On Thursday, Feb. 20, the OptiCon General Session took place at the Main Stage location of Vision Expo East from 12:30-1:30 p.m., led by Europa Eyewear executive director Scott Shapiro.
Following the path of musician Bob Dylan’s career, Shapiro provided business insights in a creative way, highlighting lyrics to share empowering perspectives that involve trusting your intuition, evolving with the times, and staying competitive. EB was in attendance to share some highlights from the presentation.
Jumping off Dylan’s lyric, “How many times must a man look up before he can see the sky,” Shapiro reflected on the downfall of Kodak, which famously invented digital photography in 1975 but failed to embrace it out of fear of cannibalizing its film business.
“There are truths that maybe everyone in your company knows about but refuses to talk about. The opportunities that are out there that may seem to difficult or inconvenient—problems with the company that may ultimately create larger problems,” Shapiro says. “You have a problem, like in Kodak, that doesn’t even exist yet, and the solution is being invented right under your own roof.”
The cautionary tale serves as a stark reminder for businesses to confront uncomfortable truths and innovate—even if it means disrupting their own models. “My point is that there are probably these sort of truths in your business as well. It might be helpful to maybe talk to your team about what those truths might be.”
Referencing Dylan’s lyric, “Your old road is rapidly changing,” Shapiro touched on the inevitable integration of artificial intelligence (AI). “I cannot tell you how funny I think it is, how many times I heard throughout my career, the demonization of whatever generation is the youngest in the workforce,” he says. “Gen X was called ‘entitled and lazy’…Millennials are ‘lazy and entitled.’ Now [with] Gen Z, [it's] exactly the same thing.”
With the rise of AI and other technologies, Shapiro emphasized the importance of empowering younger generations; instead of resisting change, businesses should embrace new perspectives and evolving work styles. “We are the ones who have to change,” he says. “That’s just the nature of time and evolution, so we have two choices: We can either lend a hand or get out of the way.”
Dylan’s lyric, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” opened Shapiro's point about the importance of not becoming paralyzed by endless amounts of data and trusting your intuition. “Your customers and data cannot answer every question for you,” Shapiro says. “Running your business, store, or office, you need to be ultimately confident enough in your intuition to be able to make decisions on your own.”
Shapiro closed the presentation by recalling Dylan’s infamous performance at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, where he performed with electric instruments—something the folk music community deeply disagreed with to the point of booing him off the stage. Now, it is remembered as a legendary performance.
“There are a lot of people around you trying to make rules that don't really matter…trying to tell you what to do, trying to write a code for you and tell you, even implicitly, how to live your life and run your business,” Shapiro says. “And what I hope for you is that you are able to experience the freedom, the independence, and the youth that Bob Dylan sings about in his songs.”
Keep up with the action from the event on Eyecare Business’s Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, and see EB’s BIG Vision Expo East Guide for a curated selection of education and events here.
