Yesterday I was invited to CETYS Universidad to chat with the 1st generation of students of the new Business Intelligence and Innovation major. Since this is a heavily technology focused major, I decided to share my view on what I believe are the Industries of the Future and how there are 10 emerging technologies that will drive the Next Economy.

The talk was called Next Economy: The Industries of The Future .

The world is different today than 10 years ago when Steve Jobs announced the iPhone many ways, but one sticks out: the most valuable companies in the world are tech companies.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook are all betting on emerging technologies to create the next big thing. This is an important insight because the pace of change is moving quickly, and companies that don’t drive disruption will be left behind.

@jorgebarba Next Economy @cetysuni hablando sobre Tecnologías del futuro pic.twitter.com/2qAeoiZd3s

— Jaime Moncada (@jaimemoncadamx) November 7, 2017

Behind this drive to disrupt is leadership; a very different kind. You see, exponential technologies require exponential leadership. This a key message I wanted to leave the students with because innovation is hard, and doesn’t happen in a straight line.

Innovation is as much about attitude and perspective as it is about process. With that said, I simplified the innovation process for them to three key attitudes:

Get Curious

Curiosity and empathy are the foundation for innovation. You have to get curious about what’s happening, and about people. This means that to innovate you have to ask more interesting questions, observe and learn more. You have to develop a big appetite for knowledge because you want to expand your perspective by having many mental models to use when taking on challenges.

Talk to People

Innovation is a team game, no one ever achieves greatness alone. So if you have a great idea you need to get it out of your head into the real world by talking to people who you can collaborate with and learn from.

Getting your idea out of your head also means putting it in front of potential users and prospects; you won’t know if what you have will work if you don’t do this.

Try Stuff

This is where many people stop because they’re afraid of failing. Again, if you don’t try you’ll never know. Simply put: There is no innovation without experimentation; it’s an iterative process.

The shortest path to innovation is to try more.

Innovation is a daunting task for most people and organizations, no matter how smart a process looks. The above is not meant to dumb down a daunting process, rather to give you confidence that you have to the power within yourself to do it.

To conclude, remember the following takeaways:

• Innovation is a mindset;
• Perception separates the innovator from the imitator. And the above is what innovators do differently that imitators don’t;
• Innovation is another code word for leadership.

Also published on Medium.