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EDUCATION & INFORMATION STRATEGY FUTURE & HUMANITY STRATEGY, INNOVATION & CREATIVITY

Human-Centric Strategy – 2022 and Beyond

Positive communications are vital, but audience is everything. In 2022, enhanced human-centric strategies will be engrained throughout marketing, communications, product and services development and delivery whether these be commercial or governmental. As we navigate the virtual world more confidently, blending real-world with online, industry and government organisations explore how to leverage technology and maximize automation, while balancing and refocusing attention on human interaction, audience engagement and customer experience. Bringing digital into the real-world, rather than focusing entirely on immersing us in the digital world, creating that perfect balance and harmony, missed by so many during the pandemic, will be an exciting challenge. A combination of media, social media and the pandemic has caused an acceleration in humanity. In response to this evolution, human skills such as empathy, cognition and cultural awareness come to the forefront. In addition, promoting positive psychology for both customers and employees will be a productive ingredient of 2022 and beyond.

Extract: Digital World Predictions 2022

About the Author

Deborah Collier is a strategic and futurist leader in business, digital, education and media. She is a President of Digital Skills Authority, a Non-Executive Director and Media Group CEO. With a strong background in digital, in 2016, she was listed in a publications ‘Top 100 Chief Marketing Officers in the World.’

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ECONOMY, BUSINESS & COMMERCE STRATEGY, INNOVATION & CREATIVITY

E-Commerce Businesses Move Home

During the pandemic, E-Commerce has been a lifeline for many businesses and indeed new ventures have launched.  However, key challenges with distribution, taxation and import and exports are still prevalent, if not crippling in many parts of the world, with a heavy impact on sales in some countries as a result.  The United Kingdom, a world leader in e-commerce has been heavily impacted by Brexit, and taxation in and with Europe has become unnecessarily complex, particularly with digital products.  Tax rulings for each territory dependent on whether the sale is to a business or a consumer, have also become unworkable for many businesses without the ability and desire to register for VAT in every country sold to, or the investment for e-commerce systems that auto-calculate the relevant sales tax.  These over complex rulings designed to add fairness with taxation exclude many SMEs.  In 2022 and beyond, if governments do not address their sales taxation rules and trade agreements effectively, businesses who wish to sell further than domestically, will need to consider the viability of running an e-commerce or Internet business in their own country. 2022 will see a further flurry of exporting businesses moving to alternative countries around the world.

Extract: Digital World Predictions 2022

About the Author

Deborah Collier is a strategic and futurist leader in business. She is founder and President of international business Digital Skills Authority and has several years experience with digital business and international business strategy. During her career she has advised and taught leaders and teams from Fortune 500 companies and other organisations around the globe.

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ECONOMY, BUSINESS & COMMERCE LEADERSHIP & GOVERNANCE

How will Banks Embrace Digital Currency?

The acceptance and use of cryptocurrency has accelerated during the pandemic, and with that the banks motivation to innovate and embrace digital currency rather than fight against the tide. Cryptocurrency is designed to be decentralized and anonymous, which is attractive to those fearing too much power and surveillance by governments on citizens spending, similar to the way tech giants mine user data. Central Banks such as ‘Bank of England’ and ‘Banco De Mexico’, are planning their own Central Bank Digital currency. China has already launched its own CBDC, and ‘Bank of Jamaica’ will be launching their own CBD later this year after a successful pilot in 2021. The impacts are far reaching both economically and for humanity.   What would make a CBDC different to card and digital payments already in existence? CBDC will make payments faster with immediate settlements, and could make payment processing and transaction fees cheaper, while there is also a focus on encouraging innovation and increasing efficiency. Maintaining currency sovereignty, legal and regulatory safeguards such as payment tracking for anti-money laundering and terrorism, are also drivers for central banks own digital currency, which can be distributed through commercial banks without causing too much disruption. CDBC’s could enable financial inclusion for the 1.7-billion adults around the globe who are without a bank account, either through digital wallets, or legislation to ensure everyone has a bank account of some sort. 

