Over half of the planet now lives in cities, and more than two-thirds of the world’s population will be urbanized by 2050. Cities are pro-actively working across borders to build coalition networks and resist nationalist policies. They contribute to four-fifths of global GDP, and are taking center stage in securing an inclusive, safe, productive, sustainable, and resilient future for humanity.

Smart Cities have emerged as urban ecosystems that integrate digital technology, knowledge, and assets to become more responsive to users, improve city services, and make cities more loveable. Leading the development and re-invigoration of effective, high-performing cities is one of the grandest challenges of our time.

Eden Strategy Institute, in fact, has unveiled the rankings of the Top 50 Smart City Governments globally, from a study conducted in partnership with OXD (ONG&ONG Experience Design), that analyses the diverse approaches towards developing smart cities around the world.

This is the first independent ranking of its kind that investigates the roles that city governments play in leading a smart city strategy, beyond celebrating the technological attainments of the cities themselves.

“Smart Cities are taking centerstage in securing an adaptable, inclusive, productive, sustainable, and resilient future for humanity. Leading the development and re-invigoration of high-performing and loveable cities is one of the grandest challenges of our time,” says Mr. Calvin Chu Yee Ming, Partner at Eden Strategy Institute.

“Governments are eager to explore different ways to integrate digital technology, knowledge, and assets. This study offers unprecedented access to the most effective instruments to help governments become more responsive to users, improve city services, and make cities more loveable,” he explaines.

“Through this study, we hope to provide insight into how city governments can coordinate their smart city initiatives better in ways that reflect a deep understanding of the human condition and the transformative power of citizen ownership and empowerment,” says Mr. Joshua Teo, Associate and Lead at OXD.

This report studied 140 smart cities, from which the Top 50 Smart City Governments were ranked across ten vectors:

1. Clarity of Vision;
2. Leadership;
3. Budget;
4. Provision of financial incentives;
5. Support programmes;
6. Talent-Readiness;
7. People-centric approach;
8. Development of an Innovation Ecosystem;
9. Implementation of “Smart” Policies; and
10. Track Record of previous initiatives and projects.

Finally, interviews were conducted with city officials to validate facts, measure outcomes, and learn about the unique challenges and pathways taken by each city. These insights were featured in the accompanying report as themed observations and city stories.

Top 50 Smart City Government Rankings

The research revealed several interesting findings, including how European cities actively involved their citizens in developing their smart city projects, including the use of joint consultation, co-creation, and participatory budgeting to better attend to the needs of all citizens.

Likewise, American cities scored highly due to a federal government competition which prompted City governments to develop comprehensive, robust, and detailed smart city strategies that focused on urban mobility.

In Asia, six Indian cities emerged among the Top 50 Smart City Governments with smart city plans co-created with citizens, and supported by systematically-planned and mobilized budgets from the central government since 2015.

Large investments in ICT infrastructure, together with highly-integrated public services, helped major Chinese cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing rapidly scale their smart city projects to millions of citizens.

The ranking also recognized admirable efforts of smart cities at the nascent stage, like Jakarta, Phuket, and Kigali that experimented with integrated data platforms, public-private partnerships, and innovation districts.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Top 50 Smart City Governments Globally appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

The video games market will more than double to become a $300bn-plus industry by 2025

GlobalData’s latest thematic report, ‘Video Games’, highlights that the video games market will grow from $131bn in 2018 to $305bn in 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13%.

Mobile gaming has already outstripped the console and personal computer (PC) markets. Over the coming years, with the increased maturity of streaming (supported by 5G), cloud services, and mobile esports, combined with the fact that mobile platforms are close to technical parity with their PC and console rivals, more gamers will shift towards mobile gaming platforms, driving the expansion of this market to over $100bn by 2022, up from $55bn in 2018.

Ed Thomas, Principal Analyst for Technology Thematic Research commented: “Today’s video games industry is in the throes of a huge transformation from a product-oriented business to an as-a-service model. At the same time, new technologies like 5G, cloud, and virtual reality will usher in a new phase of innovation, while new business models like support for in-game micropayments are already changing the economics of gaming.”

Despite being over 70 years old the video games industry continues to evolve, driven by changing user demands, new channels, and technical innovation. Today’s video games industry is in the throes of a huge transformation from a product-oriented business to an as-a-service model. At the same time, new technologies like 5G, cloud, and virtual reality (VR) will usher in a new phase of innovation, while new business models like support for in-game micropayments are already changing the economics of gaming.

