Technology Revolution: The Future of Now

The buzz: Retail. Retailers: If you're not making each customer's experience more engaging, exciting and fulfilling than your competitors are, help is here. Hints: Find your own retail niche. Leverage that distinction across your business. Nurture a "Fan to Brand" loyalty that compels shoppers to engage far beyond the purchase…and more. The experts speak. BJ Bueno, The Cult Branding Company: "Some customers have a religious devotion to a particular brand. They may go so far as to permanently scorch their skin with the logo or image of the brand they love." Scott McKain, Expert on Distinction: "'I LOVE shopping there. They treat me EXACTLY like everyplace else!' said no customer ever. Create distinction!" Nancy Casey, SAP: "The latest major disruption in the retail world is Alibaba's IPO which broke all records. With a market cap of $230B (larger than Amazon or eBay), the global retail market will never be the same." Join us for Retail Relevancy: Distinction Trumps Differentiation.

The buzz: Our safety. Product safety recalls are in the news so often that our reactions of shock and fear have been replaced by, "What now?" Manufacturers clearly need help identifying potential safety issues earlier in a new product's life cycle, detecting existing unknown issues, and keeping pace with increasing regulatory requirements. Can advanced analytics help proactively identify safety issues before lives are lost and injuries are sustained, launch recall campaigns sooner, and better protect consumers as well as the company's brand? The experts speak. Rob Biskup, Deloittte: "What we've got here is a failure to communicate." (Film: Cool Hand Luke) Derek Snaidauf, Deloitte: "Look, and you will find it—what is unsought will go undetected." (Sophocles) John Hack, SAP: "An escalator can never break: it can only become stairs." (Mitch Hedberg) Join us for A Matter of Life and Death: Advanced Analytics and Product Safety Recalls.

The buzz: Counterfeits, "Quality has its price" is especially true for drugs and medical devices, where counterfeiting is a $Billion market. How to protect consumer safety and stem revenue losses facing honest manufacturers? The food, fashion, high tech products and automotive industries face similar challenges. Will Life Sciences solve it first? The experts speak. Eric Newmark, IDC: "The life science industry has dragged its feet for the last two decades with item-level serialization, keeping it in the dark ages, and positioning itself as an easy target for counterfeiters." Manish Tandon, InfoSys: "True glory takes root and spreads; all false pretenses, like flowers, fall to the ground – nor can any counterfeit last long" (Marcus Tullius Cicero). Joe Miles, SAP: "When the World Health Organization says 10 percent of the drugs in the world market are fake, I'd say it's a reasonable and educated guess..." (Roger Bate). Join us for Counterfeit Medical Products: Stop the Madness.

The buzz: Banks. Since the financial crisis, banks have been working harder to rebuild customer trust and improve relationships, even offering interactive online communications to meet consumer demand. A survey from SAP and analyst firm Ovum finds many banks now seeking cloud technology to develop products faster, simplify operations, quickly enter new markets, and ultimately be more agile and customer-centric. How are they doing? The experts speak. Riva Richmond, EIU: "Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle." (Abraham Lincoln). Daniel Mayo, Ovum: "SaaS, in enabling rapid change for incumbent banks and levelling the playing field for smaller banks and new entrants, is poised to transform the industry. The only question is when we will reach this point." Falk Rieker, SAP: "Adapt or die! Banking is undergoing a massive, rapid transformation that is technology-led and enabled." Join us for Financial Fast-Forward: Defining A Best Practice Bank.

The buzz: Mentoring. Great mentors can be invaluable to the success of individual employees, as well as to your entire organization. Are only a few employees, perhaps mainly one gender, privileged to have mentors? Are your mentoring practices building a diverse leadership or cloning "desirable" stereotypes? Do you support reverse mentoring in a multi-generational workforce? The experts speak. Brian Moran, Brian Moran & Associates: "Your most important task as a leader is to teach people how to think and ask the right questions so that the world doesn't go to hell if you take a day off." Sherryanne Meyer, Air Products and Chemicals: "Others may question your credentials, your papers, your degrees. Others may look for all kinds of ways to diminish your worth. But what is inside you no one can take from you or tarnish." (Pursuit of Happyness). Meaghan Sullivan, SAP: "I am not a teacher, but an awakener." (Robert Frost). Join us for Mentoring Done Right: Everybody Wins!–Part 3.

