Combinatorial Nature of Digital Technologies and Legos


I came across the brilliant blog site of Futurist Frank Diana this week.  In one of his most recent articles he discusses the concept of combinatorial nature.  He states, "We are seeing exponential convergence across the areas of science, technology, economics, society, ethics, and politics. The combinatorial nature of an overwhelming number of building blocks drives an accelerating intersection across these areas."  As an expert Lego player, I can appreciate the concept of building blocks, and the near infinite number of combinations these blocks can be used to form.  The idea that we have now reached a critical mass of digital building blocks, and that we will now experience exponential growth through the combinatorial nature of them is compelling.


The World Economic Forum also describes the future in similar ways, “We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before... Billions of people are now connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge.  And these possibilities are being multiplied by breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing."

Both of these quotes, and the idea that we have reached a new era as a result of the combinatorial nature of digital building blocks, begs the question of what does this mean for for our organizations today?  The answer can be found in the Lego block.

Legos come in standardized shapes, sizes and integration points that allow for the rapid build of billions of different combinations.  The standardization of Lego blocks doesn't restrict our ability to create new and unique combinations, rather it enhances it. Organizations must recognize that the winners of today and tomorrow are not organizations that create their own bespoke building blocks, but that have the vision to use standardized digital building blocks to offer unique combinations faster than their opponents.

Follow Kevin Benedict on Twitter @krbenedict, connect with him on LinkedIn or read more of his articles on digital transformation strategies here:

  1. Digital Transformation from 40,000 feet
  2. Winning in Chaos - Digital Leaders
  3. 13 Recommended Actions for Digital Transformation in Retail
  4. Mistakes in Retail Digital Transformation
  5. Winning Strategies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
  6. Digital Transformation - Mindset Differences
  7. Analyzing Retail Through Digital Lenses
  8. Digital Thinking and Beyond!
  9. Measuring the Pace of Change in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
  10. How Digital Thinking Separates Retail Leaders from Laggards
  11. To Bot, or Not to Bot
  12. Oils, Bots, AI and Clogged Arteries
  13. Artificial Intelligence Out of Doors in the Kingdom of Robots
  14. How Digital Leaders are Different
  15. The Three Tsunamis of Digital Transformation - Be Prepared!
  16. Bots, AI and the Next 40 Months
  17. You Only Have 40 Months to Digitally Transform
  18. Digital Technologies and the Greater Good
  19. Video Report: 40 Months of Hyper-Digital Transformation
  20. Report: 40 Months of Hyper-Digital Transformation
  21. Virtual Moves to Real in with Sensors and Digital Transformation
  22. Technology Must Disappear in 2017
  23. Merging Humans with AI and Machine Learning Systems
  24. In Defense of the Human Experience in a Digital World
  25. Profits that Kill in the Age of Digital Transformation
  26. Competing in Future Time and Digital Transformation
  27. Digital Hope and Redemption in the Digital Age
  28. Digital Transformation and the Role of Faster
  29. Digital Transformation and the Law of Thermodynamics
  30. Jettison the Heavy Baggage and Digitally Transform
  31. Digital Transformation - The Dark Side
  32. Business is Not as Usual in Digital Transformation
  33. 15 Rules for Winning in Digital Transformation
  34. The End Goal of Digital Transformation
  35. Digital Transformation and the Ignorance Penalty
  36. Surviving the Three Ages of Digital Transformation
  37. The Advantages of an Advantage in Digital Transformation
  38. From Digital to Hyper-Transformation
  39. Believers, Non-Believers and Digital Transformation
  40. Forces Driving the Digital Transformation Era
  41. Digital Transformation Requires Agility and Energy Measurement
  42. A Doctrine for Digital Transformation is Required
  43. Digital Transformation and Its Role in Mobility and Competition
  44. Digital Transformation - A Revolution in Precision Through IoT, Analytics and Mobility
  45. Competing in Digital Transformation and Mobility
  46. Ambiguity and Digital Transformation
  47. Digital Transformation and Mobility - Macro-Forces and Timing
  48. Mobile and IoT Technologies are Inside the Curve of Human Time


************************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
President, Principal Analyst, Futurist, the Center for Digital Intelligence™
Website C4DIGI.com
View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Technologies
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies


***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
-->

Digital Transformation Crunch Time

Consumer behaviors are changing at speeds never before seen in many industries, which is impacting how businesses operate and bring products to market. In fact, more than a dozen retailers have closed this year as a result of having business and IT systems, and supply chains that are unable to meet the speed requirements of digital consumers. Most companies report they have 
IT systems in their inventory that are too slow or incapable of supporting real-time digital consumers.  That spells trouble.  Consumer and competitive changes are forcing enterprises to rethink their strategies in order to speed up in just about all areas: R&D, manufacturing, distribution, marketing, and sales.

Enterprises that I speak with today seem to understand that the need for digital transformation is being driven by advances in mobile technologies, automation, cloud computing, sensors, big data analytics and artificial intelligence.   They realize they must upgrade their IT systems and business processes to accommodate these changes and increase the speed of their operations.  They are also focused on how to improve their agility and flexibility, so they are nimble enough to respond to changing consumer behaviors, tastes and new competitors.  Many companies today find themselves in a position where their past investments in IT systems, that once provided competitive advantages, are now anchors preventing them from moving into the future.

Achieving real-time operational speeds is required to support real-time digital interactions and experiences.  Supporting these real-time experiences is more than just a technology issue, it requires companies to support real-time analytics, decision-making and business operational tempos. An operational tempo,
 in the context of this article, is defined as the speed or pace of business operations. Achieving a faster operational tempo is a significant challenge for many.  This is why we are seeing more applications of real-time analytics, automation and artificial intelligence.

