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Creating Generational Legacies

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Ode to Covid-1

And people stayed at home
And read books
And listened
And they rested
And did exercises
And made art and played
And learned new ways of being
And stopped and listened
More deeply
Someone meditated, someone prayed
Someone met their shadow
And people began to think differently
And people healed.
And in the absence of people who
Lived in ignorant ways
Dangerous, meaningless and heartless,
The earth also began to heal
And when the danger ended and
People found themselves
They grieved for the dead
And made new choices
And dreamed of new visions
And created new ways of living
And completely healed the earth
Just as they were healed.

Covid-19 speeds up transformation to a digital economy

The sudden attack of COVID-19 has resulted in a continuous national lockdown causing a potential slowdown in the economy of the country. Economists assume that if the situation does not normalize soon, disruptions might last longer, which is a scary situation. More than 40% of household consumption is related to services which are under lockdown and mobility restrictions.

Will this cause a permanent shift and transformation in consumer behaviour? 

Due to COVID-19, more than 50% of the consumers have shifted to online shopping as they are fearful about stepping out and going to the store. 

Consumers have taken the no-contact delivery approach as the key survival strategy, which is leading to faster and permanent digital-adoption momentum. 

Brands have also started accepting the shift in online orders. The omnichannel retailers (Offline and online retailers) are experiencing the change in business and revenue on a completely different platform as well. 

Retailers will observe more dependency on online orders with the shift of consumers' behaviour. Either retailer can continue to accept orders via online aggregators which will lead them to a colossal loss towards margin affecting bottom-line, or they can set up their own domain for their store/brand and restrict the revenue directly to themselves. At such instance, for example; in April, Nike decided to pull back from selling on the marketplace and aim more on its direct-to-consumer business.

Brands will be improvising and capitalizing on online personalization efforts to segregate themselves from their competitors and online aggregators. 

To increase direct communication with the customers and gain their trust, brands will drive personalized engagement which plays an imperative role in selling essential category items (groceries, medicines and personal care/wellness items). 

During this current crisis, the entire business model is a requirement to boost the value of digitalization for both small and big businesses. 

There needs to be an organisational goal" or policy to transfer their business to digital - or else they will be left behind. 



Monday, April 27, 2020

NextTech have released another two course dates at $150 per seat on Microsoft Fundamentals courses.


After a successful, sold-out event on the Virtual Live course AZ-900T01 last Thursday, we've received some amazing feedback that I'd like to share with you:

 

 

"Great value, this was a very engaging virtual class" 

 

"The technology used to deliver the course works flawlessly and the trainer was engaging and very knowledgeable" 

 

"After this course I feel ready to get my cetification"

 

Stock-standard the 1-day Microsoft Fundamentals courses are priced at $890, now on offer for $150 per seat. This offer is only applicable on the course dates mentioned in this e-mail and there are limited seats available.

 

 

AZ-900T01 - MICROSOFT AZURE FUNDAMENTALS

15 May 2020 | Was $890 now $150 per seat.

 

 

MS-900T01 - MICROSOFT 365 FUNDAMENTALS

18 May 2020 | Was $890 now $150 per seat.

 

 

Note that this is an exclusive offer and only available for limited time only. Book your seat today or call  1300 263 559 if you'd like to book multiple seats at once 










Risk Management Strategies for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to Survive in the COVID-19 Economy




The coronavirus or COVID-19 presents significant risks to your business .

  • lockdowns causing a sudden fall in demand for your products or services, 
  • staff shortages 
  • supply chain disruption.
  • your business may be more fragile or cash-strapped due to lowered demand. 


Some key questions are front of mind 


  • What is this crisis is long  term? 
  • Will  your customers consume less or change the way they purchase?
  • What do you need to be ready for a rapid recovery when things show positive signs?

