In 2020 innovation went from a longstanding buzz word with big ambitions to boots on the ground. Most organizations have strived to connect the digital dots within and without to gain better visibility into their employees and customers experiences, but traditional communication tools and processes have tended to be somewhat rigid and exist in silos. As a result, many companies found that they did not have a complete view of employee and customer experiences across different channels and functi

Mobility means that customer support work can be done from anywhere. When workers can access their workplace experience from their personal devices, the business, the customer and the employee all win.

Global manufacturing executives rank “skilled talent” as their #1 competitive differentiator. When it comes to innovation, building capabilities and applying the right leadership style give top performing manufacturers the edge over skills-focused peers. As the manufacturing sector speeds into a world of futuristic tech and disruptive business models, creativity and innovation are becoming critical skills for figuring out how to unlock value strategically. Attracting the most skilled talent has

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME’s) play an important role in economies across the world, creating jobs, driving growth and meeting critical needs. And yet, when it comes to innovation, SMEs often do not have the resources and tools to manage a process that consistently delivers results. They lack a structured process and a baseline for measurement and improvement. They need a common framework and language to describe and quantify innovation efforts, and to collaborate internally and exte

Online retail is facing its greatest challenge. As ad buying becomes easier, more brands are crowding into the online/mobile ad space. The key to winning this intensely competitive fight for the consumer's attention is understanding millennials. For 71 percent of them, the best thing a brand can do is value their time. This generation enjoys shopping online and spends over $170 billion every year in the US alone. They are the most influential audience type in terms of shopping behaviors that ar

At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year, Qualcomm presented a module for phone manufacturers that will make it easier for them to develop their own 5G devices. Qualcomm’s Exec VP Don Rosenberg wrote, “We believe 5G will change the world even more profoundly than 3G and 4G; that it will be as revolutionary as electricity or the automobile, benefiting entire economies and entire societies.” At the same event, Huawei introduced the first 5G customer premise device.

What makes a new business model successful? Many great ideas have made it all the way to the market stage only to drift away. The ones that gain traction and stick around do so because they arrive at the same time as complementary technologies that make them more practical. The classic example of this is the cloud. Although SaaS and cloud-based applications took off around 2010, the business model was introduced 10 years earlier without success. Marc Andreessen, who built the earliest commercia

Beds R Us is Australia’s most successful independent bed retailer, operating more than 120 physical stores from the Gold Coast to Perth. Just as so many other industries have discovered, retail bedding companies in Australia are facing stiffer competition due to digitization and changing consumer buying habits. However, their traditional IT infrastructure wasn’t built to handle a more mobile, agile operation. Despite that complication, they determined that it was time to move on to a faster, leaner, more popular business model so the company and their customers could rest easier at night.

A lot of the buzz around AI surrounds futuristic tech that even sounds a little scary. However, AI is already working invisibly behind the scenes to empower many essential applications. All the attention tends to get showered on showcase AI programs, like those winning at Jeopardy or going rogue on social media. Perhaps they attract so much attention because they seem so human. Meanwhile, functional AI is quietly minding its own business and redefining industries from the ground up. Take a mome