Future of Work – Page 2

Spotlight on Disruption

Coworking office spaces represent a fundamental shift in the way people work, and the coworking industry is disrupting the commercial real estate industry in a very BIG way. The future of work is a huge topic of discussion every week at Croixstone, and the shift in how people work is what incentivized us to relocate our offices from our business loft in South End to Industrious in Uptown Charlotte nearly one year ago. Learn why companies like Spotify, Lyft, Hyatt and Chipotle have joined Croixstone in calling Industrious home across the United States. Click here.

Cataclysmic Changes in the Workforce

According to one expert, North Carolina is facing a serious economic challenge. Read this article to learn how some believe the world changed in a very BIG way in 2007, resulting in cataclysmic changes in the workforce.

What You Need to Know About Social Enterprises

On April 16th, Social Venture Partners Charlotte (SVP) will host the annual SEED20 program which identifies, highlights, and connects the community to twenty of the region’s most innovative ideas for tackling pressing social challenges. In today’s business world, nonprofits are not the only ones concerned with being integrated into the social fabric of society. Earlier this week, Forbes ran an article titled the “The Rise of the Social Enterprise: A New Paradigm for Business” which illustrates that businesses today need to make a shift in management in order to be more integrated into the social fabric of society.

Social enterprises are revenue-generating businesses with a twist. A social enterprise has two goals that are equally important:

Achieve social, cultural, community economic and/or environmental outcomes
Earn revenue

In the Forbes’ article, a yearlong research and survey of business and HR leaders by Deloitte revealed that “citizenship and social impact” were rated critical or important by 77% of respondents.

One of the trends identified is that companies today must be “social” in a truly external sense, and one of the biggest challenges is that C-suite executives are not operating or organized effectively to deal with the new world of economic growth and technology revolution while effectively addressing diversity, inclusion, fairness, equity at work and more.

There are two dimensions to the evolution of social enterprise.

Moving from an organization which operates as a functional hierarchy to one that operates as a “network of teams.”
Each part of the company looks at the impact of external factors and the company’s footprint in the external world.

Click here to read more about the new paradigm shift for businesses addressed in the article and click here to learn why social enterprise can be a win-win for companies.

Biotechnology And Its Applications

Another core technology altering nearly every dimension of our lives as outlined in a recent MIT Sloan Management Review article is biotechnology. Biotechnology is really the combination of technology, chemistry, and life sciences. At first glance, many business leaders may believe that biotechnology only impacts the health care field. The rapid advances in biotechnology, however, show enormous promise and have the potential to “both expand existing industry boundaries and create entirely new industries,” according to Dr. Albert H. Segars, author of the article and PNC Distinguished Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship and Faculty Director of the Center for Sustainable Enterprise at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Biotechnology Applications

Industrial Processing – applications in product development, pollution control, bio-recycling, and hazardous waste.
Biometrics/Bio-identification – expanding the use of biomarkers as a gateway to information access and commerce.
Bioinformatics – analysis of large sets of data used in the Human Genome Project, Disney’s theme park design, and more.
Medical – advancements in the field of genomics, production of vaccines, antibiotics, gene therapy, and personalization of implantable devices.
Food & Agriculture – significant gains in the production of plants, improved quality of livestock, pest-resistance crops, nutrient supplementation, and manufactured power fibers.
Energy – alternative energy sources, production of biofuels from algae and other plant and waste sources.

Click here to read the entire MIT Sloan Management Review article.

Pervasive Computing 101

In a recent MIT Sloan Management Review article, Dr. Albert H. Segars from University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School outlined seven core technologies that are altering nearly every dimension of our lives and their implications for commerce, health care, learning, the environment and more. According to Dr. Segars, pervasive computing is one of the core technologies that every business leader should become familiar with as the digital revolution rages on.

Pervasive computing, also called ubiquitous computing, is a concept where information, media, context, and processing power are delivered conveniently to us in all kinds of things. The Apple Watch’s ability to alert users of incoming phone calls and to allow users to complete calls through the watch, is an example of pervasive computing. The large network of connected microprocessors embedded in everyday objects allows access to information from virtually anywhere and at any time.

First pioneered in the late 1980s at the Olivetti Research Laboratory in Cambridge England, the development of the “Active Badge“, a small clip-on microcomputer employee ID card, enabled the company to track employee movement. This spurred articles by the The New York Times, ComputerWorld and other publications about George Orwell’s Big Brother prediction coming true.

Mark Weiser, considered to be the father of ubiquitous computing, soon began building early ubiquitous computing devices with his colleagues at Xerox PARC and popularized the term “pervasive computing” with the creation of IBM’s Pervasive Computing division.

Today, pervasive computing generally involves wireless communications and networking technologies, mobile devices, embedded systems, wearables, wireless sensors, voice recognition, AI and more. According to a recent study report published by Market Research Future, the global market of pervasive computing technology is booming and expected to gain prominence. Technology advancements and the increased demand for Internet of Things (IoT) continue to drive the growth.

