A Powerful New-World Buzzword

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I’m going to declare that radical is a new buzzword for the new world. Do you know how radical this moment in time is? This time will be looked back on as arguably the most radical of times in all of history on the planet earth. It is already radically dwarfing the Industrial Revolution – and it is just beginning.

Think Harry’s horse and buggy company in 1908 as Harry watched the first model T Ford roll off the assembly line — OMG! Harry sees the end of existence – fast forward – this radical moment will wipe out whole industries and will force the radical transformation of others. Think: There are more Ubers in New York than taxis. Airbnb has more rooms than Hilton. Publishing industry? When does that go bye- bye or radically transform itself? Advertising industry? Same fate. And when will the century-old automobile industry become driverless?

And back to earth. In Las Vegas at the 2018 Shoptalk, we ask, “what about the retail industry?” What about the words “retail store?” Those words are seven centuries old!!! Don’t you think we need modern words – even a new language? I think so. You hear or read the words retail store and it triggers an immediate visual in your mind of a cement building full of stuff.

That, my friends, is an enormous barrier to radical thinking, radical behavior and ultimately a barrier to the radical transformation that is absolutely necessary to survive in the new world, much less to win.So right there in Vegas, hosting a breakfast on Wednesday 3/21 at Shoptalk with over 100 attendees, I announced that The Robin Report is expanding its mission in life — to radicalize the industry and its language and most importantly the way it thinks, behaves and ultimately acts. This event marked the launch of the annual Robin Report Radicals Awards in collaboration with SAP.

From this day forward, we are going to seek out radical thinkers who are making radical changes in their companies, or turning them in radical new directions.

But here’s the unique difference from all of the other awards programs. Almost every day there are dozens of new tech-driven upstarts that are being celebrated in more conferences than we can count. How many hundreds have we seen at Shoptalk alone?
But what about the unseen, unrecognized radicals who reside in the old legacy brands and retailers who are radically effecting major change in their companies? So, those are the radicals we are going to be totally focusing on.

Nominations opened at that event on the 21st and will run through 2018. Ten finalists will be announced in January 2019 and we will have an awards gala next March where we announce the three winners.

All the details are here on The Robin Report website. And we encourage self-nomination or of colleagues. It’s open to any job function – any age. We’re looking for radical thinking in everything from products to supply chain to workplace culture, essentially in every function of the value chain from creation to consumption.

So, if you are a radical in the legacy world, please sign up. We need you!

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