By 2050, the world is likely to
have changed drastically from what we know now, and the planet’s economic and
financial landscape will be no exception.
A report from professional services
giant PwC looks at which economies around the world will be the biggest and
most powerful in 33 years time.
The report, titled “The long
view: how will the global economic order change by 2050?” ranked 32
countries by their projected global gross domestic product by purchasing power
parity.
PPP is used by macroeconomists to
determine the economic productivity and standards of living among countries
across a certain time period.
With the exception of the USA, many
of the world’s current powerhouse economies like Japan and Germany will have
slipped down global rankings, replaced by countries such as India and
Indonesia, which are currently emerging markets.
Check out the ranking below (All numbers cited in the slides are in US dollars and at constant values (for reference, the US’s current PPP is $18.562 trillion):
One of the world’s top clothing manufacturers (with global sales of $2.4 billion), Benetton has experienced some ups and downs in managing its brand equity. Benetton built a powerful brand by creating a broad range of basic and colorful clothes that appealed to a wide range of consumers. Their corporate slogan, “United Colors of Benetton,” would seem to almost perfectly capture their desired image and positioning. It embraces both product considerations (the colorful character of the clothes) and user considerations (the diversity of the people who wore the clothes), providing a strong platform for the brand. Benetton’s ad campaigns reinforced this positioning by showing people from a variety of different racial backgrounds wearing a range of different-colored clothes and products.
Benetton’s ad campaigns switched directions, however, in the
1980s by addressing controversial social issues. Created in-house by famed designer
Oliviero Toscani, Benetton print ads and posters featured such unusual and
sometimes disturbing images as a white child wearing angel’s wings along- side
a black child sporting devil’s horns; a priest kissing a nun; an AIDS patient
and his family in the hospital moments before his death; and, in an ad run only
once, 56 close-up photos of male and female genitalia. In 1994, Benetton
launched a $15 million ad campaign in newspapers and billboards in 110 countries
featuring the torn and bloodied uniform of a dead Bosnian soldier. In 2000, a
campaign titled “We, on Death Row” showcased U.S. death row inmates with
pictures of the prisoners and details about their crimes and length of
incarceration.
Critics labeled these various campaigns gimmicky “shock” advertising
and accused Benetton of exploiting sensitive social issues to sell sweaters.
One fact is evident. Although the campaigns may have succeeded with a certain
market segment, they were certainly more “exclusive” in nature—distancing the brand
from many other consumers—than the early Benetton ad campaigns, which were
strikingly inviting to consumers and “inclusive” in nature. Not surprisingly,
the new ads were no always well received by its retailers and franchise owners.
The ad displaying the dead Bosnian soldier received an especially
hostile reaction throughout Europe. In the United States, some of Benetton’s
more controversial ads were rejected by the media, and Benetton’s U.S.
retailers commissioned their own campaign from TBWA/Chiat/Day ad agency in an
attempt to create a more sophisticated image for the brand. After the death row
ads debuted, Sears pulled the brand from shelves of its 400 stores. Response from
U.S. consumers was equally negative: U.S. sales of Benetton products shrank by
50 percent to $52 million between 1993 and 2000. By 2001, the number of
Benetton stores in the United States dropped to 150 from 600 in 1987.
Since 2001, Benetton’s advertisements have featured more conventional images—teenagers in colorful Benetton clothing. Benetton maintained that the company would maintain its “socially responsible” status by focusing on noncontroversial themes like racial discrimination, poverty, child labor, AIDS awareness, and so forth. Accordingly, a variety of campaigns were introduced in the ensuing decade, such as “Food for Life” and “Microcredit Africa Works.” The first decade in the new millennium, however, saw the emergence of fierce competition from Zara, H&M, and others. Lacking the same vertical integration and “fast fashion” business practices and having lost brand momentum, Benetton found itself surpassed by its more nimbler, popular rivals.
Bennetton has never been afraid to court controversy with its advertising, although it has sometimes been to the detriment of the brand.
The FINANCIAL — Announcing openly difficulties and sharing accumulated experiences in public is the best way to develop. It will prevent mistakes and enable to learn from others. Based on our experience, there are number of barriers companies are usually facing in developing their business.
Obstacles of business development
❖ Mismanagement and low efficiency of our employees (including emotional intelligence).