Streaming, therefore, will drive gaming’s future. Thomas continued: “Cloud gaming is evolving into a global phenomenon. Major games companies are racing to become the Netflix of games, driven by rapidly increasing viewership on existing streaming channels. However, latency and bandwidth limitations will serve as a brake on the development of mobile gaming services. The maturing of cloud technologies and development of 5G will reduce these network issues, creating an increasingly competitive market in which several leaders have already emerged.”

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post The Video Games Market, Bolstered By Mobile Gaming, To Become A $300bn Industry By 2025 appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Figures from the annual BRC Retail Crime Survey report an exponential increase in ecommerce fraud, specifically fraudulent Card Not Present (CNP) refunds. As consumers shift away from spending on the high street and adopt a proclivity for online shopping, ecommerce fraud is growing at twice the rate of ecommerce sales. It’s expected that retailers will lose around US$130 billion in digital CNP fraud between now and 2023.

To combat this risk, online retailers have spent a staggering £8 million, adopting a reactive measure rather than a proactive one. However, by investing in fraud detection and prevention solutions that verifies a user’s identity and cross-references it against fraud data before allowing transactions, merchants can curb significant losses from fraud, according to Zac Cohen, General Manager at Trulioo.

Zac comments: “A data trail is at the heart of every transaction, even the fraudulent ones. If used effectively, data can expose malicious actors, especially when verifying identities at account creation. With the rise in ecommerce fraud, the use of specific data points can create barriers that prevent criminals from gaining access to ecommerce accounts, while simultaneously authorising legitimate customers to effortlessly access their accounts. In mere seconds, smart data can be referenced, verified and used to prevent fraudulent transactions – saving online retailers time, money, and resources – while allowing legitimate customers to easily and efficiently complete a purchase.”

And all of this is starting a trend where many online retailers are expanding into emerging markets around the world where mobile phones are proving an effective cost-efficient tool for identity verification.

“As ecommerce continues to grow, so too does the risk and cost of fraud. Fraudsters will always go for the easiest, fastest and most lucrative payoffs and that means targeting retail sites that do not implement vigilant, vigorous practices for verifying customers and detecting fraud. In the burgeoning ecommerce landscape of today, an agile and data-centric approach to combat fraud is the need of the hour,” the expert concluded.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Ecommerce Fraud Soars As Consumers Increasingly Move to Online Shopping appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

UK brands are undermining consumer trust and risking revenues by failing to deliver consistent, multichannel customer service, according to the 2019 Eptica Digital Trust Study.

While brands answered 69% of all routine queries via the web, email, Facebook and Twitter, this masked wide gaps between different brands, sectors and channels. For example, a bank took 8 days to respond to an email. One fashion retailer answered a tweet about ethical sourcing policies in 17 minutes, yet another took 50 hours.

Trust is increasingly central to customer relationships. 89% of consumers surveyed said they either will stop buying from brands that they don’t trust or will spend less. Around half (49%) said they would switch immediately. Building trust begins with delivering on basic promises – 59% ranked giving satisfactory, consistent answers as a top three factor in creating trustworthiness, while 63% rated making processes easy and seamless as key.

The web was the most accurate and comprehensive channel for customer experience, with brands answering an average of 75% of routine queries. It was followed by Facebook, where brands successfully responded to 57% of questions (nearly doubling from 30% in 2017). This was significantly ahead of Twitter (45%), despite the channel’s reputation for delivering customer service.

Email brought up the rear. 37% of brands satisfactorily answered a basic question, with average speed ten times slower than social media. Chat continued to grow in importance, with 44% of brands claiming to offer it – yet just 26% had it operational when tested, a slight improvement on 2017’s 24%.

The Eptica Digital Trust Study builds on research first conducted in 2012 by customer experience software provider Eptica. It combined real-world evaluations of 50 brands in five sectors with consumer research on attitudes to customer experience and trust. Evaluation questions included asking about multi-policy discounts (insurance), ethical sourcing policies (fashion), changing a booking (travel), cancelling debit cards (banking) and allergy labelling (food and drink).

“Brands face multiple challenges when it comes to customer experience,” said Olivier Njamfa, CEO and Co-Founder, Eptica. “Consumer expectations are continually rising, while the volume and complexity of queries and interactions are growing. Trust is crucial to engagement and loyalty, but the 2019 Eptica Digital Trust Study shows that many brands are falling at the first hurdle, with their inability to get the basics right undermining reputation and revenues.”

