Elaine Mah2013-05-22T23:28:20-04:00Elaine Mahhttp://www.huffingtonpost.ca/author/index.php?author=elaine-mahCopyright 2008, HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.HuffingtonPost Blogger Feed for Elaine MahGood old fashioned elbow grease.The Third Industrial Revolution Is Here - Think Biggertag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.32939402013-05-21T12:09:54-04:002013-05-21T12:35:40-04:00Elaine Mahhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-mah/Team Canada-ISEF 2013 head to Phoenix, to compete at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). ISEF is the world's largest high school science research competition and this year 18 Canadian high school students will compete against 1,500 peers in this annual competition. As I stated in a previous blog, these bright young minds have both inspired and awed me as their ideas show a complex understanding of the world around us.
I found myself nodding vigorously as I read his remarks and his conclusion that we need to have a "shared commitment to do all that we can do to realize Canada's potential to lead in the Digital age...there is no time to lose especially since 2017 now seems right around the corner."
Listening to the Canada 3.0 opening keynote from Chris Anderson, former Wired editor and best-selling author (Makers: The New Industrial Revolution; The Long Tail; and Free), I found myself reflecting on Canada's role in the digital age. Anderson shared his experience of building a motor for a backyard project, in the virtual world. He downloaded the design app and once he was done instead of clicking "print" he clicked "make," and manufacturers a world away started building the motor which arrived 10 days later by courier. No massive engineering department or factory; it was all done with the touch of a finger. This is the future of manufacturing and what Anderson calls the Third Industrial Revolution.
Anderson says, "... new technologies of digital design and rapid prototyping give everyone the power to invent." These new technologies have the potential to open up opportunities we have never seen before, leaving me to wonder how we're going to leverage this new-found power.
Another keynote at Canada 3.0 was delivered by the Founder & CEO of Kobo, Michael Serbinis, who is recognized for his innovation and has created a real Canadian success story. His key theme was to encourage us to Think Bigger, sharing that Kobo's objective from the outset to be a global leader, rather than focusing only on Canada or North America. And it was during his presentation that the impact and import of his words truly struck me, as Michael is a Team Canada-ISEF alumnus, winning Gold for his design of a high temperature superconductor propulsion system.
The circle of life? Perhaps. I'd like to believe I was seeing the long-term impact of generating excitement around science at an early age to foster a lifelong passion to push boundaries. It is only by redefining the impossible that we can bring the world's next game changers to life. Indeed, Thinking Bigger.
Throughout this week, I found myself energized by the possibilities and potential for what is to come, and enthusiastic about the bright future that is ahead if we can continue to foster and encourage governments, business leaders and young students to look beyond the limits to make the impossible, possible.
From the perspectives of both these events, I find myself wondering what it will take to win in this Third Industrial Revolution, and I keep coming back to our youth, these students whose brilliant minds know no limits. Are we doing enough to encourage and inspire them?
Are we finding the right venues to foster innovation and commercialization of the best ideas in Canada, or will we retain our role as an exporter of raw goods, rather than an information economy of the future?
]]>Canadian Retailers Must Get Online or Perishtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2013:/theblog//3.29637232013-03-27T11:16:51-04:002013-03-27T12:16:46-04:00Elaine Mahhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-mah/"Can I help you?"
"No thanks ... I'm not really here ..."
I was recently reminded of those opening lines from a 2011 Yellow Pages Group commercial of a small business that was losing customers because it wasn't online. I had just finished speaking with Kingi Carpenter, owner of Peach Berserk, who had closed her brick and mortar clothing store in favour of an expanded online presence, and in the process found both success and a better work-life balance.
This insight from Peach Berserk made me cautiously optimistic as I had chatted with several other business owners over the course of the last few months who said similar things. I was hopeful more retailers were starting to embrace an online business model to enhance or even replace their traditional sales structure.
Despite this fervent desire to find more Canadian businesses embracing online retailing models, statistics aren't bearing out that perspective. A recent small business survey conducted by RBC and Ipsos Reid found "only 46 per cent of Canadian small businesses have a dedicated website, and less than half (48 per cent) of those businesses say they sell their products and services through their websites."
