No one can predict the future, but these days it’s hard to predict what even tomorrow will look like, especially in business. Think about how much has changed in the past five years alone. Great brands and industries have either fallen or reinvented themselves, 800 million people are using a product that was created in a dorm room in 2004, and you’re probably walking around with a powerful touchscreen computer in your pocket.

I just finished reading Fast Company’s cover story “Generation Flux” (February 2012) and it really drove home the point that today’s businesses need to constantly adapt, pivot, experiment, take risks and really embrace the chaos we all live in. It’s not going away, and refusing to adapt could be disastrous.

Adam and I have talked about this a lot over the past year, how we could never have predicted the type of work we’re now doing at Elemental when we started up six years ago. Both coming from the world of broadcast television, we knew things were changing and the industry we were in wasn’t stable or adapting quickly enough (which is why I left). But we couldn’t have predicted how fast things would change.

In the past year, we’ve partnered with a researcher at Harvard Medical School to develop facial recognition software for digital signage. We’re developing proprietary client communications software that we plan on monetizing next year. We’re creating an iPad app for a national kids’ television show. Six years ago, I never thought I’d be reading books on Agile and iterative software development, and developing use cases and wireframes instead of storyboards, but that’s the reality we’re now in.

Many industries, businesses, and educational institutions are clinging to the past, many are even nostalgic for what used to be, when times were simpler. The Fast Company article makes the point that “nostalgia is a natural human emotion, a survival mechanism that pushes people to avoid risk by applying what we’ve learned and relying on what’s worked before.” But the reality is that the world has changed, and we need new parameters.

The promise Elemental makes to you is that we won’t rely on our past to determine our future. We’ll take what we know, and use intuition and the constant development of new skills to keep moving forward. We’ll welcome new forks in the road and enjoy the journey along the way.

We’ll embrace new technology and new ways of communicating, but human connections and strong storytelling will always be at the core of what we do, whether that be through a strategy, a video, an app or an interface. We’ll never lose sight of that.

We’ll encourage our clients to take more risks and try new things. Some will join us and some will stay the course, and that’s okay.

We’ll never stop learning, exploring, and being curious. We’ll embrace chaos, and allow it to take us and our clients in new directions.

I’ll end this post the same way that the Fast Company article closes, by quoting Charles Darwin:

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives; nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

We discovered Matt’s talents on Vimeo, and it was immediately apparent that his passion for visual storytelling was as strong as ours. Within his first few days at Elemental, he jumped into a video project we’ve been working on for Salomon via JCP, and blew us away with his take on the edit (we’ll post it soon). We can’t wait to see what he brings to the next project.

Welcome to the team Matt.

Riverland Community College needed a way to connect with potential students and promote awareness about its philosophy and values, so we proposed creative that follows three Riverland students through a typical day, illustrating how work, college and personal life can be balanced successfully. We felt that the best way to deliver these stories was from the students themselves, creating an authentic and inspirational tone that would resonate with potential Riverland students.

As always, JCP captured all of the visual assets with elegance and speed. A big thanks to Riverland’s Director of Communications, James Douglass, for the great collaboration on the overall creative development.

Let us know what you think of the commercials. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

Riverland – Chad

Riverland – Gema

Riverland – Jordan