The buzz: A healthier future. On Pharma and Technology Part 1, we discussed the need for pharma to move quickly to introduce safe, cost-effective drugs that respond to cancer, Ebola, and other chronic and urgent diseases. Now we'll explore how pharma and medical devices companies are working to surmount health market hurdles andprepare for a healthier global future. How soon can they glean life-saving insights by connecting the dots scientific, clinical, genomic, and patient therapy data? Will new collaboration networks add value to clinical trials and post-drug-launches? Are they optimistic? The experts speak. Ashish Goel, Infosys: "Change is not a destination, just as hope is not a strategy" (Rudy Giuliani). Alan S. Louie, Ph.D, IDC Health Insights: "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life" (Confucius). Joe Miles, SAP: "Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast" (Tom Peters). Join us for Pharma and Technology: Higher Outcomes, Lower Costs – Part 2.

The buzz: HR – There's an app for that. Just six years after first-generation iPhones debuted, smartphones pervade every corner of our work, personal, and emotional lives. As demand for corporate mobile apps escalates, HR is climbing aboard the mobility bandwagon. But with only a few developers offering mobile HCM – most limited to slim, basic process steps – HR is not finding the easy-to-use functionality and consumer-centric, gamified look-and-feel needed to engage younger employees. How soon will HR solution vendors put muscle into meeting this demand? The experts speak. Daniel Meszaros, Maersk Group: "Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game." (Michael Jordan) N Ganapathy, Cogent Integrated Business Solutions Inc: "It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change." (Charles Darwin) Ingrid Bernaudin, SuccessFactors: "If we don't disrupt ourselves by leveraging mobile, someone else will." Join us for Trends in HR Mobility: Apps on the Go.

The buzz: Banking. Triggered by the financial crisis and subsequent regulatory changes, banks are moving toward a new paradigm of simultaneously and proactively managing risk, return, liquidity, and capital. While technology is playing a transformative role in the industry, many regulators believe banks are moving too slowly to fully embrace it. Are they right? The experts speak. Richard Fleming, Bain & Company: "Change happens by listening to people and then starting a dialogue with people who are doing something they don't believe is right" (Jane Goodall). Michael Pinedo, New York University: "Future challenges for banking will involve determining the trade-offs between ease of use for the customer and how to maintain a high level of security and privacy." Don Trotta, SAP: "'If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough' (Mario Andretti). If regulators are now moving faster than banks ...a 'game changer'." Join us for Banks Embracing Technology: Fast Enough?

The buzz: Retail. Retailers: If you're not making each customer's experience more engaging, exciting and fulfilling than your competitors are, help is here. Hints: Find your own retail niche. Leverage that distinction across your business. Nurture a "Fan to Brand" loyalty that compels shoppers to engage far beyond the purchase…and more. The experts speak. BJ Bueno, The Cult Branding Company: "Some customers have a religious devotion to a particular brand. They may go so far as to permanently scorch their skin with the logo or image of the brand they love." Scott McKain, Expert on Distinction: "'I LOVE shopping there. They treat me EXACTLY like everyplace else!' said no customer ever. Create distinction!" Nancy Casey, SAP: "The latest major disruption in the retail world is Alibaba's IPO which broke all records. With a market cap of $230B (larger than Amazon or eBay), the global retail market will never be the same." Join us for Retail Relevancy: Distinction Trumps Differentiation.

The buzz: Retail. As NY Fashion Week ends, fashion retailers are under more competitive pressure than ever to deliver great "retail therapy" experiences that consistently meet or exceed customers' expectations. And because customers shop brands, not channels, retailers must deliver at all points along the shopping journey. But how? The experts speak. Scott McKain, Expert on Distinction: "The attributes that many retailers believe make their customer experience differentiated in the marketplace are precisely the same ones that competitors are promoting as their points of uniqueness." Vicki Cantrell, National Retail Federation: "Perfection is the enemy of the good. Don't worry, be crappy." (V. Cantrell, combining quotes). Andrea France, SAP: "Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky; in the street. Fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening." (Coco Chanel). Join us for Retail: Winning the Hearts, Minds, Wallets of Fashionistas .