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Showing posts with the label digital transformation

Navigating the Future: Essential Characteristics and Strategies for Leaders

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In an ever-changing world filled with uncertainty, business executives often grapple with the responsibility of anticipating and adapting to emerging trends and technologies. In this article I aim to provide guidance on how to focus on the most critical elements in the age of digital transformation, as well as how to cultivate a forward-thinking mindset. My first piece of advice is to prioritize what matters most. Amidst the noise and distractions, it's crucial to identify the most important factors for your organization. As Donald P. Coduto wisely said, "The most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing." Embrace this principle to maintain focus and ensure success. Understand the game you are competing in.  Understand your competition.  Master the rules of digital transformation. To excel in today's competitive landscape, it's essential to understand the dynamics of the digital age. Key elements to consider include: Data as the

What the Metaverse Could Mean for Retail

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My wife and I are enthusiastic backpackers.  We buy gear that is ultralight and designed to take the abuse of rugged wilderness environments.  For many years we have frequented the outdoor equipment store REI to purchase our clothing, gear and supplies.  Recently, however, REI has stopped stocking their stores with a full range of products.  They only seem to stock a small selection of sizes and colors, and refer you to their website for all other options.   As an example, on a recent trip to REI, I had a shopping list of four items. Each time I asked a customer service person about one of the products on my list, I was given the same answer, "Visit our website... we don't carry it in our stores."   On the way home I felt disappointment. The trip seemed both a waste of time and fuel.  Is the disappointment I felt shared by tens of thousands of other customers?  If so, will this shared disappointment lead to the demise, or the transformation of physical stores?  

The Future of Our Human Experience

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The world is increasingly a place that is both unfamiliar and unfriendly to our brains.  Global networks, complex digital systems, massive volumes of data, digital speeds, automated decision-making and persistent communications have all emerged this century and they are challenging the quality of our human experience. Already nearing our mind's limits to absorb change, we must quickly find ways to adapt. The relatively slow speed of our physical and mental evolution over thousands of years seems to have been left behind in an instant by the unimaginable speed of digital evolution.  How are today's humans to adapt in only a lifetime? It appears likely that our brains will increasingly be fed on digital stimuli.  It doesn't take a futurist to look around and see that we are all being irresistibly drawn deeper into the digital world.  The results being our future will increasingly involve our brains, and those of our children and grandchildren, being formed, influenced and sus

Precision as a Competitive Advantage

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Throughout history military leaders have suffered from a lack of knowledge.  They often were desperately searching through the "fog of war" to find the answers to seven key questions: Where are my enemies? Where are my own forces? Where are my allies? Where are everyone's supplies, materials and equipment? What condition are they in? What capabilities are available at a given time and location? What are the location and environmental conditions that might degrade capabilities? These great “unknowns” impacted the strategies and tactics leaders used and the results of battles throughout history.  Leaders were forced to expend massive amounts of resources just defending themselves against the inherent risks of these unknowns.   While military leaders of the past were handicapped by a lack of tools for gathering insights and intelligence, today we have many. With sensors of all kinds, wireless and satellite networks, mobile technologies, drones, analytics and artificial intel

The Speed Impact on Businesses

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Roman Roads The concept of speed as an advantage is not new. Over the course of 700 years, the Romans built and maintained a system of roads extending over 55,000 miles.  They built it to enable speedy communications and the quick movement of troops and supplies across the vast expanse of their global empire. Today, our perception of time and speed is being shaped and confused by technologies. A person might say they live five minutes from town, but is that calculated by walking, riding a bike or driving a car.  In the roman era, their military calculations were determined by a standard measurement based on how far and fast a soldier could walk on a stone road carrying their equipment.  It was about 20 miles per day. Today, digital technologies compress our perception of time, speed and space while expanding our expectations of what can be accomplished in a given time period. We expect to complete the equivalent of one hour of shopping in a supermarket in five minutes online.  These ch

