9Mar2022
“The Days of “Business as Usual” Are Long Gone” – Martin Lindstrom
by: Nordic Business Forum
Martin Lindstrom is recognized as one of the world’s leading business, branding, and culture transformation experts. His research in behavioral psychology and his bestselling books are reshaping how organizations approach innovation, culture, and business transformation. Martin is the founder and chairman of Lindstrom Company, the world’s leading brand and culture transformation group, operating across five continents and more than 30 countries.
Martin will step on stage at Nordic Business Forum 2022 in September, so we asked him a couple of questions about his presentation and the event theme of future-focused leadership.
Nordic Business Forum: Can you give us a teaser of what to expect from your Nordic Business Forum 2022 presentation?
Martin Lindstrom: Since the 1970s, the world of marketing has revolved around seven “entry points”. By this, we mean those special life moments in which we experience profound lifestyle changes. Along with these lifestyle changes, we show susceptibility to considering new brands.
Let’s say you’re expecting a new baby. Suddenly, everything around you seems to feature baby-this-and-baby that. You’re likely to completely change course in your life, move, acquire new friends, change your furniture, and, yes, become aware of brands you never knew existed.
Studies show that most of us experience seven of these behavior-changing moments throughout our lifetimes. But in the past couple of years, for the first time in living memory, the world has experienced the introduction of an eighth entry point. This new globally synchronized change is so profound that it will require rewriting marketing and branding textbooks for generations to come.
NBF: The theme of the event is future-focused leadership. What does that mean to you?
ML: Among other factors, the eighth entry point taps into the root cause of why we’re experiencing the great resignation, why depression and anxiety have never been more widespread, and why suicide rates across the world have reached unprecedented levels. Those days when high salaries alone were enough to lure employees into companies are long gone. We’re witnessing a completely new playbook, fueled by the consequences and profound behavioral changes resulting from the eighth entry point.
NBF: What would you highlight as the most important thing(s) for leaders to focus on in the future?
ML: The workplace has never been this accessible, and loyalty has never been this low. Remember: every employee is only a click away from a different job. Often they don’t even need to move. That independence has turned companies into disposable entities. An employee’s average tenure at a company has never been this short.
Building an authentic purpose-driven culture is the key for employers to survive and thrive in this environment. With the world in disarray (and a war taking place in everyone’s backyard), employees are asking some fundamental questions. The days of “business as usual” are long gone. This new reality demands highly nimble leaders who know how to take a stand, unite teams around shared purposes, and create movements. In short, tomorrow’s leader needs to know how to create and oversee an internal tribe.
Yesterday’s leaders never learned to be nimble, become tribe leaders, create a powerful purpose, and maintain a movement—yet these are fundamental to running a company today.
At Nordic Business Forum 2022, Martin will discuss how the emergence of the eighth entry point requires leaders to adapt to a ripple effect, utilize new tools to calibrate their companies, and understand what it will take to meet this unprecedented challenge. To learn more from Martin, join the NBF 2022 Helsinki event.
