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Post-COVID-19 Survey H2: The New Normal

COVID-19 has led to unprecedented changes in socio-economic conditions globally. Organizational priorities have reformed across the board, with key objectives and focus areas being re-strategized for the post-COVID-19 environment.

 

Management Events sought how the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the European business community and what restrictions have been implemented for the second half of the year to ensure business continuity. These surveys reflect the views of almost a thousand EU delegates and solution providers that joined us in transitioning from physical to virtual events due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the responses.

 


 

The results show that at least 70% of the respondents will not be attending any external or physical events, despite companies not setting a clear policy.

 

As the health crisis continues, studies predict an increased demand for virtual event platforms. At Management Events, we strive to broaden your network by connecting your business to 20,000 top decision-makers and 2,500 solution providers. Join us at our upcoming virtual events.

 

 

Blanket bans among the EU Member States against international traveling have been in effect since the first half of the year 2020. The survey results show that over 80% indicated their organization placed restrictions against international business traveling. Consequently, ICAO estimates a record-breaking -62% decline in world passenger traffic.

 

 

Interests in international traveling increased as the situation seemed to improve in September. However, the infection rates rose again, resulting in a dip that is consistent with the resurgence of cases. Employees are encouraged to work from home as much as possible and only meet physically or work from the office on crucial matters.

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10 TIPS FOR PLEASANT AND EFFECTIVE ONLINE MEETINGS

Digitalization has given businesses greater opportunities to connect and interact. However, it’s hard to beat a live interaction and discussion with a peer or a prospect to achieve the best results for your business. With that out of the way, we know there are situations where effective online meetings are the most feasible option due to schedules, travel times, or other unexpected situations.

Of course, there are certain challenges when it comes to to successful virtual meetings (or working remotely) that in-person teams and meetings breeze by. One example is that a physical face-to-face meeting allows you to swivel your chair around and ask someone about their digital strategy and fluidly continue the conversation with another person. Remote meetings require attendees to be more intentional with the way they communicate since everyone is basically on their own (online) island.

Few organizations feel prepared for large-scale remote meetings, but you can take steps to make the experience feel productive for large-scale remote meetings for both attendees and your organization.

So, how do you get the most out of a successful virtual meeting?

To get the most out of attending or running a online meeting, there are some common practices that the attendees and meeting chairperson should follow to optimize each other’s time. Let’s take a look at some of the best practices that you can take to make your online meeting a success:

1. Be Prepared

Alexander Graham Bell once said, “Before anything else, preparation is the key to success“.  With online meetings, whether it’s 1-2-1 or with a huge group, it’s always a good practice to make sure the agenda and preparations are provided beforehand, along with instructions on the online meeting solution. This will allow attendees to be prepared for the online meeting and be as productive as possible throughout the session.

2. Get (Online) In Early

Online meeting or not, it’s just good etiquette to be early for your meetings. But in an online setting, it’s best to be online early to sort out any problems or kinks (such as internet connection, screen sharing functions, webcams, etc.). Ask the attendees to log in 5 minutes before the meeting starting time to get everyone settled in.

3. Break The Ice

When connecting with new people, or in larger groups, the atmosphere might feel less interactive.. It’s times like these that you (or the chairperson) should take an initiative to kickstart the meeting with some icebreakers – make people smile or even laugh to get everyone loose and ready!

4. Outline The Plan

After the attendees are accounted for and once everyone has managed to catch-up and be prepared, it’s time to do the online meeting itself. Before the discussion, however, it’s best to clarify the purpose and goal for the meeting – this is to keep everyone on the same page and focused. With a concrete plan outlined, it’ll be easier for the chairperson to navigate the direction of the meeting.

5. Marking The Minutes

When everyone starts talking in an online meeting, it can be easy for some attendees to get lost in the conversation and not hear everything. Appointing someone to take the meeting minutes that’s shared after the meeting will help remind everyone of the main key points of the meeting. Ideally, the chairperson would be the one to take the meeting minutes but you can appoint anyone who is up to the task.

6. Leading And Steering Conversations

If you’re doing a 1-2-1 online meeting, you can easily keep track and lead the conversation. However, if you’re running an online meeting with a lot of attendees, you’ll need someone to keep everyone focused. The chairperson who runs the agenda should also keep the time – also be ready to park items if the discussion flows to the outside of the core topic – and get back to this separately with the people needed. That way, no matter where the conversation goes, you can always come back to the main topic.

7. Keep Everyone Involved

Online meetings offer great flexibility in that you can have as many people as possible in the meeting itself. But, if there are too many people in a meeting, you’re bound to have someone who’s not able to contribute as much or be as active in the discussion. Make sure that everyone is actively participating – those who do not comment, have the chairperson (or you) actively ask their point of view on the topic/discussion.

8. Actions, Decisions, And Conclusions

Remember that the whole point of an online meeting is to make it as productive and as efficient as you would in a face-to-face meeting. That means getting as much done as possible when it comes to the main topic that you’re focusing on. During the meeting, make sure the agenda items reach decisions, conclusions or follow-up actions – steer the conversation to possible solutions and outcomes.

