Tag Archives: innovation

Two key trends for 2023

20 Tuesday Dec 2022

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Organizational resilience and workplace analytics

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In our annual quest to find and resonate on the topics that mean the most in the new year going forward, I want to talk about my two research areas for this Spring.

ORGANIZATION RESILIENCE

Organizational resilience for me is top of mind. This combines a number of factors — cyber resilience, employee motivation and commitment, resource allocation and supplier relationships, core competencies and agility to go to market. In a time when economic factors, levels of demand uncertainty and regulatory risk all put the organization on edge, how resources are allocated, supported and made agile will allow organizations to pivot more flexibly.

Technologically, we have been focusing on productivity and collaborative work this last year. My concerns are echoed by a recent paper in the MIT Sloan Management Review. The authors, Jonathan Trevor and Matthias Holweg, both at Oxford, stated that collaborative technologies do help bond hybrid and remote workplaces, but these tools and platforms still haven’t made the grade as far as replicating in-person settings. This is where I am putting my own efforts this Spring in looking at work as an experience (WaaE) and the worlplace as an experiential location.

In their paper, they claim that organizations and the technology they employ have done a good job of keeping everyone connected and in tune with what’s going on, but still can’t fully replicate the innovation seen in face-to-face workplaces. Perhaps their most significant observations are how organizations face challenges getting people together in one place at the right time, and the fact that employees in the survey “complained that work had become more transactional and operational in the hybrid environment. They missed feeling engaged and noticed a decline in the infusion of new ideas.

Being resilient as an organization is about harnessing the resources in a timely and effective manner. The ability to be innovative will hinge on how agile and supple an organization can be.

Having the right place to work to be agile and innovative will be critical. A part of this MIT survey looked at real estate usage. According to their study, ” The top planned changes cited by our sample are additional social areas (80%), creativity spaces (75%), meeting rooms (74%), shared offices (74%), and hot-desking (71%). Corner offices are on their way out.”

WORKPLACE ANALYTICS

Which leads me to the second critical area I am examining this Spring.

Workplace analytics combines occupancy analytics, visitor management systems and more traditional facilities management tools in examining usage. This is normally used by facilities managers, corporate real estate teams and the C suite to understand spending and costs.

But what we really want to examine is utility, in other words, how the workplace served its function in supporting work.

Key question I will be asking: How does the infrastructure support the work activity? Can we take a pulse on a regular basis to see what contribution technology in the workplace makes in making work happen productively and with purpose?

As an example, I bring up the latest survey recently from Relogix, a workplace analytics firm, on global workspace usage.

This report suggests that the last six months or so have been relatively static regarding those coming in and those remaining remote. But what is interesting is the shift between individual offices and the collaboration spaces that were once connected to them, both of which declined, whereas general meeting spaces and casual social spaces doubled and quadrupled.

People are looking to engage with other people if they make the commute into the office. Where does technology play a role here and can we make the workplace a destination and an experience?

Assuming you are not commuting during the holiday period, I wish you a wonderful season and a happy new year. May 2023 be productive, full of good health and wonderful innovation!

Alea

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Innovation in reuse of existing built spaces

29 Sunday Aug 2021

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 Innovation in space usage is driven not only by use case demands, but availability.  And we can see that availability is increasing.  The general increase in space offered for sublease amid the pandemic is to be expected as companies needed less room with workers being home-based. So we are talking about the reuse of existing built spaces.

Reuse of vacant office space could also give a new lease on life to the neighourhood while supporting the local economy, and enable people to stay close to their choice of living space—all the while helping preserve the social and cultural heritage of a region. We are seeing a mix of health, education, entertainment, leisure, arts and crafts and green spaces. Some old shops could become housing in a mixed use environment.

One of the more interesting leisure examples I have seen recently is an active entertainment area, including an indoor go karting centre, in a former South West London shopping centre in Wandsworth.

Startups that repurpose unused space have seen a surge in usership. Innovative startup companies look to make use of empty offices while employees continue to work elsewhere, including working from home during the ongoing pandemic. The pandemic-oriented trend, driven by businesses downsizing and relocating, is expected to push vacancy rates up in cities, and with incentives also on the rise, this will ultimately put pressure on values. 

