New wave in battery power

There was an exciting announcement before Christmas last year about new battery technology coming from IBM. From what I have read, it appears that it uses "three new and different proprietary materials" (Na, 18 December 2019) and seems to be extracted from seawater, using an electrolyte base (ie, salt and minerals). While the technology is only at pilot stage at present, the resulting batteries will be far less flammable, which will mean that eventually we may be able to post phones, or to put them in our checked luggage once more.

IBM are not yet talking about particular uses, but they are saying that recharge times are likely to be fraction of what they currently are, with under "five minutes required to reach an 80 percent state of charge" (Na, 18 December 2019). The batteries apparently hold a lot more power, take longer to discharge, and can deliver a higher voltage (Dormehl, 20 December 2019; Na, 18 December 2019). Development may have been driven by aircraft requirements for "access to batteries with very high-power density, which can scale a power load quickly" (Na, 18 December 2019). So this technology may have been specifically developed for electric flight technology ...although no one is yet speculating about this.

Right now, it is nice to think that perhaps toxic mining for elements such as Cobalt may now become small-scale industries, that perhaps electric flight may become available, allowing us to reduce the huge amount of CO₂ we pump into the atmosphere with every flight (747s burn 12 litres of fuel per kilometre - ouch; Sandhy, 7 May 2017). It also seems that there will be fewer toxic components to recycle at the end of the produce life-cycle with this new technology. Once the battery processing and design reaches scale, and the new battery technology trickles down eventually to phones, battery fires may too be a thing of the past.

This is a technology that I will update you on as I hear :-)


Sam

References:

• Dormehl, L. (20 December 2019). IBM’s new battery may outperform lithium-ion, and it doesn’t use conflict minerals. Retrieved from https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/ibm-new-battery-technology-heavy-metal/
• Ghoshal, A. (20 December 2019). IBM’s efficient new battery for gadgets doesn’t require mining for heavy metals. Retrieved from https://thenextweb.com/plugged/2019/12/20/ibms-efficient-new-battery-for-gadgets-doesnt-require-mining-for-heavy-metals/
• Liszewski, A. (20 December 2019). IBM Research Created A New Battery That Outperforms Lithium-Ion, No Problematic Heavy Metals Required. Retrieved from https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2019/12/ibm-research-created-a-new-battery-that-outperforms-lithium-ionno-problematic-heavy-metals-required/
• Na. Y. (18 December 2019). Free of Heavy Metals, New Battery Design Could Alleviate Environmental Concerns. Retrieved from https://www.ibm.com/blogs/research/2019/12/heavy-metal-free-battery/
• Sandhy, A. (7 May 2017). How much fuel does an aircraft need to travel 1000 km? Retrieved from https://www.quora.com/How-much-fuel-does-an-aircraft-need-to-travel-1000-km

read more "New wave in battery power"

AI and the sky's a-falling 2

Henny Penny; Jacobs (1890, p. 182)

I have written on this topic before (here), but thought I would touch on another couple of issues affected by AI. As the World Economic Forum report says, success in the fourth industrial revolution relies "on the ability of all concerned stakeholders to instigate reform in education and training systems, labour market policies, business approaches to developing skills" (2018, p. vii).

Firstly, AI is already with us (Grant, 2018). We can see it in our smartphones every day with voice recognition; when using GPS to map a route; when verifying our banking; when using online chat. It will just become more seamless, and therefore more pervasive. At work this could mean we can use our time more wisely in planning, and less time fire-fighting.

Health care and hospitality robots are a long way off yet. The complexity required to truly cover the range of human movements - required for work in human environments - is nowhere near at the standard required yet. Robots are also phenomenally expensive. The flexibility will increase and the cost will be driven down, but we are talking many more years for true commercialisation (Grant, 2018).

However, we are creating an underclass. There are people who are becoming less and less employable, with their skills getting increasingly out of step with what the world of work requires. The World Economic Forum state that "54% of all employees will require significant re- and upskilling. Of these, about 35% are expected to require additional training of up to six months, 9% will require reskilling lasting six to 12 months, while 10% will require additional skills training of more than a year" (2018, p. ix). Approximately 50% of future roles will require STEM qualifications (Grant, 2018). The big roles are predicted to be "Data Analysts and Scientists, Software and Applications Developers, and Ecommerce and Social Media Specialists" (World Economic Forum, 2018, p. viii). If we do want to shift the power to the people, education is the key, and strong and robust science, technology, engineering or mathematics training is essential. Whether that is force-fed in schools, or whether we sow seeds and encourage bite-sized training later, more like apprenticeship block courses, will be up to our educators to choose, country by country. But they will each need to have a strategy.

