Trends Identified
The Internet of Things
Networks of low-cost sensors and actuators for data collection, monitoring, decision making, and process optimization
2013
Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy
McKinsey
Internet of Things
Network of objects embedded with sensors, software, network connectivity and computer capability, that can collect and exchange data over the internet and enable smart solutions.
2017
Innovation for the Earth - Harnessing technological breakthroughs for people and the planet
PWC
IoT
Network of objects — devices, vehicles, etc. — embedded with sensors, software, network connectivity, and compute capability, that can collect and exchange data over the Internet. IoT enables devices to be connected and remotely monitored or controlled. The term IoT has come to represent any device that is now “connected” and accessible via a network connection.
2016
Tech breaktroughs megatrend
PWC
Regulations: Public & Private
Nearly two-thirds of CEOs – rising to more than three-quarters in some parts of Europe – factor the regulatory framework into their business decisions to ‘a great extent’. Taxation and the labour laws are the two areas of regulation CEOs would most like to see improved. However, there are significant national variations in opinion. More than half of all CEOs support global harmonisation of critical elements of the regulatory regime. Very few CEOs believe that their governments are reducing the regulatory burden or creating a business-friendly environment. A study with the World Bank concludes that there is a win-win on both sides, if government simplifies tax systems, eases the compliance cost on businesses and reduces tax rates.
2008
11th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Growing abroad: East meets west
Nearly half the CEOs interviewed for our survey are involved in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, but the stereotypes of acquiror and target are set to change.
2007
10th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Companies will speed up diversifying their workforce — or will be made to.
Nearly five years after they started publishing diversity reports, few companies have actually made material progress in hiring and retaining a more diverse workforce. That’s because besides being more open about their shortcomings, they’ve mostly kept recruiting the same old way, says Jopwell CEO Porter Braswell. Now’s the time employers humble themselves and ask for help, he says: “They’ll be recruiting with a different mindset, not looking to check every item off a list.” That’s driven by two factors: short term, the labor market is tight and talent at a premium. Long term, “by 2040, the majority of people in the U.S. will be people of color,” Braswell reminds us. Companies that don’t change will become irrelevant to workers and customers. And they may not even have the option: in the U.K., after the success of mandatory gender pay gap disclosures that started in 2018, the government is considering forcing companies to reveal their ethnic pay gap as well — and their action plan to close it.
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
The Internet as Subject of Democratic Engagement
Nearly all democratic theories characterise democracy as an open-ended, necessarily incomplete and dynamic project. Its concrete form varies over time and across regions; and the scope of self-determination may shrink or expand even if its legal framework may remain unaltered. However, when we think of the relationship between democracy and the Internet, we often focus on rather traditional forms of democratic engagement and control. This may concern, for example, new opportunities for participation or more transparency and accountability in political decision- making. Yet, if we regard the Internet as a mere tool for political action, we risk overlooking that and how digital technologies and democratic practices mutually influence each other and thereby create something new.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
Babel-Fish Earbuds
Near-real-time translation now works for a large number of languages and is easy to use.
2018
10 Breakthrough Technologies 2018
MIT Technology Review
Disease outbreaks
Ncidence rates of HIV, malaria and tuberculosis (TB) have fallen since 2000 (Figure 19), and the number of deaths due to various types of infectious diseases, including parasitic diseases and respiratory infections, declined globally from 12.1 million in 2000 to 9.5 million in 2012.
2017
Global trends
UNDP
Molecular economy
Nature is clean, efficient and distributed — why is manufacturing not so? There is a revolution in the making. In 2017, IBM Research discovered a way to store one bit of digital information in a single atom*, a density that would allow the storage of Apple’s entire 26-million-song music catalog on a device the size of a coin. Researchers at the UK’s Durham University used light-activated motorized molecules† to drill into cancer cells, destroying them in 60 seconds; animal testing will follow. And, Dubai wants to 3-D-print 25% of its new buildings‡ by 2030. In this revolution, physical, digital and biologic systems converge to create clean, efficient and distributed production processes.
2018
What’s after what’s next? The upside of disruption Megatrends shaping 2018 and beyond
EY