Technology Revolution: The Future of Now

Performance Management (PM) began informally around World War 1. By the late-1950s, many companies adopted formal, personality-based PM practices without a self-appraisal component. Complaints arose about their effectiveness. Fast-forward to today. Most organizations are using a PM strategy intended to drive the right behaviors toward a specific outcome, but 80% believe it's not delivering. Is your PM maximizing or hurting your employees' productivity? It's time to examine the good, bad, and ugly of PM, plus improvement strategies you can use now. The experts speak. Dr. Steven Hunt, SuccessFactors: "Sweeping generalizations about certain performance management methods being universally good or bad are almost always wrong." Josh Bersin, Bersin by Deloitte: "Traditional performance appraisals are dinosaurs." Pam Seplow, SAP: "Good judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgment" (Will Rodgers). Join us for Performance Management: Are Today's Practices Working?

The buzz: Drug supply risks. Today, more often than is acceptable, a required antibiotic or chronic disease drug cannot be delivered on time. What will happen tomorrow when personalized medicine tailored for one or a small patient group must be secured? The experts speak. Dr. Josef Packowski, CAMELOT Consulting Group: "Detective Del Spooner: 'You are just a machine. An imitation of life. Can a robot write a symphony?' Sonny: 'Can you?'" (I, Robot). Julian Amey, WMG: "Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to make the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man…Better...stronger...faster" (The Six Million Dollar Man). Jack Schmidt, SAP: "…one of my mantras–focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains" (Steve jobs). Join us for Future of Medicine: Will Supply Chains Be Ready?

The buzz: Connected health systems. Wearable devices can track and automatically report body traits, therapy adherence and lifestyle to patients, doctors, and more. But if taken to a new level, they could have more dramatic impacts. How? Individuals would change their health thinking and behavior, health insurers would pay per outcome vs. cost, and life sciences companies would focus on prevention as well as cure. Is this the impossible dream? The experts speak. Harry Greenspun, MD, Deloitte: "If you build it, they will come… or maybe they won't." Scott Lundstrom, IDC: "The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency (Bill Gates). Bernhard Schweizer, SAP: "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been"(Wayne Gretzky). Join us for Health Wearables Part 3 – The New Life-Changers?

The buzz: Hurry! Calling all manufacturers! We're mid-way into our 4th industrial revolution. If your manufacturing facility isn't taking advantage of the exponential advances in technology, exploding big data and amazing innovations, the handwriting is on the wall: you'll soon be obsolete. What will it take to catch up? First, learn to harness the power of in-memory computing, IoT, wearable technologies, additive manufacturing and predictive capabilities. Next, stop underestimating the changing dynamics of your customers' expectations (your competition isn't). Want to know more? The experts speak. Mark Frank, Deloitte: "Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others" (Jonathan Winters). Timothy Day, Johns Manville: "If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it" (Lord Kelvin). Rick Imber, SAP: "The secret of success is doing what you have to do, better than you have to do it" (Unknown). Join us for Transporting Your Factory into the Future Now–Part 1.

The buzz: Hurry! Connecting information, people, assets, and devices – on 3rd generation platforms that support social, mobile, cloud, Big Data, IoT – drives newly insightful business action. Can a long-standing industry like chemicals benefit? Yes! Embracing IoT can open opportunities to optimize efficiency, deploy radically new business models, and stay competitive. The experts speak. David Dunn, Rolta: "All right...but apart from better sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health ... what have the Romans ever done for us?" (Monty Python). David Cruickshank, SAP: "Standing on the shoulders of giants" (Sir Isaac Newton). John Harrison, SAP: "The Internet is ultimately about innovation & integration... you don't get the innovation unless you integrate Web technology into the processes by which you run your business" (Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.). Join us for IoT and Chemicals: Transform Your Business Models Now!