❖ Unsuitable selection and management of clients and investors.
❖ Inadequate integrity in teams.
❖ Ineffective business parameters, slow decision-making that leads to financial loss.
❖ Problem of maintaining good quality service during portfolio growth.
❖ Inability to achieve financial results within pre-defined timeline.
❖ Instability of local economy and difficulty in “expensive” money management
❖ Limited external business relations and lack of international practice-sharing
❖ Lack of strategic and operational know-how of entering new markets
❖ Insufficient level of public-private partnerships
❖ Restrained management innovation stemming from various reasons such as: informal economy, limited business development opportunities on the part of financial institutions, frozen industrial indicators, incoherence in macro-economic strategic planning and implementation, low level of business risk-taking.
Strategy Declared
In short, we have established a practice similar to a doctor-patient relationship. Just as a patient visits a doctor for a check-up , our clients visit us the same way and we give them receipts.
MCI Values: The idea of establishing our company was to enter, manage and invest and so we started with full package consulting services that will take our partner companies to a new level. Package includes: Management, finances, marketing, sales, investment, international integrity.
The diagnosis of business was decisive for its further strategic development. Diagnostics requires complex competences and thinking. Executing specific operating plans and synchronizing actions is the key. The focus was on user trust and our trust with our employees. The focus covers financially justified and original decisions for partner companies.
MCI Group is a business consulting and investment company oriented on innovative business development. Partner to existing or potential business in management, consulting and investments that offers diverse, financially justified solutions made individually. During consulting projects we are looking for strong, highly qualified partners. They will become our potential shareholders in a way through indirect and direct investments.
MCI has implemented important projects in different sectors. Our portfolio includes management outsourcing and investments in largescale companies. Through the synthesis of the complete business package (managerial, financial, legal, sales, marketing, investment) we have a new, different vision with full observance of objectivity and professionalism.
We cover almost all sectors: distribution and manufacturing ( food, furniture, household, chemicals, building materials, metal constructions, hydro stations, cosmetics, service, fashion), healthcare, mass media, hotel management, financial institutions, digital business, construction, retail, etc.
The main mission of our company is to run and develop international business and manage investment portfolios.
With today’s experience and tomorrow’s vision of business management, we provide the basis of business sector, making consulting a vital part of successful business.
• For partners and shareholders MCI is the most preferred, innovative business partner in consulting and investments.
• For employees we suggest the source of pride, because each one has a comfortable and modern working environment for continuous professional and career growth.
We have our Green strategy by producing and developing the service which will be always demanded, stable, sustainable and flexible, by maximizing a value for: shareholders, partners and the environment.
Innovations, different vision, persistent changes, intelligence and business attitude, direct and open relationships, simple concepts and decisions, revolutionary steps to change sectors throughout the country scale – it was our way of success. This helped the partner companies increase 100% their profits. This is the reason why we and our partners continue to grow.
Business diagnostics and strategic plan, management outsourcing, investment
In general, small and medium businesses seek to overcome problems through mobilizing solely internal resources.
However, there is another solution – business consulting, practice that has the successful history in North America, Europe and East Asia.
Consulting allows the study of internal and external business problems and finding solutions, or the ability to discover new potential, strategy and visions. Through business consulting, the company objectively assesses its position, opportunities, and shares the existing experience on the market.
Initially we perform client company’s diagnostics, create strategy and forecast for the next 1-3 years, and as the last stage we do management outsourcing to execute the strategy plan based on international and modern principles of doing business. We Invest in a real business throughout the world.
Advantages of management outsourcing: Management team professionals with experience of implementing multi-profile projects. Customers focus on the new growth strategy through hiring management consultants – they reduce risks, increases performance indicators, speed and efficiency. The consulting company holds strategic information on all sectors, thus boosting client companies to leave the comfort zone.
Attitude and Approach
There is no stronger weapon than good faith and sincerity to achieve success. we are equal team based on integrity team working principles, with different talants, goal-oriented towards strategy and its measurable execution, with sense for modern demand and ability to offer future product trending on the market, with innovative findings, we pressure brains to exceed limitation and take revolutionary steps- this is the set of attitudes and practices that will help every company leap to its success and go with big steps.
