Technology Revolution: The Future of Now

The buzz: Pharma. Populations are aging. Chronic diseases are increasing, with new strains emerging at an alarming rate. For these reasons and more, global healthcare costs are skyrocketing and pressure is mounting to develop innovative pharmaceutical drugs. How can pharma organizations accelerate R&D – without compromising quality – to deliver new therapies that effectively fight complex, life-threatening illnesses like cancer? Is technology the key to improving patient outcomes while reducing costs? The experts speak. Ashish Goel, Infosys: "We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them" (Albert Einstein). Alan S. Louie, Ph.D, IDC Health Insights: "May you live in interesting times" (Ancient Chinese curse). Joe Miles, SAP: "If it's not documented, it's just a rumor" (from a former FDA investigator). Join us for Pharma and Technology: Higher Outcomes, Lower Costs.

The buzz: Balance. Whether you call it work-life balance or integration, some days it seems impossible. How can you be calm, centered, productive, happy amid 24/7 work distractions and deadlines, family and sleep demands? The experts speak. Pamela Weiss, Appropriate Response: "In a real sense all life is inter-related. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly" (Dr. Martin Luther King). Marc Lesser, SIYLI.org: "There is scientific evidence that mindfulness practice can support leaders to cultivate more acceptance and openness, and reduce fear – necessary in supporting innovation." Peter Bostelmann, SAP: "Mindfulness is a Leading Edge Inner Technology–not at all about being esoteric or touchy feely. It is evidence-based, self-empowering mental trainings known by ancient wisdom traditions and today backed by modern science." Join us for Balance at Work: The Business Case for Health.

The buzz: Cloud and Marketing. Breaking news! The cloud brings one of the biggest opportunities for the future of marketing. But it comes with big challenges. Have you begun developing a digital marketing strategy and platform makeover? Are you prepared to shift into a totally customer-focused culture? Is the right talent on board yet? Before your marketing organization can play well and win big in this burgeoning arena, you need to know what future success will look like. The experts speak. Florian Brody, Brody and Partners: "Let's go back some 400 years. Hamlet: "Do you see yonder clouds that's almost in shape of a camel?" Polonius: "By the mass, and 'tis like a camel indeed" (William Shakespeare, Hamlet). Steven Bailey, Deloitte Digital: "In all things, be curious, courageous, confident, and caring." Bernard Chung, SAP: "It's not about digital marketing but marketing in a digital world" (Mayur Gupta). Join us for Up-Skilling for Marketing in the Cloud: Are You Ready?

The buzz: Fraud. As hard as you work to implement effective anti-fraud processes, voracious and savvy fraudsters are working even harder, and perhaps smarter, to thwart you. Good news! Predictive analytics technology can help you understand emerging fraud patterns and adapt against new types of attack, but only if you use the tools effectively. What will it take for your leadership to make this a priority? The experts speak. Derek Snaidauf, Deloitte: "The beginning is the most important part of the work" (Plato). Michael P Cangemi, Cangemi Company: "The uninspected (inevitably) deteriorates" (34th US President Dwight D. Eisenhower). Jérôme Pugnet, SAP: "Fraudulent actors often exhibit repetitive patterns. As we recognize these, we can apply heuristics to predict when they are about to occur again, and help stop them; but for complex, evolving fraud vectors, we turn to machine learning…" (Blog at Airbnb). Join us for Fighting Fraud: Predictive Technology to the Rescue? – Part 3.

Today's buzz: Insurance. Along its paper-to-digital journey, the insurance industry has attained sophistication in the use of some analytics tools. But the industry overall is still a laggard when it comes to adopting an integrated approach across the enterprise. The best way to catch up? Establishing a Business Intelligence Center of Excellence may be the key to creating a much-needed business-driven analytics strategy. The experts speak. Michael John Bernaski, Management Consultant: "...in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes" (H. A. Simon). Monique Hesseling, Strategy Meets Action: The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing (Socrates). Pat Saporito, SAP: "The Stone Age was marked by man's clever use of crude tools; the Information Age has been marked by man's crude use of clever tools" (Anonymous). Join us for Analytics in Insurance: Dinosaur or Dynamo? - Part 3

