Trends Identified
A watershed year for transparency
Anticipating the recommendations for reporting climate-related financial risks from the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), companies such as ExxonMobil have faced investor and public pressure to voluntarily improve risk disclosure. This could re the gun for greater transparency in other parts of business such as executive pay, gender equality and tax arrangements.
2018
8 sustainability trends that will define 2018
Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
Life after coal
The energy revolution is reaching its climax as the switch to renewables and electricity is unstoppable.
2018
8 sustainability trends that will define 2018
Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
A New Optimism: Opportunities, Challenges, Strategies
Ask five experts to assess the global economy, and they are likely to provide as many different answers. Whether related to trade imbalances and currency fluctuations or to skyrocketing energy costs and increasing regulations, uncertainties abound. Yet the CEOs in this survey are optimistic about their prospects for growth and are investing today to secure future success. Is their optimism unbridled? No. It is an optimism grounded in reality and tempered by caution.
2005
8th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
GRC: Armed to Succeed or Behind the Curve?
In today’s global business environment, governance, risk management, and compliance form a triad that no CEO can afford to ignore. Costly? Yes. Onerous at times? Undoubtedly. But among the respondents are CEOs who are beginning to see GRC in a new light as an integrated set of concepts that can provide significant benefits for their organisations. Do such benefits come easily? Decidedly not. On one hand, the CEOs acknowledge that achieving effective GRC is a battle. On the other hand, they affirm that it is a battle worth waging.
2005
8th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Achieving Higher Levels of Performance
Clearly, when it comes to effective GRC, some CEOs are doing better than others. What sets them apart? What gives them a distinct advantage over their peers? Emerging from the survey data are a group of CEOs who are taking GRC to a higher level. Both in implementing effective GRC and in reaping its benefits, they are pointing the way towards GRC excellence.
2005
8th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
The increasing datafication of our lives
From chatting to friends in a messaging app or buying a coffee, to tapping in and out with an Oyster card or streaming music, today almost everything we do leaves a trail of data breadcrumbs. And this increasing datafication of our world has led to an unprecedented explosion in data. Just in the average minute, Facebook receives 900,000 logins, more than 450,000 Tweets are posted, and 156 million emails and 15 million texts are sent. With numbers like that, it’s no wonder we’re essentially doubling the amount of data created in the world roughly every two years.
2017
9 Technology Mega Trends That Will Change The World In 2018
Forbes
The Internet of Things (IoT) and how everyday devices are becoming more ‘smart’
The IoT – which encompasses smart, connected products like smart phones and smart watches –is a major contributing factor in this exponential increase in data. That’s because all these smart devices are constantly gathering data, connecting to other devices and sharing that data – all without human intervention (your Fitbit synching data to your phone, for instance). Pretty much anything can be made smart these days. Our cars are becoming increasingly connected; by 2020, a quarter of a billion cars will be hooked up to the Internet. For our homes, there are obvious smart products like TVs, and less obvious ones, like yoga mats that track your Downward Dog. And, of course, many of us have voice-enabled personal assistants like Alexa – another example of an IoT device. That’s already a lot of devices, but the IoT is just getting started. IHS has predicted there’ll be 75 billion connected devices by 2020.
2017
9 Technology Mega Trends That Will Change The World In 2018
Forbes
Exponential growth in computing power is fueling massive tech advances
None of this incredible growth in data, nor the billions of IoT devices available, would be possible without the enormous leaps in computing power that we’ve made. Between 1975 and 2015, computing power doubled at a rate of every two years, before slowing to the current rate of approximately every two and a half years. But we’re reaching the limits of what traditional computing power can handle. Thankfully, on the horizon, we have quantum computing. Probably the most significant transformation of computing power ever, quantum computing will see computers become millions of times faster than they are right notch leaders are in a race to launch the first commercially viable quantum computer, capable of solving problems that today’s computers can’t handle. Capable, even, of solving problems that we can’t even imagine yet.
2017
9 Technology Mega Trends That Will Change The World In 2018
Forbes
The incredible rise of artificial intelligence (AI)
Computers are now able to learn in much the same way as we humans do, and this leap in AI capabilities has been made possible by the massive increases in data and computing power. It’s the incredible explosion in data that has allowed AI to advance so quickly over the last couple of years; the more data an AI system has, the quicker it can learn and the more accurate it becomes. This huge step forward in AI mean computers can now undertake more and more human tasks. In fact, it’s AI that allows computers to see (e.g. facial recognition software), read (e.g. analyzing social media messages), listen (e.g. Alexa standing by to answer your every command), speak (e.g. Alexa being able to answer you) and gauge our emotions (e.g. affective computing).
2017
9 Technology Mega Trends That Will Change The World In 2018
Forbes
The unstoppable freight train that is automation
The more intelligent machines become, the more they can do for us. That means even more processes, decisions, functions and systems can be automated and carried out by algorithms or robots. Eventually, a wide range of industries and jobs will be impacted by automation. However, for now, the first wave of jobs that machines are taking can be categorized using the four Ds: dull, dirty, dangerous and dear. This means humans will no longer be needed to do the jobs that machines can do faster, safer, cheaper and more accurately. Beyond the four Ds, machines, robots and algorithms will replace – or augment – many human jobs, including professional jobs in fields like law or accounting. From truck drivers to bricklayers to doctors, the list of jobs that are likely to be affected by automation is surprising. One estimate reckons that 47 percent of US jobs are at risk of automation.
2017
9 Technology Mega Trends That Will Change The World In 2018
Forbes