There was a time when the coolest office you could hope for was no office at all. Remote work was all the rage. Why commute when you could stay at home? Well, one good reason, turned out to be collaboration. Even tech companies discovered that the right kind of work environment helped build old-fashioned analogue connections between people. And, even more ironically, that the best way to do just that, was to use algorithms.

It feels like the last twelve months has been all about borders. Keeping people out, in the case of immigrants - or keeping people in, in the case of jobs. And yet, strangely, when it comes to the truly rich, globalization is not a curse at all. It is an invitation to be borderless.

In this curious time of trade wars, border disputes and national insecurity where something is made has become more important than how it is used. Pity the poor iPhone. Merely 'Designed in California', its actual provenance will soon be subject to greater scrutiny. But what if the most valuable part of a company is not where it makes its products, but rather the ecosystem it is a part of?

We live in a time of exponentially improving machines. First chess, then Space Invaders, go and most recently poker - our games now seem mere taunts in a struggle for supremacy between humanity and AI. Even in losing, however, we may learn something about what makes us special.

For many companies the Cloud has changed the way they use software. For a fortunate few, it has completely changed the way they do business.