The buzz: Let's get together, yeah yeah yeah! What does it really mean for you to have a connected business? Analysts estimate that by 2020, social networks will connect 2.5 billion people, the number of connected devices will total 75 billion, and the volume of global business trade between connected businesses will reach $65 trillion. As we move to an era of true hyperconnectivity in our digital economy, how can your company turn these challenges and your business networks into sustainable profitable opportunities? The experts speak. Dennison DeGregor, HP: "The digital CX revolution is dead – long live Digital Humanism!" Frank Diana, TCS: "The networked organization of the future knows that the lion's share of value exists outside its walls; it looks to capture that value and bring it inside (Dion Hinchcliffe). Drew Hofler, SAP: "We build too many walls and not enough bridges" (Sir Isaac Newton). Join us for Business Networks and the Digital Economy: Ready for Digital Humanism?

The buzz: Always better together. As the world becomes increasingly digital, your company's survival will rely more than ever on co-innovation opportunities within your business network. How can you make this happen? Simply put, seek out and connect with collaborative partners who can help you achieve the solution edge that will keep you competitive and successful. But where do you look and whom should you choose? Guidance from Peter Drucker: "The best praise an innovation can receive is for people to say, 'This is obvious. Why didn't I think of it?'" The experts speak. Dawn Duross, Cisco: "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do (Coach John Wooden). Krishna Kumar, AppOrchid: "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse. The choice of life" (The Godfather). Puneet Suppal, SAP: "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present...we must think anew and act anew" (Abraham Lincoln). Join us for Co-Innovation: Your Path to a Digital Future – Part 2.

The buzz: Spelling bee. Cybersecurity breaches in the headlines still strike fear in companies, governments and individuals worldwide. For businesses, the advent of the IoT can compromise secure access to critical infrastructures by connecting business applications with process/infrastructure applications, a traditional no-no. With today's Advanced Persistent Threats and Zero Day Exploits, how do you protect access between 30-year-old sensors without Internet protocol support? The experts speak. Gerlinde Zibulksi, SAP: "What is cybersecurity? C Y B E R S E C U R I T Y – CRY BE SECURITY – SECRET ICY RUBY – ICE CURRY BYTES – I RUT BY SECRECY." Hillel Zafir, HMS Technology Group: "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start. When you read you begin with ABC." (Sound of Music). Richard McCammon, Delego: "We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security" (Dwight D. Eisenhower). Join us for Data Security Breaches Part 4: Wising-Up to Real-Life Impacts.

The buzz: Crystal ball. Yes, change is inevitable. But today's unprecedented pace and scale of change presents unique challenges for the future of business. Futurists worldwide are examining and assessing potential business impacts of new and emerging paradigms, energy innovations, physical-digital boundary blurring, business decentralization, and other global drivers. What are the implications for future leaders? The experts speak. Frank Diana, TCS: "We are entering a world where everything we know and understand about the purposes of business and the mission of our own organization will be challenged" (Rohit Talwar). Gray Scott, Futurist: We are becoming a digitized species…crossing the computational event horizon into a digital black hole." Timo Elliott, SAP: "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction" (E. F. Schumacher). Join us for Emerging Paradigms and the Future of Business.

The buzz: The secret's out. So you're a woman and you want to start – or expand – your own business. That's great! Women are the fastest growing segment of business owners in the U.S. today. But here's the rub: compared to men, women tend to have smaller companies, generate less revenue, and employ fewer people. What accounts for these differences? And what can you do about? Our panelists will reveal the key factors holding women back, plus solid advice for business success – for female and male entrepreneurs. These are insights you won't want to miss. The experts speak. Jane Wesman, Jane Wesman Public Relations, Inc.: "The road to success is not a solitary journey." Sandi Webster, Consultants 2 Go, LLC: "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women (Madeleine Albright). Nina Kaufman, Esq., Entrepreneur.com Legal Expert: "If you don't know where you're going, you'll end up someplace else" (Yogi Berra). Join us for Success Secrets for Entrepreneurial Women.