Monday, April 27, 2015

Sparkmag: Property Insights from the Experts

Sparkmag: Property Insights from the Experts: Chris Gray (Founder and CEO of Empire) and Myles Thornton (Partner, Ark Total Wealth) will examine the following topics: - What type of p...

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Sparkmag: 5 reasons startup business fail

Sparkmag: 5 reasons startup business fail: 1.Focus on money and hitting it big rather than adding value to business 2. Lack business skills - although they are experts in their field ...

Monday, April 13, 2015

Innovation and Keynected

Steve Jobs: "Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty, because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.”


Sunday, April 12, 2015

What is innovation?

Curt Carlson defines innovation as, “the creation and delivery of new customer value in the marketplace with a sustainable business model.”

David Nordfors, who runs the i4j Innovation for Jobs Summit, succinctly defines innovation as “the introduction of a new narrative”, i.e. a new type of story.  He is developing this important idea on his blog and in a book he is writing.  If a product does not come with a compelling new narrative it will likely struggle in the marketplace. That is, developing a compelling narrative is an essential element of the value creation process.

David’s three rules for a new concept.  It must have: 
1) a name so that we can refer to it, 
2) a definition so that we know what it is or isn’t, and 
3) a narrative so that we can relate to it. 

 It is not possible to create something new without describing it and telling stories about what it is and does, both within the innovation team and for customers who will use it.

"For example, after I bought my first smartphone I was so pleasantly surprised that I showed it to all my friends. Steve Jobs had created a remarkable new product and completely changed the narrative about what computing devices can do." Says Curt.

David’s definition tacitly assumes that this new knowledge and narrative have value to society (i.e., customers) and that this narrative has a measure of sustainability in the marketplace (i.e., in society). That new knowledge and narrative can be delivered as a physical object, a service, or a concept. 

But all important new products or services come with new narratives. 

Once that narrative becomes understood, it becomes the background narrative that carries with it new knowledge. The next innovation must create additional new, surprising knowledge with yet another narrative.

Most technological innovations are small, but they all matter. Thousands of small and medium sized innovations accumulate and occasionally another transformational innovation, like the smartphone, is created. These disruptive innovations come with surprising new knowledge, language, and narratives. The world is forever changed.

Elko Kilpi's response to the above quote:- 


Having intimately followed the developments in mobile telephony and computing that led to the smartphone, here are some complementary thoughts: perhaps even a different narrative stating that

it was an emergent process of not only thousands of innovations, but also personal connections, unexpected encounters, bending the rules and lobbying.

I believe that there is nothing more important than the way we think about the nature of organisations and technology, particularly how they become to be what they are.

Our dominant voice in management theory is the language of design and control: we know how things are, what we are doing and what is going to happen next. If you look at this from the sciences of complexity, you could say that we live in an unstable world where sometimes very small causes can have very large effects. This model of the world of technology and innovation sees the future under perpetual construction through the very small (micro) interactions of the diverse entities comprising it. The final “innovation” or final “form” toward which it moves is not given, nor can it be chosen. It is a highly complex, ongoing process of people relating to each other. 

If we take this view, we move toward an understanding of innovation, and human action in general, as being in its essence a process of sense making.

Best wishes,

Esko




Thursday, April 09, 2015

Sparkmag: Remo Giuffres tips for entrepreneurs

Sparkmag: Remo Giuffres tips for entrepreneurs: Remo Giuffres tips for entrepreneurs       Passion – find the intersect between passion, what you are good at and what can make ...

Technology Disruption will cause current leaders in Industry to disappear in 30 years


 

Insights from Vivek Wadhwa based on his talk from big think on youtube – extracted from April 2015 acuity magazine ( Aus / NZ Chartered Accountants Magazine)

In 15 – 20 years things will be significantly different to where they are now, and Industry leaders who are not ready for these could well dissappear.

Reinvention of manufacturing

  •       Robotics and 3d printing – will change the need for employment in manufacturing

Reinvention of finance

  •      Banking industry and pivate equity will turnon its head…
  •       Bitcoin
  •       Crowd funding
  •       Crowd lending

Reinvention of healthcare

  •        Health data storage and wearable sensors
  •        Human genome sequencing
  •      Robotic Surgeons
  •      Virtual GPs based on data – monitoring.

Reinvention of the energy industry

  •       Fracking will make America an energy exporter – reduce need on Middle East
  •       Solar energy – now affordable – will eclipse fossil fuel industry
  •      With unlimited energy – we can have unlimited clean water – simply boil ocean water!

Reinvention of food industry

  •       we don’t have to slaughter animals – we can 3d print our own meat!

Reinvention of communication Industry

  • Landlines replaced by Mobiles which is now replaced with data. Just call over skype or zoom and wifi will be everywhere.


The vast majority of companies who are presently the leaders in the industries will cease to exist in 30 years - unless they reinvest the money, energy and resources that is required to reinvent themselves. They should not be protecting legacy businesses and not be overly focused on short term performance.

The survivors will have strong leaders with a solid vision – which includes innovation and the ability to adapt to change.


“Trillion dollar industries will come out of nowhere and will replace existing trillion dollar industries – this is the future we are headed for – for better or for worse! “

Monday, April 06, 2015

Is Google glasses dead

Google just won't let Glass die. http://bit.ly/1HH4KlA http://keynect.me/wa

Shared via Keynected


Thursday, April 02, 2015

Easter update from Macquarie Private Wealth

March has continued another great month against a backdrop of average data.  Bearish (negative) investors are scratching their collective heads, and wondering how a long grinding cycle (LGC) environment is so supportive of shares and property in the short and medium term?

What we are seeing – Australia:
The recent NSW election result has shown that consultative leadership can shepherd difficult and non-populist agendas, past an increasingly fickle electorate.
There is reduced, short term pressure on falling interest rates. However we believe in lower rates for longer.
Real estate and the domestic share market markets will continue to be well supported – assuming no policy changes by policy makers.
Weak demand for iron ore and commodities and a strengthening USD$.  Minimise commodities, mining and mining services exposure.
We expect the AUD$ to continue to fall toward USD$0.70.

International outlook:
Global focused investors have performed very well.  The “bull market” is intact, whilst sentiment readings are still saying it is still “uncool to be bullish equities”.
Japanese and European equities continue to quietly make gains, with comparable valuations still well below domestic and US peers.
We believe that the USD$ rally will be sustained in the medium term. This is a supportive tailwind for international investors.
When 90% of the world’s GDP (gross domestic product index) are 0%, interest rates are 0% to negative, and government debt (bond yields) are 2% or less, share markets are one of the best performing asset classes.

Portfolio strategy:
We are targeting international investment exposures – particularly in Japan and Europe.
Focus on dividend paying investments, and growth profile companies that have growing, yet defensive earnings.
Our portfolio strategies are concentrated on minimising volatility, and maximise long term, risk adjusted portfolio returns.

Thank you. Wishing you and your family a safe and Happy Easter.

Regards

Russell, Carl, Geoff, Alice and the Team

Russell Jones l Senior Wealth Adviser l CFP® Dip FS (FP)
Macquarie Private Wealth l Representative of Macquarie Equities Limited

Wednesday, April 01, 2015

10X Events: Get New Clients Fast By Getting Your Business Feat...

10X Events: Get New Clients Fast By Getting Your Business Feat...: Just imagine… waking up tomorrow to see stories about YOU and YOUR business … featured in a big write-up in the newspaper… favourab...

Is the internet killing jobs

Bill Davidow (@BillDavidow)
In the past great technologies created lots of jobs. How is the Internet doing? tinyurl.com/ntergfq

Is this a good or bad thing - what do you think?