9. Wrapping-up The Meeting

A good practice to have is to recap everything that you’ve discussed, 10 minutes before the meeting ends, to ensure that everyone is up to speed with everything. Start to wrap up with “what we decided today” and go through the things which need follow-up or action, by whom and when – make sure that a name and date are attached to each agreed item so that someone will be responsible for further action.

10. Following It Up

Hopefully, by the end of the online meeting, you and your attendees were productive discussions. If there are more things that you need to discuss, book follow-up meetings if needed and have it in everyone’s agendas. Make sure the minutes are shared so that everyone knows the discussion points for the next meeting.

Bonus Point: Thank-Yous To Everyone

After a successful online meeting, send a thank-you note to the attendees for having good participation and ideas in the discussions! Not only will your attendees feel grateful to receive a personalized thank-you note, but they’ll also be more encouraged to contribute in future online meetings.

Face-to-face meetings can be a powerful tool for businesses, but online meetings can be just as effective if you follow the 10 points we’ve listed out. A well-thought-out agenda, keeping the time, and making sure the momentum stays high with some smilemaking – you can have an effective, pleasant, and fun online meeting with a productive outcome!

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Sergej Berendsen: Digitalization Through Facts And People

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, digitalization is no longer a choice – it’s an indispensable necessity.

For independent IT consulting firm, Metri, digitalization has always been championed by the company with hard facts as its base foundation. Sergej Berendsen, the General Manager of Metri, shares with Management Events on pursuing  agility and digital transformation for business success.

 

Providing The Right Value

Decades after the arrival of the digital era, some companies are still researching and debating on digitally revamping their businesses. But for Metri, digital innovation is part and parcel of the company’s culture.

“Metri is highly digitized,” Berendsen states, “and has been a data-driven company from its incubation.”

As a provider of IT solutions, Metri’s mission is to utilize the effective combination of facts and people to come up with the right digital strategy that will create the desired efficiency, agility and value for their customers.

Berendsen explains that through IT solutions and fact-based principles, Metri helps clients to “further their digital strategy with IT benchmarking, IT sourcing, and data intelligence for application, portfolio and change management.”

 

Business Digitalization

Various industries have embraced disruptive innovations and digital transformation into their business strategy. However, the evolution is not just limited to large, global enterprises as even SMEs and startups are adopting new-generation IT strategies.

“Many of our customers can’t live without IT and their digital footprint is growing rapidly,” Berendsen remarks.

 

“Digital-first business models are more the norm than ever before.”

 

In fact, according to statistics compiled by FinancesOnline, “70% of organizations have a digital transformation strategy or are working on one.” This is further reiterated by IDC’s prediction that more than 50% of IT spending by companies will be focused on digital innovation by 2024.

But what do businesses need to ensure a sound and solid IT strategy?

For Metri, data is of utmost importance. Performance analysis, organizational structure, key figures, benchmark data – all these are necessary in order to improve agility and define IT improvements and optimum potentials for the company.

 

“Agility without facts and insights is like navigating in the dark.“

 

Berendsen further explains that, “More and more clients recognize the need for factual governance in an agile business world.”

The economic cost of implementing a digital strategy is also an underlying factor to consider, which is why Metri offers its IT benchmarking service, such as market price assessment of IT services and IT service cost study.

One example Berendsen cites is on the cost effectiveness of cloud technology. “Cloud is a great opportunity, but cost will quickly go out of control without proper cloud economics.”

 

Embracing Agility

To drive digitalization, a company must first become truly agile, which is the ability to respond rapidly to change. With new technologies continuously emerging, businesses need to establish change into the organization’s culture and routine to take full advantage of innovational opportunities.

 

“Agile will provide the greatest opportunity as a business game-changer.“

 

As observed by Berendsen, “Agile offers the ability to respond to the needs of the client, and as an enabler to embrace new technology and platforms.”

But many businesses are apprehensive about the transition into digitalization due to fear of making the first move or of failing in their transformation strategy.

On this matter, Berendsen comments that, “An agile, forward- and customer-facing, and learning-focused mindset is universal. However, in a digital world, one can fail faster, so one must (re-)act faster. Failure should be incorporated into the culture as a change to do better.”

 

Towards Customer Experience

The end goal of digital transformation for many organizations is usually to push ahead of the competition and to advance their operations. But few businesses realize that boosting the digitalization of their systems and processes can improve the services they provide to their clients.

By being agile and continuously integrating digital innovations into their organization, businesses can improve efficiency and communication, increase personalization, alleviate pain points, and provide more value. From robotics and automation to machine learning and cloud computing, having the right technologies and digital capabilities can lead to the delivery of unmatched customer satisfaction.

“Digital delivers nothing extra without proper use,” Berendsen states.