Lastly, I would like to mention Finland. They are getting something really right in STEM education. Yes, they are pretty much mono-cultural, but we need to look carefully at what they are doing, and see if we can do it too. Finnish teenagers spend fewer hours doing homework than many nations (2.8 hours per week), play more, and have only one set of national qualification exams (World Economic Forum, 21 November 2016). Yet they have a 99% graduation rate (WorldTop20, n.d.), and score better in maths and science than the rest of us.

These are complex social and economic issues. But they are navigable providing we don't get into a mindset of "the sky's a-falling" (Jabobs, 1890, p. 182) over AI, and deal with the actual problems: education, dependency ratio, declining population and that AI will take time to evolve.


Sam

References:

• Grant, A. M. (2018). Power Moves: : Lessons from Davos. USA: Audible an Amazon Company.
• Jabobs, J. (1890). English Fairy Tales. New York, USA: Grosset & Dunlap.
• World Economic Forum (2018). Insight Report: The Future of Jobs Report 2018. Retrieved from http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2018.pdf
• World Economic Forum (21 November 2016). Finland has one of the world's best education systems. Here's how it compares to the US. Retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/11/finland-has-one-of-the-worlds-best-education-systems-four-ways-it-beats-the-us
• WorldTop20 (n.d.). 2018 World Best Education Systems – Final Rankings. Retrieved from https://worldtop20.org/worldbesteducationsystem

read more "AI and the sky's a-falling 2"

AI and the sky's a-falling 1

Jacobs (1890, p. 182)

Gosh, we humans are slow to recognise patterns. Once we all worked at home doing the menial labour on our tiny landholdings or doing menial labour on someone else's land. When the industrial revolution began, everyone was going to be out of work. The opposite happened: we realised that we could all go and work in a factory, and have some resources left over. We started getting ideas above our station.

So we move on to the computer age, and suddenly we were all going to be out of work again. But instead, there was more work, for even more people. Ditto for automation.

Now many people are calling "the sky's a-falling" again (Jacobs, 1890, p. 182), this time about AI. Oh, yes, but it is different this time. It will happen faster. We won't have time to adapt (Rayome, 24 January 2019).

Call me cynical, but I remember the 'paperless' office that was going to revolutionise the workplace. Didn't happen. Still isn't happening (although I am largely paperless, myself, very few people or organisations are). I remember how automation was going to swamp us, that all our jobs could be done by programming. Everything would go to via an automated call centre. End of the world. No work for anyone. Didn't happen. Still isn't happening.

Instead we have gone to smartphones and have lots of people now manufacture apps. The once terribly complex computer language and logic has been simplified. Fewer errors happen. We continue to find more and more things for people to do, to engage with, to be challenged by, and to earn a living at.

Yes, some jobs will disappear, but many more will be created. This is utterly unverified, but I read somewhere that once there were something like 200 professions, and now it is more like 200,000 (actually, if any of you have any reliable sources and numbers for this, I would be very interested in hearing!).

There are also some interesting population trends. As soon as we earn over $10 per day, and child mortality falls in line with WHO guidelines, we stop having more than two children (see the Gapminder Foundation for more info). Then we need to consider the dependency ratio (Grant, 2018). This is the number of people who are not in work - retirees, those in education, at-home parents - who need to be supported by a decreasing ratio to working age people, as we continue to live much longer than the three years of paid support intended by global governments as a reward for our life-long efforts. With an average death rate of around 80 years, that is 15 years which governments cover now, rather than 3. A major fiscal blowout. In China they call this "4-2-1" meaning that one working child supports their just retired parents and their four long-retired grandparents (Goldstein & Goldstein, 2015). There is talk about this becoming "8-4-2-1" as life expectancy continues to increase.

So, I am dubious about claims that the world will end because of AI. There are some economists who agree. Take Rainer Strack for example. He has an impressive pedigree in HR consulting with the Boston Consulting Group and is predicting a fairly significant workplace shortage in Germany by 2030 (Strack, 3 December 2014).

