A groundbreaking leap in AI with OpenAI and Meta's imminent release of models capable of reasoning and planning. This heralds a transformative era in the advancement of “artificial general intelligence” with huge ethical considerations!
Can Vertical farming feed cities of the future?
Global revenue from Vertical farming is likely to exceed $22bn by 2026 !
By 2050 an estimated 6.5bn people will be living in urban spaces. Vertical farming could play an increasing role in feeding them
The farms use far less space, water and transport
New technologies, business models and Covid are accelerating their use
#Verticalfarms #AgTech #Cloud #climatechange
Companies featured: #Infarm #Letusgrow #Squaremilefarming
https://www.ft.com/video/9266753a-bd2f-4c91-af61-59f72adb3083
The problem with bad data is that it lures us into believing false truths
Big Data: statistical comfort distorts our politics
Not all data is created equally.
We are more likely to believe fake data, than fake news
3 useful questions to ask with opinion polls :
What is the margin of error ?
What was the sample size ?
How was the raw data adjusted ?
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Source: Daily Telegraph
The real reason Amazon lost the Pentagon's $10bn 'war cloud' contract
A boost to #Microsoft and a blow to #Amazon
But do we really want bidding processes hindered by Politics....?
And shouldn't it have been a multi vendor technology strategy anyway ?
#IBM, #Oracle
Uber announces $2bn expansion of Freight unit in Chicago
#Uber expands diversification into $700bn US road freight industry, away from core ride hailing
Such Enterprise orientated offerings (like Uber Freight and Corporate ride sharing) are probably Uber’s best route towards #profitability
But note of caution, #Amazon launched its own trucking brokerage this year....
Uber Freight launched in 2017 and covers 48 US states, (instead of the current 5 for Amazon) and has a network of ~400k drivers
Uber hopes its algorithms (which suggest time & energy efficient routes to delivery companies) can help Uber predict prices in advance and grow market share
Amazon though might have other ideas !
Amazon Lives on the Edge, and Telecoms Should Tremble
Tech giants’ race to exploit the lucrative edge of cloud computing may leave carriers scrambling for the crumbs.
#Edge computing risks turning network operators into providers of dumb pipes
• Telco’s face risk of #disintermediation, from offerings like #AWS Outpost, #Azure Stack and #Google Stadia
• For example: Enterprise customer data can enter a network via AWS Outpost at one end, and travel to and from centralized servers without being exposed to the public internet, remaining on a private network
• The value of intelligent edge analytics is then delivered by big Tech players…
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-06-21/cloud-giants-amazon-and-google-are-going-after-edge-computing
Microsoft and Oracle link up their clouds
#Oracle and #Microsoft now collaborating across clouds !
Developers can connect across #Azure to Oracle's cloud apps including its cutting edge #database technologies
Oracle adopts Microsoft playbook in collaborating across competitor clouds
Customers are demanding interoperability
Move strengthens dominance of Microsoft and Oracle platforms in Enterprise space & minimises cannibalisation
#AWS and #Google still aim to move up the software stack!
https://techcrunch.com/2019/06/05/microsoft-and-oracle-link-up-their-clouds/
Source: FT
Why Facebook wants to launch its own currency
#Facebook is following in the footsteps of Tencent's #WeChat in China !
The $15bn of revenues reported by FB last quarter were mainly from advertising
But ~60% of WeChat's revenues come from payments and <33% from advertising
Moving into payments could yield Instagram $10bn in net revenues by 2021...
By blending advertising and ecommerce, FB also gains more data and analytics on spending patterns of its 2bn users, strengthening the power of its platforms
But its not one way traffic:
Decision making and Critical thinking
As the volume of data explodes, #Critical thinking remains as important as ever !
#Intelligent data #SaaS #Philosophy
Leadership lessons from Jose Mourinho
Confidence is not competence
#Man Utd's Mourinho, once a pioneer in his field, failed to reinvent himself
But most innovators do get left behind
It’s his arrogance that ultimately brought him down:
His ego reinforced blind spots & prevented him from adapting
His narcissistic tendency meant he liked to dine out on past success
Personality clashes with star players made for a toxic environment
Alex #Ferguson famously, praised players publicly but criticised privately
Mourinho preferred the opposite….
Crucially, he ignored:
Culture: Man Utd’s tradition for attacking styles of play
Customers: fans want to be thrilled & entertained in games
Competitors: rival #Guardiola constantly learns & adapts
Ironically, for one of the world’s most successful football managers, rather than accept responsibility for performance and fix it, he seems to have preferred the sack !