 

“The question businesses should ask is: What great customer experience can be delivered or achieved if you add digital into the equation?“

 

The push for enhanced customer experience can clearly be seen in Metri, where customer satisfaction is a top priority, and helping companies to get the best returns from their IT investment is the company’s core motive.

 

Leading The Change

Organizational culture change is a concerning factor for businesses launching digital initiatives. As the business landscape progresses towards digital transformation, many organizations have or are facing resistance to the transition from their workforce and even the management.

It’s critical, then, for leaders to design a comprehensive and well-planned digital strategy that focuses on specific areas that need to be updated, and to set realistic goals and expectations of the digital shift. Communication to the workforce is also key to building confidence and motivating them to take up the challenge.

 

“Focus on client and market needs, and define clear goals that are translated into KPIs and actionable plans.“

 

Berendsen also advises business leaders to,“keep discipline up in moving towards the goals, and build and measure team effectiveness. Remove impediments quickly and embrace failure.”

Aside from employee resistance, lack of management support is also a deterrent to innovation, and companies must seek to continuously improve their “leadership’s ability to change and improve themselves.”

“Too often, senior leadership will talk the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk,” Berendsen comments. “Change from below is often too slow and gets bogged down in the middle layer.”

He further advises, “Senior leadership can pave the way but they need to change as well.”

 

Beyond Digitalization 2020

It’s a common misconception that digital transformation is purely about upgrading technology. In truth, real digitalization is about organizational agility and adaptability. It’s about building digital intelligence and capabilities, and having a solid change management framework.

To keep pace with the changes, companies must be disruptive in their own right by efficiently harnessing data, people and technology for a successful and sustainable digital transformation.

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Creating A Winning Momentum When Leading A Team Remotely

Sometimes, for various reasons, your team might need to work remotely; they may be scattered in multiple locations, travel a lot, or in exceptional situations such as now with the COVID-19. And working remotely requires a special sort of mindset. Especially with sales, having the right momentum and winning culture is essential to keep up as a leader if you want your team to win and stay focused together.

With the unexpected situation that COVID-19 has brought upon, many leaders and managers lack clear guidance on how to ready their team to remain effective and driven during a global pandemic event. To maintain that winning momentum, managers need to take steps that can maximize the effectiveness of remote work during these extreme situations.

Some best practices from us at Management Events – We have collected some actionable tips for you to get things going or boosted!

Tip #1: Prepping Your Weekly Rhythm

How you start and end your team’s week will dictate how your momentum goes throughout, so it’s best to set the rhythm right. Start Monday with a big sales team meeting to get everyone on the same page and then end the week with a wrap-up on Friday so the whole team will be aware of each other’s progress.

Tip #2: Kickstarting A Productive Monday

Monday meetings should be the time for your sales team to set their forecast and targets, share any general news, and give updates on any on-going projects and deals. It’s also a good time to touch base with team members and see how they are doing.

Tip #3: Setting up 1-2-1 (Virtual) Meetings

Keeping the entire team’s winning spirit high should be a major focus for managers and team leads but you should not overlook 1-2-1 meetings with each team member. Set a time for individual 1-2-1  virtual meetings for each member on dedicated time and pre-agreed agenda. Use this time to cover any important topics or catch up on individual progress. It’s a good idea to have a pre-list of topics to discuss or decide before having your virtual meeting.

Tip #4: Celebrating Your Team Wins

Just because your sales team is working remotely, it doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate your team’s winnings and milestones. If you’re using digital channels such as Slack or Teams, create a “deal-in” channel where people can post successful big deals and any moments that can be celebrated as a win by the team.

Tip #5: Making A Channel For Everyone

Working remotely, you miss out on the ability to socialize and bond with team members to improve teamwork. Thankfully, with digital channels such as Slack or Teams, you can create channels also for non-formal teams; to share news, fun stuff, or free-time activities. This will keep the camaraderie high between team members and encourages effective communication.

Tip #6: Encouraging Competition Within The Teams

Competitions (friendly or otherwise) can be a great way to motivate your teams, even they are working remotely. Meeting bookings, offer creations, first target–think what would trigger your team to work harder and achieve the desired outcome for the week.

Tip #7: Wrapping Up On Friday

Conduct a sales team wrap-up on Friday to close out the week with a big meeting so that everyone is aware of each other’s progress, successes, milestones, and on-going projects. If your sales team misses the forecast, discuss what happened and why, wrap it up, and start the following week with a clean sheet.

Tip #8: Welcoming The Weekend With A Message

After a week of hard work from the teams, send everyone a Friday greetings email to end the week. It can be something as simple as a short, written note from the team lead or manager to thank everyone, highlight any milestones, and to wish everyone a good weekend. This puts the team members in a good mood and stays energized for another week of productive remote work.

Bonus Tip: Keeping Up Productivity Through Digital Dashboards

Productivity dashboards offer a great way for leads and managers to encourage team members in achieving weekly goals and target forecasts. Asana and Trello are some of the more popular platforms that you can use to keep your team’s productivity on point. Of course, you can also your own custom dashboard to mark your team’s weekly progress.