Denning (29 October 2014) has research evidence indicating that new roles are created by private sector organisations which are less than five years old, holding roughly the same pattern since the 1980s. Even more interesting is that those established organisations which are "more than five years old destroyed more jobs than they created in all but eight of those years".

So maturing companies automate. New ones hire people. There will not be enough people for the jobs we currently have.

Let's grow some entrepreneurs and worry less about whether the sky's a-falling.


Sam

References

• Denning, S. (29 October 2014). The Surprising Truth About Where New Jobs Come From. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2014/10/29/the-surprising-truth-about-where-new-jobs-come-from/#31c9c4b53382
• Gapminder Foundation (n.d.). YouTube Channel. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMbmqUMqzerMSM48pGYMYsg.
• Goldstein, A., & Goldstein, S. (2015). The Challenge of an Aging Population The Case of the People's Republic of China. Retrieved from http://roa.sagepub.com/content/8/2/179.short
• Grant, A. M. (2018). Power Moves: : Lessons from Davos. USA: Audible an Amazon Company.
• Jabobs, J. (1890). English Fairy Tales. New York, USA: Grosset & Dunlap.
• Strack, R. (3 December 2014). The surprising workforce crisis of 2030 — and how to start solving it now. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/ux1GxExRUUY
• Rayome, A. D. (24 January 2019). Robots will kill 36M American jobs by 2030. Retrieved from https://www.techrepublic.com/article/robots-will-kill-36m-american-jobs-by-2030/?ftag=TREe01923b&bhid=40778246

read more "AI and the sky's a-falling 1"

'Peak' smartphone

Statista's predicted global smartphone users by 2020 (2017)

On LinkedIn recently I read a curated news post asking if we had hit 'peak' smartphone, and groaned inwardly. Really? 'Peak' smartphone?

Did we ever wonder whether we would run out of new telephone accounts when everyone in the first world had a landline? No: instead the marketers in telecoms companies simply got smarter and more creative about the bundle of services they delivered to the customer. When growth slowed in one area they were savvy enough to have research and development departments which were alert to new trends and technology.

According to LinkedIn, "half the world has a smartphone" and consumers are not replacing handsets often enough. While this isn't very accurate (2.71b people are predicted to have smartphone by the end of this year, Statista, 2017 out of a population of 8b), if we rolled the clock back thirty years to 1989, more than half the world's population would have had a landline. The world wasn't ending in that year because people didn't upgrade their landline phone every year. Most people kept the same phone handset for decades, never mind annually.

The LinkedIn article cited a Wall Street Journal report saying "the saturation of smartphones in rich countries, along with increasing prices for the most high-end models, and only incremental improvements, have meant plummeting sales of the devices". Apple iPhone sales have recently been reported as falling in China (New York Times, 2 January 2019), but we need to also remember that China has some very large mobile brands - Huawei, Oppo, Lenovo and Vivo (China Whisper, 2017) - and the Chinese will find those brands better suited to Chinese language and culture. They will fit a culture which is growing increasingly comfortable with its own internal creativity than on bolting on that of another nation.

It appears to me that we are overly fixated on growth - which is unsustainable in a closed loop planet - and that our 'news' media is full of drama queens. "Doom, doom, doom: the sky is falling. Peeps aren't replacing their mobiles every year!"

Perhaps this is simply a good reason to not read the 'news'.


Sam

References:

• China Whisper (2017). 10 Chinese Mobile Phone Brands with the Most Global Recognition. Retrieved from http://www.chinawhisper.com/10-chinese-mobile-phone-brands-with-the-most-global-recognition/
• LinkedIn (14 January 2019). Is the smartphone era ending? Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/feed/news/is-the-smartphone-era-ending-4616556/
• New York Times (2 January 2019). Apple Cuts Revenue Forecast Because of Slow iPhone Sales in China. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/02/technology/apple-revenue-decline-china.html
• Statista (2017). Number of smartphone users worldwide from 2014 to 2020 (in billions). Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/
  

read more "'Peak' smartphone"

Flexible extension screens

At the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the USA, A4 flexible screens were featured by a company called Faytech (here). The touch-screen is aiming to be thin and lightweight, and is being touted by the company as "the paper of the future". The idea is that the extension screen will allow your phone to work like a keyboard and the display will be your screen.