#Leadership, #Psychology, #Culture
How Verizon’s $9bn media bet became virtually worthless
#Verizon’s $9bn media bet became virtually worthless
#AOL and #Yahoo were combined into #Oath, in Verizon's failed attempt to become no. 3 in the US digital ad market
#Google and #Facebook had other ideas (see chart below)
...Not to mention #Amazon
Creativity in the media sector is a very different competence to that in Telecoms
But hindsight is a great thing
And should you fault Verizon for trying ?
https://www.ft.com/content/62e4f3be-fd91-11e8-aebf-99e208d3e521
Snap: specs bomb
Snap's spectacles maybe hip, but Snapchat's daily active users declined by 1% in its most recent quarter, to 186m
That's part of an ominous trend
#Snapchat has 0.6% share of US digital ad revenue
#Facebook has 25% share of US digital ad revenue
What's more, Facebook owned #Instagram has copied Snapchat's photo sharing features !
So much for sustainable differentiation....
On the positives, however:
Snap expects revenues of $355m to $380m during its fourth quarter (year over year growth of up to 33%)
Augmented reality is waiting to explode
It has $1.4bn in net cash, despite its quarterly cash burn rate
https://www.ft.com/content/249772c4-ed30-11e8-89c8-d36339d835c0
Source: FT
Russian tech group Yandex launches own smartphone
#Yandex (Russia's largest search engine) is using the Android OS, to launch a phone for ~$270
This follows the trend of consumer software leaders to try and move into hardware e.g. #Google and #Facebook
Its also a defensive move, for 2 reasons:
Yandex has an array of apps from food delivery, ride hailing to marketplace and music streaming platforms
And so far its kept #Uber's traction in taxi and food delivery in Russia to a limit
Russia is one of the remaining major undeveloped e-commerce markets
With #Amazon yet to move in to the country ! And Yandex has teamed up with Russian lender #Sberbank to compete against tech titans #Alibaba and #Amazon
https://www.ft.com/content/025d31d6-f860-11e8-af46-2022a0b02a6c
Is data the new oil ?
Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2019: GARTNER
#Blockchain, #Quantum computing, #Augmented analytics & #AI will drive #disruption & #new business models.
#AI will create entirely new categories of business & provide tools for coding/data science.
Are you following or leading ?!
https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-10-strategic-technology-trends-for-2019/
Oracle is going through a mega transformation...
#Oracle: mega transformations take time, money and patience
Oracle has the money, but analysts don't have the time nor patience!
Remember, Oracle is a profitable ~$200bn market cap business with:
1) Database technology that's still the gold standard* (running the majority of business workloads worldwide)
2) The most complete stack of sophisticated business apps
3) Tonnes of data to draw insight from via Advanced analytics
As IaaS continues to commoditise, productivity, insight and customer experience come into sharp focus
*With Oracle's #autonomous database and automated cloud migration offerings, its seeking to extend its technology lead
And Amazon and Salesforce still use Oracle's database technology (for the time being at least anyway....!)
Video:
Forbes.com
Will Amazon Damage Its Cloud Business By Competing Directly Against AWS Customers?
It was only a matter of time before someone raised this
#Amazon Web Services (AWS) represents 11% of Amazon group sales of $51bn in Q1 FY18, but 73% of its group operating income
Trump, Anti Trust regulators and now customers are watching....
In Q1 FY18, AWS hit $5.4bn revenues, up 49%, with Operating income of $1.4bn, up 57%
In Q1 FY18, Amazon's group revenues hit $51bn, up 43%, with Operating Income of $1.9bn, up 92%
In the long term, I expect Amazon will probably spin off AWS
Because one things for sure, Bezos' growth ambitions are unlimited...
Public Cloud Services Market hits $117bn revenues in 2017, up 29% ! (IDC)
Leaders Dominate Public Cloud Services Market: Top 16 Public Cloud Service Providers Account for Half of the Worldwide Public Cloud Services Revenue in 2017, According to IDC
The Worldwide Public Cloud Services market grew 29% in 2017, reaching a total of $117bn
As hyper scale vendors invest in the market with renewed vigour, the next 3 years will determine IT industry leadership for the next two decades
Much is made of #Amazon Web Services (AWS) as market leader in IaaS
While that is impressive we need to bear in mind that IaaS is 21% of the Worldwide Public #Cloud Services market, while SaaS is 64% and PaaS 15%
And as IDC points out:
"While new SaaS companies launch regularly, technology mainstays like #Salesforce, #Microsoft and #Oracle remain atop the list of SaaS providers"
So there's still plenty left to play for !
Why is Microsoft paying $7.5bn for GitHub?
#Microsoft's eye watering acquisition of #GitHub for $7.5bn in stock (25x annual earnings) is about its strategic value not financial value
But what is GitHub ?