Through monetary policy committees and strong economic governance, financial stability, cyber resilience and energy efficiency will be achieved, CBDC can complement traditional currency and co-exist with commercial bank money and bank notes, without harming the economy, banking or citizens.  Choice will as always be key for global citizens in 2022 and beyond.

Extract: Digital World Predictions 2022

About the Author
Deborah Collier is a Strategic and Futurist Leader is in business, digital, education and business with career experience in governance, banking e-treasury and commerce. She is President of Digital Skills Authority, and has delivered her annual digital world and digital business predictions for 13-years.

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ECONOMY, BUSINESS & COMMERCE EDUCATION & INFORMATION STRATEGY FUTURE & HUMANITY LEADERSHIP & GOVERNANCE

Positive Influence in Leadership – The Power of Trust versus Incentives

Influence is a vital ingredient in all forms of leadership, whether this is to influence progress, or decision-making. Influence through trust is necessary to steer other leaders, employees, partners, clients or the general public through a difficult change, as a result of either positive opportunity or crisis.  If we explore incentives in sales and marketing, incentives are helpful, but without trust in a brand, incentives will not have the desired impact, and customers are more likely to buy from a brand or person they trust, regardless of whether there is a small price difference.  

The power of trust can be applied to all forms of influence and is essential in governance. Governance often involves difficult decision-making, and change management forms part of any leader’s strategy to engage an audience in what they believe is in the collective interests of an organisation, nation or even the world. 

Trust is about honesty, integrity and transparency, as well as competence, wisdom and ability. Once any form of organisation loses trust, leadership is lost and no amount of incentives entices an audience to collaborate.  Education and communication are absolutely critical in effective trust building and influence, particularly during crisis or unsettling change. Informing and educating with honesty, integrity and helpful factual information, empowers an audience to make informed and comfortable decisions. When trust is gone, leadership has ultimately failed, and authoritarianism becomes the unwelcome ambassador. Compliance with objection or ultimate rejection ensues and while a crisis may or may not be averted, trust, audience and members are gone and may never return.

About the Author

Deborah Collier is a Strategic and Futurist Leader in Business, Education, Digital and Media. A group CEO, global Keynote Speaker, Non-Executive Director and leader of a global publisher and awarding body, she was listed 2016 in a publication’s ‘Top 100 Most Influential Chief Marketing Officers in the World’ as a joint CEO / CMO. Deborah is passionate about positive leadership, strategy and good governance.

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DIGITAL & TECHNOLOGY ECONOMY, BUSINESS & COMMERCE EDUCATION & INFORMATION STRATEGY FUTURE & HUMANITY

Diversity-of-Things (DoT)

The ‘Digital Renaissance’ or the ‘4th Industrial Revolution’ catapulted by the Pandemic, has broadened individual skills needs, but it’s not just about digital and technology. Social networks have brought social responsibility to the forefront, as our awareness and interest in everything around us broadens. We are witnessing a cultural shift (particularly in the younger generation), with regards to the environment, social responsibility, government and political awareness, both nationally and on a global scale. Employees are becoming stakeholders in their organisations regardless of whether the business model is that of a partnership like John Lewis Partnership. The realisation from junior level and above, that the success of their organisation directly impacts their own employment or that their behaviour on social networks and outside of work also has implications (positive or risky). Businesses are integrating more and more with humanity and social media is the glue. Analytical and cognitive skills, the addition of digital skills to existing roles, as well as the ability to make connections between decision-making and events is also something to be nurtured. This new paradigm which I call the ‘Diversity-of-Things’ (DoT) is something I will be expanding on in my upcoming talks on the skills revolution, current and future skills.

Keynote Speech
Watch the video of Deborah’s keynote speech at The Business Show’s Retrain Expo.
Diversity-of-Things (DoT) – Skills Evolution, the Future Human and Work

About the Author

Deborah Collier is a strategic and futurist leader in business, education, media and digital. She is a President at Digital Skills Authority, a media group CEO, writer and global keynote speaker.