While commercialisation in the way that I would envisage it is still not quite happening yet, it is between currently 4mm and 8mm thick, and weighs about 400g. Being so light, it will be immensely portable, and once it is really foldable, it will be so much more useful. I hope the technology will catch up with the functionality that consumers will be wanting quite quickly.

Watch what Faytech say about it at:


Some while ago - more than a decade ago and before WiFi - I read about this as an idea in Japan. The idea was that "the paper" would replace newspapers, and we would download our pages directly from the internet. Didn't happen, largely because newspapers went digital with the rise of smartphones. However, that doesn't stop this new technology possibly arising at the right time.

Netflix on an A4 screen would be much better than on a smartphone screen!


Sam

References:

• Faytech (11 January 2019). 12.5" Lapscreen Touch Monitor. Retrieved from https://www.faytech.com/catalogue/product/125-lapscreen-touch-monitor-ft125tmlsc/
• TechRepublic (9 January 2019). CES 2019: Will this ultra-thin portable monitor be the paper of the future? Retrieved from https://www.techrepublic.com/article/ces-2019-will-this-ultra-thin-portable-monitor-be-the-paper-of-the-future/?ftag=TRE684d531&bhid=40778246

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Google Trends

Oo - I have rediscovered a lost toy!

For those of you who thought that Google Trends was no longer available, you can have the same excited happy dance I did! Still based on global Google searches, now we can simply go to https://trends.google.com/trends/ and enter our search term.

We can search by a single nation, by a time range, or by region to get a graph, a global itensity map or ranking. We can compare two or more terms over time. For example, the image illustrating this post is the result of a global search on 'gender diversity' from the start of the data (ie, 2004 to present), which can be viewed here.

We can download the data as a .csv file and then create a graph from it, post a link to social media, or embed html code of the Google Trends graph we filtered (unless you are using the Google Blogger platform, as, for some reason, that won't link!). Just note that a linked graph will not update.

A fabulous little tool for researchers and curious folks!


Sam

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Benefits of Self-Drive Vehicles

Recently I watched a video by Continental (GaadiAdvisor, 7 October 2017), with their view on what the future will look like with autonomous vehicles. I liked their view. We do have issues to sort out: hacking; hijacking; working self-drives around accidents and natural disasters; operation outside urban environments; IT security; payments; driver's licensing, citizen ID etc, but I think the future is exciting, and those issues simply require more thought, idea sharing and the establishment of good systems.

However, I keep reading articles on self-drive vehicles in the main-stream media, and they keep (a) focusing on whether people will trust self-drives enough to get into them, and (b) missing the same key factors that are going to persuade us to trust the AI.

• Insurance. Already insurance is less on Tesla vehicles when engaged in self-drive mode, and insurance on NZ's existing vehicle fleet will increase as we are in a global market for risk, with an increasing road toll. Business insurance is expensive. You can see the accountants doing the maths already.
• Road Toll. International statisticians are suggesting a 90% reduction in accidents once fleets turn over (7 years in the US, 14 here; Crew, 1 October 2015; from McKinsey, Bertoncello & Wee, 2015). The cost of ACC in New Zealand will go down for those who have self-drive, because the risk is less, and up, correspondingly, for those who don't. Those accountants will like this too.
• Adoption Age. According to a Stuff article, 12% of AA members would take a self-drive. I would be interested to hear what the average age of the respondents was (Noon, 15 February 2018). I suspect that younger drivers, who have less of a car culture, will be more likely to take a self-drive car, and older drivers less likely (Shankleman, 13 February 2018). For the past ten to fifteen years there has been a growing trend in London not to get your driver's licence. You don't need it with the public transport available. This trend may well force the licenced driver requirement to be dropped fairly quickly.
• Cities. Self-drive vehicles work in cities, as taxi or bus services, in areas of good connectivity and high population. The convenience of the hail and ride on short trips or work commutes will overcome reservation. Sweden already has self-drive busses on the road (); Singapore is still trialling taxis with nuTonomy (now owned by Delphi; and a range of other initiatives at Huiling & Goh, 2017). Eventually children will be able to get to music lessons or sports on their own: but not until the technology has earned trust through performance.
• Time Saving. It is estimated that a city dweller might spend 90 plus hours looking for a park each year, and 18 hours queuing (Shankleman, 13 February 2018).
• Cleaner/Cheaper. Most self-drive vehicles are electric. Cleaner fuels, lighter weights, fewer moving parts, lower accident risk and lower environmental impact are likely to lower fleet running costs in direct and and indirect costs (taxes) (Huiling & Goh, 2017). It is estimated that a Chevrolet Bolt needs its first full service at 150,000 miles, not at 10,000 (Shankleman, 13 February 2018). Accountants again are going to see much better financials.
• Ownership. In cities you won't need to own, park, or service a car. You will simply hire the vehicle for your use. Ride services like Grab in Singapore will make public transport easier, providing the service itself is reliable. Why own a car - which depreciates from the second you buy it - when a service with less hassle and cost is available? Another one for the accountants: that and no parking.
• Congestion. It is estimated that self-drives will decrease congestion. We will have to wait and see on that one. However, if your business is in moving goods, at least you won't be paying wages for traffic jams: just lost asset time.
• Infrastructure. We won't need huge new roads. Car parks may be able to be turned back into green spaces. With a park and ride, we pay no parking fees. No traffic fines. No traffic police. No speeding. No racers unless they are on a race track.
• Shift in global power. The shift to electric vehicles means we are likely to be less locked into trading oil in USD/barrel. This will make a huge change to international politics (ZeroHedge, 14 January 2018).

