3 Lessons from Japan’s digital spring

Posted by Mike Walsh ON 4/5/18 12:50 PM

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I was fortunate enough to find myself in Japan in late March, just in time for the iconic sakura, or cherry blossom, season. Pink clouds of flowers transformed the streets of Tokyo, all the more beautiful for their transience; the blooms often last for merely a week before they fall like pastel snow. As a guest of Mina Sekiguchi and KPMG’s energy advisory team, I had the chance to reflect on another kind of transformation that has become a priority for many Japanese leaders: how do you reinvent traditional organizations for the algorithmic age?

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CATEGORY: Global, Energy

The Honeybee Effect

Posted by Mike Walsh ON 4/7/17 3:00 AM

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Like the paperless office, we once imagined that technology would render travel redundant. If anything, the opposite seems true. We travel more than ever - although, perhaps because of technology, its nature and purpose is changing. Like honey bees, nomadic leaders are essential for the survival and pollination of a global, business ecosystem.

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CATEGORY: Global

Beyond borders

Posted by Mike Walsh ON 3/16/17 5:59 PM

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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.

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CATEGORY: Global

Where was your ecosystem made?

Posted by Mike Walsh ON 3/8/17 5:12 PM

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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?

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CATEGORY: Global

Xiaomi & Shanzhai

Posted by Mike Walsh ON 11/3/16 8:54 PM

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When photos of the Mi Mix smartphone hit the web, more than a few jaws also hit the floor. Black, sexy and ceramic with a bezel-less display, this sophisticated Philippe Starck designed phone was exactly the kind of device that a young Steve Jobs might have imagined and then built. Except this wasn’t Apple. It wasn’t even American. It was Xiaomi, a Chinese manufacturer once known for copying, rather than creating products. To understand the rise of Xiaomi and the growing number of emerging Chinese technology and appliance brands, you need to know something about the way that the Chinese think about innovation.

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CATEGORY: Global

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