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DIGITAL & TECHNOLOGY ECONOMY, BUSINESS & COMMERCE EDUCATION & INFORMATION STRATEGY FUTURE & HUMANITY LEADERSHIP & GOVERNANCE STRATEGY, INNOVATION & CREATIVITY

Audacious or Audacity? – Building the world’s Digital Skills Authority

The journey to Digital Skills Authority is a motivational one, fuelled with some joyful and funny moments, tremendous sacrifice, hurdles overcome and still to be overcome. Some of these entrepreneurial escapades may not be revealed until I am old and grey. Here’s hoping.

Digital Skills Authority was built on history and authenticity. It transformed as an economic solution during the pandemic from a series of established industry digital business and marketing certifications programs with a thirteen year history.  My mission – Employment through reskilling, skills enhancement, new jobs creation and entrepreneurship, enabling economic and social mobility, coupled with an ethical digital governance framework and planet protecting education on areas such as paper reduction and green energy.  Thus my ‘Three-pillared model and solution for sustainability – Economic, Social and Environment’ was born and something I will be talking about more in the near future.

Audacious – Perhaps. Who said “Nothing ventured nothing gained”?

Audacity – A 30-year history of rolling up the sleeves and doing, as well as leading, teaching, enabling and advising. Why not me?

As the organisation grows with an expanding board, exam council and network and team of international expert trainers, it will hopefully have the greater global impact I designed it to achieve. In the meantime, I delivered a keynote speech on the skills revolution, my journey to building the Digital Skills Authority, the future and its mission for humanity. Please watch out for video of talk at Digital Skills Authority’s new YouTube channel.

About the Author
Digital Skills Authority founder Deborah Collier is a Strategic & Futurist Leader in Business, Education and Digital. During her career she has trained and advised leaders, teams and professionals from Fortune 500, government ministries and blue-chip organisations around the globe, as well as SME’s and start-ups.

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DIGITAL & TECHNOLOGY FUTURE & HUMANITY STRATEGY, INNOVATION & CREATIVITY

What is a Futurist?

Inspired by a question posed to me on social media, “How is one a futurist?”, I decided to write about my perspective of what it means to be a ‘Futurist’. Futurists are either there by profession, or as part of their being. Being a futurist and strategist are part of my being and vital elements of my work as a futurist leader and creator. Futurists explore trends, patterns, history, logic and strategic knowledge to predict what the future may hold. I didn’t discover that I was a futurist until after a period of learning that I was either ahead of the curve in certain disciplines and activities, or that I was predicting what would happen in the future. I always seek out the cutting-edge, and armed with a broad spectrum of good knowledge rather than being an in-depth specialist in every subject, I decipher how technologies and practices can either be innovated or leveraged in intelligent ways right now, or in the future.

Genuine futurists and strategists make informed predictions and recommendations, based on information, knowledge, know-how, data and trends (usually within the realm of their expertise, transcending into other areas where they can translate their competences). I research, work with experts to research, use my own knowledge and new information and predict new trends, before I consider strategy for the future. From a personal perspective, I have a particular ability to see most scenarios like a map, either looking down at an overall view, or as a tree branching out with different scenarios, options, risks, benefits and solutions. I then find an optimal pathway to a goal or solution, using a blend of logic and creativity. I seem to be able to see patterns and make interesting connections, which helps when formulating a roadmap with creative and logical actions and ideas, but also for disaster prevention.

Futurists are interested in a future enabled by technology. One area I am interested in is how technology and ‘digital’, a particular field of my expertise can be used to help humanity. My creation Toward Utopia TV Series, is a vehicle through which a collective can explore, discuss and evaluate whether new practices, technologies and ‘digital’ will be harmful or helpful to humanity. The ethics debate then enables others to take forward initiatives to regulate, maximize, implement practices or remove technologies, practices or risks altogether.

Futurism interplays with ‘futurology’ which focuses on social sciences and other areas. Toward Utopia is futurism and futurology united to explore the journey toward a Utopia (the version of which is different to each and everyone of us).