This will all take some time to sort out. There will be teething problems. But this is the road we are on.


Sam

References:

• Bertoncello, M. & Wee, D. (2015). Ten ways autonomous driving could redefine the automotive world. Retrieved 15 February 2018 from https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Industries/Automotive%20and%20Assembly/Our%20Insights/Ten%20ways%20autonomous%20driving%20could%20redefine%20the%20automotive%20world/Ten%20ways%20autonomous%20driving%20could%20redefine%20the%20automotive%20world.ashx
• Crew, B. (1 October 2015). Driverless Cars Could Reduce Traffic Fatalities by Up to 90%, Says Report. Retrieved 15 February 2018 from https://www.sciencealert.com/driverless-cars-could-reduce-traffic-fatalities-by-up-to-90-says-report
• GaadiAdvisor (7 October 2017). Continental recently unveiled its ‘Bee’ autonomous car. Retrieved 15 February 2018 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9__bf-s92S4
• Flinders, K. (24 January 2018). Driverless buses hit the streets of Stockholm. Retrieved 15 February 2018 from http://www.computerweekly.com/news/252433763/Driverless-buses-hit-the-streets-of-Stockholm
• Huiling, E. & Goh, B. (2017). AI, Robotics and Mobility as a Service: the Case of Singapore. Field Actions Science Reports, 17(2017), 26-29. Retrieved 15 February 2018 from http://journals.openedition.org/factsreports/pdf/4411
• Noon, M. (15 February 2018). Self-driving vehicles may not be the road toll saviour. Retrieved 15 February 2018 from https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/101230501/selfdriving-vehicles-may-not-be-the-road-toll-saviour
• Shankleman, J. (13 February 2018). Self-Driving Cars Will Kill Things You Love (And a Few You Hate): Get ready for the long goodbye to car culture, many domestic flights, and insurance premiums. Retrieved 15 February 2018 from https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-13/self-driving-cars-will-kill-things-you-love-and-a-few-you-hate
• ZeroHedge (14 January 2018). Will The Dollar Survive The Petro-Yuan? Retrieved 15 February 2018 from https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Will-The-Dollar-Survive-The-Petro-Yuan.html

read more "Benefits of Self-Drive Vehicles"

"Say it with [plants]"

Extracted from (Brown, n.d.).

I used to send flowers to friends, family and clients for special occasions, but I don't any more.

I suddenly realised that I was creating a problem for the recipient a week down the track, when they had to dispose of the 'remains' of the flowers, the plastic water capsules, and the wrapping.

Something that had looked alive and vibrant when given had died. I found this particularly unpleasant when I sent flowers for funerals. Why do we send people more death?

Additionally, I have also come to think that giving someone the sawn off reproductive organs of plants conveys a less than pleasant message in itself.