Good Manager
Good managers have a team of best staff and partner companies around it.
They gather and motivate team members with different skills, support development of their best abilities. Nowadays power is in the team work. When you create a team where all the leaders have different strengths, it creates great value in business and the company is successful. This value is converted into money.
As for the partner companies, managers plan: segment, positioning and whom to attract around them. They have to act on the win-win principle.
Managers should be able to correctly identify personnel and look for teammates, should be thoughful during brainstorming, but very light and flexible during actions.
Managers must be mindful of modern thinking and capability to easily adapt to modern market changes. Ensure that the business cycle is serving the purpose and financial resources are allocated optimally. Adjust the priorities correctly and have a systemic vision. Managers have to has original, modern decisions and do not act in a narrow vision. Sometimes it is necessary to take radical decisions. Give team members the freedom of thinking and the right delegation.
Managers have to recognize merits of employees and in case they encounter difficulties, be supportive. In some occassions managers need to deposition them. It is important to develop capacities of teammates (as well as partner companies) and gradually create trampolines for them.
Managers create kind of space-company , a brand , which is loved and exiting for everyone .
Manager’s profession is very similar to chess: if figures are not moving correctly, you will not win the game.
Our Awards, activities
WOBI Milano – Honorary Participant of Humanification, Psychology of humanity in business- World Business Forum organized by WOBI Milano.
Milan, Italy, 2017.
OECD Paris – Member , Green investment forum organized by OECD . Paris, france 2017
Uniglobal – Member, Global investment forum- gaining competitive advantage organized by Uniglobal . Georgia, Tbilisi 2017
Gabriel Al-Salem Foundation -Best Consulting Project of the Year , Best Performance in Management outcourcing . Istanbul, Turkey 2015.
Several Ongoing Projects
Below are few examples of ongoing consulting projects in different business sectors
MCI masterclass offers intensive seminars: Giorgi Chavchavadze „Business Administration ( management, finance) ”, world known trainer Michael Bang „Sales and Services”, Hiruma Yasuo, former president of Komatsu Limited „Kaizen, and Quality Improvement”. You can buy video seminars from the official website. Closed for investment.
To the client company “Best Invest”, we provide investment planning, management and extension of distribution channel. We create the sustainable system and develop export opportunities.
“Best Invest” is a distribution company in the field of real estate building. It is developing through the growth of the construction sector and extends its portfolio over time. The company is open for investments.
To “Sachkhere Medical Center” MCI Group provides management restructuring, marketing research, financial growth plan, implementation of the strategic plan, allocation and development of internal business units.
“Sachkhere Medical Center” is the high-tech medical center with full package of medical services.
Furthermore, MCI Group works with the “Sachkhere Garden Hotel Complex” in setting strategic development plan and its execution.
To “Zaraphkana” MCI Group works conducts marketing research and strategy elaboration, budgeting, production planning and development.
“Zaraphkana” is a unique, high-tech jewelry enterprise with its own network of stores.
Service Fees
The tariff for business consulting products starts from 15,000 GEL, depending on the consultancy objectives, business specifics and scale. For most of the consulting projects we benefit 50% co-financing of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Industry 4.0 – Management Consulting Future
Nowadays industry 4.0 revolution takes place all over the world. This is why we are actively implementing new, innovative projects together with our partner companies in the field of digitalization. Our partner companies are correctly chosen, special and different.
Existing 5 years of management experience (we have managed to cover almost all sectors of the market) allows MCI Group to expand its activities to the international market, thus promoting our know-how and supporting larger number of companies develop their full capacities. For radical breakthrough and growth in a year and a half, most of our capital and activities will be transferred to other markets. For reinsurance purposes, we are entering several markets simultaneously.
What economists call game theory psychologists call the theory of social situations, which is an accurate description of what game theory is about. Although game theory is relevant to parlor games such as poker or bridge, most research in game theory focuses on how groups of people interact. There are two main branches of game theory: cooperative and noncooperative game theory. Noncooperative game theory deals largely with how intelligent individuals interact with one another in an effort to achieve their own goals. That is the branch of game theory we will discuss here.
In addition to game theory, economic theory has three other main branches: decision theory, general equilibrium theory and mechanism design theory. All are closely connected to game theory.
Decision theory can be viewed as a theory of one person games, or a game of a single player against nature. The focus is on preferences and the formation of beliefs. The most widely used form of decision theory argues that preferences among risky alternatives can be described by the maximization of the expected value of a numerical utility function, where utility may depend on a number of things, but in situations of interest to economists often depends on money income. Probability theory is heavily used in order to represent the uncertainty of outcomes, and Bayes Law is frequently used to model the way in which new information is used to revise beliefs. Decision theory is often used in the form of decision analysis, which shows how best to acquire information before making a decision.
General equilibrium theory can be viewed as a specialized branch of game theory that deals with trade and production, and typically with a relatively large number of individual consumers and producers. It is widely used in the macroeconomic analysis of broad based economic policies such as monetary or tax policy, in finance to analyze stock markets, to study interest and exchange rates and other prices. In recent years, political economy has emerged as a combination of general equilibrium theory and game theory in which the private sector of the economy is modeled by general equilibrium theory, while voting behavior and the incentive of governments is analyzed using game theory. Issues studied include tax policy, trade policy, and the role of international trade agreements such as the European Union.
Mechanism design theory differs from game theory in that game theory takes the rules of the game as given, while mechanism design theory asks about the consequences of different types of rules. Naturally this relies heavily on game theory. Questions addressed by mechanism design theory include the design of compensation and wage agreements that effectively spread risk while maintaining incentives, and the design of auctions to maximize revenue, or achieve other goals.
An Instructive Example
One way to describe a game is by listing the players (or individuals) participating in the game, and for each player, listing the alternative choices (called actions or strategies) available to that player. In the case of a two-player game, the actions of the first player form the rows, and the actions of the second player the columns, of a matrix. The entries in the matrix are two numbers representing the utility or payoff to the first and second player respectively. A very famous game is the Prisoner’s Dilemma game. In this game the two players are partners in a crime who have been captured by the police. Each suspect is placed in a separate cell, and offered the opportunity to confess to the crime. The game can be represented by the following matrix of payoffs
Note that higher numbers are better (more utility). If neither suspect confesses, they go free, and split the proceeds of their crime which we represent by 5 units of utility for each suspect. However, if one prisoner confesses and the other does not, the prisoner who confesses testifies against the other in exchange for going free and gets the entire 10 units of utility, while the prisoner who did not confess goes to prison and which results in the low utility of -4. If both prisoners confess, then both are given a reduced term, but both are convicted, which we represent by giving each 1 unit of utility: better than having the other prisoner confess, but not so good as going free.
This game has fascinated game theorists for a variety of reasons. First, it is a simple representation of a variety of important situations. For example, instead of confess/not confess we could label the strategies “contribute to the common good” or “behave selfishly.” This captures a variety of situations economists describe as public goods problems. An example is the construction of a bridge. It is best for everyone if the bridge is built, but best for each individual if someone else builds the bridge. This is sometimes refered to in economics as an externality. Similarly this game could describe the alternative of two firms competing in the same market, and instead of confess/not confess we could label the strategies “set a high price” and “set a low price.” Naturally it is best for both firms if they both set high prices, but best for each individual firm to set a low price while the opposition sets a high price.
A second feature of this game, is that it is self-evident how an intelligent individual should behave. No matter what a suspect believes his partner is going to do, it is always best to confess. If the partner in the other cell is not confessing, it is possible to get 10 instead of 5. If the partner in the other cell is confessing, it is possible to get 1 instead of -4. Yet the pursuit of individually sensible behavior results in each player getting only 1 unit of utility, much less than the 5 units each that they would get if neither confessed. This conflict between the pursuit of individual goals and the common good is at the heart of many game theoretic problems.
A third feature of this game is that it changes in a very significant way if the game is repeated, or if the players will interact with each other again in the future. Suppose for example that after this game is over, and the suspects either are freed or are released from jail they will commit another crime and the game will be played again. In this case in the first period the suspects may reason that they should not confess because if they do not their partner will not confess in the second game. Strictly speaking, this conclusion is not valid, since in the second game both suspects will confess no matter what happened in the first game. However, repetition opens up the possibility of being rewarded or punished in the future for current behavior, and game theorists have provided a number of theories to explain the obvious intuition that if the game is repeated often enough, the suspects ought to cooperate.