About the Author

Deborah Collier is an education and business leader known internationally for strategy, future vision and predictions, based on informed analysis and research, logical reasoning and creative thinking.

Deborah on Toward Utopia

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DIGITAL & TECHNOLOGY ECONOMY, BUSINESS & COMMERCE EDUCATION & INFORMATION STRATEGY STRATEGY, INNOVATION & CREATIVITY

Subscription Innovation

The best e-business models are those that require the least resources, the lowest investment and costs, the least risks and ultimately high demand, revenue and profit potential. As someone who has developed both digital and physical products and services, scoped and implemented the systems to sell and deliver them, and the strategies to market those products and services, I’ve become a strong advocate of subscription services. They are a sensible choice for both profitable and speedy innovation, for those with resources and know-how. There are a number of revenue models for different types of online subscriptions for businesses and entrepreneurs to explore. Intelligent models also look at strategic partnerships to diminish the burden on consumers and business customers juggling multiple subscription accounts, purchasing and login credentials. (Extract Top 5 Digital World Predictions 2021)

In the final edition of my annual ‘E-Business Predictions’ in 2018, I proposed ‘Subscription Services Joining Forces’, and advised streaming platforms to offer a single sign-on facility for customers among subscription service partnerships. In 2020, with the exponential growth in subscribers and content demand, the economic climate was highly favourable to media platforms providing video, music, media and TV on-demand toentertain and educate consumers, who were spending away from more costly purchases. Music streaming platforms such as Spotify (with 113-million subscribers and 248-million users in 79 markets), had new rivals such as Boomplay (with 44-million subscribers and 217-million active users), and promise to dominate the African market. It’s no secret that giants like Netflix, Disney and Amazon moved into and booked out significant studio space in the UK in 2019, where there are attractive tax incentives for British investment in production. Growth trends and consumption recorded to end of 2019 for online media were at a rate of around 25% across the board. I advised in my Top 5 Digital World Predictions 2020 that “Content quality, sales and delivery to consumers in an ever competing market, should be at the heart strategy for media organisations in 2020 and beyond. This significant growth may trigger further regulation around the globe from government and industry bodies.”

Whatever the digital business model, there are considerable opportunities for innovation which must be customer-centric and focus on value as well as efficiency and profitability.

About the Author

Deborah Collier has developed strategies for digital downloadable, streaming and subscription content for 20-years. These include e-books, membership subscriptions, music downloads and online courses. Her most recent success is the digital transformation of classroom education – the productization and monetization of valuable content into over 45-hours of online interactive audio, video, animation content within 7-months, and the delivery through a branded e-commerce enabled online platform at Digital Skills Authority.

Deborah is founder and president at the Digital Skills Authority, Group CEO of a media group and Executive Producer for three high-end TV / Film projects.

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DIGITAL & TECHNOLOGY ECONOMY, BUSINESS & COMMERCE STRATEGY, INNOVATION & CREATIVITY

Winning Combination for Healthcare, Retail and Beyond – Internet-of-Things, 5G and Artificial Intelligence

‘Internet-of-Things’ (IoT), 5G and artificial intelligence will unite to revolutionize automation.  Industry anticipates that around 1-trillion IoT sensors will be placed globally by 2022. These will be employed in clothing and other apparel, household appliances and office, professional and personal devices, for example.  5G provides high-speed, while artificial intelligence (intelligent software programs) uses the data provided by the sensors to make informed and calculated decisions.  AI will decide what to do with data, such as providing scientific analysis to universities or manufacturers about ‘wear and tear’ and product demand, for example.  It can make intelligent buying decisions linked to e-commerce and throughout the supply chain to delivery.  One example is replenishing the contents of a fridge. Sensors in the fridge order to grocery retailers through e-commerce, based on learned buying behaviour, but with the ability to have human buyer intervention, as required.  In a professional setting, healthcare providers can reduce workload, improve efficiency, reduce costs and reduce errors, during the pandemic and beyond by employing these technologies together.  A pharmacy restocking medicines, hospitals and medical centres replenishing medical supplies are two functions I suggest would benefit from this winning technological combination.

