Trendspotting

The need to be climate neutral will change everything. And make some people a lot of money.

"...Many technological revolutions of the past have focused on the energy part of this equation—waterpower, the steam engine, the electric motor and the internal-combustion engine, to name a few.

The technological revolution under way now is not driven by energy, however. It is driven by information..."

"Suppose you want to design the best company on earth to work for. What would it be like? For three years we’ve been investigating this question by asking hundreds of executives in surveys and in seminars all over the world to describe their ideal organization. This mission arose from our research into the relationship between authenticity and effective leadership. Simply put, people will not follow a leader they feel is inauthentic. But the executives we questioned made it clear that to be authentic, they needed to work for an authentic organization..."

"...instead of purely reacting to this different breed of customer, companies need to evolve their business, philosophy, and infrastructure to create customer experiences around very specific moments of truth.

Thinking of this as a decision journey gives marketers a better way to in turn make decisions around resource allocation, marketing spend and overall significance in each moment..."

LAST night 40,000 people rented accommodation from a service that offers 250,000 rooms in 30,000 cities in 192 countries. They chose their rooms and paid for...

How the company's North American division cut emissions by 80%.

"How companies that see sustainability as both a necessity and an opportunity, and change their business models in response, are finding success..."

"The global manufacturing sector is on the threshold of a dynamic new phase that will provide renewed opportunity for manufacturing firms — and a host of new challenges. Incumbents who can rise to the challenge — and upstarts who may find lower barriers to entry — could do very well, indeed..."

"The OECD economies may be sluggish; America may or may not hurtle over fiscal cliffs; and BRICs may not be growing quite as fast as their champions hoped. But adversity (almost) always creates economic opportunity. Digital media continue to be springboards for global innovation and enterprise. North America's fracking fever has proviked experts (who once feared the world had passedHubbert's Peak) to predict the US will soon be a net energy exporter. Human ingenuity — increasingly augmented by technical amplifiers — remains the most remarkable renewable resource.

So here are four innovation ideas — themes, really — sure to gain significantly greater mind- and market-share over the coming year. What do they all have in common? Individual empowerment..."

"... The story of Napster helps to explain the excitement about Bitcoin, a digital currency, that is based on similar technology..."

"Altimeter identified four major themes that will be disruptive to business:

1. Everything Digital: An increasingly digital landscape – including data, devices, platforms and experiences – that will envelop consumers and businesses

2. Me-cosystem: The ecosystem that revolves around “me,” our data, and technologies that will deliver more relevant, useful, and engaging experiences using our data.

3. Digital Economies: New economic models caused by the digital democratization of production, distribution, and consumption.

4. Dynamic Organization: In today’s digital landscape, dynamic organizations must develop new business models and ways of working to remain relevant, and viable. (...)"

"...The best case I can cite for this argument is Procter & Gamble, which has institutionalized data visualization as a primary tool of management. Working with visual analytics software vendor Tibco Spotfire, P&G has put visual displays of key information on desktops — over 50,000 P&G employees now have access to a "Decision Cockpit"..."

We’ve digitized news, music and movies, but Fabsie wants to make it possible to digitize furniture designs. The result will be custom furniture at lower prices, thanks to new manufacturing trends.

Wearables are taking over. Whether it’s the Jawbone Up or an Apple iWatch, gadgets that live on our bodies will give rise to a level of data about ourselves and our environments that we’ve never had before.

In PwC's 16th Global CEO Survey, CEOs discuss what they're doing to be agile in a volatile economic climate, turn adversity into opportunity, be more socially aware, and gain competitive edge.

"In nearly all industries, the expertise needed to differentiate a company and win in the marketplace is much more complex than it was in the past. If a company wants to be better than anyone else, at something relevant to its customers, its specialists must be more efficient, technically proficient, and creative than ever before..."

The National Intelligence Council is the center for mid- and long-term strategic thinking within the US Intelligence Community.