PREFACE

How We Came to Write This Book

This book makes a bold claim: to get you ahead of customers' accelerating expectations. What makes us think we can promise that? And why—with 22,435 books added to Amazon's Business & Money category in the last 90 days alone—should you trust us to deliver?

A lot has changed since 2002 when we started writing about trends and innovation. It's hard to remember, but back then, swipes and taps weren't anything other than physical gestures. You hailed taxis with a wave. Mark Zuckerberg was in high school. The BRICs had just been named. Buy One Give One and the Collaborative Economy weren't known business models. Indeed, when we started watching trends, neither crowdsourcing nor freemium—the two central innovations of our business model—had even been coined as terms yet! Trends were something that gurus revealed in expensive and closely guarded reports and presentations.

We turned that model on its head. We gave away Trend Briefings for free online. We invited our most passionate readers to join our global trend spotting network. It worked: over the past 13 years, we've grown from three people in a canal house in Amsterdam to teams in London, New York, Sao Paulo, Singapore, and Lagos, all supported by nearly 3,000 trend spotters in over 100 countries. Professionals at 96 percent of Interbrand's Best Global Brands read our trend insights. Our online trend platform is currently used by over 1,200 brands, agencies, consultancies, nonprofits, and schools. We do more than 50 in-person trend sessions and workshops a year. And we still send free trends to over a quarter of a million subscribers every month.

But clients, spotters, and audiences constantly challenge us as we do all this. Where did that trend come from? Will it last? Where's it headed? What does it mean? Does it matter? What can I do with it?

This book explains how we answer those questions. Rather than offer you a compilation of what's hot today—that will end up in tomorrow's bargain bin—these pages contain our complete, end-to-end trend methodology. Crucially, they enable you to answer perhaps the most important question of all: how will you successfully and repeatedly spot, track, prioritize, act on, deploy, and get ahead of trends?

You will look at the world differently after reading this book. You will be able to anticipate what your customers will want next. You—and your organization—will be more successful. But beyond financial success, trend-driven innovation also promises more than that. Ultimately, everyone wants a better future: for themselves, society, and the planet. We can create that better future. Indeed, we have a responsibility to do so. Let's not shy away from it; let's enjoy it.

—Henry, David, Max, Delia

April 2015