The digital transformation of business and society
Everything that can be digitised and automated, will be. Software is eating the world (Andreessen). In God we trust; everyone else bring data (Bezos) – memes like these are seemingly everywhere. Digitization, automation, optimization, disintermediation and robotization is now happening in all industries, not just in media (where it all got started).Digital transformation – going from an analog or semi-digital world to a digitally-native world – is certain to be an essential challenge-opportunity in the next 5 years. How can people and companies become better at understanding, and faster at implementing, the transformations that are required? How will a company or an organization be safe and prosper in a world that is quickly becoming inter-connected and interdependent? What skills, traits and trainings will we need?
The next 5-10 years in technology and innovation
We are heading into an era of dramatic disruption and opportunity: exponential technological progress is fuelling a multitude of key trends such as The Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, the total mobilization of society and commerce, big data-driven business intelligence and prediction, the reimagination of privacy and security, bionics, robotics and new human-machine interfaces, the complete reinvention of advertising, a global convergence of telecom and media, and the rise of cloud-everything (i.e. content, money, education, health, transportation etc). At the same, we are just about to redefine the meaning of ‘capitalism’ which will, in the near future, need to be based on interdependence and ecosystem-thinking rather than on control, independence and nicely walled gardens. In this talk, I show the key trends, the likely minefields and the key opportunities, dishing up a mixture of shock and awesomeness to stimulate some serious thinking.
Disruptive technological change and the future of the professions
Technological change is already brutally exponential, but now we are at ‘4’ and the next step is ‘8’, not 5. Traditional innovation tactics will clearly not be sufficient in this new environment – and neither will most traditional metrics of growth and success. Within the next few years, the Internet will go dramatically mobile, social and video, encompassing everyone and everything, becoming like water, air or electricity. In this context, it will be crucial to embrace yet to humanise and transcend technology and to hone in on what makes us truly human rather than a ‘better machine’ such as pattern recognition, creativity, problem-solving, complex understanding, improvisation, emotions and plasticity. We must therefore let go of the ‘machine-work’ – and most its traditional metrics, KPIs and success measurements – to truly reinvent what our jobs, work and ‘professional services’ can mean in the future.
Understanding, embracing and thriving with exponential change
Riffing off my friend’s Yuri van Geest’s and Salim Ismail’s 2015 book ‘Exponential Organisations’, this session outlines the challenges and opportunities behind the ‘gradually then suddenly’ uptake and pace of technological change in science, society and business, and shows ways and examples of dealing with exponential disruptions. Humans will remain linear, for the foreseeable future, but technology has now reached the pivot point – what will this mean for us, in the next 10-20 years?
Beyond the valley of death: responding to digital disruption
Technology has initially impacted primarily the music, media, publishing and entertainment industries, in many cases dramatically shrinking the margins and reducing the costs to the consumer. This is certain to happen to most other industries, as well, presenting the challenge of steep initial declines in traditional revenue streams followed by an often painful rebuilding and transformation process that must look towards a new, post-disruption world of over 5 Billion connected ‘consumers’. How can we build bridges over the valleys of death, and how can we know for sure what lies at the other end?
Digital transformation in telecoms, mobile and ICT: opportunities in a new ecosystem
The telecommunications, content, entertainment, publishing, e-commerce and social media sectors are finally converging (‘TeleMedia’) as mobile devices are becoming the preferred tools of connectivity and interaction for GenY and Z. All digital content – music, books, movies, banking/money, education, health / medical etc – is rapidly moving into the cloud, making very reliable, high-speed yet low cost connectivity a must-have at all times, anywhere. Yet, the business of merely connecting to the cloud is not likely to remain a stand-alone industry in the very near future because converged, digitally-native business models are proving to be increasingly disruptive. What is the future of a mobile operator, and what will this mean for the adjacent businesses in the ICT sectors, globally?
Disruption, transformation and growth: the next 7 years in technology, marketing, business
The ‘digital default’ is near: everything and everyone is getting connected, everywhere, anytime, at increasingly lower cost. The mobile phone has become our external brain already, and devices are now truly ‘the extension of man’. The coming ‘networked society’ will change the very definition of ownership and property (look at the media business), control and innovation – very soon, ‘business as usual’ will be a thing of the past, and many business opportunities will become transient rather than permanent or even sustainable. How can you get ready for this kind of future, personally and professionally? Which unintended consequences do we need to consider?
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