The Power of Asking Pivotal Questions. In a rapidly changing business landscape, executives need the ability to quickly spot both new opportunities and hidden risks. Asking the right questions can help you broaden your perspective — and make smarter decisions. Good strategic thinking and decision making often require a shift in perspective — particularly in environments characterized by significant uncertainty and change. What worked in the past simply may not apply in the future. Asking “what if” questions about the future may create discomfort, since answers are often not obvious.
But asking such questions also forces you to step back and challenge current assumptions that prevent you from seeing breakthrough solutions. Are You Solving The Right Problem? Back in the 1960s, IBM Corp. had the opportunity to buy or license Xerox Corp.’s new reprographic photo process. The questions leaders pose sometimes get in the way of solving the right problem or seeing more innovative solutions. Think Outside In The Challenge 1. 2. 3. 1. The Tesco problem | thenextwave. Over at The Futures Company blog I have a short post on Tesco’s problems, prompted by the abrupt dismissal of its Chief Executive Philip Clarke in the face of the continuing pressure on the company’s market share and profitability.
For non-British readers,Tesco is (still) Britain’s largest supermarket, but having been utterly dominant in the 1990s, has been struggling for much of the past decade. The first thing I said in the post was that the food market had become more complex since the financial crisis, and Tesco hadn’t been able to follow. This normally translates into a story about being “assailed by discounters”, but the discount proposition isn’t just about price. People who advise Tesco to turn its attention to fighting with discounters on price show they don’t really understand how the market has changed. The Tesco proposition was built on ruthless price competition, on promoting ‘choice’, and also serving both ends of the market.
The price of emotion Shifting values Future stories. Statement on "Innovative Approaches to Programme Design and Implementation to Support the Operationalisation of the post-2015 Development Agenda" at the Joint Meeting of the Executive Boards of UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS, UNICEF, UN Women, and WFP | UN. 02 Feb 2015 As Member States move closer to adopting a new global development agenda, the UN system is reviewing how it works to ensure that it is in good shape to help deliver the new agenda. This involves not only the work on becoming fit for purpose, but also the range of innovative approaches to development practice which agencies are increasingly using. We heard a good deal about agencies’ enthusiasm for innovation and Member States’ support for our efforts at the session this morning. Today’s development challenges are complex and interconnected. We live in a world of volatility, uncertainty, and unpredictability.
All six agencies, funds, and programmes represented here today have invested in dedicated staff to advance innovation in their organizations - to ‘disrupt’ business as usual, encourage change in the search for ever greater effectiveness, and identify new ways of doing things which could be of wide benefit. Mobile technologies per se have broad applications for development: The State of Strategy Today. In a study performed a few years ago, we found a strong correlation between a company’s total shareholder returns (TSR) and its planning horizon.
Those with longer horizons saw stronger returns than those with shorter.1 We were not surprised then when our latest strategy study found a similar correlation. Only this time, the comparisons are between successful and unsuccessful strategies. Of companies with longer strategy cycles—five years or more—85 percent see beneficial results. For companies whose strategy cycles are less than five years, 53 percent are successful. This last point is reassuring, as it suggests that a properly executed strategy is worth pursuing. Strategy is more difficult now When working on consulting engagements, our clients sometimes complain that it’s much harder now to craft powerful and easy-to-communicate strategies. Interestingly, C-suite executives are much more optimistic about the effectiveness of their companies’ strategies than those in management. Samsung looks at ways to regain ground from Apple | Asia-Pacific | BDlive. What I Learned About the Future by Reading 100 Science Fiction Books — Better Humans.
Over the past two years I’ve read 100 sci-fi novels, averaging about one per week. See the full list here, with my favorites. I started reading sci-fi to pass the time. I had good memories of reading Jurassic Park as a kid. I continued because I noticed that it gave me something: a stronger imagination, a disrespect for the merely possible. I started noticing I had different ideas, ideas you can’t find by reading the same TechCrunch articles, Medium posts, and Hacker News digests as everyone else in Silicon Valley.
As futurist Jason Silva says, “Imagination allows us to conceive of delightful future possibilities, pick the most amazing one, and pull the present forward to meet it.” Every good sci-fi story is, at it’s core, a thought experiment, and I’d like to run one of my own now: What if these books represented a fair guess at what the future will be like? It’s not so far-fetched. Here is the future we are headed for, as predicted by our greatest sci-fi writers. 1. 2. 3. Why It Matters. Here's why Google has finally lost the Android/iOS war. Maybe disposing of Android creator Andy Rubin was dumb. Maybe buying into the “Year of Chromebook” meme was dumber.
Maybe making strategic decisions in anticipation of European Union trustbusters was even dumber. Maybe selling Motorola was dumbest. Take your pick, or add to the list, because all of the above apply. Google has squandered what should be in 2015 platform riches, ceding to Apple what shouldn’t have been. In October 2009, I asserted (before anyone else) that “iPhone cannot win the smartphone wars“, as the stage was set for Android and iOS to mimic the platform battle between Windows and Macs during the PC era.
