Business transformation just got easier

In 2020, all competitive companies are in a state of constant business transformation. That’s just a fact : those that do not evolve are made redundant by stronger, more agile competitors. And so, mediocre companies update their products and services. Good companies update their processes, too. Great companies, meanwhile, update their business models.

Over the past decade, entrepreneurs and CEOs alike have been told over and over that Business Model Innovation (BMI) is key to their companies’ growth. They tend to nod knowingly, rarely asking themselves what their business model is. They just know they have to change it. This lack of clear definition often leads to the creation of conflicting objectives / actions, as various stakeholders will have different ideas of what the business model of their company is, and what innovation should look like. …

The future will be… weird ?

I recently shared an article called “The “Next Big Thing” in Technology : 20 Inventions That Will Change the World”, which got a few dozen thousand hits in the past couple of weeks. This calls for a sequel. The previous 20 technologies were specifically centered on the next 20 years of technology development; but there’s a lot more to unravel when looking beyond the near future, though certainty obviously decreases with time.

Below are 20 technologies that will change the world by 2050 and beyond. This date and predictions are understandably vague and arbitrary, and we all know that predictions often fall flat (check my 2020 tech predictions if you don’t believe me). Regardless, the knowledge gained through planning for potential technologies is crucial to the selection of appropriate actions as future events unfold. …

I recently wrote an article titled “The “Next Big Thing” in Technology : 20 Inventions That Will Change the World”, which was read more than 21,000 times in August. Interestingly, out of the 20 innovations described, “Smart Tattoos” is the one that generated the most excitement.

As such, I’ve gone more in depth on the technology, identifying use cases and drawbacks to see if there really are opportunities for this idea to be truly transformative. It might otherwise be one of those technologies quickly abandoned for lack of technical breakthroughs or customer needs. During my research, I had the chance to speak to Jonathan Lester, Principal Electrical Engineer at Microsoft Research (and all-around dream-boat). …

A million pompous Tweets, a thousand pontifical TedX videos and hundreds of unnecessary hot takes don’t lie : Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here, and it’s here to stay. Ok. Good. What now? Well, before AI can truly be called a democratised technology, we have to go beyond Silicon Valley startups and implement it within small/medium businesses and governments to reap the rewards promised by the technology.

And so we must ask ourselves : how does a non-tech company go about it? What are the pitfalls to avoid? Where to begin? Below are a few lessons I’ve learned throughout my time as a technology consultant for some of Europe’s largest companies. This is meant as an introduction to AI project management; a more complete look can be found in this article : 10 Steps to your very own Corporate Artificial Intelligence project. …

It’s really not that hard

Every week, I receive a handful of LinkedIn requests from students of all ages/nationalities seeking to get into consulting. Cold-emailing is the right approach: getting to know a company from the inside will help during the interview process, and shows that the candidate cares enough about the role to do some due diligence. It’s also important to gauge how potential future co-workers treat soon-to-be graduates.

There are however a few ways of going about it, which matter and will help you get the answers you’re seeking. Below is a short guide to the first contact on LinkedIn, as well as a quick FAQ, complete with a template or two. …

From 2022 to 2040(ish)

I wrote an article titled “I Compiled a List of Tech’s “Next Big Things” So You Wouldn’t Have to” in 2018. It has since been read over 50,000 times and shared more than 1,000 times on social media. As anyone reading it in the 2020s will notice, a lot of what was written then is now obsolete. It is thus necessary to write an update, highlighting the key technologies emerging today that will be all the rage in in 2022, 2025 and 2030s (click here for 2050 tech predictions).

Obviously, these dates should be taken with a grain of salt : predictions are wrong more often than not (check my 2020 tech predictions if you don’t believe me). They are often wrong because we tend to use history, which is at heart the study of surprises and changes, as a guide to the future. This should however not stop us from aiming to better understand the future of technology : the knowledge gained through planning is crucial to the selection of appropriate actions as future events unfold. We don’t know the answer, but we can at least ask useful questions and catalyse the conversation. …

Welcome to post-crisis business as usual

Throughout history, terrible crises have given us some of our greatest innovations. GPS, Drones, microwaves, atomic energy… the list goes on. The COVID-19 crisis is no different, and we are already seeing companies rise above their competition by asking themselves the key question at the heart of all corporate strategies : what can we do, right now, that is hard?

Selling to new customers is hard in time of crisis. Switching a company’s value proposition in the space of a few weeks is incredibly difficult, too. As is transforming entire processes quickly, and finding new revenue streams and cost-cutting solutions. These changes, if anything, are the heart of business model innovation. Indeed, in crisis situations, certain limits are abolished and accelerators appear. There is no doubt that while the Covid-19 will put many organizations in a delicate situation, it will also open the door to innovation in a number of areas. …

Opinion

Grab a pain-killer, this may get complicated

Is Artificial intelligence (A.I) a revolution or a war? A god or a pet? A hammer or a nail? Do we really need more metaphors to describe it? Nowadays, A.I dictates what information is presented to us on social media, which ads we see, and what prices we’re offered both on and offline. An algorithm can technically write and analyse books, beat humans at about every game conceivable, make movies, compose classical songs and help magicians perform better tricks. Beyond the arts, it also has the potential to encourage better decision-making, make medical diagnoses, and even solve some of humanity’s most pressing challenges. …