Winning with Speed and Fridays

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"The size of competitors and the longevity of their brands, are less predictive of future success than the importance they give to data, the speed in which they act upon the data, and their operational tempo."   In 2013 the volume of data created, captured, copied and consumed worldwide totaled approximately 9 zetabytes.  This year the total will be 79 zetabytes.  By 2025 there is projected to be 181 zetabytes of data.  Inside these fast growing masses of data are the answers all businesses need to succeed.  The data tells them what their customers want.  It tells them the prices customers are willing to pay.  It tells them when the products are most in demand.  This data, however,  has a shelf life that rapidly diminishes over time just as consumers change their preferences with the changing seasons.  It is up to every business to be able to exploit the data fast enough to be meaningful. In an always-connected world where consumers and their needs are transient, timing is ev

The Greater Good - Technology on Purpose

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Adam Smith wrote about the concept of rational self-interest, which posits we work together for the greater good when it benefits ourselves.  Is this argument valid in the context of robots, automation and employment? I think so. I believe most of us would agree that replacing large numbers of humans with machines that result in wide scale unemployment and suffering is not in our rational self-interest. Having massive numbers of jobs terminated by the Terminator does not result in a safer, healthier civilization or vibrant economy; therefore, it is not in our best interest. Just because something is possible, does not mean it is good. A powerful ruler that takes all the food, property and means of production away from his people resulting in their suffering, quickly becomes a target of community wrath. Businesses that replace human workers with machines and software, out of self-interest, will over time find it increasingly difficult to sell their products to their unemployed or undere

Speed and a Doctrine for the Future

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Throughout my career in the high tech industry I have often heard the business maxim, “First, develop a business strategy and then find the technology to support it.” My experience over the years, however, has led me to believe this maxim is misguided.   Let me explain by asking several questions. What came first digital commerce or the Internet?  Mobile payments or wireless networks?  Commercial airline travel or the airplane, knights in shiny armour being used as shock troops, or stirrups?  Trivia answer: Stirrups!  Technology has a long history of appearing first, and then strategies are formed later. What we are learning is if our outdated business strategies are dictating the speed of our technology adoptions, then we are in big trouble! The world is moving much too fast and we must align the tempo of our business strategy evolution with the pace of technology innovations and our customer adoptions of those technologies.  We need to invest in future oriented thinking and the explo

Speed and Transformational Leadership

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It took Magellan’s crew three years sailing ships to circumnavigate the earth.  Today, at hypersonic speeds of 7,680 MPH, it takes just over three hours to circumnavigate the earth.  Data on the Internet, however, travels at 670 million mph, which means it only takes milliseconds to circumnavigate the earth.  In this age of digital businesses and digital interactions, companies must digitally transform to work effectively in a world where global business and information moves at these mind-blowing speeds. It's not just IT systems that are impacted by the volume and speed of information.  The creators of business processes that were designed and developed in an analog area, simply never envisioned a business environment that would require these operational tempos.  Analog business processes were designed to have humans involved.  These dependencies were designed to slow down the process to ensure accuracy, compliance and accountability.  Today, however, operating at the slow speeds

The Role and Future of Information with Futurist Alex Whittington

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In this deep dive discussion with the brilliant thinker and futurist Alex Whittington, we explore the topics of data monetization, social media, facts, information/disinformation and the future of data driven economic models.  I hope you enjoy!   To watch or listen to more of these interviews with insightful futurist, business and technology leaders please remember to follow us or subscribe! Did you remember to follow or subscribe? ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The University "Campus" of the Future

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During this pandemic year many university students were sent home to study online.  How will this pandemic experience change the design of the university campus of tomorrow?  In this episode, I ask this question to four brilliant experts in higher education. Renee Altier, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Business Education and Careers at Wiley Greg Morrisett, Dean and Vice Provost at Cornell Tech Mark Bramwell, CIO at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford Susan McCahan, Vice Provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost, Academic Programs at University of Toronto ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of

Creating a Valued University "Experience" both During the Pandemic and Post-Pandemic

