Trends Identified
... and companies will prepare with pre-emptive layoffs.
Executives know the good times won’t last and many will reduce their workforce pre-emptively to preserve profits through a coming recession, warns Danielle DiMartino Booth, author of “Fed Up.” General Motors announced 14,000 strategic layoffs in November, after 2,250 had already taken buyouts. Meanwhile, Verizon will let go of 10,400 employees via voluntary severance, the company announced Monday. These won’t be the last. “I guarantee you right now, consultants across the country are convening and discussing with executive teams at many companies what they also can do to get in front of the next recession,” Booth says. “Companies are taking unusual steps because they know how very long in the tooth this expansion is and they know what's to come.”
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
...but some disgraced executives will make a comeback.
The spin doctors have learned to plan for it and manage what Martin calls “the sorry cycle.” “We’re compressing the time and space between success, failure and then redemption,” he explains. “Apology content has become a major component of any marketing strategy.” It’s ok to find that cynical; he does too.
2018
50 Big Ideas for 2019: What to watch in the year ahead
LinkedIn
'It’s not the big fish that eat the small...It’s the fast that eat the slow.'
In the past two decades, the world has been experiencing a period of unprecedented transition in political, social, economic and environmental areas mainly driven by an exponential change in technology. The rate of change in many aspects of human society is expected to continue creating both opportunities and perils. A recently introduced phrase- 'a black elephant.' 2 3 - is used to describe existing and foreseeable problems of great magnitude and complexity. There are many black elephants: failed and failing states, global warming, water scarcity, mass immigration, income inequality, and rising global powers challenging the international order. Additionally, the growing role of non-state actors and super- empowered individuals in domestic and international affairs has increased the complexity of addressing these black elephants in the strategic environment.
2016
Shaping the future
European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (ESPAS)
‘Sense and avoid’ drones
Unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, have become an important and controversial part of military capacity in recent years. They are also used in agriculture, for filming and multiple other applications that require cheap and extensive aerial surveillance. But so far all these drones have had human pilots; the difference is that their pilots are on the ground and fly the aircraft remotely.The next step with drone technology is to develop machines that fly themselves, opening them up to a wider range of applications. For this to happen, drones must be able to sense and respond to their local environment, altering their height and flying trajectory in order to avoid colliding with other objects in their path. In nature, birds, fish and insects can all congregate in swarms, each animal responding to its neighbour almost instantaneously to allow the swarm to fly or swim as a single unit. Drones can emulate this. With reliable autonomy and collision avoidance, drones can begin to take on tasks too dangerous or remote for humans to carry out: checking electric power lines, for example, or delivering medical supplies in an emergency. Drone delivery machines will be able to find the best route to their destination, and take into account other flying vehicles and obstacles. In agriculture, autonomous drones can collect and process vast amounts of visual data from the air, allowing precise and efficient use of inputs such as fertilizer and irrigation. In January 2014, Intel and Ascending Technologies showcased prototype multi-copter drones that could navigate an on-stage obstacle course and automatically avoid people who walked into their path. The machines use Intel’s RealSense camera module, which weighs just 8g and is less than 4mm thick. This level of collision avoidance will usher in a future of shared airspace, with many drones flying in proximity to humans and operating in and near the built environment to perform a multitude of tasks. Drones are essentially robots operating in three, rather than two, dimensions; advances in next-generation robotics technology will accelerate this trend. Flying vehicles will never be risk-free, whether operated by humans or as intelligent machines. For widespread adoption, sense and avoid drones must be able to operate reliably in the most difficult conditions: at night, in blizzards or dust storms. Unlike our current digital mobile devices (which are actually immobile, since we have to carry them around), drones will be transformational as they are self-mobile and have the capacity of flying in the three-dimensional world that is beyond our direct human reach. Once ubiquitous, they will vastly expand our presence, productivity and human experience.
2015
Top 10 emerging technologies of 2015
World Economic Forum (WEF)
"Brain - computer" interfaces to transfer a signal to specific patterns of neurons
In the long-term, there is expected to be “brain-computer interfaces” which are systems to transfer electronic impulses from the body’s nervous system to an electronic device and back. This achievement would find wide application in neuroprosthesis, in particular when developing bionic sensory organs. The development of this field will subsequently lead to the creation of systems which are a functional part of the human intellect (exocortex) to further improve cognitive processes.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
"Space lift"
The creation of cable systems, including the development of a “space elevator” will make it possible to change the orbits of spacecraft, move goods between orbital stations, launch small spacecraft and deliver payloads into orbit, which for traditional rocket technologies is not realistic or would incur significant costs.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
“Almost-Enterprise” Applications
Quick and agile solutions appeal to the business, but are they “enterprise enough” for IT? Business units have historically had a love-hate relationship with IT. In the early days, IT was an esoteric specialty, far removed from core business competencies yet consuming a big piece of the budget. IT was often seen as unresponsive, expensive or fl at-out ineffective, but business leaders saw no other choice for essential process and information automation. IT was left to balance these harsh perceptions with the practical reality of providing secure, reliable and scalable solutions with zero tolerance for fault or failure.
2011
Tech Trends 2011 The natural convergence of business and IT
Deloitte
“Disruptive” technologies
“Disruptive” technologies in development, the spread
of which will bring substantial changes in production, employment, well-being, governability, and human relations.
2016
Why and how latin america should think about the future
theDialogue
“Internet of Things”
The concept of the development and communication of physical objects, referred to as the “Internet of Things”, appeared in the late 1990s. Its main idea was to fit as many objects as possible with interaction technology, creating a self-organising network of devices (objects) capable of working together to address these challenges and respond to changes in the environment. Such organisation of things (devices, objects) can restructure the corresponding economic and social processes and significantly reduce human involvement in these processes. The increase in the number of devices able to access the Internet, the growth in high-speed wireless networks, the development of machine interaction technologies and new types of sensors, the dissemination of cloud-based solutions and the start of the transition of client devices to IPv6 are all contributing to this. To realise the launch potential of the “Internet of Things” in terms of simple identification of objects in production processes, there needs to be a transformation in business processes in the majority of economic sectors.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation
“Smart” infrastructure
“Smart” infrastructure in power engineering (smart grid) – an integrated self-regulating and self-restoring electricity grid system with network topology and covering all generating sources, trunk and distribution networks and all forms of consumer electricity, all together managed as an integrated set by a single network of automated devices in real-time – will undergo further development in the short term. The importance of sensory networks and sensor units will increase at the next stage in order to synchronise disparate industry systems for monitoring purposes.
2016
Russia 2030: science and technology foresight
Russia, Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation