Technology Revolution: The Future of Now

The buzz: "We just have a way of getting ourselves into hot water" (Carl Wilson, The Beach Boys). How Social Selling is conducted and how a brand is portrayed in social media – whether undertaken by the PR department, sales force or an individual worker in a large company, or by a small enterprise or a new start-up entrepreneur – can have big ramifications for the company, good and bad. If you're not paying attention to the lurking pitfalls related to how you can contact prospects, what you can convey, and how to properly use company intellectual property assets, tune in and take notes! The experts speak. Renée L. Duff, Esq.: "Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal or ideal" (Earl Nightingale). Peter Hoppenfeld, Attorney At Law: "When you see a fork in the road, take it" (Yogi Berra). Kirsten Boileau, SAP: "The best way to predict the future is to create it" (Peter Drucker). Join us for Social Selling, Social Media and The Law: How's Your Brand Doing?

The buzz: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise." The key to a healthy population is more than an individual's personal decisions and behaviors. Genetic science says the fault may be in our stars, after all. Can population-based wellness programs be equitable when our genes, cultures and environments make good health a stroll for some but an uphill battle for others? Is Big Data the new Big Brother? The experts speak. Dr. Paul Tunnah, pharmaphorum: "Risk comes from not knowing what you're doing" (Warren Buffett). Michael Maniccia, Deloitte: "We'd like to help you learn to help yourself. Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes (Paul Simon, Mrs. Robinson). Petra Streng, SAP: "In the real world there is no nature vs. nurture argument, only an infinitely complex and moment-by-moment interaction between genetic and environmental effects" (Dr. Gabor Maté). Join us for The Behavior Side of Preventive Medicine: Genetic Science and Big Data – Part 3.

The buzz: "Trust, but verify." (Ronald Reagan) Social Selling is real - now! How do we know? The numbers. Sales people not using social media missed quota 15% more often than peers who do (Hubspot). Directors with SSI 70 were promoted 1.6X faster to VP than those with SSI 30 in the past two years (LinkedIn profile data). Sounds great, but you may still need to convince your entire sales organization to internalize and adopt a new selling and engagement strategy. How? The right training and follow-up programs. The experts speak. Barbara Giamanco, Social Centered Selling: "Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory, tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat" (Sun Tsu). Mario M. Martinez Jr., M3Jr Growth Strategies: "What got you here, won't get you there" (Marshall Goldsmith). Kirsten Boileau, SAP: "Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge" (Plato). Join us for Social Selling Adoption: How to Make It Happen – Part 2.

The buzz: Boom! The speed of technological innovation is leading to a world of "Templosion (Edie Weiner): massive changes happening in increasingly compressed timeframes. The impacts of this plus digital transformation will even be felt in Finance, where Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, Smart Machines will play a role. What business models will guide Finance as it adopts and adapts to disruptive technologies? The experts speak. Sam Parikh, Deloitte: "Contrary to popular belief, transformation cannot be based on a single event, advice, book, or seminar…real transformation requires the formation of new thinking patterns and behavioral habit." (Med Jones). Jon Essig, SimpleFi: "It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory" (W. Edwards Deming). Karuna Mukherjea, SAP: "In a world that's changing really quickly, the only strategy that is guaranteed to fail is not taking risks (Mark Zuckerberg). Join us for Templosion, Technology and the Future of Finance–Part 2.

The buzz: Every day is a revolution. Welcome to the future. The upside: The 4th industrial Revolution's smart factories, connected machines, and IIoT offer limitless possibilities for collaborative robotics, digital twins, and myriad "smart" use cases. At the heart of it all: the industrial machinery and components (IM&C) industry. The downside: Information overload and insufficient cybersecurity are barriers to capitalizing on the near-term estimated $15 trillion IIoT opportunity. Why you should care: This all impacts your business, your career and your personal life. The experts speak. Sean Molloy, itelligence, Inc: "Thought, not money, is the real business capital (Harvey S. Firestone). Jason Coffman, Deloitte: "A man who has no imagination has no wings (Muhammad Ali). David Parrish, SAP: "It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much..." (Yogi Berra). Join us for Digital Manufacturing: Powering the 4th Industrial Revolution – Part 2.

The buzz: Knowledge is power. Reality check for utilities. Digitization and the exponential growth of mobile devices are changing your customer engagement. But still fewer than half of customers are digitally connected with their utility. Your challenge: If you're not talking to your customer, they're not listening to you. Solution: Rethink your customer engagement model. Reimagine your business models. Now! The experts speak. Jacqueline Robinson, DTE Energy: "You cannot look in a new direction by looking harder in the same direction (Edward deBono). Robert Thiele, OpenText: "What I worry about the most is the competition for young eyeballs. We have so many other competing forms of media. I don't take any audience members for granted" (Chris Meledandri). James McClelland, SAP: "Change is the law of life and those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future" (John F. Kennedy). Join us for Digitization: Changing the Utilities Customer Engagement – Part 2.

The buzz: WHY ME? Business ownership is tough, especially when clients push back on your pricing, employees act like four-year olds, vendors don't deliver as promised. Add to that the fear of growing at a snail's pace, while others soar. Is it possible to reclaim your power and use the law as a tool to strengthen your business foundation and relationships? "Yes!" say three legal experts. They'll share legal pitfalls that many women—and men—entrepreneurs encounter, and how to sidestep them. Take notes! The experts speak. Nina Kaufman, Esq.: "Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn" (Harriet Beecher Stowe). Nance L. Schick, Esq.: "Order and simplification are the first steps towards the mastery of a subject" ((Paul) Thomas Mann). Renée L. Duff, Esq.: "Believe it can be done. When you believe something can be done, really believe, your mind will find the ways to do it (David J. Schwartz). Join us for Legal Lessons for Women Business Owners–Part 3.

The buzz: What's a vacation? Entrepreneurs and business owners have always carried the weight of their company, with precious few days off. Now pressure to "mind the store" is literally always-on, with digital customers online 24/7 from every device and location, 74% using social networks to make a buying decision and share experiences. How can small players use social selling, digital decision tools and ecommerce solutions – but retain their uniqueness – to compete with the "big kids"? The experts speak. Lil Mohan, University of Chicago: "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place" (George Bernard Shaw). Max Dower, Unfortunate Portrait: "A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is" (Scott Cook). Susan Reynolds, SAP: "The start-ups that do well are the ones that are working all the time" (Sam Altman). Join us for Becoming Digital, Staying Human: Be True to You and Your Business – Part 2.

The buzz: Woo woo or woo hoo? Companies like yours across all industry sectors are trying to deal with almost daily security threats to your networks and devices. Can available Security Incident and Event Monitoring (SIEM) analytics tools help you mine and analyze data to protect your vital data from eagerly prying eyes? Ideally, the analytics will enable you to detect and prevent future attacks, recover quickly from present breaches, and learn from past vulnerabilities. Ready for a reality check? The experts speak. Paul Alvarez, EY: "It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit" (Harry Truman). Richard McCammon, Delego Software: "Be vigilant, for nothing one achieves lasts forever" (Tahar Ben Jelloun). Gerlinde Zibulski, SAP: "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge" (Stephen Hawking). Join us for Security Breach Threat Analysis and Intelligence: Just Voodoo or Real Help?

The buzz: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." Businesses used to focus on the goods they produced. Now that customers in the Digital Economy demand faster, better ways to receive what they buy, product delivery logistics could become as critical to B2B business success as to B2Cs. How do you know if this is right for your business model? The experts speak. Sunil Daluvoy, Uber Technologies: "If you're competitor-focused, you have to wait until there is a competitor doing something. Being customer-focused allows you to be more pioneering" (Jeff Bezos). Charlie Cole, Tumi: ""Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light" (Dylan Thomas). Hari Ashvini, SAP: "The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change" (Bill Clinton). Join us for One-Hour Doorstep Delivery: Can It Transform Your Business?