Extract: Top 5 Digital World Predictions 2021

About the Author

Strategic & Futurist Leader Deborah Collier is also the founder and leader of the Digital Skills Authority. She was affectionately given the name ‘Half-Geek Half-Human’ by one of her peers in 2010 due to her passion for what technology can do for humanity.

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DIGITAL & TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION & INFORMATION STRATEGY FUTURE & HUMANITY

How to Influence Ethical Change

The key to successfully influencing ethical change in an organisation, or indeed in the way a nation is led, is to get to the impact or pain to the organisation, nation or government. The approach should include a clearly thought out argument coupled with one or more constructive solutions. Working with, rather than against is usually the best first option.

One of the lessons I learned from working for a large global corporate many years ago, was that to drive change, particularly if that was costly, we’d have to build a case that action was required to prevent financial loss to the organisation. This particular story is about accessibility and the Internet. An organisation, which then had over 120,000 employees worldwide, an internal portal for those employees and multiple web sites, was not accessible to those with disabilities (for example those needing larger text). Like the others in the team (the geeks and the marketers), I raised the issue of ethics and reputation. I was told “We know, we’ve tried to make change, but the business will not do it, unless there is a legal reason”. I persevered and found the legislation online which applied significantly to larger organisations, but was rebuffed “Yes but no organisation has been sued” was the reply.  I didn’t give up and found a case won against the Olympic Games for a non-accessible web site. I cited the case to the Director of Risk, which initiated a worldwide accessibility project costing over £1-million to implement. The sad but practical lesson – Money, not ethics talks.

So what can we learn? The humanity case, the ethics case – these are all positive, but we need to get to the financial impact, which is often due to loss of reputation, and in particular loss of audience. When asked by Krishnan Guru-Murphy during an interview on Channel 4 News, about the social networks decision to remove accounts and content, the need for regulation of content and the tech and social media giants, I said, “If they are seen to be allowing such content that hurts others, then that’s not good for their reputation”.  I was referring to online harms such as disinformation, inciting violence and hate speech such as racism.

Loss of audience is also about changing humanity, educating and nurturing a culture of compassion and strong morals. Strategically and morally, if we focus on these areas, raise awareness about harms and risk to human life of bullying and fake news, we can then collectively and collaboratively enable both media and social networks to support positive journalistic and user-generated content.

As always, policies within organisations for ethical information and handling of user-generated content in their forums and on their platforms, should form part of content and information strategy, and consider legal, financial and reputation risks, as well as branding, audience and objectives.

Social networks are struggling and striving with the volume of harmful user-generated content on their platforms, with billions of items of content removed or flagged with a fact check. Algorithms and artificial intelligence combined with human intervention are constantly improving to take on this bold task, and while it appears that the social networks needed either a push or the support of it’s advertisers and governments, they are tackling the mammoth task head-on. The burden will ease alongside a cultural shift in what the general public views as acceptable and with society cultivating a positive atmosphere and dialogues both on and off-line.

Extract
Includes extract from Deborah’s February 2020 Linked article ‘How to Drive Change when Companies Won’t Respond to the Ethics Argument’.

About the Author

Futurist and Digital Philosopher, Deborah Collier is an influential figure who has worked in digital, business and marketing with a heavy footprint in the knowledge economy – education, media and publishing for 20-years. She has been heavily active on social media studying the impacts and interplay between digital, data, social networks and humanity, defining a concept she called the ‘Content Social Symbiosis’. A business and educational leader, she has written and talked about Conscious business as well as social media’s benefits and risks to humanity since 2009. She has woven ‘Digital Ethics‘ into both her role at the Digital Skills Authority and it’s management and leadership programs with a global ‘Digital Governance Framework’. She has also supported vital initiatives to combat online harms such as child grooming, as seen in NSPCC’s Wild West Web Campaign.

Of additional interest
Why are National Change Management Strategies are Vital Right Now?