Some high street retailers are trying to divest some of the retail space as online shopping causes less footfall. Up to 45 percent of of John Lewis’s flagship store on London’s Oxford Street had gotten permisssion in October 2020 from the local council for reuse as office space as the company tries to stem its coronavirus losses and return to profit. Timing on that might not have been so terrific….  But according to a recent BBC article,  the UK has lost 83% of its main department stores in the five years since the collapse of the BHS chain. The figure highlights the extent of the upheaval in the High Street as the Covid pandemic sped up changes in shopping habits.

So how can this value be realized in an alternative way?  After all, The Refinery, a luxury hotel in NYC, used to be a Garment District millinery and the Tate Modern in London was once the Bankside Power Station…  This is not a new concept, but new use cases.

So let’s focus on new use cases.  Some new innovation examples come out of our need to exercise and to store, all limitations of our home spaces:

  • Silofit was stared two years ago to repurpose small office spaces by turning them into “micro-gyms” that can be rented by the hour. 
  • US  peer-to-peer storage marketplace Neighbor lets individuals and businesses rent out their unused space for storage purposes—something like the “Airbnb for storage.”

Pandemic oriented use cases come from a need to get closer to the customer for fulfillment.  Ghost kitchens and other food companies using unused commercial space as distribution centers, so produce can be closer to its final destination.

We are also seeing folks creating communities and cohorts to get closer to each other (within social distancing and reason) when larger resources are not available.  For example, New York-based edtech startup SchoolHouse uses commercial space for some of its “microschools.”

Community building as a use case is also on the rise.  Beside education, health care and wellness have led some interesting use cases. This is a good article on reuse and healthcare, albeit from a US perspective.

So what CAN’T we do at home that requires a physical location that can absorb the available office spaces?   Creative labs and maker studios come to mind, especially combined with distance learning.

What is the commonality of these new use cases?   And how will this concept grow?

Creating workplace process orchestration

19 Thursday Aug 2021

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As we go back to the office, the process of not only being there but being productive there needs to change.  In order to engage the employee, the supplier or the customer to come into the corporate or region office, they have to be able to successfully do their business when and how they are comfortable with doing it.

Taking a holistic approach to building the tech stack, smart orchestration should be a core component of the digital infrastructure that underpins the built environment, as a means to utilise a richer data set around space and building usage that allows us to work smarter and more comfortably.

Some already call a portion of this workplace experience management.   But in order to manage the experience, there has to be an orchestration of workflows that go with that experience set. How the different experience management tools harmonise together to create the necessary processes for productive work.

When we come to an office, we want to know:

  • Availability of people and resources.  This involves open scheduling, collaborative tools and change management resources.
  • Status of physical areas and their hygiene.  This includes digital signage, capacity data being communicated, and personal preferences to heat, light and air quality.
  • Capacity of environments in terms of usage.  Can I come in?  Can others still join?
  • Procedures and protocols for visitors, suppliers, procurement of goods and services, etc.
  • Changing regulations about how we engage with the environment, including cyber security protocols.

Role of sensors and edge computing in orchestration

The underlying aspect of knowledge is data, and we have to be able to gather the necessary data to create the knowledge and communicate it to the right stakeholders in a timely fashion. The tech stack on which decision making sits is made of both internet of things (IoT) and operational (enterprise quality) technology.

Both for IoT and operational technology (OT), the common characteristics of these technologies is that they are based on decentralized architectures and they use edge computing. There is an explosion of sensors, devices and compute at the edge, and that is bringing in new types of artificial intelligence (AI) usages at the edge for real-time analytics that enable decision making.

Summary

Orchestration is harmonized with other key factors in workplace design as visibility, light penetration and communication potential; we should examine workplace tools, data analytics, sensor technology, and smart algorithms will impact how we design and what we design, to help shape the workplaces of tomorrow.

Shining a light on Industry 4.0 – Looking for a Lighthouse

28 Friday May 2021

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In 2018, the World Economic Forum (WEF), in collaboration with McKinsey, initiated the Global Lighthouse Network project. This network continues to aim to identify companies across sectors and geographies that have been able to scale up Industry 4.0 solutions to achieve both financial and operational performance growth, as well as environmental sustainability.  From the nine initial members in 2018, there are now 69 members of the Global Lighthouse Network.

