Trendspotting 2014
How will your business respond
to the increase in available digital data?
With increasing data available, the winners will be those who understand the possibilities. Businesses are seeing that, increasingly, there is revenue to be earned through the intelligent use of data.
Trendwatching. We live in a time of great technical change. Big things are happening, things which can have enormous impact on products, development, and revenue models.
The question to ask is: what are important trends in business sectors that will drastically, disruptively, affect bottom lines?
Trends are important, as are people who have the ability to observe and understand trends. What trends will affect your business or sector?
What are we talking about? Here are a few big picture examples:
- The energy industry: people putting energy into the grid, as opposed to taking it off. This is increasing. Energy companies need to plan for people creating their own energy. In Germany more than 50% of electricity is currently produced by alternative power sources.
- Eastman-Kodak: creation of digital film led, ultimately, to their bankruptcy and reorganization.
- Nokia: trend of personal handheld computers (devices, iphones) led to their loss of leading market position.
- Banks: their position challenged by Bitcoin and crowdsourcing – will we still need banks? With the rise of crowdfunding, banks may need to rethink their position.
Q: What is the take home message?
A: Companies ignore upcoming trends at their own peril. Plan to succeed.
2014: year of the Chief Digital Officer
In 2014 an increasing number of businesses are expected to appoint CDOs – Digital content chiefs; in short, somebody responsible for all the data.
Unforeseen trends and opportunities for profit (or loss) are the reason why there is such a high demand for people who can analyse data. Human resource managers are also seeing the shift; a need for people who can analyse data, and a new culture is emerging, whereby in-house knowledge is needed. Is your company making adequate use of the available data?
Opentracker. Don’t get left behind.