Are Canadian companies not seizing the online opportunity because it's too small to chase? If so, then they haven't taken a close look at the numbers.
Statistics Canada (StatsCan) estimates there were 113.8-million online orders valued at 15.3 billion dollars in 2010, and a Deloitte survey projected that 65 per cent of Canadians would purchase between one to 10 gifts online this past holiday season. Moreover, StatsCan's survey of Internet use found that Internet shoppers averaged about 10 orders over a 12-month period valued at $1,362.
And early last year, the Globe and Mail had this to say about online shopping in Canada:
"Canadian online retail, in short, looks a lot like Canadian retail did 20 years ago: unimpressive, outdated and at threat of being thrashed by American retailers -- many of which are already making steady progress in better serving this market. Despite the country's reputation as one of the world's most wired and digitally social people, Canadians only spent $18-billion online in 2010 ..."
One promising StatsCan figure shows most Canadian shoppers are patriotic with 83 per cent placing orders through Canadian stores but unfortunately they are also spending money elsewhere (60 per cent ordered from vendors in the United States, and 18 per cent from vendors in other countries).
One would think that, as the global economy struggles to recover, businesses would be looking at all opportunities to expand, be more competitive, bring in more customers and reduce costs. Online retailing seems to make sense in this climate, at least to me.
Don't believe me? This is how Peach Berserk's Kingi Carpenter put it: "This is a time when the population can handle it (an online store) whereas five years ago they couldn't," says Carpenter. "If you have a web presence, you exist," she adds, noting businesses without web presence have less credibility in today's retail environment.
I agree and I think more and more consumers do too. Heck, I won't even go to a restaurant without first checking out menus and reviews online.
So tell me: Is Canadian retail as "unimpressive" as the Globe asserts, or is it just a little under-rated? It's clear we're lagging behind in the race for online retail dollars but why? And what can be done to improve our results and help retailers succeed?
]]>Can We Control Company Privacy on Personal Devices?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.22111732012-12-13T17:38:52-05:002013-02-12T05:12:01-05:00Elaine Mahhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-mah/
Therefore it comes as little surprise that the impact of personal devices is hitting the enterprise -- and it's starting to hit hard as CIOs and IT specialists figure out how to maintain security, corporate privacy and protect intellectual capital in an environment where employees expect access to everything from anywhere, at any time.
According to the IDC iView Consumerization of IT Study, 40.7 per cent of the devices now used by information workers to access business applications are ones they own themselves, including home PCs, smartphones, and tablets (and this number is up 10 points from the previous year's survey). The same survey found 30 per cent of these same workers use personally-owned PCs for work, and nearly 10 per cent reported using their personal tablet for work, a number that is sure to swell with the release of Windows 8 and new offerings like convertible Ultrabooks just coming to market.
Planting your head firmly in the sand and hoping this situation will go away may be tempting but rethinking your business' approach to end-user computing is a better idea. The stark reality is you need to take steps to protect your corporation while addressing head-on your employees' desires to use their new devices for work and play.
Many companies in all sectors are struggling with how to effectively handle this issue. A recent Intel case study with Greenwood College School highlighted this very challenge. The school traditionally provided its students with laptops to access all the curriculum, and cloud services provided access to classwork. They soon found students were increasingly bringing in their own devices, including smartphones and personal computers, and when we spoke, they were looking into how best to integrate external personal devices without compromising the network security and proprietary curriculum; challenges for which there is no easy answer or a quick fix.
Intel's approach to consumerization has been to embrace the trend -- a trend that is moving beyond "bring your own device" to include the entire computing environment such as the applications and Internet services we use in our personal lives. We believe that you need to put the user at the centre of your computing environment and build out a strategy to keep employees productive from any device, while protecting security and corporate assets. A planning guide for device integration and tips for coping within your organization can be found here.