Founded in 2008, GitHub is a collaborative open source code sharing service, reportedly earning revenue of $300m per annum and loss making...
Open source software is code created by groups of developers collaborating online. This software is released under licence and is usually allowed to be used free of charge
Around 28 million software programmers use GitHub to power technology products around the world. Its a critical component of their daily work and they rely on the platform to store, share and collaborate on that software code
GitHub is also an active social network catering to developers' professional needs and career advancement
Microsoft's Metamorphosis
Given the share price reaction, Wall St seems happy with Microsoft's metamorphosis, in following #Apple's business strategy of 'proprietary openness'
Acquiring GitHub's version control platform could improve talent visibility for Microsoft, give it insight on competitor software code, while extending the reach of its current and next generation platforms
Why buy GitHub now ?
Both #Google and #Amazon were mooted as potential suitors, so the acquisition may have been a defensive move by Microsoft
Whilst Microsoft can easily afford to finance this through stock buy backs, with a $132bn cash pile, make no mistake this acquisition is about network effects and data on developer working practices (including competitor platforms)
Microsoft wants to grow GitHub's developer community (today it has 28m developers and 80m repositories of code) and will also look to monetise GitHub's offerings through its existing sales channels
But it will want GitHub’s developers to run their applications on Azure, its cloud platform, and integrate with its Visual Studio Code which is a Github competitor
Expensive ?
In 2016, Microsoft paid $220 for each of LinkedIn’s (MAU's) monthly active users.
By comparison, when Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $19 billion 4 years ago, it spent $40 for every user
Assuming that all GitHub's 28m developers are active, then that's a whopping $268 for each monthly active user (more than LinkedIn...)
But if its works, the rewards could be priceless
Networks and Social graphs
After Microsoft's $26bn acquisition of LinkedIn, GitHub is yet another illustration of the scale and value of graphs (underlying networks of communities) in today's platform wars
LinkedIn has the social graph and GitHub the developer graph
Track record on acquisitions
Whilst Microsoft has a sketchy record on acquisitions, aQuantive ($6.3bn) and Nokia's handset division ($7.2bn), this its third largest in history, is meant to be different
Combining one of the world’s largest software companies with the biggest open source software community, is of course inherently risky
But as with LinkedIn, it about balancing mutual self interest without destroying the value in these online communities and networks
Minecraft ($2.5bn) and LinkedIn ($26.2bn) are pointed out as more recent successful acquisitions, but then again this is open source software...
Expanding Microsoft's Developer Ecosystem
As Microsoft expands its ecosystem, it knows developers have become the most important decision maker and influencer of technology adoption, in the last decade
GitHub's global network of software developers is close to Microsoft's core business. Software developers contributing to Microsoft technology are estimated to number 30m
Crucially, Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO) can now reach the rapidly growing number of developers employed in companies outside of the Tech industry
Given software's importance for all Digital businesses, that recruiting trend is likely to continue
Open source revolt on privacy concerns ?
Critics of the acquisition believe this move is a competitive threat, as Microsoft can peer into software under development by rivals
#GitLab and #BitBucket may yet be the beneficiaries, as Tech giants #Amazon, #Google and #Facebook balk at the acquisition
These Tech giants may become more active in supporting such GitHub competitor platforms to keep "open source, open...."
Satya Nadella though vows to keep GitHub operationally independent and retain its open source ethos
Privacy addressed
The new CEO of GitHub, Nat Friedman, has responded to privacy concerns:
“Microsoft hosts the confidential information of more than one billion customers today, and this is a responsibility we take extremely seriously. GitHub already has policies and controls in place to limit employee access to private repos, and this will remain as tight as ever under Microsoft.”
Indeed Microsoft has used open source models on some significant cloud and developer products
And as an organisation it is a far cry from the days of Ballmer's anti open source rhetoric
Cynics still question Microsoft's ultimate motivations, given that GitHub isn’t a big revenue generator
Future of Open Source
Making Github owners billionaires is just the start...
Expect more open source businesses to be snapped up by proprietary software Enterprises in future
After all, aren't such acquisitions what Silicon Valley dreams are made of ?!
You can also follow Chas on Twitter @ChasDhami
CSA Images/Printstock Collection/Getty Images/Harvard Business Review
Robo-Advisers Are Coming to Consulting and Corporate Strategy
Excellent article.
#AI means more insights, more change, more disruption and more organisational complexity...robots will help
But humans aren't finished in the workplace just yet !
After all who's really going to blame the robots if things go wrong ?!
https://hbr.org/2018/01/robo-advisers-are-coming-to-consulting-and-corporate-strategy