Managing risk follows the same processes of managing any effective system

  • PLAN  –  Know Your Hot Spots to prioritize action plans and execution efforts
  • ACT – Keep a tight handle the right actions to take through dynamic risk intelligence
  • ADAPT  – As the crisis unfolds, know how and when to shift resources and adjust business processes


Similar to  Eli Goldratt’s  “theory of constraints” methodology to achieve your goal is to 

  • identify the constraint
  •  put all resources to mitigate the constraint - release the constraint
  •  go for the ride -  and boom - 
  • there will be another constraint - rinse and repeat 

And David Hodes 5-Step Focus
  • Find the constraint
  • Optimise the constraint
  • Collaborate around the constraint
  • Uplift
  • Start Again 
(David Hodes had a brilliant presentation at our BBG  Enterprise forum - “your constraints are your best friend”)




It’s the same with risk 


Here are the   steps of risk management to help you navigate through the crisis 


  • IDENTIFY AND ASSESS THE RISK 
  • DEVELOP MITIGATION STRATEGIES, 
  • REMOTE AUDITING and 
  • PUTTING A BUSINESS CONTINUITY AND RECOVERY STRATEGY IN PLACE  


 Priyabrata Sahoo  unpacks this into 4 sections


1. IDENTIFY and ASSESS THE RISKS


Before you can mitigate the risk - you need to know what the risks are - (the basic premise of what you can measure you can manage.

  1. Identify and understand the risks affecting your business  - Create a risk register 
  2. Assess the level of each risk on how it will affect the overall business goal 
  3. Develope strategies to mitigate the risk 

Identifying the risk

These are the 5 areas of  risk to look at in a business 


Strategic Risk 

– make sure you have strong leadership , with a clear purpose and solid values

  • Are you prepared to pivot? 
  • Do you have a full understanding of how the risks associated with all aspects of your  business are interrelated. 
  • Your ability to effectively manage personnel risk, business resumption risk and operational risks will separate themselves from the pack 

Operational Risk

 – This includes your

  • people, and key stakeholders including third parties who  form the nucleus to support key business operations.
  • premises
  • product
  • assets 
  • supply chain - distribution and production 

Financial Risk

 – Financial risk increases when your business is facing hurdles -  it’s easy raising finance when things are good - try get a loan from your bank when revenues and margins drop!


Reputation Risk 

 – The way your business handles the crisis will affect the way your customers look at you in the future. Good leadership will make your business shine in times of crisis - potential acquisitions and opportunities will flow.

  • lack of leadership creates mistrust and confusion.  

Digital Risk

The role of technology to automate functions that rely on people becomes paramount when people get isolated. 

cyber security is a biggie 



The weaknesses and threats of the SWOT analysis - should clearly identify these risks (ps ... be sure to identify the strengths and opportunities as well) 


Identify what the biggest risk is from COVID- 19. Infection to those who may be at risk may include 

  • Physical risk of your staff, visitors to your business facility, cleaners, contractors, customers 
  • disruption due to social distancing, 
  • plummeting employee productivity, 
  • tensed supply chains, 
  • recession, 
  • unemployment, 
  • investment pull-back and civil unrest. 


Ensure there are Business continuity systems and strategies   - Are there disaster recovery (DR) strategies  across your organizational functions, to improve response time during critical events, and more.


Ensure there is an Internal Audit risk assessments and define action plans to remediate issues and monitor them to closure.


Assessing the risk 


Risk assessment is key  in managing risk , improving safety and improving business performance! 


How to Assess Risks

Steps to follow are:

  • Risk identification which follows event identification and precedes risk response
  • Develop assessment criteria
  • Assess risk interactions
  • Prioritise risks as per their probability, vulnerability and speed of onset. You can define these under 4 criteria like high/some/small/very little probability.


The steps in risk assessment steps include risk analysis, risk evaluation, risk communication, and risk response.



2. Develop Mitigation Strategies 


Depending on your industry, company size, location, and other factors, you can make a wide range of preparations. Your risk response should be driven by the decision of risk acceptance, reduction, sharing, avoidance or complete elimination of each risk.