What I do now is to give either good handmade local chocolate, native plants in a pot, or wine. If I am giving plants, I select New Zealand natives to be planted out if the recipient has a garden, or as easy care house plants if they are in an apartment. Grasses are usually pretty trouble-free and long-lived, even for recipients who are not that flash with house plant care.

And for funerals, a living plant can be a memorial, particularly if the plant has significance or tradition for the family.

Giving something growing, or a taste experience, feels less wasteful somehow.

PMA (2015) said that the Baby Boomer sector is the most likely to purchase flowers weekly or fortnightly, with younger groups perhaps only indulging two or three times a year. According to the Retail and Personal Services Training Council (2015), florists in Australia and New Zealand have been declining at 1.4% per year since 2010. Perhaps this is a cultural shift, but few people I know want to receive cut flowers.

Floriculture needs to become ornamental permaculture if it wants to survive, I suspect.


Sam

References:

• Brown University (n.d.). Magnolia Detail. Retrieved 22 January 2017 from http://library.brown.edu/dps/curio/wp-content/uploads/magnolia_detail.jpg
• PMA (2015). Floral Consumer Trends. Retrieved 22 January 2017 from http://www.pma.com/content/articles/2015/11/floral-consumer-trends
• Retail and Personal Services Training Council (2015). Environmental Scan 2015 Floristry. Retrieved 22 January 2017 from http://rapstc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Floristry-Environmental-Scan-2015.pdf

read more ""Say it with [plants]""

What's happening in Leadership?

I was asked recently by a former colleague about what was new and happening in leadership.

A leadership scholar famously said once that they went out for a decade and when they came back, nothing had changed (I just wish I could remember where I heard that!).

I suspect that underneath, the good theory holds true, but the fads come and go like the tide.

It took me a wee while to think about it, but I came up with a list of what I think is doing a soft-trend at the moment, and is likely to hold its relevance for the foreseeable future.

1. Authentic leadership
2. Acts of leadership here and here
3. Facilitative leadership here and here
4. Shared leadership 
5. Adam Grant on giving and taking
6. John Parrot on Mindfulness
7. Mindset - and download Carol Dweck's first chapter here
8. Diversity in NZ from Sarah Leberman, 
9. Brene Brown on vulnerability at TEDx Houston 
10. Three brains research 
11. Simon Sinek (edited) or in full

I don't tend to rush off and do the big trends too much: I try to stick with what looks like lasting the decade, more than the flash Harrys who burn flare-bright but disappear into cold ash in the light of day.


Sam

read more "What's happening in Leadership?"

Newsletter Issue 232, March 2013

Sam Young Newsletter

Issue 232, March 2013

Hi guys,

What new trends have you spotted? See if you have anything you need to tell me about! Check out So What's Hot? below.

Seen any ad placements recently that made you laugh out loud because of the incongruity of their surroundings? Read When Advertising goes Bad. 

Look Ma, No Mouse!   TLAs for SMEs        Tips, Short & Hot Keys        Hot Linx

Don't forget, if you want to be taken off my mailing list, click here to send me a reply e-mail and I will remove your name.

 

So What's Hot?

There are a load of trends that will increasingly impact us - and largely in a positive way - as 2013 unrolls.

