FIT STRATEGIC PLANNING

Trends Workshop Recap

Dec 6 – 13, 2018

Trends WorkshopDecember 6, 2018

Kalypso facilitated a Trends Workshop to familiarize the Planning Council with selected trends for use in the strategic planning process and have them participate in forecasting impacts of those trends out into the future.

The forecasts generated were used in the following week’s scenarios workshops (see page 5)

Agenda:8:45 Introduction8:50 Plan Overview9:00 Trends Review9:30 Impact Trees10:20 Working Session11:20 Report Out Discussion11:45 Wrap Up11:55 Closing

Trends WorkshopThe following trends across three categories were reviewed in the meeting : Driving Forces, Industry Trends, and Weak Signals

Industry Trends• Non-Traditional

Students• Personalized Education• Corporations as

Educators• Scrutiny on Employment

Outcomes• Certification vs Degree• Automated Retail• Machine Learning in the

Creative Industries• Private Brands• Smart Textiles• Fashion Activism• Sustainability in Fashion• Crowdsourcing

Innovation• Hyper-Personalization• Digital Product Creation• Distributed

Manufacturing • Raw Materials

Innovation• Body Positivity &

inclusion

Driving Forces• Economic Bifurcation• Climate Change• Automation• Rising Nationalism• Changing Demographics

Weak Signals• Wellderly Class• Digital Nomads• Gender Fluidity• Augmented/Virtual Reality• GATTACA World• Everyone's a Superhero• Enabling Design• Creative AI in the

Workforce• Blockchain• Circular Economy• Climate Change Solutions• Value Capitalism

The Planning Council and invited guests split into 5 teams and performed an Impact Trees exercise that forecasts the implications of trends out ten years. The process begins by asking what initial impacts of a trend would be in the next several years. Impacts of those impacts are generated in four to seven years, and again from eight to ten years. The exercise is designed to create a wide range of implications of a trend across a ten year span. Below is an example output from one of the groups tasked with exploring the ten year implications of Smart Textiles:

Teams performed this exercise on the following trends: Gen Z, Smart Textiles, Digital Product Creation, Crowdsourcing for Design, Machine Learning in the Creative Industries, Digital Nomads, Distributed Manufacturing, Augmented & Virtual Reality, and Certifications vs Degrees.

Why These Trends?

The trends in this pre-read were generated through close interaction with FIT stakeholders. An initial round of over 30 interviews with FIT students, faculty, staff, and alumni combined with the takeaways from the previous two Planning Council meetings developed the strategic questions that were used to identify and prioritize the trends found in this document.

To help you easily identify these trends, please look for the icon at the bottom of this page. That same icon will appear on the pages of the trends that came directly from the stakeholder interviews and/or the previous two Planning Council meetings.

INTRODUCTION

Driving Forces

AI-Driven Automation will lead to a transformation of the economy. Artificial Intelligence-driven automation will drive unparalleled advances to the speed, accuracy and quality of manufacturing. This transformation will require significant changes in the job market, creating a demand for workers with higher-level technical skills while also resulting in substantial job loss.

D R I V I N G F O R C E S

AutomationT E C H N O L O G Y

Globally, populations are aging, migrating and concentrating in urban centers.Falling fertility rates and longer life spans due to better nutrition, healthcare and sanitation have lead to an aging population. Globally, the percentage of the population aged 65 plus will double in the next 30 years from 8.5% in 2015 to 16.7% in 2050. Simultaneously, a surge in urban growth continues to unfold with half the global population living in towns and cities. By 2030, urban populations will reach 5 billion.

D R I V I N G F O R C E S

Changing Demographics S O C I A L

Industry Trends

Companies are beginning to offer their own technical programs and courses to the public.

These courses are lead by internal experts and engineers and often cover content used by current employees. These programs allow businesses to teach potential future employees by developing curriculums that teach important skills pertinent to their company.

H I G H E R E D U C A T I O N

Corporations as EducatorsE C O N O M Y

Companies look at a bachelor’s degree as a minimum threshold for a variety of soft skills such as written and verbal communication and problem-solving.

However, an increasingly tight talent pool is causing leaders to be more inclusive, considering people trained through community colleges, formal and informal apprenticeships, career program partnerships with community groups, and in-job-training.

Certification vs. DegreeH I G H E R E D U C A T I O N S O C I A L

Smart textiles can sense and react to environmental conditions or stimuli, from mechanical, thermal, magnetic, chemical, electrical, or other sources.

Conductive materials are gaining relevance especially with the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) and smart connected products. With smart textiles, humans are getting one step closer to self-healing with biometric monitoring.

C R E A T I V E I N D U S T R I E S

Smart TextilesT E C H N O L O G Y

To continually disrupt and innovate within market demand parameters, the design function can be outsourced to communities of designers.

