Trends Identified
Discrimination in the tech industry
Diversity, inclusion and discrimination have become major topics in and out of the tech industry. Self-reported data from several leading technology companies show that women, blacks and Hispanics are often underrepresented in this fast-growing workforce.
2017
Key trends shaping technology in 2017
Pew Research Center
Achieve innovation and resilience through diversity
Diversity is not only a moral imperative—it can also make businesses more effective in the long run. Our study of more than 1,700 companies around the world shows that diversity increases the capacity for innovation by expanding the range of a company’s ideas and options. And as the speed of change accelerates, innovation and reinvention are increasingly necessary to stay on top. The most obvious sources of diversity, such as gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, are indeed important in driving innovation, but variety of work experience and educational background is also meaningful. Importantly, these factors are mostly additive, so companies that are diverse on multiple dimensions are even more innovative. Structural diversity alone, however, is insufficient. Organizations also need an environment conducive to embracing new ideas, and they must install open communication practices, participative leadership, commitment to building diversity in top management, openness to testing multiple ideas, and other measures to unlock the full potential of diversity. Diversity also increases resilience. Like biological communities and organisms, companies that encompass more heterogeneity are likely to withstand unanticipated changes better. Enterprises that embrace diverse talent, ideas, and sources of growth will have an advantage in understanding and adapting to external shocks—which increasingly threaten the survival of individual businesses.
2018
Winning the ’20s: A Leadership Agenda for the Next Decade
Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
Distributed manufacturing
Distributed manufacturing turns on its head the way we make and distribute products. In traditional manufacturing, raw materials are brought together, assembled and fabricated in large centralized factories into identical finished products that are then distributed to the customer. In distributed manufacturing, the raw materials and methods of fabrication are decentralized, and the final product is manufactured very close to the final customer. In essence, the idea of distributed manufacturing is to replace as much of the material supply chain as possible with digital information. To manufacture a chair, for example, rather than sourcing wood and fabricating it into chairs in a central factory, digital plans for cutting the parts of a chair can be distributed to local manufacturing hubs using computerized cutting tools known as CNC routers. Parts can then be assembled by the consumer or by local fabrication workshops that can turn them into finished products. One company already using this model is the US furniture company AtFAB. Current uses of distributed manufacturing rely heavily on the DIY “maker movement”, in which enthusiasts use their own local 3D printers and make products out of local materials. There are elements of open-source thinking here, in that consumers can customize products to their own needs and preferences. Instead of being centrally driven, the creative design element can be more crowdsourced; products may take on an evolutionary character as more people get involved in visualizing and producing them. Distributed manufacturing is expected to enable a more efficient use of resources, with less wasted capacity in centralized factories. It also lowers the barriers to market entry by reducing the amount of capital required to build the first prototypes and products. Importantly, it should reduce the overall environmental impact of manufacturing: digital information is shipped over the web rather than physical products over roads or rails, or on ships; and raw materials are sourced locally, further reducing the amount of energy required for transportation. If it becomes more widespread, distributed manufacturing will disrupt traditional labour markets and the economics of traditional manufacturing. It does pose risks: it may be more difficult to regulate and control remotely manufactured medical devices, for example, while products such as weapons may be illegal or dangerous. Not everything can be made via distributed manufacturing, and traditional manufacturing and supply chains will still have to be maintained for many of the most important and complex consumer goods. Distributed manufacturing may encourage broader diversity in objects that are today standardized, such as smartphones and automobiles. Scale is no object: one UK company, Facit Homes, uses personalized designs and 3D printing to create customized houses to suit the consumer. Product features will evolve to serve different markets and geographies, and there will be a rapid proliferation of goods and services to regions of the world not currently well served by traditional manufacturing.
2015
Top 10 emerging technologies of 2015
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Blockchain
Distributed electronic ledger that uses software algorithms to record and confirm transactions with reliability and anonymity. The record of events is shared between many parties and information once entered cannot be altered, as the downstream chain reinforces upstream transactions.
2016
Tech breaktroughs megatrend
PWC
Blockchain
Distributed electronic ledger that uses software algorithms to record and confirm transactions with reliability and anonymity.
2017
Innovation for the Earth - Harnessing technological breakthroughs for people and the planet
PWC
Emergence of Disruptive Technology
Disruptive technologies will continue to evolve in the coming decades. Hence, it is in the hands of policy makers, entrepreneurs, business leaders and citizens to maximise application of these technologies while dealing with the challenges.
