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Innovation was a theme for capioIT in July. This is not unusual of course. Innovation is the most tagged item for capioIT research and a favourite topic in any month. We have highlighted some unique perspectives and application of innovation identified this month.
Our CEO, Phil Hassey was in Tokyo this month. Japan has been a traditional home of innovation in process, product and participation. Unfortunately, the competitive advantage that this innovation at the national level provided stalled in recent years. Competition from Korea, Taiwan and China, and the US has had a substantial impact on established powerhouse companies such as Sony, Panasonic and Mitsubishi.
As is always the case in Tokyo eye opening contrasts are easy to find. Within a few minutes’ walk of the headquarters of struggling legacy Japanese firms, Panasonic and Fujitsu, is Ginza. Anyone who has visited Ginza knows that it is a globally unique hotspot. I met with a couple of smaller digital and analytics agencies who have the mindset to create innovation to beat the new local and international competition. They have the ability to create immediate innovation.
capioIT believes that innovation based benefits for the Japanese economy will increasingly come from smaller organisations and entrepreneurs who are not tied to the traditional Japanese enterprises and the Keiretsu structural limitations.
For a legacy European based vendor, Capgemini has usually carried its weight in terms of innovation. At a recent analyst day Capgemini CTO Lanny Cohen reinforced the Capgemini view on innovation in terms of the CTO role. Simply, the primary role of innovation in an IT services and solutions company is to make money for clients in the short term, then provide a long term vision. Too many firms go for the long vision in innovation that is near impossible to execute.
Sadly, it often seems that sport often only enters technology discussions when it comes to doping and gambling issues. Increasing, and positively, sporting organisations globally are seeing the benefits of investment in SMAC, particularly social media and analytics. Analytics is primarily focused on performance management, but also investment is made from a business and fan engagement point of view.
In the recently completed Super 15 Rugby Competition (played in the Southern Hemisphere with teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa), the NSW Waratahs (yes, my local team, so time to be proud …) won their first ever title, beating long term nemesis the New Zealand based Canterbury Crusaders. Earlier in the season the Waratahs management invested a significant amount of time communicating the benefits of their work with IBM to deeply understand each players individual physiological capabilities. This helped them manage training workloads individually and collectively. The impacts of a reduction in soft tissue injuries were very significant and there is no doubt that the work between IBM, the Waratahs and partners was critical for the overdue success that the team experienced on the field.
We expect that the investment in sport for both wearable technology (clearly fitness is the major driver for the consumer) and analytics will be driven to identify the 1% factors that can influence success or failure in the sporting environment just as it does in the business sphere.
Finally, a note on the readership of capioIT. As we reached the halfway mark of 2014, we undertook some analysis of the audience of the capioIT research. There were several outcomes that were very exciting for us. The most exciting was that since 2012, average monthly readership has increased 300% from an already established base. The level of outreach and engagement that this provides is incredibly satisfying and highlights that we are providing content that has an impact on a rapidly growing audience.
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