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In this interview compilation, we take a a deep dive into the post-pandemic university of tomorrow. In Part 2, I ask the question, "How will universities continue to provide a valued “university experience” when increasingly classes are moving online?"  Learn from experts: Renee Altier, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Business Education and Careers at Wiley Greg Morrisett, Dean and Vice Provost at Cornell Tech Mark Bramwell, CIO at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford Susan McCahan, Vice Provost, Innovations in Undergraduate Education and Vice Provost, Academic Programs at University of Toronto ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and

The University of Tommorrow with Expert Susan McCahan, Vice Provost of Innovations for Undergraduate Education and Academic Programs at the University of Toronto

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Recently I had the great privilege of interviewing Susan McCahan, the Vice Provost, of Innovations for Undergraduate Education and Academic Programs at the University of Toronto. In our discussion we took a dive deep into the pandemic experience, digital transformation, and what the university of tomorrow may look like. We covered a lot of ground and I hope you will find it enlightening. Watch more interviews on the future of higher education here . ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

University of Tomorrow - and the Role of Technology with Cornell Tech Expert Greg Morrisett

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In this series, I interview experts on the future of higher education.  We take a dive deep into the pandemic experience, digital transformation, the future of university campuses and what the university of tomorrow may look like.  In this episode, I interview Greg Morrisett, Dean and Vice Provost at Cornell Tech.   Watch more interviews on the future of higher education here . ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The University of Tomorrow - and the Role of Technology with Expert Mark Bramwell

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In this series, I interview experts on what the future of higher education might look like.  We take a dive deep into the pandemic experience, digital transformation and how universities are likely to change as a result.  My guest in this episode is Mark Bramwell, CIO, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.  Mark has recently been voted one of the top CIO's in the UK.    Watch other interviews with experts in higher education here . ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Post-Pandemic University Experiences

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Last month I interviewed professors, deans, provosts and futurist on the future of higher education, and the university of tomorrow. All of them believe that the Covid-19 global pandemic will change universities forever.  The move to virtual learning environments has forced universities to adapt and learn new ways of operating.  It has also emphasized how much both students and parents crave an in-person university experience.  Both want a thriving social environment involving regular interactions between students, professors and classmates on a university campus in a park like setting with culture, sporting events, art, music, entertainment, class projects, clubs and student governments.  The pandemic, of course, has caused major interruptions to these experiences in 2020, and students are desperate for there to be a return to normalcy, but as we have all come to realize there is a very new and different normal ahead of us.  Parents have long carried big expectations when they send th

Reimagining Higher Education with Professor Jack Shannon and Futurist Frank Diana

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In this compelling episode we take a deep dive with futurist Frank Diana and Professor Jack Shannon into the future of children, the future of work and the future of higher education.  We then discuss how the pandemic and emerging technologies have impacted all of them and explore what possible future scenarios may look like. ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Digital Transformation, Caring for Students and Meeting Expectations during a Pandemic at Tuskegee University with Dr. Jack Crumbly

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This year has been like no other.  Join me as I interview Professor Jack Crumbly from the historically black Tuskegee University.  In addition to the rapid digital transformation already taking place in higher education, 2020 introduced the Covid-19 pandemic and social unrest.  Learn what it is like to chair a department in this vortex of change while working to provide the best student experience possible. ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Rethinking the Future of Higher Education with Futurist Alexandra Whittington

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Join me as futurist Alexandra Whittington helps us rethink and expand our perceptions of what the future of higher education might look like.  The notion of a "traditional university experience” may no longer apply to the students of tomorrow who have different requirements, dreams and aspirations. ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Higher Education and Pandemic Inspired Digital Transformation with Professor Bill Griffiths

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In this episode, Professor Bill Griffiths of St. John’s University, who has over fifty-two years of teaching experience, shares how the pandemic has made the year 2020 different from all others.  We explore the impact of the pandemic on higher education in general, professors, and students.  We discuss the digital transformation journey of universities over the past decade, and how this pandemic experience has accelerated change and may have a long-lasting impact. ************************************************************************ Kevin Benedict Partner | Futurist | Leadership Strategies at TCS View my profile on LinkedIn Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict Join the Linkedin Group Digital Intelligence ***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.