2017
Science & Technology Foresight Malaysia
Malaysia, Academy of Sciences Malaysia
Displacement
Displacement the movement of people, ideas, and challenges across the globe. Mass migration: As terrorism and violence in the Middle East and surrounding nations grow, the world is facing a massive international refugee crisis. Half of Syria’s pre-war population has been killed or forced to flee their homes and at least 4.7 million Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring countries, with at least 1 million applying for asylum within Europe. The refugee crisis places immense pressure on the social support and political systems of European countries, and in some cases (e.g., Hungary and some Balkan countries), we see nations beginning to consider closing their borders as the pressure mounts. Infrastructure shift: The world is becoming more mobile and as a result, the infrastructure needed for our daily lives is shifting from roads and pathways to cell towers and digital networks. Our increasingly technological lifestyles demand constant connectivity, and as a result, bandwidth, reception, megahertz, and signal become more ubiquitous concepts. Internet-based economic activity was expected to reach US $4.2 trillion in the G-20 nations by 2016 and the digital economy was growing at about 10% per year (12-25% in emerging markets) to serve the more than 2.5 billion people connected to the Internet. Ecological pressure: Typically climate change and other environmental disasters are viewed as the drivers of displacement, but can also be affected quite significantly by migration patterns. As the world faces massive displacement due to political conflicts, for example, the pressure placed on our environmental ecosystems has risen. Refugee crises concentrate large numbers of people, resulting in strain on natural resources. Global supply chains: The liberalization of economic policies over the past several decades has contributed to a relaxing of trade barriers and free movement of labor and capital across boundaries, leading to a more rapid diffusion of ideas and cultures across political and geographic borders. As supply chains become increasingly international, countries have started to locate different stages of the production process in different locations. Allocation conflicts: As international wars and political conflict dominate the scene in many developing countries, resource fighting has led to the displacement of millions of residents. Consider the Eastern Congo, which has been undergoing a massive political conflict since the early 1990s, facing two international wars and multiple militia invasions. The value placed on its untapped raw mineral ores is around US $24 trillion and the political infighting to gain access to these resources has displaced millions of Congolese over the last several decades, who seek asylum in neighboring countries.
2017
Beyond the Noise- The Megatrends of Tomorrow’s World
Deloitte
Disengagement
Disengagement the evolution of ways in which we communicate and interact. Interpersonal divergence: The advent of digital has created incredible impacts in connecting people across the globe, but often at the expense of face-to-face interpersonal interaction. On the one hand, new friendships and relationships are explored through the rise of networking and social platforms. Digital personification: The confluence of artificial intelligence and augmented reality has resulted in a new mode of interaction with the digital world: the space of digital personification where “things” become humanized in a way. One of perhaps the most mainstream and foreshadowing examples of this occurred back in the mid-90’s, where Tamagotchi digital pets from Japan rose in prominence with children. NIMBY: For years, the NIMBY (“Not in my backyard”)phenomenon has been described in economics textbooks as the classic example of how people’s attitudes and behaviors often don’t match up. NIMBY represents the disengagement of society with outcomes that do not affect them at face value. Take the example of the great big trash in the North Pacific Ocean. Despite consumers’ emphasis on being eco-friendly, the spinning vortex of garbage was first detected in the 1990s, formed partially as a result of consumer waste from a materialistic product-driven culture and loose incentives for proper waste disposal and recycling. Fragmented workforce: Mobile technologies have fundamentally changed the way we work today. As virtual connectivity grows, physical co-location diminishes. Gallup data suggests that 37% of the workforce in the US have telecommuted and companies have begun to roll out alternative work schedules (e.g., 4-day weeks). What has resulted is a fragmentation of the workforce. While this enables flexibility and agility, questions of employee engagement and productivity have inevitably risen. Political defiance: While heralded as the hallmark of democracy, political disengagement has become a new normal, where individuals don’t feel as if their voice is heard over the din of mass opinion. Voter apathy is high and campaigns to increase voter turnout in critical election years abound.
2017
Beyond the Noise- The Megatrends of Tomorrow’s World
Deloitte
Disasters
Disasters associated with natural hazards have become more frequent during the past 20 years (Figure 18).38 Between 1996 and 2015, the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) estimated a total of 8,104 disasters related to natural hazards across all continents, with 4.1 billion people affected by these events, which is almost twice the level recorded between 1976 and 1995.
2017
Global trends
UNDP
IoT-based Context-aware Dimming Technology
Dimming technology that enhances utilization and energy efficiency, mimics sunlight, and assists in customized health care, through automatic control of the direction and brightness of lighting by sensing outdoor conditions
2017
10 emerging technologies in 2017
South Korea, Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP)