#ShapingtheBlogs

Today's digital world gives access to a broad range of services and products all through a simple command to a smartphone, watch or appliance. In addition, for businesses, digital technologies also streamline operations, increase the productivity of global resources and increase profitability. The downside of digital transformation is often employment uncertainty. Studies by Forrester, MIT and others show that 20-35% of today's jobs will be eliminated by automation and technological innovation w...

By 2020, half of the current Global 100 companies will be marginalized by new or more nimble competitors according to IDC. For business leaders, the question is no longer whether to transform their business to succeed in the digital world but how to adapt, develop new revenue streams and delight global customers. For companies with large customer, employee, and revenue bases, changing the business model, organizational structures and processes can be daunting. However, now is the best time to ge...

While using augmented reality games or tools such as Alexia can be cool, robotics, AI and VR in the workplace are scary for many people. For business leaders chartered with digitalization, this creates a dilemma as successful technology adoption requires full engagement and support of staff members. Faced with change, employees need to first understand this CAN be good news. Digital tools can make it easier to complete projects and provide opportunities to learn – leading to higher salary and gr...

​With new online competition, success in the retail grocery market is increasingly challenging. When tasked with implementation of technology to reduce the cost and increase efficiency of customer checkout, the leaders on one local store of a large chain took a creative approach. They started with the standard pilot of self-serve checkout stations; however, this had limited adoption. When asking customers as they were queueing for the 'traditional checkout' about their resistance to the self-ser...

Entrepreneurship is everywhere! Traditional business executives fearing disruption or even extinction, need to innovate, transform and become entrepreneurial. Many attend seminars and courses to 'learn innovation', while others seek to hire graduates of 'entrepreneurship programs'. While these approaches can provide new ideas, real entrepreneurism and innovation are not taught but are learned by practice. "Silicon Valley Style" entrepreneurs take risks, passionately solve real problems and gain ...

​As many serial entrepreneurs know, revenue and customer attainment is the key to success for all companies. However, reaching and winning new customers is challenging – especially for young companies. Gaining awareness and developing trust with buyers can be costly and fraught with error. An alternative path is to develop relationships with 'channel partners'. Simply put, this is a way of reaching end customers through their relationships with trusted companies from which they are already buyin...

For many global entrepreneurs, patents may be viewed as an important part of Intellectual Property and of great value to the entrepreneur. In the Nordic, we have heard that a patent ‘ensures a 20-year monopoly’. However, in Silicon Valley, a patent is simply a document of how something could be created. Success comes from acting on the idea and patent to build a product, customer base, revenues and hence a company to turn the idea into reality. Another question is the market need for and accepta...

Customers today demand convenience, ease of access and personalized offerings from corporations such as GE, Otis Elevator, and many smaller companies. By offering digital services, software interfaces and ‘pay for use’ business models, many traditional companies are reaching new market segments, delighting their customers and creating new highly valuable revenue streams.A recent study shows 82% of business leaders consider ‘digital initiatives’ top priority. However, many question – “Where to st...

Digitalization, the use of technology to streamline work processes, access information and improve global productivity can be considered the ‘next big paradigm shift’, impacting the way we all work, live and relate to one another. As with all change, this brings both benefits and challenges. Based on recent Gallup polls have indicated that less than 15% of workers today feel truly engaged and happy in their jobs, change is needed. Often low employee satisfaction is the lack of challenge and oppo...

The rapid advances in technological capabilities, combined with the global growth of entrepreneurialism and the ‘sharing economy’ bring many new opportunities for Norway. However, there can be challenges as new digital competitors compete with traditional corporations in all industries and today’s buyers demand engaging digital access to what they need when they need it. Welcome to the Digital Age. This world of digitalization brings great opportunities for growth of new innovations and transfor...