Every team will probably have their own best practices (and some that did not work in remote work), still, it’s useful to assess the methods and routines now and then to see if it’s still allowing your team to keep your winning momentum going. Involve the team in the planning–what they wish to implement, how they can benefit from it or if they feel it’s not needed. Alter their suggestions if necessary and then take it into practice.

Before you know it, your team will be in the winning momentum, even if they are working remotely!

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Decision-Making In Times Of Crisis

As a leader, how can you give clarity and make good decisions when the unexpected hits your organization?

The best way is to take one step at a time. First, take stock of the situation by talking with your team, advisors, and colleagues. If you’re the CEO, discuss with the board as well. Then it’s time for thinking, considering options and planning scenarios.

So how do you consider the angles and make the best decision possible?

Being Resilient

The two key factors of resilience, and bouncing forward from an unexpected situation, are flexible thoughts and social flexibility.

Having flexible thoughts means moving away from the usual ‘this is how it has always been done’ methods, and challenging your thinking to solutions which might even feel impossible. The latter key factor, social flexibility, stands for seeking advice with genuine intention to consider the inputs received, not to strengthen one’s own beliefs.

At the end of the day, decisions are needed to steer your team forward. Indecisiveness, especially during a crisis, drains and defuses energy for everyone involved.

Steps To Making Decisions During A Crisis

  • Talk with your team – Be honest about your concerns and insecurities, but present at least a couple of options that you have considered. Do they agree? Would they add something totally different? Why? Take time for these discussions.
  • Reach out to your network – The world is now full of leaders who are contemplating on various decisions for their organization. Peer support and acting as sounding boards to one another can be more valuable than ever.
  • Keep daily notes – Keep track of team meetings, discussions and the development of key items. You might start to find patterns or problem-solving sequences from the earlier meetings you had.
  • Don’t be afraid to alter – If the situation changes, you can always come back from a decision. It’s not a mistake to pull back from one if the outlook or future shifts, especially if a possibly bigger risk may occur when sticking to a decision.
  • Prioritize yourself – Your organization needs your leadership and presence. Sleep, exercise, plug off to relax your thoughts – quality decision-making suffers quickly when we are sleep-deprived, stressed and anxious. You’ll be doing your people a huge favor by making sure you appear on the morning video conference with a smile and greeting them with confidence.

Getting used to short-term planning with long-term recovery and success in mind is a new situation for many.

Keeping a diary of these weeks and months can benefit you largely in the future. New routines, practices, and in the best case, innovations will come out from this massive learning opportunity that all leaders of the world are currently facing.

Let’s do our best to capture the good outcomes of this situation while we fight the crisis!

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Making Remote Teamwork Fun – Is It Possible?

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The short answer: Absolutely!

 

However, for companies who are used to a socially active environment, working remotely might get challenging after the adjusting-to-the-new-environment period is over. And many factors can affect productivity and the winning momentum of a team when working from home.

One of those important factors is to figure out how to keep up the social and informal aspects–how to enable and encourage the “coffee machine talks” and other social contacts when teams go virtual.

For Management Events, we’ve implemented homeworking initiatives and discovered a few findings from the last weeks that our teams have put in place:

 

  1. Check-in with teams every day – Each team has morning check-in and afternoon check-out where everyone dials in with video on to see each other and discuss plans for the day and on findings, learnings, and outcomes. Having a routine to see your colleagues again brings structure and care when working from home.
  2. Morning check-in can start with “Let me show my crib” – a view at each team member’s home office, how it is set up, and sharing a routine from the day – many innovations can come out of a suddenly new situation!
  3. Walking to work – team members who live in the surroundings of and easy access to nature, and are remote enough from other people–often go out for a 30-minute walk, the plans for the day are discussed while getting a good dose of fresh air.
  4. Have Team Lunch on Zoom or Teams – sharing what was made for lunch, sharing easy and delicious recipes to cook from their home office. With Zoom or Teams, you can still socialize with team members by discussing how to keep healthy and enjoy the lunch break together.
  5. Virtual Friday Bar – Wrap up the week over a drink from your home office, your balcony, sofa or even your garden – sharing weekend plans, saying thank you for the week and winding off from the office hustle. This can be just a 15-minutes chat to end the week together with a positive note!

 

Consider also establishing a virtual coffee machine or “lounge” in Zoom or Teams – a space where anyone from the office can pop by for a cup of coffee, chat about work or non-work related things and take a break from the routines. Sharing experiences of the new situation is important for all, to cope with the lack of seeing one another for some while.

And finally, make room to celebrate each small and big success during these times, share the good news actively and encourage people to congratulate each other in any of the channels and methods they see fits best! Virtual cards, flowers, and hugs will surely make the colleagues’ day!