Over the past few years I have made the commitment to looking forward to the year ahead to predict some of the most significant digital transformation trends. Knowing that digital transformation is not only a technological shift, but an organizational change at the intersection of technology, business and people, such reflection must take into account countless possibilities. In this year’s predictions, I try to take a year’s worth of technology and digital transformation research to better predict where are we going? Why are we going there? And what potential surprises are in store? Hopefully, these top trends can serve as a compass of sorts, for organizations looking to move their business and digital transformations forward. While a few of my top 2019 digital transformation trends build on the trends I predicted for last year, there are definitely a few new additions as we round the bend of 2018. And as a note to everyone that reads this, remember, the technology in itself does not equate to digital transformation. The customer, culture and employees along with business continuity must be at the heart of every technology investment. Without further ado, here’s my take on what to expect in the year ahead.
5G Fixed to 5G Mobile: Here’s the thing about 5G: we’ve been talking about it for a while. And if you’re a world traveler or on certain networks like Sprint, you know it’s still possible to slip back into 3G zones from time-to-time without realizing it. So, what’s the big deal with 5G now? In short, we’re finally in a spot where we will start seeing 5G everywhere. If you have been following the tech community, you will have seen that there are a wide number of fixed and test deployments with companies like Qualcomm, Intel, Nokia, Ericcson, Samsung and Huawei all getting into the action. We are also seeing new companies like Mimosa Networks making it possible to roll 5G out to both rural and urban locations, paving the way for bullish 5G mobile providers—i.e. ATT and Verizon—to start offering new, cooler, faster, more innovative services for mobile users. It’s an exciting time for 5G and mobile alike. While 2018 was the year that fixed 5G applications found their legs, in 2019 we are going to see 5G finding its way into the upper corner of our Mobile devices, albeit for you iPhone users it is more likely going to be 2020 or later.
Chatbots Good to Great: Hear me out on this one. I know we’ve all had extremely frustrating chatbot experiences as we round out 2018. But the good news is that huge steps continue to be made in the way of natural language processing and sentiment analytics—so many, in fact, that some believe NLP will shake up the entire service industry in ways we’ve never imagined. Think about all the services that could be provided without humans—fast food lines, loan processors, job recruiters! What’s more, NLP allows companies to gather insights and improve their service based on them. Some 40% of large businesses have or will adopt it by the end of 2019—which makes it one of our top 2019 digital transformation trends. Now, I know many are alarmed by where AI and Chatbots may impact the workforce, but I’m also bullish that companies are going to be upskilling their work forces rather than displacing them as machines may be good at delivering on clearcut requests but leave a lot to be desired when it comes to dealing with empathy and human emotion required to deliver great customer experiences.
Connected Clouds (Public, Private, Hybrid): Honestly, we can just file this as “the continued evolution and growing pains of cloud adoption.” Basically, what’s happening is that companies are realizing that going all public cloud, private cloud, or data center isn’t the best option. Sometimes, they need a mix of all or both. Thus, connected clouds are continuing to develop to meet companies’ changing needs—whether they want to cloud-source storage, networking, security, or app deployment. Major public cloud providers like Amazon and Alibaba are answering the call, offering private cloud (or in Google’s case, container-based) options. We are also seeing Microsoft via Azure, HPE with their 2017 acquisition of Cloud Technology Partners and their consumable IT services as well as VMware with their recent acquisition of CloudHealth Technologies all show increased commitment to connecting clouds. The term, Multicloud will be the new buzzword for the cloud conversation and what I believe this movement means more than anything else is that no matter which workloads are being run in which cloud, the experience for IT and those that are utilizing the applications needs to be seamless, secure and streamlined. For most businesses this means a mix of workloads running in public, private and hybrid environments and this will be a big topic in 2019.
Blockchain Finally Understood and Flops (kind of): Forget everything magical I ever said about blockchain. Just kidding—kind of, but bear with me here. As we continue to explore this technological miracle worker, we’ve come to realize that blockchain is kind of a mess. It’s too complicated for lay people to use right now, and there’s no standard way to use it because we all want to use it different. The only way to get mass blockchain adoption is to create a plug-and-play version that all of us can use and understand. I’m watching closely as leading technology firms like IBM continue to make massive commitments to the potential of Blockchain for applications beyond cryptocurrency. The financial industry are also looking at this closely as well as a mass of applications in transportation of goods and services. However, to this point, it seems more of a marketing ploy than a bonafide technology offering. My guess is a lot of smart developers will continue to work on realizing the potential of blockchain in 2019, but I’m of the mindset that it will be 2-3 more years before we start to see the traction that has been promised.
