What if we could end childhood diabetes, fight world poverty and engage in a more sustainable form of agriculture just by tricking our taste buds? Sounds farfetched–if not impossible–doesn’t it? After watching this insightful TEDx talk by Homaru Canto and Ben Roche, two innovative chefs from Chicago, I think you might have a more open [...]
Data mining is going to be big business in the near future. To understand why, consider that the food retailer, The Schwan Food Company, has used data mining to bolster its revenue by 3 to4 percent. That might not sound like a lot but in the retail industry, it’s huge. According to this insightful article, [...]
“Necessity is the mother of invention” or so it is said. I believe “necessity is the mother of innovation” and if U.S. and Western European companies wish to remain competitive in the future they’ll need to look to China, India, Brazil and Africa not just for new markets but for new ideas! In the food [...]
Blackout Friday #1: In an attempt to appease consumer unease over the growing use of facial-recognition technology, a handful of retailers will admit prior to “Black Friday” that they have deployed the technology during the 2012 Holiday season but will claim they are using it only as a “safety tool” to monitor crowds and prevent [...]
I recently gave a keynote presentation on emerging trends to a leading retail association. One of the trends I discussed was mobile payment. I’m optimistic about the trend in the long-term but pessimistic in the short to mid-term. This article and the accompanying Gartner graphic do a good job explaining my rationale.
Striving to make everyday business tasks more engaging, a growing number of firms, including International Business Machines Corp. and consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd., are incorporating elements of videogames into the workplace. They’re deploying reward and competitive tactics commonly found in the gaming world to make tasks such as management training, data entry and brainstorming seem [...]