Application of Pervasive Computing Technology:

Communications
Logistics
Transportation (by air, land and sea)
Energy
Learning
Military
Banking/Finance
Production
Smart Homes
E-commerce
Security & Safety
Healthcare/Medical Technology
Media

To learn more, read:

Consulting Industry Outlook 2018

It’s a good time to be in the consulting world! According to the recently released Consulting Magazine’s 2018 Executive Outlook report, the theme for the consulting industry this year is “Let the Good Times Roll.”

The positive economic momentum + recent corporate tax cuts equal an “upbeat and bullish forecast” for the consulting industry. As result, the industry remains strong and firms are in the “midst of a hiring frenzy” to get the work done. Below is a high-level overview of the results in the report:

97% of leading consulting firms surveyed experienced real revenue growth over the last 12 months.
98% of executives are forecasting growth in 2018, and 94% are saying that growth will exceed 6%.
95% of firm leaders anticipate net profits will improve, and 62% of the firms predict net profits will be up more than 10% in 2018.

The survey was conducted in the latter part of 2017 with more than 130 Managing Directors, Partners and Vice Presidents participating. To read the full 2018 Executive Outlook, click here.

Freelancing in America

Did you know that 36% of the U.S. workforce are freelance workers? This equates to 57.3 million workers earning an estimated $1.4 trillion annually. By 2027, the majority of the U.S. workforce will freelance, according to findings in the “Freelancing in America Study: 2017” released in mid-October. The study conducted by Upwork and Freelancers Union defined freelancers as “individuals who have engaged in supplemental, temporary, project- or contract-based work.”

To learn more about freelancing in America, check out the following:

Click here for a complete guide from entrepreneur.com to the highest-paying jobs, companies, freelance jobs and more.

Prepare for the future as a freelancer by following these 3 tips here.

Want to quit your job to go freelance? Here is a list of 10 skills that are in hot demand now.

Are we all fated to become “solopreneurs”? Read here about the four key criteria needed to stay competitive and successful as freelancers.

Re-Envisioning the Future with Generative Design

Could the current manufacturing, distribution, assembly and maintenance processes become obsolete in the not too distant future? Today, we take a look at generative design as an innovative approach to thinking outside the box when it comes to design and its implications to manufacturing.

At Croixstone we are inspired by mavericks…those unconventional thinkers who can see past conformity and who can accomplish what others say can’t be done. Generative design has the ability to generate unconventional design options that go beyond our imagination alone and can be used to create everything from running shoes, earbuds and airplane partitions, to a revolutionary approach to designing the office space and buildings of the future.

So what is generative design? According to Autodesk, a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software, “Generative design is a technology that mimics nature’s evolutionary approach to design. It starts with your design goals and then explores all of the possible permutations of a solution to find the best option. Using cloud computing, generative design software quickly cycles through thousands—or even millions—of design choices, testing configurations and learning from each iteration what works and what doesn’t. The process lets designers generate brand new options, beyond what a human alone could create, to arrive at the most effective design.” To better understand what generative design is all about, click here for a short video.

Learn how generative design and additive manufacturing (i.e., 3-D printing) is changing the manufacturing world here.

Check out how generative design could radically transform the look of our world here.

Delve into a new world of highly efficient products made by generative design here.

Take a sneak peak into the first large-scale generative designed office here.

Trends Shaping the Consulting Industry

In the 2017 Management Consulting Outlook report prepared by Greentarget, a strategic public relations firm focused exclusively on business-to-business organizations, the global management consulting market has been growing revenue approximately 4 percent annually over the past few years. As the most mature market, the U.S. market grew 7.7 percent in 2015 to reach $54.7 billion, up from $50.8 billion in 2014. The global management consulting industry is now delivering an estimated $150 billion in revenue, and the growth trend is expected to continue, with the U.S. accounting for nearly half (44 percent) of the global market.

We at Croixstone know it is important to keep abreast of the many forces and trends shaping the consulting industry. Demand for change as result of disruptive technologies and competition from new market competitors continues to drive investment in consulting. What else is new in the consulting industry?

Learn more about the who’s who of the consulting world in 2017 here.

What makes a great consultant? Here are 10 attributes required for long term success as a consultant.

Read here about five consulting technology trends in 2017 that are more than buzzwords.

Agile For Business

Back in 2001, seventeen people at The Lodge at Snowbird met to talk, ski, and relax, and what emerged was the Agile ‘Software Development’ Manifesto. Those seventeen individuals may not have predicted that the agile methodology would now go well beyond IT and impact all areas of business.

As agile becomes more and more popular, business teams across a broad range of industries and functions are continuing to adopt an agile approach as a wide-ranging global business strategy. And, big businesses aren’t the only places where agile is flourishing. Small businesses and startups are also benefiting from embracing agile strategies and mindsets.

Learn about the secret history of agile innovation here.

Read how to make agile work for the C-suite here.

When it comes to scaling agile, learn how the devil is in the details here.

Finally, read about changes required to make your organization truly agile here.

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