Data to Analytics to Machine Learning to AI: At the center of all of these technological trends and in the center of this list falls the linchpin to so many of these trends and to digital transformation as a whole. Data is key to companies being able to make good decisions about products, services, employees, strategy and more. We won’t see a slowdown anytime soon. As recent data has shown we have created 90% of the world’s data in the past year, research is also showing that we are only using 1% of the data effectively. While being in the top 1% is often a good thing, this is a 1% that most of us preaching the power of analytics should be ashamed about. With a plethora of companies like Microsoft, SAP, SAS and Salesforce (just to name a few) showing market leadership in the promotion of data being made into meaningful business analytics, there is much to be done by data driven organizations to realize the power of the data on hand and the data that they are collecting. With improved processing power that can increase machine learning, we are going to see digital leaders investing in making more of all of their data and this will be done with machine learning and AI and I believe that 1% figure will grow to 3 or 4% by 2020; which may seem small but is a massive increase in data utilization.
GDPR Forces Brand Hands: As of August 2018, about 1/3 of companies were still not compliant with the Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which aims to provide huge layers of data protection for users. In fact, at this time, about 1,000 U.S. news sites still aren’t available in Europe, generally because they don’t care enough about data security to make the GDPR a priornewity. What does this mean in terms of 2019 digital transformation trends? It means informed customers will start to see which companies truly care about protecting their data, and which companies really don’t. I believe that GDPR is the start of a more global trend that will hold companies accountable for how they treat privacy and personal data. While brands do not necessarily want to have to comply, this movement will serve as a warning to companies to figure out better ways to genuinely build relationships with their audience as opposed to the often clear misuse and abuse of personal data in the name of marketing and selling.
AR Yes, VR (Still) No: I’m kind of starting to feel bad for virtual reality (VR) because it’s so cool, but it just isn’t feasible beyond gaming and highly specialized applications in today’s marketplace—yet. Instead, augmented reality (AR)—VR’s less sexy little brother—continues to be the name of the game in 2019 digital transformation trends. AR has found tons of use cases in enterprise workforce training, meaning it’s not just cool, it’s useful. And that’s what technology is all about. In fact, even though some think it will be slow, I believe AR’s development will ramp up in 2019. I’m even bracing to hear something about a new AR or mixed reality product and/or developer kit on September 12 from Apple’s big announcement. Hopefully something promising.
Edge to Core and IoT Much More: Last year, my first four trends were basically around IoT, AI, Machine Learning and Edge. This year, the four become one because they are so deeply interconnected. As the IoT grows—and the number of connected devices skyrockets—it makes sense that we need more space—and closer space—to process the data it’s working to capture and process. The concepts of Smart Cities and Autonomous Vehicles have zero chance of being realized if data processing has to happen in the cloud. That means we’ll be leading more and more toward edge computing in terms of 2019 digital transformation trends. Analytics and data won’t just be for processing—they’ll be for processing in real-time. And that’s something only the edge can support right now. Now, its important that I emphasize that edge and cloud are not mutually exclusive. Cisco refers to the interdependence of edge and cloud as “The Fog” as they recognize that critical data interactions that take place between the edge and the cloud to maximize data utilization. While their vernacular may or may not become ubiquitous with the connection between edge and core, you can be certain that the two will work together tirelessly to achieve the possibilities being sold to us with AI, IoT and Machine Learning.
Consumption-Based IT Services for the Win (FTW): This year, we did our homework, and asked the CIOs and IT executives about their IT budgets and trends in their consumption of cloud and overall, they are interested in creating efficiency, having more flexibility with their workloads (note trend 3) and having the ability to scale up and down quickly based on the business requirements. This means, much like we saw Salesforce become a heavyweight for CRM as a Service, that the idea of anything and eveyrthing as a service is highly desirable. With the as-a-Service industry growing, companies are becoming more sophisticated in choosing “a la carte” IT services to fit their needs. This ITaaS allows for scalability, the latest technology (without the latest tech price tag), shorter procurement cycles, and increased agility. It only makes sense that companies are leaning this way and they will be more and more in 2019.
