Technology Revolution: The Future of Now

The buzz: "If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places" (Fred Kent). By 2030, 2/3 of humanity will live in urban areas and megacities with 10+ million populations will increase by 65%. Good news: cities bring innovation and economic progress. Not-so-good-news: cities are bogged down by traffic congestion, aging infrastructures, quality of life threats. Can smart city technologies focused on automotive – intermodal transportation planning and intelligent traffic management– alleviate these challenges? The experts speak. Joe Renz, New Mobility Lab: "Just do it!" (Nike slogan). Monali Shah: "Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray" (Rumi). Dante Ricci, SAP: "Be the change you wish to see in the world" (Gandhi). Join us for Urban Mobility and Smart Cities – Part 2.

The buzz: "56 cents of every dollar spent in a store is influenced by a consumer's digital interaction with the product over multiple connected devices." (deloitte.wsj.com/cmo/2017/01/26/2017-consumer-products-outlook). Consumer Product (CP) companies are being forced to rethink channel partner relationships, product mix and pricing strategies. Why? Because of business-as-usual disruption by eCommerce giants like Amazon, direct-to-consumer subscriptions, and expanded retail private label lines. How can CP companies use data to bolster their brands and strengthen consumer loyalty? The experts speak. Jerry Wolfe, Vivanda: "Give me only what I need, It doesn't take too much to keep me satisfied" (Rival Sons). Barbara Thau, Retail Writer: "…one job is not better than another" (Geoffrey Owens). Colby Sheridan, SAP: "Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing" (Benjamin Franklin). Join us for Consumer Products Under Attack: Time to Reclaim Market Share – Part 2.

The buzz: "…we are in the middle of this Platform Revolution. The platform facilitates an accessible, scalable and efficient network of users, services, devices and intermediaries … value is created, distributed, discovered and consumed." (ING, 2016). In this digital age, successful platform businesses are using scalable cloud system architecture and sophisticated technology, and implementing smart adoption and monetization strategies. The result? Market dominance, exploding margins and volumes of sensitive data. Is your company on board yet? The experts speak. Dr. Bernd-Uwe Pagel, SAP: "The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom" (Isaac Asimov). Claus von Riegen, SAP: "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end" (Seneca). Nils Herzberg, SAP: "After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb" (Nelson Mandela). Join us for Platform Business Models: Friend or Foe? – Part 2.

The buzz: "No one in the world needs a Rhino horn but a Rhino" (Paul Oxton). Africa's wildlife threat levels are growing at alarming rates – particularly from the poaching of elephants and rhinos. Traditional conservation methods fall short due to lack funding and people-power. Enter a creative solution: technology with purpose involving drones and GPS, sparking a new definition of ERP: Elephants, Rhinos and People. We'll catch up with ERP to get a update on how technology is helping the organization meet its worthy goals. The experts speak. Quintin Smith, EPI-USE: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" (Edmund Burke). David Allen, EPI-USE: "It's the ones without scars – those are the people you have to watch out for…." (Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam). Ashley Tully, SAP: "Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance" (Samuel Johnson). Join us for ERP, Tech and Purpose in the Wild: Elephants, Rhinos, People – Part 3.

The buzz: "There are loads of studies which show that marketers struggle with measuring ROI from social media" (David Moth). If you're the designated social selling results "bean counter" for your company, the standardization of digital performance metrics will give you relief. How? You'll be able to measure the business impact of all digital selling performance across the organization and provide timely feedback to reinforce what's working vs what can be improved or eliminated. The experts speak. Mark Hunter, The Sales Hunter: "You don't have to be great at something to start, but you have to start to be great at something" (Zig Ziglar). Scott Santucci, Social Enablement Society: "A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty" Sir (Winston Churchill). Marco Cai, SAP: "If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things (Einstein). Join us for Social Sellers' Playbook: Making It Count – Part 2.

