Competing in Future Time and Digital Transformation

Tech

Written By

Kevin Benedict

September 28, 2016

Digital Transformation is the process of transforming a business from one state to another - from a state where businesses operate in Human time, to a state that operates in Digital time and finally to Future time. Businesses today must digitally transform in order to compete in all three of these time continuums simultaneously.

Let’s first identify these different time continuums:

Human time – time governed by our physical, biological and mental limitations as humans
Digital time – time governed by computing, networking and data transmission speeds
Future time – time governed by predictive analytics, algorithms and artificial intelligence

Human time cannot compete with Digital time in a mobile and always connected world. Human time cannot deliver the real-time mobile and online commerce speeds that digital consumers require. For example, you can’t have a human responding to mobile search queries, or mobile payments, rather you need optimized information logistics systems (OILS) that are integrated with artificial intelligence (AI) enabled bots responding automatically in digital time.

Digital time refers to the speeds at which computer systems and networks operate. The goal being to reach speeds as close to real-time as possible by optimizing each connected system, component and process that touch data.

Future time is faster than real-time. It is the ability to anticipate needs, take actions and deliver content even before it is requested. It is the ability to automatically prepare for the future in a manner that adds value.

An OILS running in Future time, utilizes predictive analytics, algorithms and AI to provide an experience that anticipates the needs of the user in a manner that makes it nearly invisible to the user. For example turn-by-turn navigation supported by real-time traffic updates that route you around obstacles and problem areas. An OILS, running in Future time, can prepare personalized and contextually relevant experiences in advance.

I had the opportunity to work with a large global automotive system manufacturer this year. We explored extending traditional automotive systems to operate in Future time. They would integrate multiple external databases including traffic accident and insurance information, plus real-time weather and traffic information to automatically prepare the vehicle and driver for the road ahead. We were reaching into the future to provide additional value and a competitive advantage.

Future time delivers value from the future. It works in a time beyond “real-time.” This is the evolutionary nirvana for human to digital interactions. Businesses that have not digitally transformed in a manner that can harvest value from the future have no possibility of competing there.

Follow Kevin Benedict on Twitter @krbenedict, or read more of his articles on digital transformation strategies here:

Digital Hope and Redemption in the Digital Age

Tech

Print

Written By

Kevin Benedict

Follow me on twitter

September 22, 2016

“You have a memory like an elephant,” is truly a compliment. Researchers document all kinds of remarkable examples of the recall power of elephants, and this is credited with their ability to survive harsh environments as noted in this Scientific American article http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/elephants-never-forget/.

Our human memory also helps us learn from past experiences and mistakes, avoid recognizable hazards and keep track of our very busy lives. Our memories for the most part have served us well, but the same might not always be said about digital memory in an always connected, real-time world.

One of the most valuable concepts known to man is hope. Hope is the belief that things can change and get better. It is the belief that one can turn the page and start a new life. It is the motivation that draws many to get out of bed each morning, recover from past mistakes, and go to work.

Bankruptcy laws were designed, in part, to give hope. The Supreme Court in 1934 describes it this way, “It gives to the honest but unfortunate debtor…a new opportunity in life and a clear field for future effort, unhampered by the pressure and discouragement of preexisting debt.” It gives debtors hope for a better future. Source: http://www.uscourts.gov/services-forms/bankruptcy/bankruptcy-basics/process-bankruptcy-basics

Today our second brains, the digital memory banks in the cloud controlled by programmed algorithms, don’t forget. Algorithms are programmed not to forget our histories, our bankruptcies, our youthful indiscretions, our convictions, DUIs, our vices, our former lives. They make it difficult to forget and to transform into a better version of ourselves.

The more our lives, through digital interactions, are driven by and influenced by digital algorithms and second brains, the more important it becomes to consider the issue of digital forgiveness, digital redemption and digital hope. Hope that in the physical and digital world, you have the opportunity to start fresh, and change your life for the better, unencumbered by your plethora of mistakes, digitally remembered, biasing the future. Few of us, with the exception of Uncle Rico in Napoleon Dynamite, are the same person we were in our youth.