Below are some common areas that will help you plan your risk mitigation:

  • You can consider moving your budget from fixed cost to variable spending. Reconsider the rent on office space as more employees will be working remotely.
  • Cash is king for businesses – it is wise to cut down unnecessary spending or expansion plans to conserve the cash.
  • While focusing on the operational elements of risk management such as taking care of people, having them work from home, it is also critical to think from the viewpoint of compliance by publishing clear HR policies, data security policies, confidentiality and other policies.   
  • You may choose to shift toward the localization of your supply chain so that you can be immune to the increasing protectionism and risk aversion due to a recessionary climate.
  • Digitization: More than ever before, digitization is getting a real push, and everybody is on a fast forward mode to experiment with digital channels into every aspect of their business. But this calls for more investment in the cloud, data, cybersecurity, and digital risk management.
  • Increase supply chain resilience: While it is good to localize supply chains, it is required to build capabilities in your supply chain to respond to unexpected events quickly or return to the earlier supply chain as soon as possible or innovate to get to a better state.
  • Be sure to connect and maintain repositories of all risk mitigation activities, procedures, and controls in one place to make it easily accessible when needed.
  • Put internal controls in place to mitigate risks. For example, in the context of COVID-19, simple controls may include hand washing, cleaning, social distancing, etc.
  • Properly document all processes and systems to ensure that there is no reliance on any one person and business continuity can be maintained.
  • A key factor is putting in place a continuous training programme - to upskill and reskill your team. To train them on your various processes. 


3. Audit 

After you have put all risk mitigation strategies and controls in place, you need to do auditing to check if all is working well. 


The use of audit functionalities on smart devices has been greatly transforming the changing audit landscape.

This is done by 

  • Simulating face-to-face working environments with virtual environments including phones, computers, and services.
  • Capture organizational communication processes when defining remote auditing
  • Virtual storage of records (shared or isolated)
  • Broadcast messages – video conferencing, teleconferencing, email or group meetings
  • Prepare well before virtual meetings to ensure every dialogue for decision making is covered and before concluding the meeting, clarify action items, owners, and deadlines.
  • Have a central location that contains an up-to-date contact list with email, phone numbers with work time or work shifts.
  • Set up online audit scheduling, format, and checklist.
  • Use desktop sharing features extensively as necessary for reviewing records, procedures, documents, audit trails, procedure reviews, recording meetings, video conferencing, and audio conferencing.
  • Use Asynchronous communication such as SharePoint offices.


Ian Abrahams - Corprofit  - Developed  a risk management system called “knowrisk”





4. PUT A BUSINESS CONTINUITY AND RECOVERY STRATEGY IN PLACE  


Whether you already have a business continuity plan or are putting a plan in place now, consider addressing COVID-19 in the plan. 


A continuity plan calls out the critical and time sensitive applications, vital records, processes, and functions to be maintained, as well as the personnel and procedures necessary to do so, while the entity is being recovered. It needs to have six major components: 


Data critical analysis and data back-up plan ( DCA & DBP ), 

Business Continuity Plan (BCP), 

Emergency Response Plan (ERP), 

Contingency Testing Plan (CTP) and 

Disaster Response Plan (DRP)


Here are a few important steps to follow while creating a plan:

  • Find and analyze Business Continuity Strategy requirements and document them. ((Des Whyte - Expertential has developed a technology to help document processes and enable people to record and track activity in the system. )
  • Review issues related to business recovery, technology and non-tech recovery issues for each support service.
  • Identify, analyze, and document alternative recovery strategies.
  • Compare internal and external solutions assessments of risk associated with each optional recovery strategy.
  • Assess suitability of alternative strategies against the results of a business impact analysis.
  • Effectively analyze business needs criteria, and the objective of planning and evaluation method.
  • Senior management must be aware of the Cost/Benefit Analysis of Recovery Strategies and recommendations from experts.


This crisis - we’ve been here before - and we will probably be here again.  

For your business to survive and thrive in a crisis   you will need a risk management and business continuity plan in place, so you can take advantage of the opportunities that present itself .

Coronavirus Is Our Future | Alanna Shaikh | TEDxSMU




Wash your hands - create rituals - 
Don’t touch your face
Don’t wipe your nose with back of hand (it’s gross) 
Don’t wear a mask - unless you sick 
Give up smoking now

Covid - is probably here to stay - and there will be other outbreaks. We gotta learn to liv with it !!!

