The document outlines nine key global business and technology trends for 2018, emphasizing the ongoing impact of the 4th industrial revolution. It highlights the importance of adapting to changes such as the rise of AI, the emergence of new hub cities for technology, collaboration over competition, and the need for cybersecurity and compliance as critical concerns for executives. The author, Dileep Srinivasan, provides insights on how organizations must rethink their strategies to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

1. Nine Global Business and Technology trends in 2018
riding the 4th Industrial Revolution
Dileep Srinivasan
Chief Digital Strategist
Powerfluence
www.powerfluence.com
@powerfluence

2. Dileep Srinivasan is a Leader with a strong ability to build teams, profitable
businesses and harness talent in todays digital economy. He is recognized as a
Visionary and Thought Leader in guiding organizations in their digital journey
by assisting them in setting transformation roadmaps to ensure competitive
advantage and differentiation.
He is very well versed in adopting technologies like Social, Mobile, Big Data,
Analytics, Cloud and IoT into business solutions to accelerate Superior
Customer Experiences or bring in new Revenue Generation opportunities to
companies. He has built leading digital practices in multinational organizations
Cognizant and Atos.
Dileep along with his partners runs an Advisory company Powerfluence which
helps organization to rapidly scale for success in their Digital journeys. He
advises SME companies in meeting their transformation goals and positions
them for success. He is also helping leading IT firms in selecting the right
technology partners as they consolidate their digital portfolio.
Dileep is on the advisory board of a few companies, that include Monjin
(www.monjin.com), RRS Info Solutions (www.hobbyseekho.com, Powerfluence
(India) Pvt. Ltd. & Powerfluence LLC. (www.powerfluence.com). He is also the
Chief Digital Strategist at Marlabs Inc. (www.marlabs.com).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR – Dileep Srinivasan

3. Herald the way new
business will be run …
2017 has been the year of scale. Massive projects
like hyperloop, unbelievable growth of
cryptocurrencies and disruptive mergers and
acquisitions such as Amazons buying Wholefoods.
These huge game changing trends has been
attributed to Industry 4.0, which is spearheaded by
technologies like, IOT, AI, AR, Big Data, Quantum
computing and more.
“You need to look at the
big picture,
Before you set forth
accomplishing your goal”
So, where do we go from here? I see 9 trends that
play on the continuation of Industry 4.0 revolution.
I foresee the year 2018 being the year which will
truly redefine business models to suit the way
business is being transacted by the millennials who
have now entered the workforce & business
landscape. Read on to discover changes, trends and
predictions in both business and technology.

4. With nationalist policies sweeping most parts of the
world and Brexit adding to the mix, we can forget the
common slogan “Think Global Act Local ” and replace it
with the new mantra - “Think National Act Global, ”.
Enterprises will, bring back their cash reserves through
stock buybacks, restructure executive compensation
and find increased momentum in pushing local country
based agendas, While doing so they will go global to
market their products or services.
To a large extent, there will be renewed opportunities
for both the baby boomers and fresh graduates.
01 Think National Act Global

5. Proliferation of AI will continue to impact the IT
industry with more layoffs in 2018.
Expect the layoffs to exceed the estimated 58,000 in
job losses of 2017 in India alone.
Fueled by self driving cars, voice assistants and
robotics, the sectors greatly impacted near term would
be Services and Manufacturing, while Retail, Banking
and Insurance sectors will follow suit. The silver lining
will be corporates showing increases in productivity
and efficiencies. This will also propel the need for new
recruits with specializations in machine learning, deep
learning, data science & analytics.
Companies not adapting AI to improve their products
and services will be doomed for failure.
02 AI will continue to cost jobs

6. The emergence of new and superior technologies has
created the 4th industrial revolution. This has presented an
opportunity for technology lagging countries to leapfrog
previous leaders.
Some countries worldwide are using this opportunity to
take on the leadership, cities like Dubai, Vienna, and
Istanbul will emerge as new hub cities experimenting and
deploying technologies like smart cars, smart cities,
blockchain and IoT.
These hub cities have already taken the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th
largest shares of global VC deals according to data
released by CB Insights.
China has established leadership in IOT devices and India is
moving aggressively in the space of data sciences and
quantum computing.
03 New hub cities for technology
will emerge