The buzz: SMEs. If you're the entrepreneurial founder or leader of a small-to-midsize company, your commitment is tested daily. After engaging investors and building a core team, your challenges can include scaling technology, opening sustainable distribution channels, engaging and delighting customers, mastering social media opportunities and more. Whew! How are today's successful businesses getting it all done? The experts speak. Brian Moran, Brian Moran & Associates: "Never let the odds keep you from doing what you know in your heart you were meant to do." (H. Jackson Brown Jr.) Andrew Sherman, Jones Day: "We spend most of our lives devoted to activities that diminish our fuel and then wonder why our tank is empty." Meaghan Sullivan, SAP: "Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful." (Albert Schweitzer) Join us for Grow Your SME Business: Smart Tips for Entrepreneurs – Part 2.

Today's buzz: Customer experience. Is technology the magic bullet to help you give customers everything they want and more – and thus ensure their loyalty? Not quite. Technology can indeed give you real-time insights to be relevant, to respond with agility and speed, to connect collaboratively and transact efficiently. But the perfectly seamless, frictionless customer experience can be elusive. The experts speak. Don Peppers, Peppers & Rogers Group: "Statistics show that customer loyalty is not well correlated with customer satisfaction. But customer disloyalty IS highly correlated with customer dissatisfaction." Anthony Leaper, SAP: "Many companies believe technology is the only lubricant needed to enable a frictionless customer experience. The individual characteristics needed to deliver a frictionless experience are never consistent, so is its successful delivery to a customer simply guesswork or luck?" Join us for Frictionless Customer Experience: War Stories from the Trenches.

Today's buzz: Potential Is your company still operating by Industrial Era standardization, predictability, top-down authority? Enough! Progressive organizations are using a connected, collaborative, creative model to unleash and amplify the imagination, initiative, passion of inspired individual employees, customers, suppliers. How? The experts speak. Polly LaBarre, MIX: "Every great advance has issued from a new audacity of imagination" (John Dewey). Andrew Jones, Conjunctured Coworking: "In today's rapidly evolving 'sharing economy,' traditionally managed large firms built purely on scale will struggle to receive respect and commitment from tomorrow's most talented knowledge workers." Mario Kaphan, Vagas: "Individuals are empowered to do whatever they want, BUT everybody has everything to do with that." Kerry Brown, SAP: "Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions" (Oliver Wendell Holmes). Join us for Unleashing Unlimited Human Potential.

Today's buzz: You - again! Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose (Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, 1849). Early-days "Make for Me" industrialization was humming along until Henry Ford car-jacked it to launch the "Any color you want, as long as it's black" mass-production manufacturing economy. Today, consumers are once again calling the shots, loudly clamoring for "Make for Me" products and services. All at higher quality at lower prices, of course. Can new technologies help your company give 'em what they want and still be profitable? The experts speak. Whitney Johnson, Disruptive Innovation Facilitator: "The more we give, the more we have. The more we let go, the more control. Elizabeth Hedstrom Henlin, TBR: "So, two cheers for Democracy: one because it admits variety and two because it permits criticism" (E. M. Forster). Reuven Gorsht, SAP: "To understand your customers, start by knowing why you exist." Join us for Future of Make for Me: The Luxury of Customer Centricity – Part 2.

The buzz: 4th Industrial Revolution. Welcome to the Age of the Smart Factory, where a new generation of systems delivers real-time awareness and dynamic interactions among machines, systems, assets, people and things – aka The Internet of Things. Consumers are connected through sensors and smart tags. Printing is now 3D. Is your business ready to seize innovative opportunities or are you stuck in the dark ages? The experts speak. Dave Westrom, ThingWorx: "It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive, but those who can best manage change" (Charles Darwin). Quentin Fisher, HCL Axon: "The Future is already here. It is just not evenly distributed (William Gibson). Chris Hallenbeck, SAP: "When I am working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong. (Buckminster Fuller) Join us for Industrial Internet: Real-Time to Grow Your Business – Part 2.