WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

The use of digital technology in bricks and mortar stores has increased rapidly over the last few years.

catalogs are still mailing in the billions (with a b) and the reason from the marketers’ perspective is the foundation of direct marketing: catalogs work! They more than pay for the costs of getting them into the hands of customers and prospects.

Still, there were “only” 12.738 billion catalogs mailed in 2010 (about 35 for every man, woman and child in the country), down from 13.684 billion in 2009. That’s a drop of nearly 7%. 

THE INTERNET OF THINGS Shodan A map of the world's publicly available webcams. Image: Shodan

3D printing has changed our perception of mass manufacturing, but there's also a parallel revolution -- doctors are using the technology to save lives.

The doctors took a CT scan of his trachea and bronchus to produce a precise image, from which they could design the device. Using computer modeling software and making some modifications, they created a splint that perfectly matched Kaiba's windpipe and printed it with a biodegradable polyester called polycaprolactone.

The custom splint fits around Kaiba's airway, and it will dissolve within three years. Image: University of Michigan Health System

The splint goes around the outside of the bronchus, then sutures pass through the splint to tether the trachea through the inside. This expands the bronchus and inflates the trachea. With growth, the splint opens up.

Even though Green and Hollister sized the design to Kaiba's bronchus, they crafted three or four increments of about a half a millimeter above and below the diameter from his scan. Then they made about five copies of each, just to make sure they had enough going into the operating room.

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Three reasons why CDO is transitional:

1. Organizational roles that are persistent in time carry a degree of accountability, budget and potentially people responsibility. I am not sure long term the CDO does.
2. The aggregate responsibility of a CEOs management team changes only slowly. While technology has disrupted this statement, externalizing the responsibility from the current roles reporting to the CEO rarely leads to long term sustainable impact.
3. Digitalization is a management skill set that will developed by many members of the leadership team, but it is not a separate role

Euclid furthers its quest to become the Google Analytics for the real world.

Euclid collects aggregated data on shoppers, including their visit duration and engagement rate, and presents it in an online dashboard for retailers. The company’s technology can grab information about a shopper even if they never connect to an in-store Wi-Fi network. Just like online metrics, Euclid’s data could help store owners learn useful details about their customers. For example, it could let a retailer know if something about their store is causing a significant amount of customers to leave quickly.

Like most companies that collect consumer data, Euclid claims all of its data is grabbed anonymously, and consumers can opt out as well.

Ottawa-based Shopify, the online storefront provider that helps around 65,000 retailers reach their customers on the web, including Tesla, Crossfit and others, today announced a new retail point-of-sale solution that uses iPads for its terminals.

Let’s say you fancy a fast car. Flavio Garcia, a University of Birmingham computer scientist, discovered the algorithim that verifies the ignition key for luxury cars like Porsches, Audis, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis. He was slapped with an injunction to ban him from disclosing his findings at the Usenix Security Symposium in order to prevent sophisticated criminal gangs from having the analytics tools for widespread car theft.

You might need Garcia’s algorithm to steal a car, but soon, with an entirely different algorithm, you may be able to crash one into a tree or disable its brakes from a distance. Or maybe it’s a fast boat you’re after. Mess with its GPS, and you can steer it where you want without the crew noticing.