7. Digital Transformation initiatives have had more
failures then successes in the last two years of its
adoption. Enterprises globally will relook at how they
will transform their enterprises to digital.
A growing number of organizations will look at
adopting digital through smaller digital journeys that
will be focused on incremental small projects and short
cycles.
Journeys will include, the customer experience journey,
digital infrastructure journey, enterprise digitization
journey and security and regulatory compliance
journey.
04Enterprises will change their
approach to Digital Transformation

8. With every enterprise facing the threat of disruption or
extinction, collaboration isn’t so much an option as it is an
imperative. Core areas such as banking and insurance are
facing threats from startups breaking into their walls and
siloeing previous integrated value chains.
Collaboration allows firms to speed up new product
development, implement cost take outs and adapt to
leaner agile business models by sharing resources and
brain power.
Today organizations embarking on their digital journeys,
need to look into their Value Pools and identify
partnerships so that they can collaborate to quickly
address market needs and face competition.
05 Collaboration will supersede
competition

9. Acquisitions and disruptions will continue to change
the landscape of the industry.
Close on the heels of the bold moves like Whole Foods
buy out by Amazon and the CVS acquisition of Aetna,
we can expect cross industry disruptions through
boundary extending buyouts.
Enterprises will also accelerate taking equity
partnerships into technology startups and potentially
end up acquiring the same.
According to Deloitte’s report on M&A’s, new
technology acquisitions is helping reduce conflicts,
costs, and time.
06Disruptions will be the playbook
for 2018

10. Novartis with their FDA approved cancer drug Kymriah,
that treats children and young adults with acute
lymphoblastic leukemia, is heralding a new form of pricing
based on Outcomes. They plan to charge a patient around
475,000/- but will need to be paid only upon cure.
This trend will continue as more drugs in the pipeline get
approved in the coming years, setting a new pricing model
based on accountable and outcome based care.
Further, all sorts of unexpected industries such as the Auto
industry have started introducing subscription-based
business models.
To name a few Porsche, Cadillac, Volvo are either
experimenting or introducing alternate form of car
ownership models.
07Major industries will experiment
with new pricing models

11. Forget the hype and narrow adoption of bitcoin,
Blockchain will permeate across every industry causing
disruption, cost take outs and create new business
models. Blockchain brings tremendous potential as an
open distributed trusted shared ledger platform.
Blockchain Technology unlike Bitcoin, is backed by
many national governments. For example with Dubai
the UAE government plans to become the first
Blockchain government by 2020.
Even individuals will use blockchain to manage their
property, medical and legal records.
08Blockchain will be the new wave
of Digital Innovation

12. Enterprise winning the digital race will need to adhere to
two critical needs. Ensure security of customer data and
maintain compliance to regulatory changes.
With the emergence of IOT, billions of devices are being
connected annually and there is nothing more vulnerable
then the security of data that’s being collected by these
devices. In fact this has made cybersecurity a board-level
concern in many enterprises and it is imperative that
transforming companies put cyber security front and
center of their planning.
The other challenge keeping executives awake is
maintaining the constantly changing regulatory
compliance. Enterprises will need to regularly assess and
transform the processes, controls, and infrastructure
needed to mitigate the compliance risks they face.
09 Cybersecurity & Compliance
will keep CEO’s awake

13. References:
Forrester 2018 predictions
https://go.forrester.com/wp-content/uploads/Forrester-2018-Predictions.pdf
Atos: Ascent 2018 journey
https://atos.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/atos-ascent-journey-2018-whitepaper.pdf
Deloitte Insights
https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/tech-trends.html
CB Insights - Tech Market Intelligence report:
(www.cbinsights.com )
Others
https://www.toptal.com/finance/mergers-and-acquisitions/cvs-aetna
https://www.law.com/insidecounsel/2012/04/30/6-risk-and-compliance-challenges-for-global-organi/?slreturn=20180002165011
https://www.pwc.be/en/industry-sector/pharma/challenges/efficient-regulatory-and-compliance-management.html
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/financial-services/assets/risk-mandate-and-organisation-report.pdf

14. Dileep Srinivasan
dileep.srinivasan@powerfluence.com
T h a n k Y o u