While brands answered 69% of queries overall, nearly a third either did not receive a response – or that replies failed to answer the question. This backs up consumer beliefs that brands are ignoring them – just 8% of respondents said that brands were listening all the time, missing out on the insight needed to drive improvements and strengthen trust.

Inconsistency and gaps growing

The Study found growing gaps between best and worst performers, between channels and within sectors:

• Fashion retailers successfully answered 60% of questions across all channels, while insurers only managed under half (46%)
• In the travel sector, three brands scored 100% on the web – yet two rivals only answered 40% of questions.
• None of the banks surveyed successfully responded to an emailed question – yet 80% of them answered it on Twitter, and 45% on Facebook.

At a time of greater pressure on resources, brands need to take a more holistic view across channels to drive a consistent, efficient customer experience that builds trust.

As well as accuracy, the Eptica Digital Trust Study also measured consistency between channels. Well over half (58%) of companies were completely inconsistent with no answers matching on more than one channel. Consistency varied wildly within sectors – for example, one travel company said on Twitter that it was free to amend a booking, but responded on Facebook saying it would cost £35 per person to do so.

The study evaluated 50 UK brands, split equally between the fashion, food and drink, travel, insurance and banking sectors. Brands were rated on their ability to answer five routine questions via their websites, as well as their speed, accuracy and consistency when responding to email, Twitter, Facebook and chat. Additionally, 1,000 UK consumers were surveyed on their attitude to trust, its relationship with customer experience and on loyalty and brand reputation. All research was completed in Q1 2019.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Revealed: Facebook And Web Lead The Way For UK Customer Experience appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

A new report carried out by Virtusa xLabs has identified the 10 most influential technology trends that industry, business, and tech leaders need to know as they strategically plan their investments over the next 12 months. The company collaborated with senior technologists and business leaders to identify the most influential technology trends that will help businesses to stay competitive and drive growth in 2019.

These trends also expose new business imperatives that leaders need to capitalise on in order to remain competitive in the evolving digital economy. “Being successful in the digital economy requires a transformation that goes beyond embracing emerging technologies,” said Senthil Ravindran, EVP and global head of Virtusa xLabs. He adds, “It demands a new way of thinking. A design mindset that applies new technologies and agile processes to transform experiences while maintaining privacy and security. With the pace of change accelerating, leaders need to openly embrace evolving technologies and remain willing to rapidly iterate and experiment. Traditional business methods that worked a decade ago, are no longer effective when applied in today’s agile digital environment.”

Virtusa xLabs analysed over 150 sources from industry experts, trend spotters, and analyst firms to help business and technology leaders to prepare better for the oncoming wave of digital disruption:

1. Crossing the next AI frontier

The release of open source DRL libraries last year is set to spur the development of commercial applications for AI. As a result, deep reinforcement learning (DRL), a powerful machine learning tool, will move out of research institutes and into the world of business.

2. Collaborative Intelligence

What if machines could learn from machines, not just humans? This seemingly far-fetched prospect is now becoming a reality. Collaborative intelligence imagines a world of multi-machine-human exponential learning, fuelled by recent breakthroughs in AI.

3. Open banking adolescence

2019 is the year when banks and financial institutions start to take the opportunities around Open Banking seriously. A key regulation will be laid down in September, which will mark the beginning of a new era in banking in Europe. Core tenets include interoperability, openness, customer-centricity and innovation.

4. Finnovation for the developing world

Financial inclusion is about to move into the next phase. The developing world’s new digital payment rails has enabled millions to gain access to the formal economy for the first time. Regulators, FinTechs, challenger banks, and traditional banks have an opportunity to create the products and services to ride on top of those rails and transform whole communities in the process.

5. Crypto coming of age

Until blue-chip financial giants help to establish the financial infrastructure for crypto-markets, institutional investor participation will remain weak. This year, the world’s biggest banks and financial bodies are starting to build those structures, sending a strong signal to market participants and heralding a shift to a higher level of cryptocurrency activity.

6. Making our data safe again

Many organisations are hoovering up large amounts of personal data to “hack the minds” of their consumers or sell on their insights to third parties. By the same token, businesses themselves are becoming prime targets for cyber-attacks. In 2019, we expect to see decentralised digital identity products start to gain market traction, giving back control to individuals and organisations.

