Disruptive technologies have given the old science of onomastics unprecedented powers. Combined with datamining, extracting semantics from names can provide numerous, valuable applications. Though discriminating names carries a high risk of abuse, it can also drive new, unexpected ways for developing poor areas.
The venture investor and former Facebook executive examines technologies he thinks will improve the quality of life and economic output, and explains why most executives undervalue technical proficiency.
The Bitcoin bubble bursting is but one small part of a bigger story. The most exciting part is not speculation, but challenging the banks' control over payment solutions. This is what we should discuss. Starting now.
Social relations, buzz, leadership, popularity, reputation... at first sight, marketing and social media seem to speak the same language. But the actual value of marketing 2.0 is difficult to assess. Can social marketing become a real growth driver?
As well as androids they are our self-guided vacuum-cleaners, our GPS, an automated line on the Paris metro linking two of the city's main underground stations, Internet search engines… From mechanized figurines to the first robot arm, a brief journey through a history 3000 years in the making.
Turning digital, the innovative company becomes collaborative, at both strategic and operational levels. The innovation policy moves from exclusion to collaboration, marketing from transactional to collaborative, IT governance from monolithic to differentiated… To drive change in strategy, organization and information systems, managers often use best practices ground on observation, measurement and analysis. But to address the behavior of the company, its postures and image, specific skills are needed to design meaning and emotion.
Long relegated to the fringes of the industrial world, social innovation is now finding its way into business practices and strategies. The related notions of emergence and self-organization are creating new, bottom-up models. Before trying to manage them, better to understand them.
When was the last time you rented a DVD from a rental store or through some vending machine in your neighborhood? Faced with new consumption practices, the video industry is evolving rapidly. Business proposals, methods of payment and value chains must be reinvented. But how? The digital strategy deployed by Arte France Développement provides some pointers.
In modern societies, controlling health risks is a fundamental requirement, especially for such a sensitive field as food. Substantial progress has been made over the last fifty years. However, the horizon seems to recede as we improve our standards. While it is difficult to accept that zero risk is impossible to achieve, new and unknown dangers appear every day. What are the new challenges of our time and how can we meet them?
Cloud computing is a much hyped but often misunderstood technology that is gaining traction in different industries around the world. Businesses are integrating the cloud into countless systems, from HR to finance. Full adoption and acceptance of cloud computing, however, are still far away. A recent global survey by [email protected] and SAP's Performance Benchmarking team reveals that while the hype and excitement surrounding cloud computing is reaching a fever pitch, many businesses are still expressing concerns over cloud security and IT integration issues. While many people agree that the cloud is revolutionizing business, they still do not fully understand how it works. How will these tensions be resolved? How will the cloud transform businesses in the future? What kinds of benefits will it bring, and is it worthy of the current hype? [email protected] discussed those questions and the survey results with David Spencer, vice president at SAP, and Don Huesman, managing director at the Wharton Innovation Group.
Try as you may, innovation can never be reduced to a mere good idea. Innovation is a process, which is played chiefly in the way those who are to implement it can successfully make novelty theirs. Quite often management tends to overlook this process of appropriation, or to consider it only in terms of hindrances and obstacles. How, on the contrary, can the internal resources of organizations be enhanced and mobilized? The answer is straightforward: by developing a culture of cooperation, which allows for some degree of transgression… and also makes way for emotion.
Just as the Internet enabled anyone with a computer to become an entrepreneur, today's newest technologies have spawned a do it yourself micro-manufacturing movement, so anyone can be both inventor and manufacturer. Chris Anderson's new book, Makers: The New Industrial Revolution, explains how all the pieces are coming together - from more affordable 3D printers to crowd-sourced designs - to create the conditions for a new way of manufacturing. In this interview with [email protected], Anderson talks about the ways in which technology is changing the limits of what inventors can do, what the Maker Movement is, why he started DIY Drones and how the new technologies will drive the global economy.
Big Data are all over the news. Some fear a new Big Brother, others celebrate new, astonishing possibilities in fields like marketing, epidemiology, city management, and Chris Anderson prophesies a science without theory. Obviously we are on the verge of a revolution. But, by the way, what are we talking about?
Enterprise mobility is poised to fundamentally change the IT landscape. Here's an overview of the opportunities and some early lessons on how to manage the associated security risks, costs, and organizational challenges.
When examining the car industry in the US, Japan as well as Europe, one tends to focus on the crisis that has been shaking some of its biggest players for several years. But this century old industry is also a field for experimentation and technological innovation – a field where the very culture of innovation is undergoing a dramatic, exciting change.
The May 31 successful splashdown of the Dragon capsule, the first private spacecraft to make a trip to the International Space Station, was a major milestone in the entry of private companies into the business of space exploration. The Dragon, built and launched by PayPal co-founder Elon Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, dramatically demonstrated that private enterprises will now be critical players in space at a time when governments around the globe face fiscal pressures that are forcing them to rethink their galactic ambitions. These firms are pouring money into developing new spacecraft for everything from transporting cargo to asteroid mining, creating new industries that offer tremendous opportunity - and tremendous risk.
The digital revolution is not only a matter of technologies. The players involved can be described as radical innovators, whose work has a direct impact on social exchanges - from friendship to trade. The shock wave is gradually spilling out of our screens and hitting the rest of the economy. The concept of multitude helps us grasp what is at stake.
Crowdsourcing your strategy may sound crazy. But a few pioneering companies are starting to do just that, boosting organizational alignment in the process. Should you join them?
In recent years, many firms have sped up their innovation processes. But can we protect the meaning and relevance of innovation while accelerating and increasing its impact? This is exactly the issue challenged by component innovation.
The German photovoltaic industry is in chaos. Overwhelmed by the boom of solar home systems, the government has had to brutally halt subsidies whose costs were threatening to… go through the roof. Caught between Chinese competition and the falling price of solar panels, several of the flagships of this young industry are now on the brink of bankruptcy. After having enjoyed a heyday of several years, the sector suddenly has to adjust to new conditions. And, if it hopes to recover, must adapt.