Changing an enterprise’s operational tempo requires strong leadership that can transform the entire organization. It often requires significant IT updates and upgrades, organizational changes, and reengineering business processes and decision-making matrixes to align with real-time demands.

The biggest challenge for legacy companies today, is how to move to real-time.
On the 20th of July I will be leading an online discussion with the CIO WaterCooler on "Sequencing Digital Technologies for Competitive Advantages Over the Next 40 Months of Digital Transformation".

At my Digital Boardroom we will be discussing that we (consumers) have all changed as a result of digital and mobile technologies and platforms. Enterprises must now follow and transform, in order to support these changes and compete fast enough to matter. If you agree with this premise, then an important question to ask is what sequence should digital technologies be implemented in order to maximize the ROI from digital transformation investments? Another important question is what enterprise business and IT doctrines should guide organizations through this transformation. These important questions and others will be discussed, and research findings shared. (Digital Boardrooms typically take approx. 45min)

If you’re a CIO or an IT leader and you’d like to participate you can register here: https://ciowatercooler.co.uk/digital-boardrooms/

************************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
President, Principal Analyst, Futurist, the Center for Digital Intelligence™
Website C4DIGI.com
View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Technologies
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.
-->

Announcement: Sequencing Digital Technology Implementations Over the Next 40 Months

On the 20th of July I will be leading an online discussion with the CIO WaterCooler on "Sequencing Digital Technologies Over the Next 40 Months of Digital Transformation".

At my Digital Boardroom we will be discussing that we (consumers) have all changed as a result of digital and mobile technologies and platforms. Enterprises must now follow and transform, in order to support these changes and compete fast enough to matter. If you agree with this premise, then an important question to ask is what sequence should digital technologies be implemented in order to maximize the ROI from digital transformation investments? Another important question is what enterprise business and IT doctrines should guide organizations through this transformation. These important questions and others will be discussed, and research findings shared. (Digital Boardrooms typically take approx. 45min)

If you’re a CIO or an IT leader and you’d like to participate you can register here: https://ciowatercooler.co.uk/digital-boardrooms/

************************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
President, Principal Analyst, Futurist, the Center for Digital Intelligence™
Website C4DIGI.com
View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Technologies
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Digital Transformation from 40,000 Feet

The size of competitors and the longevity of their brands, are less predictive of future success than the quality and speed of their information logistics systems, and their ability to use it as a competitive advantage.
  1. Optimizing their information logistics systems
  2. Supporting real-time operational tempos
  3. Increasing business agility
  4. Using contextually relevant data to personalize digital user experiences  
  1. IT system speeds
  2. Business process speeds
  3. Decision-making speeds
  4. Digital and Business Transformation speeds
  5. Aligning with changing customer behavior speeds
  1. Winning in Chaos - Digital Leaders
  2. 13 Recommended Actions for Digital Transformation in Retail
  3. Mistakes in Retail Digital Transformation
  4. Winning Strategies for the Fourth Industrial Revolution
  5. Digital Transformation - Mindset Differences
  6. Analyzing Retail Through Digital Lenses
  7. Digital Thinking and Beyond!
  8. Measuring the Pace of Change in the Fourth Industrial Revolution
  9. How Digital Thinking Separates Retail Leaders from Laggards
  10. To Bot, or Not to Bot
  11. Oils, Bots, AI and Clogged Arteries
  12. Artificial Intelligence Out of Doors in the Kingdom of Robots
  13. How Digital Leaders are Different
  14. The Three Tsunamis of Digital Transformation - Be Prepared!
  15. Bots, AI and the Next 40 Months
  16. You Only Have 40 Months to Digitally Transform
  17. Digital Technologies and the Greater Good
  18. Video Report: 40 Months of Hyper-Digital Transformation
  19. Report: 40 Months of Hyper-Digital Transformation
  20. Virtual Moves to Real in with Sensors and Digital Transformation
  21. Technology Must Disappear in 2017
  22. Merging Humans with AI and Machine Learning Systems
  23. In Defense of the Human Experience in a Digital World
  24. Profits that Kill in the Age of Digital Transformation
  25. Competing in Future Time and Digital Transformation
  26. Digital Hope and Redemption in the Digital Age
  27. Digital Transformation and the Role of Faster
  28. Digital Transformation and the Law of Thermodynamics
  29. Jettison the Heavy Baggage and Digitally Transform
  30. Digital Transformation - The Dark Side
  31. Business is Not as Usual in Digital Transformation
  32. 15 Rules for Winning in Digital Transformation
  33. The End Goal of Digital Transformation
  34. Digital Transformation and the Ignorance Penalty
  35. Surviving the Three Ages of Digital Transformation
  36. The Advantages of an Advantage in Digital Transformation
  37. From Digital to Hyper-Transformation
  38. Believers, Non-Believers and Digital Transformation
  39. Forces Driving the Digital Transformation Era
  40. Digital Transformation Requires Agility and Energy Measurement
  41. A Doctrine for Digital Transformation is Required
  42. Digital Transformation and Its Role in Mobility and Competition
  43. Digital Transformation - A Revolution in Precision Through IoT, Analytics and Mobility
  44. Competing in Digital Transformation and Mobility
  45. Ambiguity and Digital Transformation
  46. Digital Transformation and Mobility - Macro-Forces and Timing
  47. Mobile and IoT Technologies are Inside the Curve of Human Time
************************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Senior Analyst
View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Winning in Chaos - Digital Enterprise Strategies

************************************************************************
Kevin Benedict

View my profile on LinkedIn
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Subscribe to Kevin's YouTube Channel
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility
Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Interviews with Kevin Benedict