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Skincity: Med hjälp av Bitlog har vi blivit mer än 70% mer effektiva

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En av de stora utmaningarna för e-handlare idag är att skapa en effektiv och lönsam lagerhantering som är anpassad efter företagets storlek. Bitlog har sedan 2006 levererat innovativa mjukvaror för lager och distribution där målet är att skapa system som gör att de tidskrävande rutinerna i lagerhanteringen försvinner. Med gedigen erfarenhet och kunskap tar de sig an några av Sverige snabbast växande e-handlare och hjälper de att bli mer effektiva och lönsamma i sitt arbete. Ylva Pagmén, Chief Operating Officer på Skincity berättar:

– Vi hade behov av att hitta en leverantör med ett genuint intresse av att hitta lösningar och arbetssätt som passade vår verksamhet och som vi kunde arbeta med under vår tillväxtresta.

Skincity, Sveriges största hudvårdsklinik online, hade utmaningar med effektiviteten vid bland annat orderplock. Logistikavdelningen bestod av hudterapeuter som tack vare stor produktkunskap lyckades plocka rätt produkter men i takt med att de växte uppstod nya behov i orderplocksprocessen. Bitlog hjälpte Skincity att automatisera logistikflödet genom sina lösningar.

– Tidigare plockade vi en produkt åt gången, men efter att ha fått hjälp att automatisera processen kan vi nu plocka tolv ordrar på samma gång, något som ökat vår effektivitet kraftigt, säger Ylva Pagmén.

Enligt Bitlogs grundare Fred Boström handlar det om att ha väl integrerade system mellan e-handel, affärssystem och lagersystem för att skapa ett effektivt arbetsflöde. Att automatisera delar av lagret innebär ofta stora effektivitetsvinster när den mänskliga faktorn stängs ute från flödet. Dels genom att ordern direkt når lagret på ett automatiserat sätt och dels genom att hantera eventuella avvikelser som kan uppstå, så som förseningar eller saldobrist som i sin tur kommuniceras till kunden.

– Vårt samarbete med Bitlog har förändrat vårt arbetssätt mycket. Framförallt i plock- och packprocessen där vi blivit mer än 70% mer effektiva, förklarar Ylva Pagmén. Redan efter en månads samarbete märkte vi av resultaten och blev snabbt 50% mer effektiva. Även kvaliteten i form av kontroll på lagersaldo och lägre felplocksfrekvens har blivit bättre. Vi har tillsammans tagit fram en fantastiskt bra plattform för oss att stå på, en plattform som gör det möjligt för oss att fortsätta växa, sammanfattar Ylva.

Bitlog faktaruta

Bitlog har sedan 2006 levererat moderna lösningar för smart lagerhantering. Företaget grundades av Fred Boström som tidigare arbetet på andra företag med stora utmaningar inom lager- och distributionsområdet.

Besök www.bitlog.se för att läsa mer

 
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Master your true leadership in retail

The retail industry is currently evolving to keep up with Industry 4.0 and John Brahim, CEO & AI Business Architect at Maistering BV believes that digital innovation will be even more at the heart of the fast-changing sector. Brahim shares his knowledge and insights in this article on the path to master leadership in retail. While talking about Master Collections, a brand-new orchestration platform, he shares five practical guidelines on incorporating digital innovation and applied AI. Good reading for those who aim to co-shape the future of retail.

Innovation Transforms Consumers, Enterprises, and Leadership Alike

As the retail industry undergoes a massive transformation with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a new type of leadership will play a crucial role in leading the charge towards digital transformation of the retail sector. Brahim outlines the steps that retail leaders might take to reinvent themselves and shape Retail 4.0, a lesser-known twin of Industry 4.0.

“Retail is shaking on its foundations as applied AI will infuse the current digital innovation wave. Like now, the sector will be driven by consumers that demand digital era shopping and delivery experience allowing them to combine ease, ratio, and emotion fitting to their style and choices. However, the way these preferences will be expressed, perceived and translated across the channels, will become much, much more sophisticated.”

Brahim continues, “This forces retail leaders into numerous, never-ending transformation journeys. Maistering’s sole mission is to augment retail leaders and their teams. Master Collections, our platform is an unparalleled set of AI-based collaborative services to orchestrate magical business journeys. Master Collections require limited set-up effort and allow retail leaders to reinvent their play in a natural way, both the big picture and the day-to-day work one step at a time. But I don’t want to emphasize the platform, as innovation is always about leadership: it takes a visionary leader to adopt a visionary approach.”

As it is with all emerging technologies and innovation, organizations and businesses must be prepared for change. Legacy thinking often slows down or even impede change, however, Brahim points out there are established ways to facilitate innovation in mature organizations.

“Innovation is always a mix of technology, new paradigms, new instruments with behavioral change – mental and emotional. First tip: acknowledge that innovative change is now at the core of your job and lead by example by embracing AI in how you orchestrate and collaborate.”

Any new method, process, product or service introduction that comes out from innovation typically results in change – change in people, ways of working and unlearning and learning. Brahim believes that it is essential for leaders to build the right team, inspire them with the right focus on impact and empower them with the ability to intelligently move ahead.