Friday, April 24, 2020

The NextTech Emerging Leaders Opportunity

We are going through some major changes, and for organisations to survive and thrive, they will need to have strong empathetic capable leaders to navigate their “ship through the turbulent seas that will be the 20’s.”


There will be challenges and crises, but with these crises come opportunities . 


Cassandra Parton - Managing Director of Nexttech, chats with Geoff Hirsh, CEO of Business Builders Group and asks 3 pertinent questions......


  • What are the opportunities ?
  • What  are the skills needed ?
  • How do we infuse these skills into the DNA of our emerging leaders ? 

1/4 - What is the a Opportunity ? (3 Mins)


This environment has brought in an unprecedented explosive crisis of health and safety and financial issues. 

A crisis will present challenges and opportunities - there has been a change in ways people do business - some will be temporary changes and many will be permanent .

The distributed workforce - and how to manage it, automation replacing jobs, being able to understand and utilise these new tools. 

Understanding the need to learn how to learn 



2/4 What are the Skills Necessary to be able to influence others ?


Core skills of leadership - being able to lead teams of people . Being able to transition from a line role to a management role - requires a degree of adaptation 
Interpersonal
Listening
Getting the best out of people
Giving them a framework of mentoring and coaching
Empathy 
A better communicator
A more effective presenter

What is going to be different ?
Structural changes - better ways to do things - automation - distributed workforce more efffective than a collective workforce.
Collaboration technologies that were regarded as fringe is now mainstream.
We need to incorporate these tools into our DNA

Leaders need to be prepared to cope with crisis management 

There will be a new normal




3/4 How will leaders be able to cope with the change ? 


Emotional Intelligence is core - Autocratic to Democratic - a more “feminine” leadership skill required.
Communication will need a higher level of sensitivity 



4/4 How do we infuse these skills into the DNA of our emerging leaders ? 


You will need
  • Strategy development 
  • Sales Skills - Art of Persiasion - managing up and down
  • Emotional Intelligence
  • How to be resilient 
  • Understanding how to manage a “p&l”

Many have learned these skills - they need to be polished prior to promotion. 

Promote the people and give them every chance of succeeding!

You want Competent Confident Effective Leaders

Great to do it in a collaborative way with peers that you can learn from and build relationships with! 

Potential Grants available 



Tuesday, April 21, 2020

The 7 business models to rule the decade


The 20th Century  saw the development of a number of business models..... 


The Gillette model - “the bait and hook” model, where customers are lured in with a low-cost initial product (the bait: a free razor) and then forced to buy endless refills (the hook: blade refills).


  • The  “franchise models” pioneered by McDonald’s. 
  • The “department stores” - David Jones 
  • The  “hypermarkets” like Walmart, Metcash, Coles and Myers  and Aldis and 
  • The shopping centres - “westfields” , 

The internet was a game changer with business model reinvention. With bitcoin and blockchain undercut existing “trusted third party” financial models, and crowdfunding and ICOs upend the traditional ways capital is raised.


John Hagel shared a great article by Peter H. Diamandis, MD of the   7 Business Models to Rule the Decade



Here they are :- 


(1) The Crowd Economy: 



Crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, ICOs, leveraged assets, and staff-on-demand—essentially, all the developments that leverage the billions of people already online and the billions coming online.


All have revolutionized the way we do business. 


Just consider leveraged assets, like Uber’s vehicles and Airbnb’s rooms, which have allowed companies to scale at speed. 


These crowd economy models also lean on staff-on-demand, which provide a company with the agility needed to adapt to a rapidly changing environment. 


And it’s everything from micro-task laborers behind Amazon’s Mechanical Turk on the low end, to Kaggle’s data scientist-on-demand services on the high end.


Example: Airbnb has become the largest “hotel chain” in the world, yet it doesn’t own a single hotel room. Instead, it leverages (that is, rents out) the assets (spare bedrooms) of the crowd, with more than 6 million rooms, flats, and houses in over 81,000 cities across the globe.