7. Never disconnected

5G will deliver the internet at light-speed. Whilst not expected to replace 4G until 2020, marquee firms are already launching 5G smartphones this year. Significantly, this communication protocol is an enabling technology that will accelerate progress with other exponential technologies like AI and IoT.

8. Interlopers in the boardroom

Design is starting to play a strategic role within digital transformation programs. Companies have witnessed the innovations that have arisen from Big Tech’s design-led culture and are now taking stock. They’ve also absorbed the fruits of the Design Thinking movement, the spate of CDO appointments, and consulting firms’ discourse on the centrality of design to successful digital transformations. This year, design will be on the boardroom agenda.

9. Health data you can trust

Health data management is struggling to keep costs down, remain up-to-date, and support patient needs. The Synaptic Health Alliance, a consortium of leading healthcare organisations, is applying blockchain to improve Provider Data Management. This will be a key test in the uptake of blockchain solutions for the sector.

10. Omniscient Healthcare

The connected health market is rapidly transforming. Invisibles, a non-invasive wireless device, is causing waves with its ability to analyse the reams of data that your body transmits in the comfort of your own home. Be it wearables, telemedicine platforms, apps, or other digital healthcare services, the connected health ecosystem is maturing rapidly and will have a much bigger impact in 2019.

The Almanac also contains some leftfield trends that will stimulate fresh thinking for innovation projects. What’s more, it provides an overview of the technology trends to give readers a rounded understanding of the trend landscape for 2019.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Tech of Tomorrow: These are the Top Digital Investment Trends for 2019 appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

Business Intelligence (B.I) is often defined as “an umbrella term that includes the applications, infrastructure and tools, and best practices that enable access to and analysis of information to improve and optimize decisions and performance”.

B.I models are essentially data-driven ‘Decision Support Systems’(DSS) that are used with the intention of better supporting a business. With B.I, visual data discovery and business analytics solutions are continuing to evolve, which in turn is enabling non-technical users to interact with more types of data.

As a result, SavoyStewart pulled highlights from the report ‘2019 Business Intelligence Trends’ by Tableau, to reveal the major trends that will be shaping Business Intelligence in 2019.

1. Transparent A. I

The need for transparency has led to the growth of explainable Artificial Intelligence (A.I) – the practice of understanding and presenting transparent views into machine learning models.

Explainable A.I enables users to ask follow up questions as to why a model recommends something and what it would say if the inputs were different. According to Gartner Research, 85% of CIOs will be piloting A.I programmes to buy and build outsource efforts by 2020.

Companies have embraced the value of A.I but for it to make a disruptive impact it must be trusted, presenting valid conclusions that will help humans better understand their data.

2. Two-way data dialogue

Natural Language Processing (NLP) amalgamates computer sciences and linguistics to allow computers to better comprehend the meaning behind human language. With the natural language generation market estimated to grow to $825.3 million by 2023, B.I vendors are offering a natural language interface to visualisations.

This enables users to interact with their data. Understanding user context creates a more natural dialogue, which can lead to analytical conversations between the user and the system about their data.

3. Actionable analytics

B.I platforms are evolving to place data where people want to take subsequent action. For example, data workers need their data and actions in the same place, rather than performing an analysis and actioning it elsewhere. B.I platforms are closing this gap by merging with core business operations, workflows and processes such as analytics and dashboard extensions.

Actionable analytics are utilising the decision-making processes for both technical and non-technical roles, allowing data workers to analyse their data and take an action after finding an insight in the same place.

4. Data ethics

In light of GDPR regulations in the EU, leaders have begun assessing the future of ethical data practices. The topic of data privacy has risen in prominence and consumers are more conscious than ever about sharing their personal data.

This in turn is affecting how businesses approach data monetisation, as well as collection of data and the sharing of sensitive information. As data continues to proliferate in every area of business, companies are starting to evaluate how to best ensure compliance, as well as their own internal moral code of ethics.

5. Cloud migration

Data gravity is resulting in more businesses moving to the cloud at an increased rate, driving businesses to re-think their data strategy. Essentially this means services and applications are pulled in the direction of where the data can be found.

The cloud makes it easier for companies to capture and integrate different types of data. As more companies are highlighting the benefits of moving to the cloud, data gravity is also pushing analytical processes to the cloud.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Top Business Intelligence Trends For 2019 appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

For even the most stoic entrepreneur, facing a panel of potential investors can be like walking onto the set of ‘Dragon’s Den’. But a new study, co-authored by Cass Business School academic Dr Ruben van Werven, suggests there are ways to connect with even the most imposing investors.