Let's face it, you can either to embrace personal devices in the workplace and proactively put security measures in place, or you can deal with the aftermath when employees will inevitably find their own work-around.]]>Canada welcomes the IT worldtag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.19717552012-10-18T15:16:03-04:002012-12-18T05:12:02-05:00Elaine Mahhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-mah/World Congress of Information Technology (WCIT). With all the economic upheaval making business headlines, why does this specialized gathering matter?
The IT industry is in the midst of great change -- witness shifts such as cloud, IT consumerization, big data, and social computing. Without question, the rapid evolution of technology is providing all of us with unprecedented opportunities. WCIT is a forum for discussing how we can best leverage these opportunities, and how technology can help to address major global issues and challenges.
But the pace of change is also one of the key challenges the ICT industry is trying to manage. The way people compute and connect is transforming at an incredible rate and in sometimes unexpected fashion. That's why Intel created Intel Labs specifically to explore how people will engage with technology and each other in the future from smart cities, homes, offices and our highways to the way we shop, communicate and drive. Ethnographic field studies, technology research, trend data, and even science fiction to provide Intel with a pragmatic vision of consumers and computing five or even ten years from now.
There's also a significant benefit of hosting WCIT in Canada: it brings focus to the breadth and impact of the ICT industry in this country as we transition from a resource-based to a digital economy. It provides global perspective for the role Canadian solutions and innovation can play. And initiatives like C200 Investment Forum will showcase to the world what amazing ideas are being developed and brought to market right in our own backyard.
The outputs from WCIT are an ideal backdrop against which to position Canada's digital economy strategy. It will make us more aware of the challenges and opportunities being faced at the global level, and will identify ways for Canada to demonstrate leadership in what it means to be a truly digital nation.]]>Is Big Data Really Such a Big Deal?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.18329412012-08-28T00:00:58-04:002012-10-27T05:12:03-04:00Elaine Mahhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-mah/
Earlier this year the Obama administration announced a $200 million investment to "extract knowledge and insights from large and complex collections of digital data." Science and technology policy director Tom Kalil said the White House wants to "challenge industry, research universities, and non-profits to join with the administration to make the most of opportunities created by big data." He added that that President Obama calls Big Data an "all hands on deck effort."
Other headlines and surveys were screaming the value business has realized already from Big Data initiatives including this Avanade survey of 550 global executives which said "73% of companies have already used data to increase revenue by growing existing revenue streams (57%) or creating entirely new sources of revenue (43%)".
Findings from McKinsey's "Minding your digital business" global survey highlighted three key trends in business including Big Data, Social Media and new delivery platforms such as cloud and mobility. The survey results said: "...executives expect that new digital technologies will transform their business."
While the McKinsey survey is a much larger sampling of executives, I found it interesting that the results pointed to similar priorities identified in a mini survey of executives I did at the start of the year.
Here are some quick highlights from McKinsey:
• 26% rank big data/analytics as a top or top 3 priority corporate wide & another 26% say it's a priority for 1-2 business units
• 49% are focusing big data efforts on customer insights, segmentation and improving performance
• 60% say they should be focusing on customer insights, segmentation and improving performance.
• 44% executives say they are generating more value than the competition from digital business.
• ½ say initiatives are underfunded by 11% or more
But it wasn't all positive and rosy in the McKinsey survey when it comes to Big Data. While the C-Suite said they are outperforming the competition in getting value from its digital business, only 30 per cent of CIOs expect their companies to generate more value.
I wonder if the techies are more bearish because they're more conservative or because they're more realistic.
Perhaps the reason for the divide is found in later McKinsey survey questions where business admits that there are barriers preventing them from taking advantage of the digital initiatives including infrastructure limitations, lack of quality data, and difficulty finding talent with the capabilities to deliver on their goals.
I worry that without engagement and investment, the promise of Big Data initiatives will remain just that, a promise.
As a side note, Intel is putting its money where its mouth is. We recently announced that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been selected as our latest Intel Science and Technology Center. This new centre's focus is on big data and its mission is to "accelerate the pace of scientific and medical discoveries, enterprise and industrial computing and encourage innovation in the design of new data-intensive end-user experiences."