Of course, to ensure a successful innovation process, the onus will be on leaders to be effective in their role to lead both employees and partners towards sustainable business growth.

“Since innovation comes from everywhere, leaders should have the ability to tap into the employee base, get ideas, and suggestions, nurture them and develop solutions to implement them – thus ensuring a successful innovation process. As this is a collaborative world, this is equally true for partners. Since most change is people-related, it is imperative to keep a good eye on the emotions, motivate people and ensure that the team is on board and along with you on the journey. Second tip: assure that you use the new generation collaborative tools to help your team and your partners undertake these crucial journeys.”

Integrating Digitalization and Partnership To Push Innovation

“It is an illusion to think that one can lead to an era of digital innovation without embracing digital behavior and AI augmentation. Leaders need not be technologists themselves but indeed must become hands-on in using AI in everything they do. Key is to act holistic, really focus on transformation journeys from early intention to final touch down and impact. Third tip: leverage AI in all facets of your job: exploring, aspiring, plotting, inspiring, disrupting, mobilizing, executing.”

Brahim understands that a leader has many business journeys running in parallel and has to bring insights at their fingertips, frame them from multiple lenses to translate them into actions that will lead towards profitability and customer delight. All of these can be aided by AI-technologies that exist today.

And Maistering understood this as their platform, Master Collections, addresses this topic by providing leaders the ability to run magical business journeys with essence, beauty, and impact.

“Innovation today is now more than ever a collaborative process. It is about undertaking experimental journeys with customers and partners in ways that are joyful, fast, rich, and impactful,” notes Brahim.

“Master Collections has an entire atelier of management techniques to shape transformational journeys. Some leaders are biased towards purpose, most are centered on action, some are too content-based, many have difficulty with the emotional side of change. No wonder so many digital initiatives fail. Fourth tip: teach yourself how to look at magical journeys from different angles, also the ones that do not come to you naturally.”

But how to drive AI-based innovation with a legacy systems landscape? 

Brahim acknowledges that legacy systems often do not really help business leaders “to be on their toes – listen to customers, their buying choices, their experience of the service they get; and to partners and stakeholders to leverage this information in real-time and respond quickly to the changing dynamics of their business.”

Still, he doesn’t plead for wall-to-wall implementation of new systems. “Too often, enterprises lose themselves in costly re-engineering of their systems landscape, only to discover that they end up with a new generation of legacy. IT efforts should definitively focus much more on collaborative data harmonization in the sector. Fifth tip: pay more attention to emerging external content services and leverage legacy systems better by combining them with new generation orchestration services.”

Dealing With Your Strong and Weak Points When It Comes To The A.I. Revolution

Understanding both their AI and behavioral change is a necessity for businesses to lead in retail 4.0. True, new players often have an advantage in the first part of the equation. So, Brahim believes that established leaders should learn from new leaders to leverage AI-based innovation. He recommends established leaders to:

“Relentless drive towards digital experiences and willingness to bet on AI as it will change everything. Then again: established leaders know how to mobilize people. The combination will fuel journeys that combine speed, sophistication, and common-sense feasibility.”

Of course, in the retail industry, innovation can come from different areas of technology. The reason Brahim has strong convictions that Artificial Intelligence will take center stage is based on how it will impact the shopping experience.

“The real revolution is still to come.AI will completely change the connection between consumers, retailers, producers, and the products & services: with conversational interfaces, cognitive abilities, virtual experiences, and proactive personal suggestions and conditions.”

In addition, AI will also lead to new levels of digitalization and automation of production and distribution. For businesses to lead in Retail 4.0, they need to start implementing AI as a core part of their strategy.

Ultimately, Brahim is confident that the retail sector will not suffer, but benefit from AI-driven innovation and that “business leaders adopting AI technologies; new ways of working, will orchestrate magical journeys that allow them to master their true of retail leadership.”

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Så kan företag gå från traditionell IT till morgondagens arbetsplats

Citrix_Digital_Workspace

Många företag, särskilt större organisationer, har stora utmaningar när det kommer till den digitala arbetsplatsen. En enorm mängd olika applikationer, dokument och inlogg i kombination med ett arbetssätt som låser anställda till en specifik dator är alla faktorer som hindrar agilitet och flexibilitet. Citrix gör det möjligt för företag att använda dagens applikationer med morgondagens arbetssätt genom ett digitalt workspace som skapar förutsättningar för framtidens arbetsplats.

Traditionell IT på arbetsplatsen har länge bestått av en arbetsdator med en mängd olika typer av applikationer och programvaror. Enheten fungerar då ofta på ett sätt när man befinner sig på arbetsplatsen och kräver sedan VPN-inlogg om man som anställd behöver vara mobil och röra sig utanför kontoret, samtidigt som man inte har åtkomst till all funktionalitet. Många vill komma ifrån detta och gå mot ett mer flexibelt och agilt arbetssätt där de anställda kan välja när, hur och var de vill arbeta och ändå få åtkomst till alla typer av applikationer och funktionalitet på ett smidigt sätt.