• Social media is driving a lot of change. It is now central to home and work, and the collective communities are reshaping companies from without. Social media is helping business build broader, agile networks so they can create and deliver value to customers. B2C is creating what feels like a one-to-one relationships, but is using one-to-many technology to enable it. About two thirds of the wired globe is on Facebook. LinkedIn is growing (and is increasingly being used for head-hunting). Expect to see many more people automatically touching base via social media as time goes on (The Economist, Nov 2012; Caligiuri, 14 Dec 2012).
• Companies are growing a social and economic conscience, trying to build legitimacy in the eyes of their demanding consumers, employees and stakeholders. Increasingly, their stakeholders can din companies on Facebook and various review sites if companies muck it up or greenwash. Where companies truly have mutual benefits with society, it works. Beware the company who puts on ethics like a cloak: it will not be the cloak of invisibility! (The Economist, Nov 2012)
• Cheques are on their way out. Internet banking is in. Malaysia is phasing out cheques by April 2014, as more people chose internet banking (Yong, 20 March 2013). Like money orders, cheques are an anachronism. The change is being driven by the ease, information-richness, immediacy and low cost of automatic & online payments. Accounting software now automatically codes bank transactions: a cheque has no information with it, so it means additional manual adjustments. Cheque costs are likely to increase to more accurately reflect their processing cost too - bankers drafts now cost about $30 each…There will be even fewer once banks start charging realistic processing costs... from 2008 to 2011 we went from writing 204 million to 60 million cheques; and cheques have gone from making up half of all banking transactions in 1993 to 2% in May last year.
• If you are still watching broadcast TV, you are so old hat. According to eMarketer’s 2012 digital media usage report, those of us viewing TV and video on computers, tablets or mobile devices will increase to over half the population. This looks set to increase. Additionally, more businesses now use video to communicate info about their company, their products and their services (eMarketer, 2012). 
• There is some awesome technology convergence allowing those of us with smart phones to tap into a new marketing trend which will be a biggie: “SoLoMo” - Social, Local, Mobile. More B2C companies are working in that sector such as Foursquare, which converges users' GPS and the users' 'likes' and advises the companies located close by and what special deals are currently available. And 96% of smart phone users are also on the web (Caligiuri, 14 Dec 2012).
• Online conferences, video conferencing and online meetings will increase. This will mean we can save travel costs. It will not be a replacement for getting face to face, but will create more choice for participants. Expect the BNZ Business Centre facilities to get very booked out!
• MOOCs will get bigger. Courses will continue to go online, and we will end up with some great deals as students, but bad deals as academics and teachers. The model will shift more towards learners actually learning from individuals in order for teachers to earn money from teaching... though I am not sure this is a bad thing either.
• Open Access academic writing and eBooks will continue to gain ground. Open Access is about not tying up academic publications with profit-making publishers, but by-passing them to publish articles as a public good. EBooks in various formats will continue to gain ground over print. Expect some of the slower adopters to move to Kindles, iPads, Tablets and audiobooks.
• The customisation of content to fit the context will increase. Companies will create tailored communications that talk to specific customer problems in the customer's industry, targetted at the customer's company and how their product or service will benefit the customer. The seller will have to ensure they tell the customer what the WIIFM is, else their message will be ignored. Company marketing will have to shouts their “calls to action” in all their comms. Companies will need to be even more savvy about bridging their content to action, and how they get information from potential audiences and target them more effectively in future campaigns. Look for more calls to action via some more unusual content in 2013, especially from free information exchange such as blog posts, white papers, articles and case studies (Caligiuri, 14 Dec 2012). 
• We will see more news-jacking, where people get their own expertise in to breaking news by creating a connection between the story and themselves. Caligiuri reports that a "lawyer client of mine specializing in privacy has been having some newsjacking success. When stories about Google keeping consumer information came out this year, for instance, he reached out to the media to offer his opinion, and has now become recognized as a privacy expert to whom media turned multiple times in 2012 on privacy-related matters. This has done much to raise his profile" (14 Dec 2012). 

Sources:

• Caligiuri, Ryan (14 Dec 2012). Seven Top Marketing Trends for 2013. UK: The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 28 March 2013 from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-marketing/advertising/seven-top-marketing-trends-for-2013/article6311967/ 
• eMarketer (2013). US Digital Media Usage: A Snapshot of 2013. USA: Author. Retrieved 28 March 2013 from http://www.emarketer.com/public_media/docs/Digital_Media_Usage_Snapshot_2013.pdf
• The Economist (Nov 2012). Cassandra  The World in 2013: A top ten for business leaders. Retrieved 29 March 2013 from http://www.economist.com/blogs/theworldin2013/2012/11/global-trends-2013
• Yong, Lawrence (20 March 2013). Malaysia to phase out cheques. Retrieved 29 March 2013 from http://www.kinibiz.com/story/corporate/10133/malaysia-to-phase-out-cheques-backs-eps.html 

When Advertising goes Bad

In our businesses, we spend loads of time putting together advertising that works beautifully, fits our brand personality, uses the fonts and colour parameters our designers have specified. Advertising is not cheap, and any advertising spend must give us good value for money. 

We send our items off for publication, only to find that in placing the ads, the channel distributor has undone all our good work. If you don't know what I am talking about, check out the placement of the stadium Yahoo ad alongside the seat block number at http://adfailure.com/ad-fails/popular/32247-error-seating-area-not-found, and check out the ads in this Imgur photo album called "23 Most Unfortunate Advertising Placements" at http://imgur.com/a/7shrP . The Imgur album even includes a Kiwi ad - check out the message redirect the school bus sign unexpectedly creates for the Quit programme.