So, what's your experience with Big Data: Are you leveraging it? Is it a top priority? What kind of investment did you need to make? And more importantly, what have been the outcomes?]]>Let's Do More for the Bright Minds of Tomorrow, Todaytag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.14641842012-05-02T14:11:16-04:002012-07-02T05:12:13-04:00Elaine Mahhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-mah/
This May, I'll have the opportunity to watch 18 of Canada's best and brightest high school students compete against more than 1500 students from over 65 countries for more than $4 millon in prizes and scholarships at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Pittsburgh.
The young people that comprise Team Canada-ISEF are incredible and, I don't mind telling you, more than just a little awe-inspiring. Their research has the potential to enhance fuel cell technology, improve bike helmet performance, and tackle cystic fibrosis.
When you meet these bright young students, the first impression is "wow, they're pretty normal teenagers". That impression doesn't last long. The minute they begin to describe their research, my mind reels as I try to keep up with each project's premise and findings. These are incredibly bright young people who show tremendous promise for the future development of Canada's knowledge workforce.
It's a little overwhelming for us mere mortals.
Many students head into ISEF with patent-pending discoveries, and some of the past Team Canada-ISEF members have seen their projects turn into multi-million dollar ideas supported by private investors. We're more than just a little proud to tout Kobo Inc. CEO Michael Serbinis, and Uno inventor Ben Gulak amongst the alumni of Team Canada-ISEF.
We all know that the world is moving towards a knowledge-based economy, and there's been no shortage of research showing Canada needs to do more to prepare the workforce of this new generation by fostering opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship.
An aging and shrinking workforce, uncertain economic times forcing businesses to do more with less, and increased competition is driving us to get serious about boosting productivity. This means taking further steps away from our "old world" economic roots, and embracing investments in science and technology to ensure we keep pace in the new world.
The Information and Communications Technology Council suggests that Canada will need to fill 106,000 positions in the information and technology sector over the next five years, yet enrolments aren't rising to meet this need. And while knowledge workers now represent 30 per cent of Canada's workforce, evidence shows we need to do more to attract, and retain the best and brightest out there. Far too many promising young minds leave to pursue education, and opportunities outside our borders. If we're to succeed in the economy of the future, these trends need to reverse themselves, and we need to help.
We need to start earlier to provide future innovators with opportunities (like we're doing with ISEF) to tackle challenging scientific questions and, using authentic research, create solutions today for the problems of tomorrow.
We need to ask questions. Are we doing all we can, collectively, to keep these bright minds in Canada, or are they going to get lured away by larger research dollars, scholarships, and post-graduate opportunities south of the border, or overseas? Are we losing out in the global competition for intellectual capital?
How do we further foster innovation, while keeping some of these incredibly bright young people local?
These students give me hope... Hope for the promise of innovation, scientific achievement, and curiosity that lead to breakthroughs of epic proportion.]]>Social Media: Good, Bad, or Ugly for Your Company?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.13725302012-03-23T16:46:12-04:002012-05-23T05:12:01-04:00Elaine Mahhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-mah/
There is no doubt that social media presents numerous challenges for corporations, including security and productivity.
One of the most common concerns about social media is the perceived time waste. We hear leaders lament that by allowing employees access to social media in the workplace, they'll spend all their time posting to Facebook, watching YouTube videos, and tweeting instead of working.
But new studies are emerging to show that's just not the case. Surprised?
A recent series of AIIM whitepapers called "When social media meets business real work gets done" looked at the role of social media for enterprise QA, sales, and innovation. I was interested to see that organizations who had implemented an "Open Innovation" (OI) processes realized positive and tangible benefits. In fact, 48 per cent of respondents engaging in OI report that it has already yielded major changes to internal processes, and 34 per cent report major changes to their external offerings.
Further, the AIIM report stated that "OI brings results and improves both products and processes. As an interviewee said, 'There are probably 3 or 4 million dollar ideas sitting in the company but their voices are not being heard.' Open Innovation allows those voices to be heard."
The big question for businesses becomes how to tap into the positive aspects of social media with its ability to foster higher levels of collaboration, without compromising security.