(2) The Free/Data Economy: 





This is the platform version of the “bait and hook” model, essentially baiting the customer with free access to a cool service and then making money off the data gathered about that customer. It also includes all the developments spurred by the big data revolution, which is allowing us to exploit micro-demographics like never before.


Example: Facebook, Google, Twitter—there’s a reason this model has transformed dorm room startups into global superpowers. Google’s search queries per day have risen from 500,000 in 1999, to 200 million in 2004, to 3 billion in 2011, to 5.6 billion today. While more users are becoming aware of the valuable data they exchange in return for Google’s “free” search service, this tried-and-true model will likely continue to succeed in the 2020s.


(3) The Smartness Economy: 




In the late 1800s, if you wanted a good idea for a new business, all you needed was to take an existing tool, say a drill or a washboard, and add electricity to it—thus creating a power drill or a washing machine.


In the 2020s, AI will be the electricity. In other words, take any existing tool, and add a layer of smartness. So cell phones became smartphones and stereo speakers became smart speakers and cars become autonomous vehicles.


Example: We all know the big names incorporating AI into their business models—from Amazon to Salesforce. But more AI startups arise each day: 965 AI-related companies in the US raised $13.5 billion in venture capital through the first 9 months of last year, according to the National Venture Capital Association


The most highly valued of them all is Nuro, a driverless grocery delivery service valued at $2.7 billion. Expect AI to continue transforming most businesses in the 2020s.


(4) Closed-Loop Economies:





  In nature, nothing is ever wasted. The detritus of one species always becomes the foundation for the survival of another species. Human attempts to mimic these entirely waste-free systems have been dubbed “biomimicry” (if you’re talking about designing a new kind of product) or “cradle-to-cradle” (if you’re talking about designing a new kind of city) or, more simply, “closed-loop economies.” These models will grow increasingly prevalent with the rise of environmentally-conscious consumers and the cost benefits of closed-loop systems.


Example: The Plastic Bank, founded in 2013, allows anyone to pick up waste plastic and drop it off at a “plastic bank.” The collector is then paid for the “trash” in anything from cash to WiFi time, while the plastic bank sorts the material and sells it to the appropriate recycler—thus closing an open loop in the life cycle of plastic.


(5) Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs): 





At the convergence of blockchain and AI sits a radically new kind of company—one with no employees, no bosses, and nonstop production. 


A set of pre-programmed rules determines how the company operates, and computers do the rest. A fleet of autonomous taxis, for instance, with a blockchain-backed smart contracts layer, could run itself 24-7, including driving to the repair shop for maintenance, without any human involvement.


Example: While DAOs are just beginning to emerge, the platform DAOstack is working to provide these businesses with tools for success, including reliable crypto-economic incentives and decentralized governance protocols. DAOstack aims to create businesses where the only external influence is the customer.


(6) Multiple World Models: 




We no longer live in only one place. We have real-world personae and online personae, and this delocalized existence is only going to expand. With the rise of augmented reality and virtual reality, we’re introducing more layers to this equation. You’ll have avatars for work and avatars for play, and all of these versions of ourselves are opportunities for new businesses.


Example: Second Life, the very first virtual world created in 2003, gave rise to a multimillion-dollar economy. People were paying other people to design digital clothes and digital houses for their digital avatars. Every time we add a new layer to the digital strata, we’re also adding an entire economy built upon that layer, meaning we are now conducting our business in multiple worlds at once.


(7) Transformation Economy: 





The Experience Economy was about the sharing of experiences—so Starbucks went from being a coffee franchise to a “third place.” That is, neither home nor work, but a “third place” in which to live your life. Buying a cup of coffee became an experience, a caffeinated theme park of sorts. The next iteration of this idea is the Transformation Economy, where you’re not just paying for an experience, you’re paying to have your life transformed by this experience.


Example: Early versions of this model can be seen in the rise of “transformational festivals” like Burning Man, or fitness companies like CrossFit, where the experience is generally bad (you work out in old warehouses), but the transformation is great (the person you become after three months of working out in those warehouses). 


Consumers are no longer searching for merely pleasurable experiences—they are looking for challenges that transform.