I can think of many scenarios where a person may want to change his/her life and leave the past behind, but algorithms and second brains won’t let them - unless somebody programs them to forget. If they are not programmed to forget, our digital interactions with websites, businesses, governments, police, search engines and match-making sites will hang-on to our past and use it to judge our present and future. Where is digital forgiveness in the digital era? Where is the ability to hope for a different and better life free from our past if algorithms are programmed to always reference, remember and judge based on our past?

Just because something is technically possible, does not automatically make it good or worthy. We as humans must define how we want digital technologies to support the world and society we desire. The Supreme Court in 1934 thought it wise to forgive and forget, to give people the “right to be forgotten,” in order to let a person start fresh. I believe it is time to let people be digitally redeemed in a similar manner.

The “right to be forgotten” concept has now been made into law in the EU, and variations of it have been implemented in other regions around the world. It was motivated by the desire for people to "determine the development of their own life in an autonomous way, without being perpetually or periodically stigmatized as a consequence of a specific action performed in the past.” Read more here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_be_forgotten.

In Germany they have implemented a law titled the Federal Data Protection Act, or Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (BDSG). The law is designed to protect individuals' personal rights from being injured through the handling or mishandling of their personal information.

I believe the “right to be forgotten” is an important consideration and discussion today. In a digital world fueled by data, capitalism is not a sufficient safeguard for our personal privacy and future. We must imagine the world as we want it, and make it so as a society.

Hope is a critically important concept to humanity, and it must not be allowed to be stamped out by unbridled digital algorithms and second brains. We must all recognize, in a digital age – hope matters.

Follow Kevin Benedict on Twitter @krbenedict, or read more of his articles on digital transformation strategies here:

Digital Transformation and the Role of Faster

Tech

Print

Written By

Kevin Benedict

Follow me on twitter

September 19, 2016

Digital transformation is too big and important to our future success not to understand the rules that apply to it. The first three rules for winning in this age of hyper-digital transformation are:

Advantages in speed, analytics and operational tempos must be captured by implementing an optimized information logistics system (OILS)
Real-time operational tempos (IT, people and business processes) must be achieved
Businesses that can “analyze data and act and with speed” will dominate those that are slower.

The first two rules prepare for the third, which focuses on action. The first rule is about implementing an IT infrastructure capable of competing and winning. The second rule expands beyond IT to encompass business and people processes that must be optimized to support a real-time and mobile business world. The third rule says the first two rules are meaningless unless they result in right actions that are implemented faster than competitors can respond.

The role and importance of being faster is critical to understand. Faster means you must implement an OILS (optimized information logistics systems) to move beyond human-time, which is dominated by the sun and our biology, to the digital-time measured by computer processing and data transmission speeds, and then fast-forward into the future through predictive analytics. Faster means you can squeeze more features and capabilities into the same or less time, which is critical for online and mobile apps.

Our research shows there will be a dramatic increase in the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the next 40-months. It will be the codified brains of all kinds of applications, bots and processes. It will cross reference data, validate answers, execute decision-trees and take actions. We humans, however, are not willing to wait for these extra steps, layers and processes to happen in human-time, so the multitude of new AI applications must be pushed to operate in digital-time.

How big is AI going to be? We surveyed 2,000 executives across 18 countries for our Work Ahead report series and they predict AI will be the digital technology having the largest impact on their work by 2020. Even though only 15% of the respondents think artificial intelligence is having a large impact on their business today. Forty-six percent believe AI will be critical to them within the next 40 months – that’s a 207% predicted increase in business impact.

AI is also a critical component of bots. Bots are software robots that apply AI to automatically execute their designed tasks. Only 18% of digital leaders in our survey report bots are having a “large to very large” impact on their businesses today, but by year 2020, it jumps to 41%. That represents a huge increase of 128% in predicted business impact in just 40 months

Without the implementation of an OILS, your IT infrastructure will be too slow to operate today in an increasingly mobile world, and too slow to add the additional layers of AI, bot and predictive functionality for tomorrow. It’s time to get faster!

Follow Kevin Benedict on Twitter @krbenedict, or read more of his articles on digital transformation strategies here:

The center for
the future of work

Competing in Future Time and Digital Transformation

Digital Hope and Redemption in the Digital Age

Code Halo

Digital Transformation and the Role of Faster