The buzz: "Chief sustainability executives the new environmental chiefs…wield extraordinary power" (www.sustainabilitydegrees.com). More employees, consumers and stockholders expect the companies they work for, buy from and invest in to be purpose-driven. How to get on board? Hire a Sustainable Innovation Technologist to develop teams, solutions and procedures to grow efficiency, employee retention, global impact and profits, all while reducing costs. Who knew purpose could be so good? The experts speak. Dr. John Frey, HPE: "If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other" (Mother Teresa). Rob Thiele, OpenText: "Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge" (Plato). Jim Sullivan, SAP: "Do you know what my favorite renewable fuel is? An ecosystem for innovation" (Thomas Friedman). Join us for Now Hiring on Purpose: Sustainable Innovation Technologist – Part 2.

The buzz: "We will design products differently if we knew that those products were going to come back to us as manufacturers and we could extract value from them and create new products from them" (Teresa Domenech). The last 150 years of industrial evolution have been dominated by a one-way Linear Economy model of production and consumption. Goods are manufactured from raw materials, sold, used, then discarded or incinerated as waste. How to get past this unsustainable practice? Welcome to the circular economy model, which maintains products, extends their service life, and repurposes one product's waste to maintain another – reuse, repair, remanufacture. Is your company on board yet? The experts speak. Christopher Koch, SAP: "Say something once, why say it again?" (David Byrne "Psycho Killer" lyrics). Will Ritzrau, SAP: "Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all" (Ernest Shackleton). Join us for Circular Economy: Radical and Unproven or Saving the Planet? – Part 2.

The buzz: "The qualities that make Twitter seem inane and half-baked are what makes it so powerful" (Jonathan Zittrain). If your business is reviewing social media channels to determine where to focus your people and time, you may be dismissing Twitter as not a serious tool. Facebook has the most users. LinkedIn is for serious professionals. Twitter is in-between. Per the American Press Institute, 79% of its members use Twitter to get the news, 36% to pass the time, and 19% to network. But 19% doesn't mean you should omit Twitter as a social selling tool. The experts speak. Sarah Goodall, Tribal Impact: "Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm" (Winston Churchill). Kirsten Boileau, SAP: "One of my favorite things is to have a three-hour conversation over coffee with someone" (Andy Grammer). Michael LaBate, SAP: "The heart, like the stomach, wants a varied diet" (Gustave Flaubert). Join us for Insider Secrets: Twitter for Social Selling – Part 2.

The buzz: "…women are starting to gain ground as consumers and workers in a traditionally male-dominated industry, and brands should be taking note (Jose Costa, Huffington Post). Women driving the automotive industry? In 2014, Mary Barra broke the automotive industry's boys club gender barrier when she became GM's first-ever female CEO and Chairman. Women are also driving car purchase decision traffic. Our panel of powerful women in automotive will share their playbooks. The experts speak. Pamela Niekamp, Nielsen: "I think the most important thing, and the key ingredient for a woman, is to act like you belong there and believe that you belong there" (Chelsea Handler). Meg Divitto, IBM: "If you're offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask what seat! Just get on (Sheryl Sandberg). Ellen Sasson, SAP: "My philosophy is that losers have goals and winners have systems" (Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert). Join us for Women Take the Wheel: Transforming The Automotive Ecosystem - Part 2.

The buzz: "…there are some job perks that will make millennials consider working for less, by as much as 12 percent" (cnbc.com). Few things impact employee productivity, engagement and well-being as much as compensation. But as definitions of work and workforce change, top talent may not be interested in traditional pay-for-performance formulas. The experts speak. Dr. Gabby Burlacu, SAP SuccessFactors: "Price is what you pay. Value is what you get" (W.Buffett). Lauren Bidwell, PhD, SAP SuccessFactors: "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place" (G.B.Shaw). John Weldon, Baylor Univ.: It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" (Aristotle). Chris Seifert, Baylor Univ.: 'Do what you feel in your heart to be right - for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't" (E.Roosevelt). Join us for Getting Serious About Getting Paid: Your Company's Compensation Part 2.