Drawing on a broader talent pool reduces overhead costs and optimizes creativity, amongst other benefits.

C R E A T I V E I N D U S T R I E S

Crowdsourcing for DesignE C O N O M Y

Companies are using massive amounts of data to provide highly customized products to consumers.

Personal information such as DNA and shopping patterns, along with aggregate public data from transportation and air quality, is coupled with new 3D print or micro-manufacture capabilities to make things near the point of use for a cost comparable to that of mass manufacturing.

C R E A T I V E I N D U S T R I E S

Hyper-PersonalizationT E C H N O L O G Y

3D tools have become increasingly common in creative industries to enable designers to iterate and visualize more rapidly at a lower cost, and to collaborate with merchants and vendors to develop and manufacture the product aligned more closely with design intent.

C R E A T I V E I N D U S T R I E S

Digital Product CreationT E C H N O L O G Y

Companies are moving from mass manufacturing to a decentralized network.

Distributed manufacturing compensates for higher manufacturing costs by speeding up time to market, allowing greater customization, and reduced shipping and inventory costs. It includes 3D Printing custom goods near the point of use and Nearshoring manufacturing closer to markets to take advantage of fast fashion trends.

C R E A T I V E I N D U S T R I E S

Distributed ManufacturingE C O N O M Y

Weak Signals

Wealthy people in developed countries are living, working and staying active longer.

"Retirement age" is being extended or just disappearing, leaving less room and money for younger generations seeking succession. Because this group is aging so well, they are still a consuming force that needs and deserves custom attention.

Wellderly ClassW E A K S I G N A L S S O C I A L

Scientists have seen huge advances in gene editing.

This technology allows researchers to change, add or remove genetic material from an organism’s DNA. Scientists are hoping to study gene editing to enhance the treatment and prevention of diseases.

GATTACA WorldW E A K S I G N A L S T E C H N O L O G Y

Technological and medical breakthroughs provide ways to make ourselves into superheroes.

These advances include advanced prosthetics, genetic editing, and 3D-printed or lab-grown replacement parts that may provide new senses and superhuman strength and fitness.

Everyone’s a SuperheroW E A K S I G N A L S T E C H N O L O G Y

Researchers and companies are turning their attention to the disabled to help create innovations that enable everyone.

Retailers have also pursued this focus by creating clothing lines specifically designed to address the needs of disabled people.

Enabling DesignW E A K S I G N A L S T E C H N O L O G Y

Technology is quickly catching up to, if not surpassing, human capabilities.

Technological advancements, such as artificial Intelligence systems, continue to become smarter as they learn new information and retain past skills.

Creative AI in the WorkforceW E A K S I G N A L S E C O N O M Y

The world is starting to face the consequences of Climate Change a lot sooner than we expected.

To combat this, an increasing number of inventions have been made to address environmental damage and establish preventative measures to preserve our ecosystems.

Climate Change SolutionsW E A K S I G N A L S E N V I R O N M E N T

The definition of success is changing.

Whereas it was once all about cost, many consumers are more concerned with products’ societal and environmental benefits over finding an economic bargain. From crowd funding, to waste reduction, to inclusion of all cultural backgrounds in product offerings, social responsibility is an expectation.

Value CapitalismW E A K S I G N A L S P O L I T I C A L

Impact Trees

Today’s ExerciseImpact Trees

Trend

1-3 years

1-3 years

1-3 years

4-6 years

4-6 years

4-6 years

4-6 years

4-6 years

4-6 years

7-10 years

7-10 years

7-10 years

7-10 years

7-10 years

7-10 years

Today’s ExerciseImpact Trees

Economic Bifurcation

Resentment and Social / Political

Disruption

Strong Alignment of Society by

Economic Situation and Value System

Populist Party

Isolated Intentional

Communities

New Middle Class

Market for Very High-end and

Low-end Products

New Values

(Minimal, Balanced,

Intentional)

Ability to Make Highly-

Customized / Personalized

Products

Up-Cycling Luxury for Low

Income

Non-Economic Value Class

Sharing / Inclusion

Creation of Two Markets – Own

and Share

Wealth as an Embarrassment

Value Around Transparency, Efficiency and

Control

Intentional Limiting of Availability

Machine learning is staged to make an significant impact on the creative industries by moving beyond the basics of big data.

Machine learning is expected to have huge impacts on profitability due to its advanced capabilities in personalization, searching power, dynamic pricing, and customer needs identification.

C R E A T I V E I N D U S T R I E S

Machine Learning in Creative Industries

T E C H N O L O G Y

Digitalization is enabling freelancers and remote workers to avoid being anchored to a location or a specific company.

These nomads can use laptops and ubiquitous connections to live and work from anywhere. They are using targeted certifications instead of general education to find work across disciplines, and value travel and experiences over owning things and staying in one place.

Digital NomadW E A K S I G N A L S S O C I A L