A board member perspective: CES2018

My favorite experience at CES (the Consumer Electronic Show) was hearing from several futurists, courtesy of Deloitte.  Don’t get me wrong, the new products and technology advances were very cool.  But wearing my board member and advisor hat, understanding future trends and expected evolutions are more important in shaping strategy.

But first the cool stuff.  Top of my list, beds.  Yes beds.  They are full of sensors and automatically adjust position, temperature, firmness,  etc… based on your body’s movement, snoring, muscle tension, etc….  Really cool bed solutions at the show.  Autonomous cars and associated software have really advanced.  There were vehicles that looked live living rooms inside.  5G in the wireless world is going to accelerate and enable new business concepts in every industry.  Small format helicopters to bypass traffic were on display. 

Here are some of my take-aways from sessions with Futurists:  John Hagel from Deloitte, Shawn Dubravac from Astra Insights and Peter Schwartz from Salesforce.

1. Technology Trends
   • Shift from digitization, turning information into a digital format (TV, iPod, digital cameras) to datafication, turning previously invisible processes into data (jogging: can now measure all kinds of data about the jogger and the environment during the run and get real-time recommendations to optimize performance). 
   • Redefining reality by overlaying information based on real-time situations:  augmented reality and augmented intelligence. 
   • Genome editing breakthroughs pave the path for editing out diseases.  People could live for hundreds of years
   • Dis covery of gravity waves which Einstein theorized, could have an exponentially bigger impact on society than electro-magnification discovery, which gave us electricity.
2. Business Trends
   • Data obviously more and more important.  There is no AI without data.  Businesses need data from customers and users.  Yet the companies that get the most data will be those who create the most trust.  Studies all show that trust in institutions is eroding. 
   • Payment changes.  Today, goods and services are mainly paid for up front, whether or not you get the value expected.  Shifting to pay as you go now.  Next path enabled by Tech is pay for impact, not use.  Highly disruptive and depends on data and transparency.
   • Pla tforms will be come even more important, driven by increasing connectivity.  Therefore, being part of the right ecosystem is critical.  If you aren’t you’ll be disadvantaged no matter how good your are.  Ecosystem participation will be a key driver of growth.

I only scratched the surface.  I highly recommend attending CES. For more information on CES2018 click here.

Shellye Archambeau at CES2018