This column first appeared in the Shift Age Newsletter.

Regardless of what transpires in the geo-political landscape relative to the civil war in Syria, it may well be looked upon as a pivot point for citizens of the United States.  This could be the beginning of a necessary and critical conversation about the future of the country in the Shift Age and, longer term, in the 21^st century.

Twenty years ago the United States “won” the Cold War.  Twelve years ago the country was attacked by Al Qaeda.  This prompted the country to enter two wars in Islamic countries.  It …

Since 2010 I have been speaking about what I see as three new consumer economic trends that will alter consumer behavior in the developed countries of the world.  A number of aligning forces are significantly increasing the influence and impact of these three trends.

In a recent column here, I wrote about Conscious Capitalism, one of the three new dominant trends of consumer behavior for the Transformation Decade 2010-2020. Conscious capitalism is when a company takes on an altruistic cause, charity or practice and applies revenue to that endeavor.  In that column I profiled two companies, Tom’s Shoes …

Recently there has been a lot of media coverage on new views of women in the workplace and what is a good work/life balance. The 50^th anniversary of the publication of “The Feminine Mystique” and the publication of “Lean In” by Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook are primary triggers of this conversation. Another is Marissa Mayer taking the CEO job of Yahoo while pregnant and then setting up a nursery next to her office. These two dynamic executives are rare women in the male dominated world of Silicon Valley.

Sandberg is jump-starting an empowerment movement for women. …

As regular readers of this column know, my latest book “Entering the Shift Age” was published in January.  The early feedback has been quite positive.  After spending a year writing the book and the 12 mini-eBooks it is very satisfying to get such positive initial feedback.  Though I think it is the best book I have written, it is so nice to have others say the same thing.

First I want to thank all those that have gone to Amazon to purchase the book.  In the past week it has become a best seller, achieving #1 status in the categories of …