For more thoughts on this issue, I turn to Intel's Chief Information and Security Officer, Malcolm Harkins, who shares via video blog that companies which fear social media and put blocks in place to prevent access in the workplace are doing more harm than good.
"I believe those types of mechanisms or controls are futile. I don't think they reduce the risk at all and in fact I think they increase the risk," he says. "The only way to manage the risk in the social computing era we are in today is to embrace it."
Harkins describes people as the corporate security perimeter and explains that corporations need to teach staff about appropriate ways to use social media. Better to educate and embrace than ban access. After all, more industrious staffers will find ways around the security which could lead to a costly breach.
Over the next few months, I'll also share results from a recent survey I commissioned that looks at the top issues and concerns of CIOs for 2012 and beyond. Not surprising, social media and security were top of mind.
For now, I'd like to hear your thoughts: Is social media a bane or boon to productivity? Does it foster innovation and open new communications channels for staff and customers? Can corporations protect security in this new communications arena? What are you doing to manage social media in your workplace?]]>Why Is Open Data Still Guarded?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2012:/theblog//3.12535792012-02-09T17:30:13-05:002012-04-10T05:12:01-04:00Elaine Mahhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-mah/Dx3 Canada.
As the session summary explains: "The heart of the digital revolution is the access to and utilization of good data. The City of Toronto has such data publicly available through its Open Data Initiative. This session will explore why some businesses aren't using it and what the city can do to help."
It's not surprising then to learn that those attending the session were generally supportive of open data initiatives, particularly the efforts being made in cities such as Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton, and Vancouver. But as the conversation progressed, we all wondered if the efforts that have been made are reaching the full potential of open data. In other words, are we seeing a more transparent government? Are the right people seeing the benefits of the access to this information?
Let me explain.
Currently, the available open data seems to be used primarily by developers who make and sell apps, or by enthusiasts who write code as a hobby. It leaves me wondering if the only promise of open data is in monetizing that information for a downloadable app that may be of limited long-term value.
Phyllis Berck, Director of the Toronto Office of Partnerships, noted there are some real opportunities to use open data in order to tap into social issues and needs to help the government better deliver services, which is a city's core business. This idea was the turning point in the discussion for me because I don't think we're there yet, and I wonder if we'll be able to get there without engaging a broader range of people in the dialogue.
I find myself looking at current forays into using open data with more questions than answers, so I'll pose a few of them here in hopes of sparking a conversation and perhaps, in some small way, help move the process forward.
If we look at groups who might benefit from access to the kinds of information that the city of Toronto is making available -- and I am thinking here of social services or tapping into these data sources to address social issues -- are they equipped with the right tools to join the discussion?
In our panel discussion we also tried to address what impact the digital divide has on skewing the discussion if certain groups or individuals who could potentially make a material contribution are victims of the gap or don't have the lexicon to make their ideas heard?
And, if they can't be heard or aren't able to become involved in the conversation, are we destined to see the only value of government open data efforts being the provision of information for incubators, entrepreneurs, and app developers to monetize?
At the end of the session, the one thing we could all agree upon is the need to keep the discussion going, so in that spirit I would welcome your thoughts and ideas: How can we get a broader range of people engaged to make meaningful use of this information? What do we need to do use the data to address social issues and get the right people (whether technically adept or not) into the conversation?]]>What's Your Data Worth?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.11545402011-12-27T15:41:00-05:002012-02-26T05:12:01-05:00Elaine Mahhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-mah/ Symantec's 2011 Disaster Preparedness Survey finds the median cost of downtime for a small or medium-sized business (SMB) is $12,500 per day. The high value of data was echoed at a conference I attended recently, during which it was stated that 60 per cent of small businesses that suffer a complete data loss or failure are bankrupt within 12 months. In cases where data recovery is possible, the costs are high as high as $10,000 per megabyte.
With information being so critical to businesses continuity, coupled with the fact that we're connecting with more devices and creating more data than ever before, it's no wonder a lot of companies are looking to public cloud solutions like Office Live, Google Docs, and Amazon to securely store their data virtually. It makes sense. You don't have to worry about backups, access for only authorized users is easy from any Internet-based device, and monthly fees are reasonable. But this convenience could be a trap.