The study analysed the language used by entrepreneurs at an Amsterdam-based business incubator and has determined four interconnected language strategies found in the most influential pitches.

1. Let the audience complete the picture of the future

The study found that entrepreneurs who successfully influenced their audience often implied a point without actually making it when talking about the future; they encouraged their audience to fill in the blanks.

“The audience becomes engaged, they start becoming a part of the argument, they actually even complete it, so they’re more likely to be convinced by it,” Dr van Werven said.

“Entrepreneurs would say ‘In my market, globally, 90-billion dollars is earned every single year’ and that’s all they said.

“In itself that doesn’t mean anything and has no implications for the success of their business, but what they’re hoping is that investors would think ‘Wow, that’s a big number. If this company is going to do well they might become very profitable’.”

2. Present the imagined future as a reality

The study found entrepreneurs whose pitches are well received by investors most often present their idea as if it already exists, even when the venture is only in the idea phase.

The researchers’ findings suggest that by presenting an idea or venture in the present tense entrepreneurs take away its sense of novelty and remove the audience’s impression that it is yet to exist.

“In our paper we call it a logical time gap, which basically refers to the idea that if someone pitches an idea to you and you start thinking about how it plays out in the future, then these things don’t match because you don’t know what the future looks like,” Dr van Werven said.

“But if you talk about the future in terms of the present, both the evidence and the claim are in the same time and space.

“This can make the audience feel more secure, it helps them imagine that the idea being pitched is real.”

Dr van Werven said these first two strategies are important when pitching an idea because they help entrepreneurs sell something that does not actually exist.

But to avoid being perceived as vague, influential entrepreneurs also incorporate a clear understanding of the current situation into their pitches and back them up with data, as detailed in the third and fourth linguistic strategies.

3. Be explicit about the current situation

Most of the entrepreneurs studies made explicit claims about the present state of their target market and established links between their idea and its benefits for that market.

Dr van Werven said presenting information about the current state of affairs shows knowledge and expertise, and increases the chances of the idea resonating with the audience.

“If you’re really clear and explicit about the market, the customers and any current problems or gaps then your audience will believe that you’re an expert and that you’ve got it covered,” he said.

4. Support your idea with data

All of the influential pitches analysed in the study used selective data to support their arguments, and often changed the data they selected to support their idea more favourably.

“For example, a gaming entrepreneur one week said there were 300 million gamers like the ones he meant to address, then the next week he said there were 1.2 billion of them,” Dr van Werven said.

“These numbers were both taken from research reports but, in the second instance, he picked the data that made his argument most convincing.”

Dr van Werven said the language strategies outlined in the study could be used by anyone pitching a new project, whether an entrepreneur pursuing investment, a manager proposing a new product, or an architect selling a new design, the language used when pitching the idea can be key to success.

“It’s important to note that none of these strategies are about lying — it’s just imagining that things that are yet to happen are already real and then being selective in the data you use to support your points,” he said.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

The post Revealed: 4 Language Strategies Found In The Most Influential Pitches appeared first on OpenBusinessCouncil Directory.

A new report from the IHS Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) revealed the biggest decline in the manufacturing sector in two years. The index showed that the manufacturing sector fell to 51.1 this October, down from 53.6 in September.

According to Jason Chester, Director of Channel Programs for InfinityQS: “The report is indicative of what we are seeing across the manufacturing sector. Economic uncertainty fuelled by the lack of a final agreement on Brexit (despite Britain’s departure from the European Union being months away), in conjunction with the gradual decline of high-street retailers and a contracting construction sector is having a negative effect on supply-chain demand and restricting further growth. As a result, it can be tough to accurately gauge the current state of the UK manufacturing industry, as it appears to be in a state of constant fluctuation.

“Alongside rising costs for imported materials and increasing business anxiety, the manufacturing industry must remain resilient to any external threats that continue to put pressure on manufacturers of all sizes. Unfortunately, the lack of understanding surrounding technological innovations, including robotics, industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), automation, manufacturing intelligence, cloud computing, Big Data, and artificial intelligence, has meant manufacturers are hesitant to go digital. These opportunities can deliver significant benefits such as improved agility, cost reduction, and risk management, all of which are so badly needed by manufacturers in this current environment.”

