moving faster.
2025-12-11 — Decoding Tomorrow: Mastering 2026 – #16 Scale-blindness: “Your brain is built for addition. The future is built on multiplication.”
“Your brain is built for addition. The future is built on multiplication.” - Futurist Jim Carroll When exponential change arrives, it never goes well. That’s because most people fail to understand what it means and don’t act, which is a problem.
2025-12-18 — Decoding Tomorrow: Mastering 2026 – #21 Signal Intelligence - “Your new challenge isn’t finding the insight-it’s filtering out the noise.”
“Your new challenge isn’t finding the insight - it’s filtering out the noise.” - Futurist Jim Carroll It used to be that the problem with the information age was that there was too much information. That’s changed. The new problem is now that not only is there too much information, but much of it is crap.
2026-07-01 — Daily Inspiration: ""A different direction means a louder voice. Get ready, world: you’re getting more Canadian cowbell.”
“A different direction means a louder voice. Get ready, world: you’re getting more Canadian cowbell.” - Futurist Jim Carroll Happy Canada Day! July 1 marks the 159th birthday of what most global surveys rank one of the best places in the world to live.
How this should feed futurist.info
These records should strengthen the corresponding Industry Intelligence page. Repeated ideas should become supporting evidence for structural shifts; dated observations should become Signals where appropriate; forecasts should connect to Predictions and Scorecards.
Industry question
Which of these changes alters the industry’s operating model rather than merely adding a new tool?