At a recent convention of the World Economic Forum (WEF), business leaders stated how retaining the human capital has become doubly critical in the ongoing digital age. A clear talent gap needs to be filled in technological positions by most organizations. Adequate corporate training needs to be provided to most of the present employee strength. While this war for talent is not new, the workforce is changing so the existing personnel need the additional training. According to this WEF report, two-thirds of children growing up today will be in jobs that are non-existent today. About three-fifths of existing professionals lack the necessary skills. This is true across industries. Four-fifths of digital leaders are exploring newer ways of working. 57% of present jobs are at risk of not surviving due to automation. Lifelong employability has now become the buzzword, away from the security of lifelong employment as was the case earlier.

Source:https://www.bain.com/insights/building-a-workforce-for-digital/

Uploaded Date:26 September 2018

Industry 4.0 comprises of large-scale digitization, customization in manufacturing and increased mergers-and-acquisitions. Such M&A activity will rise over the next five years, with larger players swallowing up smaller ones. This was established at the recent International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS) 2018. Germany and Japan will lead the race in technology adoption. The technology gap is widening between the giants such as Boeing and GE, but this is dangerous news for the leaders. This is especially true for assembling industries as they rely on smaller companies for their parts. The new technology gets increasingly difficult for smaller companies to adopt due to an ever-widening skills gap. To close this adequate corporate training needs to be organized. Private Equity (PE) firms will have a major role to play in this movement. GM and Ford for example have tapped into strategic alliances for access to new funding for developing new products. Even technology solution providers such as SAP are not fully safe either as larger firms can simply acquire smaller players through acquisitions and leapfrog ahead.

Source:https://www.forbes.com/sites/mergermarket/2018/09/18/industry-4-0-winners-will-shape-manufacturing-tech-ma/#3deab20d653f

Uploaded Date:26 September 2018

Food loss is now a staggering problem. Management consulting giant BCG puts the figure at about a third of total produced. In spite of this a little less than a billion people go hungry each day. Closing this gap requires a huge task but also a massive business opportunity. It remains a key area of concern among the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as for the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). It Also accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but presents a staggering US$ 700 billion opportunity. This food waste or loss occurs at every level of the value chain. These include production, storage, processing, distribution and consumption. To simplify the process BCG has broken down this seven-hundred-billion-dollar figure into component parts, starting with awareness generation alone worth 260 billion. Then supply chain infrastructural improvements are needed worth 150 billion. Another 120 billion will need to be invested on improving the supply-chain efficiency plus 60 billion on collaboration across players. Work from the policy-making level will be worth the final 110 billion dollars. The right partners and impact measurement tools will have to identified at the very start of this herculean task.

Source:https://www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2018/tackling-1.6-billion-ton-food-loss-and-waste-crisis.aspx?linkId=56070461&redir=true

Uploaded Date:26 September 2018

The traditional five to ten-year plans are now no longer relevant due to the electric pace of change. This has led to a new approach designed by Deloitte known as the Zoom Out/Zoom In approach. This system looks at two extreme ends rather than over a steady decade or half-decade period as traditional plans would. Zoom out here refers to building business practices ten to twenty years ahead of time. Zoom in meanwhile refers to a near term planning looking merely at the next six to twelve months. This will allow both flexibility as well as a lookout towards the broader corporate strategy. These practices can further be broken into an ABCD focus. These four stages defined in ABCD are- Envision, Focus, Define and Mobilize. There must be ample time to reflect upon the work done thus far and refine accordingly.

Source:https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/topics/strategy/alternative-approach-to-building-a-strategic-plan-businesses.html

Uploaded Date:26 September 2018

In the US, the wealth and income inequality largely remained static since the second world war ending 1945, until the financial crisis of 2008. While the income inequality did not rise much, there was a steep ascent in the wealth inequality after this financial crisis. This can be attributed to several factors as studied by researchers from the University of Bonn in Germany. To understand this, they first undertook a data warehousing operation collating all information in the HSCF (Historical Survey of Consumer Finances). This enabled them to understand that one of the major reasons for the then disparity was nature of holdings the then middle-class and the top ten percent had prior to the crisis. The former mostly had housing assets, while the latter owned stocks. When the housing bubble collapsed in 2008, the middle classes lost their wealth but the top ten percent saw an increase in their asset value thanks to the almost immediate stock market recovery. There is also a racial aspect to this. A lot of these losses were suffered by the Black community whose income levels remain half that of their white counterparts, similar to how it was back in the pre-civil rights era of the 1950s.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/09/research-how-the-financial-crisis-drastically-increased-wealth-inequality-in-the-u-s?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=hbr

Uploaded Date:26 September 2018

A new book written by Professor Emeritus of INSEAD- Yves Doz- titled Ringtone: Exploring the Rise and Fall of Nokia in Mobile Phones, charts the peak and eventual decline of the Finnish giant. But more than Nokia, this book is about learning from the past mistakes, so they do not repeat for others. The world of business I replete with stories of once dominant companies that fell by the wayside or even closed down. Besides Nokia, another famous case is that of Polaroid. There are three main reasons attributed for the usual company failures. The most commonly cited one is poor leadership from the very top of the CEO level. The next one is about any firm’s processes, structures, business models and its very corporate strategy. The third one is about companies failing to respond to rapid structural changes in the macro environment. The management choices made and organization structure adapted are what can help any company avert future disasters. Likewise, they need to find ways to weather the worst of storms.

Source:https://knowledge.insead.edu/strategy/why-successful-companies-usually-fail-10001

Uploaded Date:15 September 2018

After the relative failures of the last two tournaments, France won the 2018 Football World Cup in style. A detailed interview with the head coach Didier Deschamps and some other senior members of the backroom staff, certain important trends emerged to quantify the success. These five measures observed are not only applicable to football or sport in general, but indeed also to the world of business. The first one is to measure and quantify success which is not merely through profits. The French football club Olympique Lyonnais for example supplied three members to the winning squad, and is known for its exceptional talent recruitment right from the grassroots as any organization should aspire to. Another trait is to leave the comfort zone behind as several French players did early on, venturing abroad and explore new horizons. A third dimension that emerged was that somehow the management must aspire to keep up the intrinsic motivation levels high. This approach is in stark contrast to arch-rivals England where external riches act as motivators. In spite of some early hiccups and past failures, France stuck to its philosophy. Instead of directly copying the style of recent champions Germany or Spain, France developed their own. Similarly, companies would be well-advised to devise their own corporate strategy with scope for rapid iterations, but a belief in the philosophy. Another areas French football excels in, is discovering talent.

Source:https://www.strategy-business.com/article/Five-Smart-Behaviors-That-Helped-France-Win-the-2018-World-Cup-Can-Help-Businesses-Too?gko=5bc50&sf197479301=1

Uploaded Date:13 September 2018