The Numbers Game Consider Android’s setback, following the release of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. Apple benefits from pent-up demand—customers wanting but not being able to purchase a larger iOS handset until September 2014. The iOS platform, around which iPhone is flagship, benefits from commitment. Apple announces calender fourth-quarter results on January 27. A History of Samsung's Galaxy Brand: From the S1 to the Galaxy S4. Samsung becomes the world's largest smartphone maker as Apple's market share hits a three-year low. Samsung reports record profits of £4.5bn - up 50 per cent from last yearIt shipped double the amount of smartphones compared to AppleThis represents Samsung's biggest ever lead over Apple since 1997Apple's smartphone market share drops to a three-year low By Victoria Woollaston Published: 10:51 GMT, 26 July 2013 | Updated: 01:14 GMT, 27 July 2013 Samsung has overtaken Apple to become the world’s most profitable mobile phone company.
Apple’s share of the smartphone market dropped to 14 per cent, its lowest for three years, because of ‘lacklustre’ iPhone 5 sales and tougher competition from rivals, according to industry analysts. Driven by demand for cheaper Android devices in Asia and Latin America, Samsung’s handset division made an estimated £3.4billion operating profit in the second quarter of this year. Samsung's president J.K. Shin, pictured, holds up the firm's Galaxy S4 phone during its launch in March. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Source: uSwitch as of July 1 2013.
The Great Smartphone War: Apple vs. Samsung. Samsung was at a crossroads. “It’s a crisis of design,” the executive said. Across Samsung, the message was heard: the company needed to come out with its own “iPhone”—something beautiful and easy to use with just that dollop of “cool”—and fast. Emergency teams were thrown together, and for three months designers and engineers worked under enormous pressure.
For some employees, the work was so demanding they got only two to three hours of sleep a night. By March 2, the company’s Product Engineering Team had completed a feature-by-feature analysis of the iPhone, comparing it to the Samsung smartphone under construction. No feature was too small for comparison. Bit by bit, the new model for a Samsung smartphone began to look—and function—just like the iPhone. In fact, some industry executives worried about the similarities. By late the following month, Samsung was ready to hold its own version of the Jobs press conference.
‘We’ve been ripped off.” The Apple team returned to Cupertino. How Samsung Became the World's No. 1 Smartphone Maker. Illustration by Thomas Traum I’m in a black Mercedes-Benz (DAI:GR) van with three Samsung Electronics PR people heading toward Yongin, a city about 45 minutes south of Seoul. Yongin is South Korea’s Orlando: a nondescript, fast-growing city known for its tourist attractions, especially Everland Resort, the country’s largest theme park.
But the van isn’t going to Everland. We’re headed to a far more profitable theme park: the Samsung Human Resources Development Center, where the theme just happens to be Samsung. The complex’s formal name is Changjo Kwan, which translates as Creativity Institute. Photograph by Tony Law for Bloomberg BusinessweekSamsung’s Human Resources Development Center More than 50,000 employees pass through Changjo Kwan and its sister facilities in a given year. They will stay in single or shared rooms, depending on seniority, on floors named and themed after artists. Photograph by Tony Law for Bloomberg Businessweek A guide at the Gumi phone complex The lesson stuck. Welcome to Forbes. Samsung's Galaxy Note Edge is the latest WTF phone - Dec. 8, 2014. NEW YORK (CNNMoney) The Samsung Galaxy Note Edge is certainly creative. Its defining characteristic is a small portion of curved glass that bends around the right side of the phone.
It's unlike anything else you've seen on a smartphone. That tiny curve on the Edge's display functions as a second screen. It can display a list of apps, quick settings, notifications, weather and the time. It also serves as a stopwatch, timer, health tracker, Twitter (TWTR, Tech30) feed and even a ruler. It's unique. The Edge doesn't do much that your smartphone can't (and other than the curved edge, it's essentially a Galaxy Note 4). Related: 5 insane Samsung gadgets Even my favorite Edge feature, the dimly lit night clock, is essentially just a relocated version of Android's "daydream" clock.
The curved edge mostly just ends up getting in the way. It is also a bit awkwardly located, since it's where righties' thumbs and lefties' fingers usually rest. Related: Samsung to stop making so many damn phones. Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S3 success factors: Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 5S comparison. Bigger screen, unique features, trend-setting accessories and compatibility with users behavior could be said the the success factors of Samsung’s Galaxy series smartphones including Galaxy S3, Galaxy S2 and Galaxy S1 and the word of mouth regarding Galaxy S4 is telling us about another hit device. If we consider the four factors mentioned above as key factors in success of Galaxy S smartphone series, then Apple look a bit limping to work on them. If US tech giant really want to get back on the track of right path, it need to consider inducting them into upcoming iPhone 5S and iPhone 6.