Man vill ha samma flexibla arbetssätt på jobbet som man har vant sig vid med de applikationer man har privat, så som Facebook, Google eller LinkedIn. Alltså att det ser ut och fungerar på samma enkla sätt oavsett vilken enhet man använder, vare sig man är på jobbet, hemma eller reser. Fortfarande måste många bära på en otymplig arbets-PC bara för att kunna jobba hemifrån när man istället skulle kunna använda de enheter man redan har hemma, eller kunna ta med en tablet när man reser. Ofta är det kanske enklare saker man behöver göra men som ändå kräver både laptop, krånglig VPN och flera inloggningar endast för att nå applikationen.

Läs mer om Citrix här

– Det är precis det här vi möjliggör med Citrix Workspace, att man enkelt och säkert kommer åt den information man behöver – när, var och från vilken enhet som helst. Dessutom kan vi numera även förändra utseendet på själva applikationen för just de enklare uppgifterna som till exempel godkännanden i en applikation, delning av dokument eller notifieringar av viktiga förändringar. Vi ser ett ökat intresse för användarupplevelsen och ett flexibelt arbetssätt som viktiga komponenter för ökad produktivitet och engagemang bland medarbetarna, säger Peter Söderholm, Director Sales Engineering, på Citrix

Med Citrix Workspace ges användarna möjlighet till ett smartare och mer flexibelt sätt att arbeta, där användarna inte längre är beroende av att vara på själva arbetsplatsen eller använda en specifik enhet för full funktionallitet, samtidigt som IT får möjlighet att flytta delar eller hela IT-miljön till den mest optimala plattformen vare sig det är on-prem eller hos en cloudleverantör. Användaren gör en stark inloggning in till Citrix Workspace och har sedan enkel och säker access till samtliga applikationer och data utan ytterligare inloggningar eller krångliga VPN-lösningar. Man kan enkelt ta vid och fortsätta arbeta hemma på samma sätt som man gör från kontoret. Den digitala arbetsplatsen följer helt enkelt med användaren sitter inte längre fast på en specifik enhet.

Snabb leverans av arbetsplatser

På verksamhetsnivå ger lösningen andra värdefulla fördelar. Använder man externa konsulter kan man enkelt ge rätt access och behörigheter utan att personen behöver bli tilldelad en annan dator än sin egen. På samma sätt kan företag vara agila vid uppköp och förvärv och snabbt leverera Digitala arbetsplatser utan att skicka ut hundratals, eller tusentals nya laptops. Allt med en hög nivå av säkerhet

– Förr i tiden när appar bara var tillgängliga på insidan av nätverket var man inte lika exponerad. Nu måste man se till ett säkrare sätt att leverera IT eftersom det ställs stora krav på snabbhet och flexibilitet från verksamheten. Ett bra exempel är försvarskoncernen Saab, som med hjälp från DXE och baserat på Citrix Workspace skapat en digital arbetsplats som klarar deras högt ställda säkerhetskrav och samtidigt gör det möjligt för Saab att på två dagar efter ett förvärv av ett annat bolag kunna leverera en fullt fungerande IT arbetsplats.

Workspace får smarta funktioner

Själva syftet med agila arbetsplatser är att öka effektiviteten och produktiviteten. Under en arbetsdag spenderar många en stor del av tiden på att söka efter information, byta mellan olika applikationer och system, ofta med upprepade inloggingar, vilket skapar avbrott som sänker produktiviteten rejält. För att komma ifrån detta har Citrix lanserat ett antal intelligenta funktioner i Citrix Workspace.

– Dessa smarta funktioner kommer att minska tiden vi lägger på återkommande och därför tidskrävande uppgifter som egentligen inte tar mycket tid i sig men sammantaget utgör de en stor del av arbetsdagen. I gränssnittet kommer du att ha en virtuell assistent som kan hjäpa användaren nå rätt information. Den kommer dessutom ha en vy som gör det enkelt att arbeta i flera olika system utan att behöva lämna själva workspace-gränssnittetet för enklare uppgifter genom ett koncept med Micro-Appar.

– Dessutom kommer Workspacen med tiden bli smartare genom maskininlärning som ständigt lär sig ditt personliga arbetssätt där du får förslag på aktuella uppgifter som kan utföras med några enkla klick. Det kan vara allt från att godkänna ett utlägg till att rapportera dina semesterdagar utan att behöva först starta och logga in till den fulla applikationen. Dessa funktioner tillsammans med möjligheten till ett flexibelt arbetssätt ger en bättre användarupplevelse där Citrix Workspace förenklar och eliminerar tidstjuvarna och på så sätt ökar produktiviteten, avslutar Peter Söderholm.

