The Innovation Summit held at the new Shell Technology Center in Houston last month discussed some of the difficult challenges related energy, food and water that we face today — and that are becoming ever more pressing as the world’s population grows. Shell calls this the “stress nexus” because these three areas — food, water
Most of today’s organizations are powerful productive machines, which were founded and grew up during an era where mass production was the norm, and planning was the course of action. This era is over for good, and social business, or enterprise 2.0, or connected company, or whatever you want to call it (the level at
It’s not uncommon for even the strongest leaders to occasionally lose their nerve, triggered by any variety of events — a company merger, the introduction of a new team member, a change in reporting structure, a project that’s gone awry, or even simply a lack of feedback. Ironically, similar to the doctor who chooses not to
We can amplify innovation through collaboration. This theme emerged at the Innovation Summit held at the Shell Technology Center January 9-10, 2013. Presenters such as Peter Diamandis, MD, Chairman and CEO, X PRIZE Foundation discussed how 5 billion educated people will be connected through the Internet by 2020 — that’s 3 billion more than are
The biggest user experience change in 2012 was certainly responsive web design. As promised, I reached out to Jason Mark in order to better understand what conditions have prompted the interest in responsive design. Mark is co-founder of Gravity Switch, a design firm whose focus on usability in web design has earned them accolades in multiple industries. With pioneering work in
Recently in Wired online I came across a most interesting article: On Stephen Hawking, Vader and Being More Machine Than Human, by Hélène Mialet. She is the author of an ethnographic study on Hawking and his “tribe” (her word, but how apt!) and how he works within this tribe of people and machines to produce high-level
Technology is influencing more than the way we work, it also deeply changes the notion of workplace. As IBM wrote in 2011 in its The new workplace: are you ready? white paper: “Today’s workplace is a virtual and/or physical environment, characterized by connections, collaboration and user choice, that enables the worker to be more agile
Acknowledgement of the critical value of the customer experience in a business model is possibly the most notable transformation I saw in 2012. Nearly every presentation at the numerous conferences I attended had significant focus on the role and business value of the customer experience. From topics on how responsive marketing is raising the customer
Renee Hopkins, Jill Hart, Francois Gossieaux and I had the pleasure of attending Dassault Systèmes’ 3DXForum in the US, and two weeks later it was Europe’s turn. The forum was exciting to follow even just virtually. Here are a few of the highlights in photos. First, the 3DSCATIA booth was running a live demo on yacht design
Social listening is not just a nice practice, it should be a requirement for every organization. Not listening is proposition fraught with risk. Of course there is the reputational risk that you can avoid or at the very least minimize by listening. There are plenty of case studies of companies that did not listen, only