Trendwatching.com, one of the world’s leading consumer trends firms, released their report on NOWISM this month.

As a consumer, I can certainly understand the urge to have everything right now. But as a provider of a service, I’ve learned that there are benefits to those who wait. Here at KA+A, we serve a bevy of clients whose jobs are to fulfill customers who need their product or service on-demand: they need the latest data on their customers right now; they needed a new feature of the product yesterday; and they need to get the software rolled out in their company with little or no training. Satisfying these needs are no problem – their businesses are founded on Nowism and accommodating their customers on-demand. However, what their consumers often don’t see, is the months of patient design and developing that it took to instantly meet their needs. So as the timeline contracts, and demands increase, how can these companies stay out in front?

We all know now that the simplest designs are usually the hardest to achieve. The most stripped down functionality took the longest at which to arrive. And that’s true because in an age of Nowism there is a profusion of real-time information being streamed to us. What was true yesterday may not be true tomorrow, but may be realized once more within the week. Real time information is incredible, but in order to make a product that is the most elastic, and can stand the times, some delay must be involved in order to identify the trends that surge from this influx of information; trends that can’t be identified if you miss the forest for the trees.

Trendwatching.com identifies an outlier to Nowism – anti-energy drinks. At first blush, it seems pretty contrarian. But, what lies beneath seems to be a new approach. Rather than pumping you with caffeine to help you keep up with everything, these drinks are doctored with relaxing ingredients to provide the sanity, clarity, and calming effects you need to filter through everything. And this is where they come back to Nowism – by calming down the anxious and frantic thought patterns, it’s possible that they make it easier and quicker to make the right decision. It’s like they give you a “night to sleep on it” in a bottle. I recently had the chance to try one of these anti-energy drinks, Mary-Jane’s Relaxing Soda, which boasts to deliver “euphoric relaxation.” A blend of Fijian kava extract (claiming to mirror the effects of alcohol without the hangover) and passion flower extract (a calming herb used to treat anxiety and insomnia) are bottled together to deliver you a calming sensation within minutes of drinking. It was hard for me to pinpoint when the soda truly relaxed me, but as I reflected back on that night I did laugh a little more and worry a little less, and got a better night’s sleep. Was it the soda? I think I’ll need to do more tests before I know…

The real point, though, of bringing up these sodas, is that they are an easy way to grasp how consultancies like KA+A help companies stay out in front of contracting timelines and increasing demands. It’s easy to give in to that reptilian impulse that tells you to churn through your product releases faster and to skip the deep dive strategy for your re-brand. But that’s just going to keep you treading water. Eventually you’ll tire without making it to the destination. What consultancies like KA+A offer to Nowism businesses is bottled up sanity and clarity, that help you slow down to make the right decision, and avoid being bogged down later by a quick poor decision. We have a broad view of industries, clients, and trends – and a deep pool of cross-pollinated ideas from which to pull. Rather than providing you a quick puff of energy to help you manage your stressors, we take a look at the stressors and diagnose how to calm them through thoughtful, sustaining ideas. We flip the table on managing demands – to anticipating and preventing them.

The world of “Now” is here to stay, and there’s plenty of tools to help you keep up. But with a smarter approach, and some contrarian thinking you can be part of the “Future Now.”