Bigger Screen Smartphone users have become accustomed of using big screen on their devices. Obviously the trend was introduced by Android-based smartphones from Samsung, HTC, Hawaii and others and now it has become universal. Every other tech forum is filled with comment from users demanding of Apple to increase the display size instead of sticking to 4 inch screen of present generation of iPhones. 5 Reasons Why Nokia Lost Its Handset Sales Lead and Got Downgraded to 'Junk' Nokia's Symbian OS (left) quickly declined, and the Lumia on Windows Phone (right) hasn't picked up the slack yet. Photos: Jon Snyder/Wired (left) and Ariel Zambelich/Wired (right) Samsung has surpassed Nokia in cellphone sales, effectively ending Nokia’s 14-year run as the world’s top handset maker, according to reports from IHS iSuppli and Strategy Analytics released late Thursday. Friday morning didn’t bring much better news for the former handset leader, either: Standard & Poor downgraded Nokia’s bonds to “junk” status with a grade of BB+/B.
According to IHS iSuppli’s numbers, Nokia shipped 83 million handsets in Q1 2012, while Samsung shipped 92 million handsets. Strategy Analytics’ numbers were only slightly different, reporting that Nokia shipped 82.7 million total handsets and Samsung shipped 93.5 million. In the mobile industry, a 14-year lead is undoubtedly impressive. But Nokia’s lead has gradually declined in the past few years for a number of very specific reasons. Samsung success story: More about marketing than innovation? Samsung Electronics is spending more on marketing than R&D for the first time in at least three years, prompting some pundits to warn that the IT giant is sacrificing innovation at a time when the market is teeming with ever smarter gadgets.
The South Korean firm, which warned on Friday it will not post record quarterly earnings for the first time since 2011, looks set to spend big bucks on marketing upcoming mobile devices, including the Galaxy S4 smartphone, to convert more iPhone and iPad users loyal to arch rival Apple Inc. While the new Galaxy smartphone, unveiled to much fanfare in New York last month, will boast a motion-detecting technology that stops and starts videos depending on whether someone is looking at the screen, and flip between songs and photos at the wave of a hand, industry watchers say the device would not overturn an industry that lives and dies by innovation.
"(Samsung) lagged behind in creating a new category. Apple created a new category with tablets. Technology. For the first time in 14 years, wireless communications giant Nokia will not sit atop the global cellphone business on an annual basis at the end of 2012—with Samsung set to seize the mobile handset market’s top rank. Samsung is expected to account for 29 percent of worldwide cellphone shipments, up from 24 percent in 2011, according to the IHS iSuppli Mobile and Wireless Communications Service at information and analytics provider IHS (NYSE: IHS). Nokia’s share this year will drop to 24 percent, down from 30 percent last year, as presented in Table 1. A dislodged Nokia will cause Samsung to rise to first place for the full year of 2012, up from the second rank in 2011, the first time the South Korean electronics titan will occupy the top on a yearly basis.
Nokia will fall to the runner-up spot, the first time since 1998 it won’t be in peak position for overall cellphone shipments during a full calendar year. Samsung’s Success vs. Peter Bryer: Mobile Foresight: Samsung S Health accessories. Samsung's Sensor fusion play. KEY MOBILE TRENDS: mobile health, sensor fusion, sensors, big data, big proactive, wearable computing Last week I wrote a blog entry about my take on a potential wrist-worn device from Apple (please see "An Apple watch could be a genius big-data play"). It's complete conjecture on my part, but I see that any such device would be just as much about collecting information as providing it. I have no detailed comments to share on Samsung's Galaxy S4 which was unveiled yesterday.
The vendor showed off a series of evolutionary new features which anyone following the latest trends would have expected. A 1080p, 5-inch screen, eye-tracking, wireless charging, NFC... Samsung ticked off all the right boxes for a 2013 flagship device. But the more interesting development wasn't in the device itself but what was happening around it. Vendors of smartphones should be aware that opportunities are growing outside of the box and beyond the screen. Nintendo Wii Fit, eat your heart out. Video via Laptop Mag: Samsung success analysis: Willingness to make more devices key.
A history of Tesco: The rise of Britain's biggest supermarket. Tesco: How one supermarket came to dominate. Why Samsung’s phones will always run someone else’s software. Lewis seeks to rouse Tesco from the nightmare of its recent history. Tesco shares fall after rating downgraded to junk status. Another commercial behemoth falls to earth. Pensions under pressure after Tesco’s £250m cost-cutting measures. Tesco downgraded to 'junk' despite turnaround plan. Why an obscure British data-mining company is worth $3 billion. Layout 1 - global-leadership-forecast-2014-2015_tr_ddi.pdf. The 12 Biggest Life Secrets Forgotten By Mankind.
Challenging the Divine Right of Big Energy. The Disruption Machine.