Bad examples will end up re-circulated on the internet for years. How do we guard against channel distributors being thoughtless with our hard work? 

A few ideas:

1. Have a brand manual specifying all aspects of your branding. Give a copy of your brand manual to each of your distribution channels
2. Have a contract with your distribution channels assuring you of appropriate surrounding item placements (including, but not limited to text, articles, images, advertising materials, installations and video)
3. Ensure you not only approve the proof, but see mockups of the final placement to be sure that the environment itself will not compromise your message
4. If you are developing vehicle livery, specify the vehicle types the artwork is to be applied to, and think through the different parameters each vehicle type will present. Use computer mockups to view what vehicles will look like with doors open, around wheel arches, around other signage and around tinted windows. Ensure you use channels who will report back for guidance when something is outside the design specifications.

While these items are going to cost you more, they will prevent your brand going viral on the web, year after year, circulating in emails.

Look Ma, No Mouse!

PC Magazine have a great tip for those of us using MS Office 2010. 

You can avoid having to mouse-click your way through Office's Ribbon with a single tap of the Alt key.  Tap it, and little boxed letters will appear on all the ribbon tabs, with numbers appearing in the Quick Access area. Then all you have to do is key the letters for the item you want.

For example, if you are in Outlook, in an email folder view, with an email selected. If you key Alt, then H, this will take you to the Home tab, where you can see a selection of command letters. Then key "RP" and a reply to selected email will pop up, ready for you to type into. Drop down and expansion lists also have lettered items you can select. Once in menus or lists, you can use also arrow keys to select items.

To get back to normal view, just click Alt again. So easy.

Go to http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow_viewer/0,3253,l=265741&a=265729&po=3,00.asp to view PC Mag's original article. 

TLAs for SMEs

Here are this newsletter's TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) for you:

• WWW, world wide web. Usually pronounced "dub, dub, dub" - but only in NZ. If pronounced in full, in English, at nine syllables, this is the longest TLA to pronounce - longer than the words it replaces (three syllables). In written English it is an abbreviation. Author Douglas Adams - of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame - remarked "The World Wide Web is the only thing I know of whose shortened form takes three times longer to say than what it's short for". (Academic Room (2013). Internet, World Wide Web. Retrieved 20 March 2013 from http://www.academicroom.com/topics/what-is-internet) 

Please feel free to email me with any TLAs that you want to get the bottom (meaning!) of.

Tips, Short+Hot Keys

In this newsletter, we are going to look at all shortcuts for Replace:

• Access, Outlook "Find the next occurrence of the text specified in the Find and Replace dialog box when the dialog box is closed" Shift & F4 
• Access, Frontpage, Publisher, Word "Open the Replace dialog box" Ctrl & H 
• PowerPoint "Hide the pointer and button immediately or replace text, specific formatting, and special items" Ctrl & H 
• Word "Display the Go To tab of the Find and Replace dialog box" Ctrl & G 
• Word "Display the Go To tab on the Find and Replace dialog box or update the files visible in the Open or Save As dialog box" F5 

Hot Linx

Get your latest Hudson guide to a range of sector salaries, employment conditions and work practices from a survey of 4,921 employers and 5,853 employees in Australia and New Zealand at http://nz.hudson.com/KnowledgeCentre/2013SalaryEmploymentInsights

The lovely MS Office gurus from Woody’s Watch have compiled a comprehensive, searchable list of all the Word 2010 commands at http://office-watch.com/commandlist/Word_2010.aspx

Be able to explain to clients why they need a clean online presence. Check out the recruiter's online toolbag at http://employerblog.internmatch.com/25-ways-to-recruit-through-social-media/?goback=.gde_2115428_member_216458989

So, what is the hype about 3D printing? Is it really going to be such a disruptive technology, and, as some pundits are saying, ‘bigger than the internet’? Read on at http://video.ft.com/v/1700835179001/3D-printing-bigger-than-internet-?utm_source=taboola

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                                Catch you again soon!! E-mail your suggestions to me here

read more "Newsletter Issue 232, March 2013"