Final Thoughts

For business to survive and thrive and to unlock the next wave of growth in the next 20 years -  companies must adopt some of the above models..... to be better, cheaper and faster !!!


Better meaning new business models do what all business models do—solve problems for people in the real world better than anyone else.


Cheaper is obvious. With demonetization running rampant, customers—and that means all of us—are expecting more for less.


But the real shift is the final shift: faster

New business models are no longer forces for stability and security. To compete in today’s accelerated climate, these models are designed for speed and agility.


 


Parts of this article originally appeared on diamandis.com. Read the original article here.

Saturday, April 18, 2020

2 new studies released by Stanford U and NE Journal of Medicine suggests rate of coronavirus is much higher than originally though



A study from Stanford University, tested samples from 3,330 people in Santa Clara county found that the rate of virus may be 50 to 85 times higher than official figures


The Study 

The study was conducted by identifying antibodies in healthy individuals through a finger prick test, which indicated whether they had already contracted and recovered from the virus. Volunteers for the study were recruited through Facebook ads, which researchers say were targeted to capture a representative sample of the county’s demographics and geography.


At the time of the study, Santa Clara county had 1,094 confirmed cases of Covid-19, resulting in 50 deaths. But based on the rate of participants who have antibodies, the study estimates it is likely that between 48,000 and 81,000 people had been infected in Santa Clara county by early April.


What could this mean 

The rate of death is not 5% but potentially 0.2%


It could also mean that we may be closer to herd immunity – the concept that if enough people in a population have developed antibodies to a disease that population becomes immune – than expected. 


To reach herd immunity a significant portion of the population would have to be infected and recovered from coronavirus.


This is a dangerous assumption as to get herd immunity most of the population should have it - not 3% 



The National Institute of Health is testing 10,000 people. UC Berkeley is going to test 5,000 healthy volunteers to see if they have, or have ever had, the coronavirus.


The conclusion ? 

So - the 2 things that need to be done to obliterate the virus


1.    Mass Testing to work out real numbers of people with virus vs people dying to get real % and to see whether there is herd immunity - such as at a Stanford and Berkeley . If % of death is a small number - can we live with it - and “go back to our normal way” - albeit more hygienic (maybe with masks and clean hands) 

2.    Find a vaccine 

Inspired by an article in the guardian

Friday, April 10, 2020

Join the NextTech Revolution - and be a Learning Organisation


We are currently in a vortex of a massive shift in our daily lives out of necessity brought on by Coronavirus. 

This shift has been waiting to come... the virus has just sped it up.

One thing you can be sure of..... what your business has done in the past will need to change to ensure that you will continue survive and thrive in the new normal? 

How can you as a business get your team aligned, motivated, be innovative , and be ready for the NextTech revolution.  (ps.... we are in it!) 

Heather Macgowan is quoted in a great article that I read today (link below ) 

She says - you will have to “learn yourself into the future, and you will need to learn how to learn.” She says that to navigate ambiguity - you need to be adaptable - and that requires learning. 

Humans have an incredible ability to adapt through rewiring our brains towards new ways of thinking and behaving.

Your organisation needs to continually innovate, and be up to speed with technology, and what is happenning around you.

The new normal for the organization of the future, will have an intentionally designed (virtual) working environment with dedicated learning time, opportunities for reflection and self-awareness, support in the form of non-judgmental training, mentorship and coaching. 

For your business to stay ahead of the game of unrelenting change, your business and your people in it - need to have a culture of learning.

You will need to  create a culture of learning in your team or organization. 

COVID-19 presents an opportunity to institute behaviors and a collaborative culture of learning, growth and upskilling previously thought impossible. 

Learning is the new buzzword and skill that leaders must cultivate within their teams.

Without an ability to learn in a changing environment, employees’ existing skills and knowledge cannot be effectively leveraged in new ways that achieve outcomes. 

Learning may not help you make the perfect choice on the first try, but it does allow you to course correct actions as you go. 

Organisations who learn faster and better will win in today’s market.

Join the NextTech Revolution. We would be delighted to explore the opportunity to be your learning partner .