Chester continued: “The problem is that firms seem to be taking the easier and ‘safer’ option by investing in labour rather than new technologies. We recently conducted a global client survey which revealed that 64 per cent of global manufacturers rate their own shop floor IT capabilities as ‘non-existent, weak, or just average-at-best.”

It’s understandable that firms with smaller budgets are hesitant to scrap their existing machinery in favour of newer technologies, but it is equally ineffective to simply hire new staff without investing in the right technologies and connected systems for them to operate. Advancements in the IIoT and cloud-based data analytics now offer manufacturers the ability to operate far more efficiently, enabling them to accurately monitor and adjust their operations in real-time so they can remain competitive and adapt to an increasingly unstable global market.

“In many ways the manufacturing sector is the backbone of the economy, currently employing approximately 2.6 million people and accounting for 44 per cent of total exports. The importance of remaining as efficient and competitive as possible within the current economic climate cannot be understated, and the responsibility falls on CEOs and CIOs working in close collaboration with managerial teams to ensure their digital transformation initiatives are successful.

“Firms that take the initiative to future-proof their manufacturing operations by prioritising investment in IIoT and intelligence solutions will be able to navigate their challenges to emerge as leaders in the fourth industrial revolution.” Concluded Chester.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

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A new research study of commercial property insurance providers by LexisNexis Risk Solutions has identified a clear appetite for a centralised data exchange comprising property information, policy history and past property claims data from across the market to support quoting and underwriting activities. However, while the majority of those surveyed would like access to a contributory database, only just over half of the respondents in the study would readily contribute. LexisNexis experts saw this same hurdle among personal lines insurers who now benefit from industry-wide data sharing.

The study found an increasing need for data enrichment amongst commercial property insurance providers with 64% saying this interest has increased in the past year.  Almost all (99%) of the commercial property insurance providers surveyed use some form of location-based data to enrich quotation and underwriting processes, with flood and fire data used most often. Visualisation tools such as LexisNexis® Map View have played a key role in helping property insurers understand environmental risks. Furthermore, three out of four commercial property insurance providers (74%) currently use the past policy data they hold to enrich the quoting and underwriting processes.

Jonathan Guard, Director, Commercial Markets, LexisNexis Risk Solutions, UK and Ireland, said: “Contributory databases are already common in the personal lines market – close to 90% of the motor insurance market currently contributes to the No Claims Discount Module.  However, data sharing is a relatively new concept in commercial insurance and this is reflected in the response we received regarding how ready and willing insurance providers were to actually share their claims and policy data.

“There is a clear recognition among commercial property insurance providers of the potential value that contributory databases could deliver, such as data accuracy, efficiency and identifying blind spots in commercial risk, but there still seems to be some caution when it comes to sharing their own business data. Perhaps we should not be surprised, as data is hugely valuable to insurance providers, so both an eagerness to obtain more of it and a reluctance to share it are understandable responses.

Although close to seven out of ten of commercial property insurance providers (67%) would support a market-wide centralised contributory database through which insurance providers could share policy, property and/or claims data, only 57% of the commercial insurance providers surveyed would be very or somewhat likely to contribute to such a database.

The LexisNexis Risk Solutions study of the UK Commercial Property Insurance market found:

• 67% of respondents want a contributory database allowing multiple insurance providers to share data related to policies, properties or claims
• 53% said they thought an industry-wide contributory database for past policy data (including, for example, details of mid-term cancellations or of gaps in cover) would be extremely or very useful to their organisations
• 57% of providers said their company would be very (26%) or somewhat (31%) likely to contribute their data to a shared database
• 74% use past policy data (including details of mid-term cancellations or of gaps in cover) to support quoting and underwriting
• 64% of respondents said their current level of interest in, or need for, data enrichment is greater than in the past

Relating such findings, Jonathan Guard added that the solution would be a contributory database that delivers so much value that it would alleviate concerns over sharing their own data.  “We found that personal lines insurance providers shared these doubts until they tested contributory databases and saw how much the benefit outweighed their concerns,” he said.

With recent reports highlighting how the commercial insurance industry is facing challenges in respect of intangible risks it makes sense for commercial property insurers to collaborate and leverage data to help mitigate the tangible property risks they underwrite.

“Commercial property insurers are already utilising their own customer policy history and claims data, so sharing this data across the industry is the natural next step. A shared claims and policy history database would benefit all who contribute, but there will still be plenty of scope for insurance providers to use data and analytics to differentiate themselves and prosper in this dynamic, ever-evolving part of the insurance industry,” he concluded.

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.

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