I couldn’t help but notice this strange juxtaposition at this year’s Dreamforce, salesforce.com’s annual conference.  Neil Young – an epic artist of the ‘60s; Stevie Wonder – a soulful musician whose prime was in the ‘70s; and Bill Clinton – president of the ‘90s. So what do these 3 “pre-Y2K” revolutionaries know about a conference that promotes Twitter, Facebook, Chatter feeds and salesforce CRM applications? Things that supposedly cater to the newer, younger generation? They were there to talk about change and how to embrace it – gracefully.

During Bill Clinton’s keynote, he stated that when he took office, the average cell phone weighed 5 lbs and there were a grand total of 50 websites on the Internet.  He told the audience it’s a “great time to be alive,” but these great times should be approached with caution because:

• We are the most interdependent we’ve ever been. IT is driving a lot of interdependence and has allowed us to know what is going on around the world and be affected by it.
   
• The world we live in is entirely unequal. Half the world is still living on less than 2 dollars per day.
   
• The world is highly unstable. It’s an unsustainable world because of the way we produce and consume.  He gave examples of Ireland going from fastest growing economy to needing a bailout, and 35 million unemployed workers in China because the U.S. couldn’t buy its goods anymore.

So how do we deal with instability and tremendous amounts of change in a short amount of time? Clinton repeatedly applauded salesforce.com for being the type of company that does it right in the private sector.  He noted that when a nonprofit takes a huge risk and fails, they are applauded for their efforts and they get to try again, however if a corporation takes the same risk and fails, it is a PR nightmare and is considered a disaster.

Eric Berridge, Founder and Principal of Bluewolf responded by saying, “Ownership requires risk.  Risk involves making a claim about the business return that an initiative will accomplish.  Reward, for the risk, comes when the business metrics prove that the initiative succeeded.”

Just think, in less than 20 years we went from having 5 lbs cell phones to the iPhone and the Blackberry.  So just imagine what’s to come in the next 20 years. At Bluewolf, we are big on making sure our clients understand change.  We don’t embrace a body shop mentality where you give us your problem and we come back with it fixed.  You become a part of an agile process because we know technology will change, your expectations will change, and perhaps your overall outcome will change.  We understand that change happens FAST and that’s why we make sure that our clients have clear visibility every step of the way.

So if you are asking yourself how will you stay relevant, successful, and iconic?

Just take a close look at Bill, Stevie and Neil.