CEOs Take the Reins: Honestly, it’s about time and while I’m putting this as my closing prediction, it is also the one that has me the most nervous. Countless studies have shown an overwhelming desire from employees to see digital transformation start at the very top of the company, however, trends are still showing that the task is being too often delegated to IT, Marketing or HR departments. So even though we’ve seen a range of C-suite leaders charged with taking the reins of digital transformation, I believe that the CEO will (must) finally step up in 2019, realizing digital transformation isn’t going anywhere. They’ll be making it more of a priority to hire for digital transformation, recognizing the critical nature of building cultures that can change, and the value of reskilling employees and hiring for agility—learning to trust data more than ever before. That’s good news for all companies in 2019.
If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that digital transformation will continue to change how we do business—in every industry. While it may be hard to see the inroads some of these technologies are making right now, their potential to change how we work, socialize, and interact is tremendous—and their implications will continue to land far beyond the year ahead.
For those that prefer a Graphic to share. Here is a visual of the 10 trends for 2019.
Concerns about non-users being maladjusted are unfounded and unfair.
Recent news stories have suggested that employers may be reluctant to hire people without a Facebook profile on the grounds that Facebook usage has become so common that not having an account is seen as somehow abnormal. This concern appears to have been compounded by a lurid report in a German newspaper that alleged mass killers James Holmes and Anders Behring Breivik did not have Facebook accounts, leading to the rather hysterical conclusion that not having an account “could be the first sign that you are a mass murderer.”
Is there any substance to these concerns? Research suggests that although not having a Facebook account might be unusual nowadays it is hardly cause for alarm. Indeed, the fact that someone has an account is hardly a credential of mental health either, and may be associated with its own problems, admittedly minor ones.
An Australian study examined personality differences between people with and without Facebook accounts (Ryan & Xenos, 2011). People with an account were found to be more extraverted and narcissistic, whereas those without an account were found to be more conscientious and shyer. They found that those without an account experienced more social loneliness, but those with an account experienced more family loneliness. They also looked at time spent on Facebook per day among users and found time spent was positively correlated with neuroticism and loneliness and negatively correlated with conscientiousness. All of these effects tended to be small. These findings seem comparable to those of a study comparing users of Facebook and Twitter respectively which found that people who preferred Facebook tended to be more extraverted and sociable compared to Twitter users, but also more neurotic and less intellectually oriented.
What might this suggest to a potential employer concerned about whether an applicant has a Facebook account or not? On the one hand those who have an account will tend to be more outgoing and less shy, which would be important in jobs involving a great deal of face-to-face interaction. On the other hand, those who do not have an account tend to be higher in conscientiousness, suggesting they are more likely to be hard working, persevering and achievement oriented. In fact, conscientiousness has been found to be one of the strongest personality predictors of job performance across all professions. Furthermore, the more time a day a person spends on Facebook, the less time they are doing actual work and the more time they are likely to be whining about their personal problems. People who do not have a Facebook account also tend to be somewhat less narcissistic, that is, less egotistical and exhibitionistic. Employers concerned about someone not being on Facebook might instead want to consider the desirability of hiring applicants who think that “everything is about me” and who lack a strong work ethic. Narcissism is also a member of what personality psychologists call “the dark triad” of personality, along with such antisocial characteristics as psychopathy and Machiavellianism (Jakobwitz & Egan, 2006). Although there is no evidence that Facebook usage has anything at all to do either way with being a homicidal maniac, the fact that narcissism has a known relationship with antisocial traits would seem to suggest that people who do not have Facebook accounts are actually less likely to commit atrocities. All of these considerations should of course be tempered by the fact that all of the effects reported by these research studies have been small in size. So, looking at things scientifically, knowing that someone does or does not have a Facebook account is not likely to be a strong indicator of the character of the person, and is hardly cause for panic either way.
The FINANCIAL — Announcing openly difficulties and sharing accumulated experiences in public is the best way to develop. It will prevent mistakes and enable to learn from others. Based on our experience, there are number of barriers companies are usually facing in developing their business.
