WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

The Marketing Operations Survey uncovers best practices for the marketing operations leaders' role’s current scope, future mandate, and provides insight into the most critical key performance indicators, development priorities and operational marketing technologies.

Amazon’s business is delivering very rapid revenue growth but not accumulating any surplus cash or profits, because every penny of cash is being ploughed back into expanding the business further. But, this is not because any given business runs permanently at a loss - it is because the profits from what is already there are spent on making new businesses. In the past, that was mostly in operations, but in recent years the investment firehose has again been pointed at capex.

The mind-bending bigness of Neuralink’s mission, combined with the labyrinth of impossible complexity that is the human brain, made this the hardest set of concepts yet to fully wrap my head around—but it also made it the most exhilarating when, with enough time spent zoomed on both ends, it all finally clicked. I feel like I took a time machine to the future, and I’m here to tell you that it’s even weirder than we expect.

we’re in a period of both forced experiment and forced experimentation. In January everyone was online and willing to try anytime online: now we have no choice. So, some of this is the future happening more quickly, with years of growth being pulled forward, but some of it also is an experiment that won’t stick. We’ll find out which in the next six months or so.

The physical world will become machine-readable, clickable, & searchable. There will be new interfaces & new ways to navigate & create content. We will create new lexicons and even new architectures for our digital selves and the digital world around us. What could a day in the metaverse look like? What if interacting with our digital assistants and virtual life could be more streamlined, productive and even fun? For many tasks, smartphones are bulky. They don’t allow us to work with both hands. They’re awkward as mirrors to the augmented world. AR glasses offer a different solution, one where the digital and physical come together in a streamlined approach.

I’m typing this in my sweatpants, in my living room, because our offices have been closed since mid-March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. My internet goes out approximately twice a day. I exercise in the same space in which I answer emails and Slack messages. I sort of mentally crumple up my day as I move from the living room to the kitchen for dinner. I am just a small part of an accidental grand experiment: Do knowledge workers really need the office?

Leverage the data and insights in our State of Corporate Innovation Report to support making the case for innovation management as a core competency.

Telehealth has helped expand access to care for patients restricted from seeing their doctors. Actions taken today will determine if its full potential is realized after the crisis is over.

Organizations should first consider how the behind-the-scenes logistics of their “Full Service 2.0” offering will be best facilitated by advances in technology. Ride-sharing services could provide a chauffeur-like experience by modifying their algorithms to allow a user to request trips with the same driver instead of the first available car. Hotels may accelerate the introduction of robots to handle room deliveries or other in-room services in a socially distant manner. Technology gives organizations new options to address the previously high costs of high-touch, full-service models or the uncertainties around service and delivery times that turned away consumers from these services.

Business leaders who measure how their consumers map to Forrester’s Empowered Customer Segmentation and evolve along these critical dimensions will understand and anticipate customer demands for new services and experiences. Armed with that information, business leaders can prioritize their investments in digital innovation, pinpoint the customers most likely to reward innovation with new revenue, and identify which consumers threaten to churn.

A landmark study identifying key shopper, brand, and retailer trends to provide a holistic view of the rapidly evolving ecommerce and retail media landscape.

Pop-ups may seem minor, but they offer a solution to some of the pressing challenges facing landlords, tenants, and the ground-floor spaces of cities — particularly amid Covid-19. 

Our latest perspectives on the coronavirus outbreak, the twin threats to lives and livelihoods, and how organizations can prepare for the next normal.

Space Tech map for 2020 represents the most promising venture backed startups in the space domain and they segment the Space Tech ecosystem into 7 categories.

With recent uncertain times across the world, 2020 is shaping up to be both exciting and frightening. Many startups have experienced cutbacks, including many needing to initiate layoffs while others…

Which technology trends are most likely to impact your business in the coming years? Trends are waypoints to help anticipate future states in a world where uncertainty looms. The Future Today Institute's annual Tech Trends Report asks you to examine your assumptions, cherished beliefs and expectations for the future using a bolder, more holistic perspective. In the 13th edition of our Tech Trends Report, we forecast the key technology trends that will redefine businesses in the coming years. More importantly, we offer strategic analysis and guidance on those trends and further explore them in future scenarios to help you understand their implications on your organization and industry.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents a fundamental change in the way we live, work, and relate to one another. It is a new chapter in human development, enabled by technology advances that are commensurate with those of the first, second and third industrial revolutions, and which are merging the physical, digital, and biological worlds in ways that create both promise and peril. The speed, breadth, and depth of this revolution is forcing us to rethink how countries should develop, how organizations create value, and even what it means to be human. Now, as the world grapples with COVID-19, there is an opportunity to further harness the power of the revolution in ways that create a more inclusive, human-centred global economy.

Events are a bundle of content, networking and meetings, and aggregate people in one place at one time. When you try to take this online, half of it breaks and most of it makes no sense bundled together. We need new tools and new ways to think about networks, not ‘virtual conferences’.

Instead of wanting the past back, want the future sooner.

This report - compiled jointly by 36 international organizations, under the aegis of the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities (CCSA) - gives a small flavor of that cooperation.

It provides a snapshot of some of the latest information available on how COVID-19 is affecting different aspects of public and private life, from economic and environmental fluctuations to changes that affect individuals in terms of income, education, employment and violence and changes affecting public services such as civil aviation and postal services. It also puts a spotlight on the affects for some sub-population groups like women and children as well as geographical regions.

These tech “laws” describe why a given network’s value rises exponentially with the volume of participants (Metcalfe’s Law), why most marketing channels eventually produce diminishing returns (Law of Shitty Clickthroughs), or why starting with simple iterations leads to better long-term products (Gall’s Law). Some, like Moore’s Law, have been extremely prescient. Others, like Conway’s Law, provide counterintuitive insights — such as why Apple’s corporate structure is key to its user experience
The report look at 8 of the most famous tech laws, where they come from, why they matter, and how they help describe some of tech’s biggest successes.

Mary Meeker's venture capital firm, Bond, sends a 28-page report to its investors.

In January, everyone was online, and probably willing to try anything online. Now we don’t have a choice - we’re shut indoors for weeks or months. What does that means for work? Ecommerce? Health and education? And the people left behind?

Together, these forces will revolutionize the way that work gets done in companies and will compel leaders to rethink even the most basic assumptions about how their organizations function. They will need to discover new ways of organizing, performing, and leading, along with new approaches to recruiting, developing, and engaging employees. All this in organizations with limitless data, open boundaries, employees and machines working side by side, and rapidly evolving employee value propositions.

New retail concepts are challenging the traditional store format and pushing the boundaries of innovation. Retailers must adapt and cater to evolving consumer expectations to retain customer loyalty. Explore the top retail concepts from around the world to inspire your strategy.
- Identify new store formats applicable to your business
- Understand the latest retail developments to elevate your shopping experience
- Uncover tactics to maintain your competitive edge