Mapping The New Terrain

The McKinsey Quarterly recently came out with a list of new technologies that we should keep a close eye on in the coming years. Trends and technology are important - - but just as important is an understanding as to how these new and advanced capabilities fit into existing management and organizational structures.

The list of 10 technologies include the following:

1. Distributed cocreation moves into the mainstream - - How can companies create value in Web communities? Wikipedia moves mainstream, where customers are an active part of knowledge creation and customer support. The "crowd" becomes the expert to mark a path and solve problems.
2. Making the network the organization - - The world becomes the talent pool. Organizations tapping into a global market of flexible networks. Look for organizational boundaries to be stretched across internal and external lines to find the best people with the best answers - - regardless of who, where, why, what, and how.
3. Collaboration at scale - - How do you improve the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge workers? Web conferencing and video links will increasingly play a key role in cementing connectedness and collaboration. In addition, internal blogs, podcasts, and open-collaboration databases will also be important collaboration tools.
4. The growing "Internet of Things" - - The things will be sensors, actuators, and communication capabilities. Connecting dumb assets to create smart networks. A huge area with tremendous potential - - networks with greater efficiencies, new product capabilities, and novel business models.
5. Experimentation and big data - - Finally arriving at a world where all the Internet and network has utilization. The era of using all the information to analyze new business opportunities - - experimentation, modeling, risk profiling, and developing data driven performance metrics.
6. Wiring for a sustainable world - - The "Green Data Center" - - linked to smart meters, senors, and smart networks. Utilizing IT capabilities to manage a world where "doing more with less" is a key foundation of global sustainability.
7. Imagining anything as a service - - Customer acceptance of Web-based cloud services will allow customers the opportunity of "paying only for what you use." Genetech, for example, uses Google Apps for e-mail and to create documents and spreadsheets, bypassing capital investments in services and software licences.
8. The age of the multisided business model - - Moving from a world of one-on-one traditional transactions to a world of multisided business models (think three dimensional chess). Facebook is a great example, the business model is multisided - - Facebook as the platform facilitator, you as a user, the huge network, and revenue generated from advertisers and services.
9. Innovating from the bottom of the pyramid - - Look to advanced technology playing a role in the context of innovation in places like Africa. Mobile-phone service that also provide remote banking services in villages in the interior of Africa and other third world countries.
10. Producing public good on the grid - - The planet will undergo vast urbanization in the coming decades. Look for smarter grid tools to help reduce economic and social strains of population density - - managing traffic congestion, improving the reliability of mass-transit systems, and senors in water distribution systems to measure water quality.