Object from the Future

The future is here, we just need to know where to look

Objects from the future, can be defined as: An object or service in today that we can look back at in 10 years time, and recognise that this was the first of future trend. It can be sociological, technological, political, environmental, economic, or business. This can be a physical object, or a service, or both.

An example could be Mecca Cola. For years US style consumer marketing has sold an aspirational US identity. Eat a Big Mac and feed to be part of the land of the free. The long lines outside McDonnalds in Moscow in the 1990's is a demonstration, of the desire for this US identity. Techniques of consumer marketing were used to strengthen and renew this identity. The question is whether the same techniques will be used to create other global identities, which people will consume with the same gusto as a Mac Royale. Mecca Cola represents a significant move in this direction. Made from water of the river Mecca, and with 20% of the proceeds going to a charities (10% local, 10% Palestinian children) it sells a distinct socially responsible identity to the 1 billion Islamic people in the world. Will we see many more such products, selling African, Indian, Catholic or Chinese identities?

Scenario MBA Class instructions Please scan your environment for what you would term a Object from the future. Describe this object in terms of:

• New - what is new about this object, what makes it different?
• Replace - what other objects does this object replace?
• Change - how could this object change its environment (remember the car example)?
• Growth - Are there many of these objects around, what are the growth statistics for these objects?
• Other - any other issues that you feel to be relevant
• References - where can the reader find more information on this object, and what other information support your claims that this is something new?

Add your object from the future to the wiki, under the name: Object from the Future: Name of Object and upload a digital photo of it to the wiki and your page. (it should be about 2 A4 pages in lenght) Please take the object and hand it in to Yejoung Lee who will physically mail the objects to me for inclusion in the DTN gallery here!