I worry that too many small businesses are so focused on getting "into the cloud" that they are losing touch with their data, both figuratively and literally. What happens if the service goes down (as Amazon has a few times) or worse, goes out of business and your data vanishes with it? And, what do you do when your cloud storage needs break through various capacity levels? I'll tell you: You pay more fees.
A two-pronged strategy, leveraging public cloud services coupled with an in-house server/storage solution, is a better way to get the best of both worlds. When you consider the value of SMB data to business continuity, I think you'll quickly see the investment is worth it.
Some SMBs might say this approach is overkill. I disagree and I'm not alone.
Cooler Solutions is a product development company (making cool things like barbecues, toys and chairs) which uses a public cloud solution for online project management, providing easy yet secure access to up-to-date project information for all client-internal teams to collaborate in real time, in addition to an internal server infrastructure with complete disaster recovery protocols to protect current and archive projects, data and information. Cooler Solutions isn't a big company, but they have a smart approach that leverages the best of both solutions.
When we talk with companies across the country about their innovative approaches to IT, we're hearing more and more businesses are looking to public clouds to provide greater mobility while making sure they maintain control over that valuable asset by installing a robust internal server. It's a win-win approach that eliminates the shortcomings of each strategy.
How are you protecting your business data? Have you established governance protocols to determing the role cloud will play in your business continuity strategy? Should you rely solely on external sources or do you also need internal servers to protect your information?]]>Does Gov't Funding Help or Hurt Tech Innovation?tag:www.huffingtonpost.com,2011:/theblog//3.10766912011-11-07T00:08:55-05:002012-01-06T05:12:01-05:00Elaine Mahhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-mah/world-renown nanotechnology cluster? Or, that we've built a biotechnology clusters in Winnipeg, Manitoba and Montreal, Quebec? That Saskatoon is home to a leading plant biotechnology cluster?
While many Canadians are familiar with Kitchener-Waterloo's Tech Triangle (brought to the mainstream by companies like RIM), I doubt many are aware of Canada's other world-class research and innovation centres.
Technology clustering is a concept built on the premise that by encouraging like-minded entrepreneurs to develop their ideas in specific geographic locations, we encourage greater collaboration and partnerships. Canada's National Research Council (NRC) developed several clusters in Canada in the '80s with the following belief:
"Cluster players work diligently and creatively to build international relationships with compatible organizations and technology communities abroad. Working across borders attracts the world's best and freshest ideas to Canadian communities and, as a result, builds our pool of highly skilled workers. Successful clusters create a brain gain for Canada."
While I was pondering these amazing clusters at home (ones that I argue are helping to positively move Canada's innovation agenda forward), I attended a presentation by Deloitte's Bill Currie on Canada's productivity and clusters once again took centre stage. Currie explained that while some of the NRC initiatives have been successful, others have failed to reach their promised potential. He said a top-down (a.k.a. federal) approach doesn't work. It needs grassroots support to gain momentum.
"Businesses within an area, local universities, and all levels of government -- including municipal -- must collaborate for clusters to take root... Local businesses, municipal governments and nearby universities have the strongest grasp of local strengths."
Deloitte believes clusters have merit and includes them as a key strategy in its future of Canada's productivity report.
At the same time as we have experts calling for the encouragement of clustering, we seem to be on the cusp of dismantling them if the government follows recommendations in a recent report calling for changes to government R&D funding and the NRC.
Currie notes success in development of clusters needs to be measured in decades not years, which leads me to wonder if we measuring success too soon? I worry that policy changes could stifle the positive strides we have been taking in attracting and developing clusters of expertise that will, in time, effectively move us from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy of the future. Is now not the time to encourage science-based education and provide a fertile environment world-class innovation?
What do you think, are we tossing the baby out with the bathwater when we call on governments to cease funding? Are clusters the innovation-makers that can help us move away from our traditional resource roots or simply government spending run amok? Do you have a better way?]]>