Why is the Global Lighthouse Network an important concept?

These manufacturers are showing others how they have made traction and progress scaling Industry 4.0 technologies within the manufacturing plant environment.  Earlier research before 2018 by the WEF found over 70% of businesses investing in technologies such as big data analytics, artificial intelligence or 3D printing were not able to take the projects beyond pilot phase.

Out of the 69 lighthouses identified, 64 percent have been able to drive growth by adopting Industry 4.0 solutions. For example, while all Lighthouses have successfully transformed at the site level, a select number of  organizations have extended their Industry 4.0 journeys through the end-to-end (E2E) value chain, using technology to drive value for the enterprise connecting the organization from suppliers to customers.

Why this is valuable – it’s about people transforming with tech

McKinsey reports that a common thread across all the different lighthouses is that they put people at the centre of the transformation. And that is what helps unlock the full potential of the technology that has been deployed. This community can shine a light on ways using people to the best effect can transform factories, value chains and business models for compelling financial and operational returns.  Creating organisational maturity beyond the pilot phase has been a real block for many organizations.

What can others learn from Lighthouses?

This community of manufacturers is a built community ; in other words they have been brought together with commonalities to show leadership in using Industry 4.0 technologies.  In coming together under the project, it allows them to benefit in a joint learning journey, partnering on collaborative projects, developing insights and incubating new potential partnerships.   How others can benefit from their activities here is by seeing the possibilities that exist and applying it to their own situation.

Can other industries do the same?

Certainly, and that is the point of this blog post.  Building communities and sharing best practices has been driven traditionally from the supply side – e.g. the user communities of software vendors or the industry forums of major industry sectors like automotive, linked together by suppliers.   It is time that the users themselves drove the conversation and brought the best practices together from the demand side of the equation.   

How will COVID-19 test your organization’s resilience? Can a pandemic create new business models?

08 Sunday Mar 2020

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I had a great concall this morning (yes, on a Sunday) about how organizations are approaching the possibility of the virus impacting their infrastructure. The tech giants are asking for home working, and the educational institutions are looking for virtual and remote learning.

But there are several business models here that are going to be damaged.

First is the model of insurance. As seen by SXSW this week, the organizers held off cancellation hoping that Austin would ask for it first. This is because the insurance company did not see the virus as an Act of God or natural disaster. As more and more companies will take financial hits going forward, how will insurers be pressured into adapting existing types of policies to cover (or not) pandemics?

The next is the model of conference calling. Many of the mainstream providers (Zoom, Cisco with WebEx, Google) have tried to take advantage to building the business with free 90 day trials during this period. But the uptake of Zoom recently has started to impact the quality and bandwidth provided for calls, as noticed by several users this week. Is there enough infrastructure for everyone to go virtual? I see an opportunity here for other models that exist (virtual universities, virutal events in the form of an electronic open day) to take hold.

The third model is the sick leave model, focusing on the amount of time off that a contracted employee can take. I know I had to take sick days for a family member being ill last week, and have already used up my days for the six month allocation period. Hourly workers, and those who work on freelance contracts, will be badly hit. Will people change what they do for work based on a pandemic? Certain industries will be short of workers if this is the case.

The final model I want to discuss is the retail high street. If we have social distancing, how we shop and how we eat out will change completely. E-commerce models still need fulfillment, and if workers cannot work in warehouses or shipping, we have a fulfillment problem. Will 3D printers be the answer that you can make your own? Will be there be fixed locations to pick up your goods with quarantine information available as to its preparers?

Will we have virtual dinner parties, or be exchanging recipes for self quarantine kitchens? Or will you book a restaurant based on distance from other diners and with a health certificate from the kitchen staff? (Note: already happening with delivered food in China, comes with temperature reading from kitchen preparer as well as delivery person.)

Having stocked up on canned goods and toilet paper, I am not as ready as I would like, but already thinking past this season until next Fall…… Can we turn this into an innovation moment?


A nightmare service model

14 Sunday Jul 2019

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I woke up at midnight from a nightmare, and knew first thing this morning that I had to write this post. The nightmare was caused by a service model I am participating in where I acquire the services of an expert.

