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Did you know that more than 400 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute? And it would take us 65 years of non-stop screen time to watch only the uploaded videos from one day. This is just an example of the volume of information that is produced on a daily basis and which is available from anywhere in the world. In fact, since the beginning of the 21st century, we have generated knowledge which is equivalent to 25% of the total history of humanity.

We are living in a period of constant change on every level: technological, economical, business and personal. It is this new VUCA reality of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity which forces us to analyse how change happens, how it affects us and how people and companies can benefit. 

Converting trends into value for companies

It is within this context of non-stop adaptation to change and the selection of useful and valuable information, that the EADA Trend Lab has been launched. The aim of Trend Lab is to be a laboratory of experimentation and innovation which can be used to understand and integrate this new reality to competitive advantage. From February 2018, EADA Trend Lab will be offering short training programmes of between 15 and 30 hours. This training format is aimed at professionals and managers with tight schedules who need to update their knowledge, competencies and skills. 

EADA Trend Lab is a laboratory of experimentation and innovation which can be used to understand and integrate the new VUCA reality to competitive advantage

The director of the EADA Trend Lab, Joan Miquel Piqué explains that “now more than ever before, management teams, business directors and their collaborators need to know how to face the challenges of today’s business world”. The EADA Trend Lab aims to fulfill two clear objectives: the first is to analyse trends and content which can be integrated into the learning processes of professionals and managers. “It’s about taking new information and converting it into something of value for the company”.

The second objective aims to experiment, create and implement new methodologies that make learning faster and more effective. Piqué explains that “there is so much technology, knowledge and tools at our disposal but we still don’t know if and how they can be applied to our lives. We should be finding out how we can benefit from new ideas so that we can grow professionally and improve our working environment”.

Piqué states that the challenges lie in “analysing the biggest trends in the business world and transforming them into valuable information for professionals at every level of a company". In this way, “companies will be able to apply the most relevant knowledge to their business and professionals will be able to grow both personally and professionally by becoming more aware of this new VUCA reality”.

The EADA Trend Lab challenge lies in analysing the biggest trends in the business world and transforming them into valuable information for companies

Knowledge, transformation and value

The 8 programmes on offer at the EADA Trend Lab vary in focus from technology and its impact on the company (AI, Big Data, robotisation, virtual reality etc.) to the new skills and competencies needed by professionals and managers such as leadership (new types of strategy and organisation), processes of change (disruptive innovation, new forms of creativity etc.) and managing people (millennial generation, communication, high performance teams). Trend Lab will also be focussing on new techniques for dealing with this new world of accelerated change (employer branding, design thinking or new forms of business venture).

Here are the eight programmes on offer at the EADA Trend Lab:

• Break the rules and provoke a change: This is a programme focussed on new management, the innovation that comes from creativity and the generation of a business model which is both profitable and sustainable.

• Digital transformation, transforming challenges into action: Digitalization is influencing the way we set objectives, our client relations and team leadership. It is also changing information flow, innovation systems, financial processes, operations and the evaluation of actions and processes. This programme offers the key to the challenges of digitalization in a company.

• Executive Branding: This programme is aimed at companies looking to empower their managers and business directors to develop their own personal brand and get the most from the digital environment.

• Agile, maximising project management efficiency: This programme is designed to give you the tools to manage and motivate project teams so that they fulfill the project scope and meet client expectations as well as training in how to closely monitor project performance.

• Intelligent decision making (Data In – Decisions Out): This programme deals with the new competencies needed for making decisions based on data analysis. We will also be asking to what extent the new tools in Big Data help the decision-making process.

• Procurement and purchasing management: This programme offers the necessary tools to make companies more competitive. Costs, reliability and the creation of long-term supplier relations are key factors to the business success of a company.

• From manager to leader-coach: This programme focuses on the responsibility of managers and team leaders when identifying and promoting in-house talent.

• Sales leadership: Sales teams need good leaders that allow them to grow and develop their own leadership. This programme offers skills training in how to motivate, guide, persuade and retain talent for commercial success.