Låt oss visa dig hur en intelligent digital arbetsplats ser ut! Klicka här för demo

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Henrik Von Scheel: Knowing What it Takes For Businesses To Excel in Industry 4.0

Henrik von Scheel became a household when he introduced and originated the concept of the “4th Industrial Revolution” (Industry 4.0), in addition to his many works in triggers global themes, national economies practices, reset policies, influences in GDP growth, and shaping the performance of the fastest growing Fortune 100 companies.

Hailed by Financial Times as one of the leading authorities on strategy and competitiveness, von Scheel breaks down the different stages and focuses that organizations today need to be aware of to excel as a business in the fourth industrial revolution.

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The 3 Stages of Adoption To Deliver Business Value

Industry 4.0 has introduced a new age of disruption that’s rendering old methods and systems obsolete. At the same time, it has allowed different industries to carve a path towards innovations, new ways of thinking, and most importantly, new drivers to enhance business value for customers.

While different industries have different drivers, von Scheel believes that in Industry 4.0, there are three common stages of adoption that organizations should integrate into their business strategy to further drive productivity and excel in today’s competitive landscape.

Stage 1: Increasing Operational Excellence

To stay in business, organizations need to focus on Operation Excellence for non-core activities like Human Resources, Finance, and Procurement, to consistently perform and deliver.

Industry 4.0 pushes the development and integration of emerging technologies such as IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Advanced Analytics, and more. These technologies will be crucial for increasing productivity, lowering risks, cutting costs, and operational efficiency.

Stage 2: Improving Growth

“The essence of growth is that you are better than your competitors,” notes von Scheel. While most organization’s competitive competencies only constitute about 15% of their strategy, it’s still a key area to improve for organizations to further drive growth and productivity.

The advent of Industry 4.0 has introduced applicable systems such as Smart Supply Chain Management, Smart Products, Integrated Ecosystems (upstream/downstream), Smart Automation, and Smart Contracts (through Blockchains), to further streamline growth for a business.

Stage 3: Increasing Competitiveness

Differentiation will be the “X-Factor” for organizations to excel in an increasingly competitive landscape. For von Scheel, Differentiation is “what you do, every day, through repeatable activities to serve your customers better than the competition.”

The rarity and difficulty of this discipline mean it only constitutes 5% of an organization’s strategy as it can take months to develop and define an organization’s Differentiation. However, with Industry 4.0, early adopters can speed up the process through emerging service products or business models such as Bioinformatics, Nanotechnology, or Quantum Technology, to put themselves at a true competitive advantage.

Different Levels of Productivity Drivers For Manufacturers

While the stages of adoption can apply to different industries at different levels, the same can’t be said when it comes to applying key value drivers that can capture impact scale and streamline productivity in the age of Smart Manufacturing.

Von Scheel points out the different value drivers factors that can define the productivity imperative for manufacturers of different levels and ensure high-level productivity in Industry 4.0:

Small-lot (Focus on optimizing efficiency): Here, the key value drivers are an integrated product data model from engineering to commissioning, digital worker enablement, and data-driven Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) optimization.

Mass-customized production (Focus on certain degrees of product variance): To uphold high output and consistent quality while enabling a certain degree of product variance, organizations need to integrate closed control loops (enabled by sensor-based, in-line quality inspection), flexible routing, scheduling, load balancing and performance management, and the extension of automation to final assembly.

High-volume production (Focus on fully automated production and maximized OEE): Similar to mass-customized production, the key value drivers will still be on closed control loops through sensor-based in-line quality inspections and transitioning the remaining areas of manual labor through automation and traceability.

Scaling Up Business With 3 Key Principles of Industry 4.0

For businesses to scale up efficiently at the age of Industry 4.0, von Scheel highlights an organization’s need for “focusing on value, mobilizing the organization, and innovating the infrastructure.”

To capture value at scale, von Scheel outlines 3 key principles that organizations need to adhere to:

  1. Think value-backward, not technology-forward. Focusing on the key value drivers and establishing a compelling Industry 4.0 vision is crucial.
  2. Be people-centric, not tool-centric. Clear business leadership mindsets and top-management support should be a priority for Industry 4.0 transformations and capability building.
  3. Innovate the infrastructure towards integrated technology stack. Before an organization can scale globally, the infrastructure should enable local operations and establish as many use cases deliver value through on-premise infrastructure.

Establishing and integrating these key principles will help with scaling in the Industry 4.0 era and help build a solid foundation for consistent growth throughout the scale-up period of businesses.

As the 4th Industrial Revolution continues to take place, it’s becoming increasingly important for businesses to be fully prepared to adapt to the needs of the Smart Manufacturing age.

While this article only scratched the surface on what actions businesses should take, Henrik von Scheel will explore deeper insights and strategies for Industry 4.0 and Smart Manufacturing with his workshop: Industry 4.0 Masterclass – Putting The Industry 4.0 Into Practice. Join von Scheel and more at the 2nd Annual Smart Manufacturing 2020, taking place on the 25th – 27th March at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.