Why would an expertise service model give me a nightmare? Let’s first look at the service models we are used to, and then I can show you where this one caused my severe reaction.

We are used to a subscription (utility) model, where we sign up and consume, and then monthly (or other time frames) we are billed for our consumption. If you do not use the service, you are still billed for a basic fee for connectivity.

The next more common model is one of retainer. I use the services of an expert when it is necessary (lawyer, consultant, accountant) and they bill me on billable hours, and I pay when service has been rendered.

I am currently consuming remote expertise with a different model, and this is the one that gave me bad dreams. I pay a monthly fee, and can (per week) ask for visual analysis for up to six events. I submit the events, and then the expert gives their opinion (usually within 24 hours) via a visual medium. But it is my responsibility to provide the data in the right format and form, and to take actions after the expertise. I am also responsible for the monthly payments, as no reminder is sent. This is a small, but lucrative, business where this service is one of the smaller services of the service provider.

Why does this give me bad dreams? Because I have been using the service for 7 months so far, and I always have to remember where I am with the service (what week, what events, what payment is still required) and my subconscious reminded me last night that I have two more weeks and need to get some more events to load. Guilt by taking full advantage of my payment, in other words.

I am seeing a shift from classical service models of subscription and retention to models where the consumer has to take a more active role in the service provisioning. These services are more complex and less mainstream, and cannot actively scale as the subscription model does.

Is service complexity really a growing phenomena? In my business, I see the opposite that more and more information is put in front of a paywall to tempt the potential client (kid, candy store) to enter and to see the level of expertise on offer.

Yet when I consume from other small businesses not in technology, I see increased service complexity and enhanced consumer participation.

What do you see in your business? Reach out to me here or via my Twitter feed (@afairch) and let me know.

Are we no longer device driven?

09 Friday Jan 2015

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Although we hear many reports from CES this week on tech innovation, a telling conversation I had yesterday with a long-time colleague really pointed out where we are in terms of technology innovation at present.

She had just gotten a new laptop computer from her office the day before, and we were trying to connect for a video concall, but I could not hear her as her microphone set-up was not working.   Once we picked up the phone, she explained she had just gotten a new PC and it had a number of problems with it.

And the she made the telling statement that ‘she was very surprised in that her new laptop was not better (faster, more powerful) than her old one’.  And that every time before she had gotten a new system, ‘the new one was better than the old one’.   So why is this happening now?

I believe we all are feeling this right now, which is slowing down the sales of new hardware (laptops, desktops, tablets, smart phones).  The devices on offer are not noticeably “better” in terms of performance. They may have better screen size, but the OS, the lack of design innovation and the horsepower under the hood does not make things better for us.  This is especially since the software is becoming more complex and memory hogging. And the networks are slowing down with traffic and a lack of investment in more bandwidth.

More importantly for me, the technology being designed right now are not for users like me.  I want to do productive work with my system — not watch videos for pleasure, touch screens, play games or take photos.  When I got my new desktop last Spring, I really had to search for a system that met my needs, as the consumer desktops were all fun and games driven.   I am not a user of ‘apps’ — I prefer finished software for multifunctional use.  I despair the next time I have to go desktop shopping, as I already had to hold on to my old keyboard as the new one was not as functional.

Although I appreciate growth in the market is coming from mobile devices, even laptops are become more a commodity item with cheaper quality and lesser functionality IMHO.  This opinion comes from anecdotal evidence from friends and colleagues who have gotten new laptop systems in the last year.

Wait, you say.  Why don’t I change the way I work to meet the new technologies?  I have tried, I do own a tablet for a few years now, but it requires additional add-ons to do keypad entry easily, and I never bothered to go buy more kit for it.  It is my one day travel companion for checking things en-route.  I occasionally ‘talk’ to my mobile phone to search, but half the time it does not hear me properly (like a lot of people I know 😉  )

The nature of work has not changed the need for document creation, which is why I am sitting here at 06:30am writing on my desktop before I hit the morning rush hour.

In summary, if software and services are going to be the drivers for innovation going forward, then the weakest link will be the device we access for that innovation.