Disruption Hub

Unicorn companies, those new technology-based companies that are valued at more than a billion dollars, exert a general fascination. But although much commented little is really known about them and much confusion is made about it. According to the Global Unicorn Club there are now 216 unicorn companies in the world.This fact alone seems to discourage those whose dream is to create a startup and turn it into a billion dollar company. If it were an easy task I do not think they would have that name. Global Unicorn 2017 List 41% of these companies are essentially B2B and 42% are not related to any mobile or tablet app. This is another interesting point for those who believe that all unicorn companies are like Uber although this one represents almost 10% of the total value of the unicorns. But continuing. What do these companies do anyway? Ok, 16% are e-commerce companies or marketplaces but what about the rest? I discovered that 13% are fintechs and + 13% Internet Software ...

Anyone who has watched The Surrogates or Wall-E knows that there is no limit to laziness and understands why they are not so unrealistic readings of our not so distant future. For me technology brings a unique and real danger, the apathy of many in relation to it. Whether it be through ignorance, fear or even laziness. The fact is that many become passive part in this equation or worse become critical of its evolution rather than collaborate and help ensure that we do not march in this direction.

When we talk about privacy a theme has caught my attention. The change from consented to presumed. To understand is easy. Not long ago, your cell phone asked if it could track you down, listen, copy your photos, etc. There was a warning on the screen and you had to give your consent for it to do so. Since then things have changed. Now it does not ask you anything. Your authorization came to be presumed. If you do not want that's okay. Just lose one hour to find out where the icon is to disable snooping. I did this, on the operating system, on the camera, disabled the GPS! And shazam two days later I received a message from Google Photos saying more or less like this "To help you we create the folder sunday at Amparo city with your photos from yesterday" lol. The conclusion is simple, there is no more privacy, get used to it. Oh, and if you're at home beware of the TV! Now the question: What if this fashion picks up? Imagine a rapist saying "Excellency I did not a...

- Listen to your client but not your colleague; - Be a good communicator but do not listen to anything; - Promote the good but treat the waiter badly; - Be honest but park in the handicapped spot; - Share but do not argue; - Be a conscious consumer but buy Ifone YZ plus; - Praise but do not criticize; - Promote diversity but stay away from gays; - Set the example but neglect your family; - Change the world, but do not make your bed; - Be environmentally friendly but get 10x what you need.

Speaking of blockchain again. I may seem annoying, and sometimes I am, but my criticism of the lack of regulation is critical for the consumer and speak as such. It is useless to discuss the many possibilities, advantages, disruptions if we do not think how to convince the consumer that this is safe. And I'm not talking about the operation itself, I'm talking about companies and cryptocoins. I was one of the first ones I know to make purchases online and I already bought everything online, even cars. But I have friends who until recently bought absolutely nothing because of insecurity. This resistance tends to be much greater when we speak of cryptocoins and I see absolutely no one thinking about it. As I say criticalness is as important as exaltation if we want to see things implemented quickly and successfully. In time, what is it missing to see a major bank getting into this business? Do they believe they can stop it? Or is it just another nerdy little talk that will not go ...

I have already talked about the importance of being critical sometimes but as I have repeated this often I think it deserves a post. Recently be critical has come to be a bad thing according to the evangelists of tomorrow. According to them new leaders are the candor of human beings empathetics  who can not see anything bad or wrong in anything or anyone. As in many other things it pass away from reality. Let's just stay on one of the reasons to fit here. Constraints. Everything in the business world has its constraints, reservations, or barriers. And for those who have learned something about negotiation, understanding them is one of the first steps in defining your strategy. What are the barriers and how to overcome them. For this the person needs a bit of criticality, thinking about what may not work and why. It is useless to exalt yourself with an idea and condemn criticism of it. In fact it is more than clear that many ideas do not leave the paper precisely because of a lack o...

It is the contextualization of decisions based on data. Much discussed recently given its potential in the digital era. Thinking about it today I remembered my first job in supply. There I was, a 24-year-old pedant, the right-hand man of my manager, who by the way was also called Dante and used Clark's and Swatch, very modern at the time, both with the mission to professionalize and modernize the department in a company that until then issued his orders by hand and in three carbonated ways. In the first few months, none from the other areas of the company believed that I could add any value on the meetings, because of my young age or perhaps the inefficient history of our area, the fact is that they called us proforma and at the time for these meetings. I then had two alternatives. Go and keep quiet or use the 15 minutes I had to find out what the issue was, the problem, identify those involved (invariably included suppliers) and the best I could find out about that market, buyer...

But it is about mindfuck. Do you know what it means? According to the Urban Dictionary is it "an idea or concept that shakes one's previously held beliefs or assumptions about the nature of reality". Is also one of the principles of Discordianismis centered on the idea that order and disorder are both illusions imposed in the Universe by the human nervous system, and that none of these illusions of apparent order and disorder is more accurate or objectively true than another. Is not this the best portrait of today? I believe so. When I think about exponential solutions, service learning, disruptive technologies, mindset, advanced analytics my brain almost reaches orgasm. We are sexual beings which means that we live a mixture of biological, erotic, physical, emotional, social, and spiritual feelings and behaviors. Sexuality also affects and is affected by cultural, political, legal, philosophical, moral, ethical, and religious aspects of life according Wikipedia. ...

I've already made fun about the theme but what I think would be another good idea for companies: Have a curious and up to date little guy creating internal contents from the cafeteria where he could also discuss ideas with all employees. I guarantee this guy would help the strategic planning, R & D, HR, MKT, sales, financial, purchasing, sales, distribution, asset security, cleaning people ...Tham boy! If I were CEO of a company I would move to the cafeteria. Hey! This would not be a way to bring the startup mindset into the house?

These days I was remembering of something I was told one of the times I hired a coach, "Never think that, be sure". I think about it every time I write something and invariably end up thinking of something. It took me some time to recapture my belief that there are no absolute truths beyond death, perhaps. That there are different perspectives that we should consider. That think also means find, discover. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that I am now far from coaches and everyone who is very sure of what they are talking about.

I've been asking to everyone, especially some blockchain experts, about my mistrust of a gold-backed cryptoassets that will be released in the next few days and so far I have not gotten any feedback. Which leads me to question who should we look for in cases of possible fraud like this. I think it's a important subject to continue ignored.

Should not the media (uol, facebook, etc.) be legally held responsible for the deceptive advertisements or scams they advertise? Are they not accomplices of a crime?

Since I already was a bad boy today, it's time to be nice. If anyone wants to know the 10 biggest traditional companies that I believe are on the right track in this digital transition, and I mean absorbing the startup mindset, they are: McDonald's, The Kraft Heinz Company, Boehringer Ingelheim, SGS, BASF, Groupe Renault, Magazine Luiza and GPA. GE and Itaú Unibanco no need to comment. At worst they take the praise for the content.

I tried to make a amusing joke about it in my article on Design Thinking but I do not think it worked well. So let's try this way. I thought it was going to take a little longer for us to have to remind people of one of humanity's oldest and most important habits and that it is still essential for the creation, development, and success of any idea: Conversation: It is the action and the effect of speaking between one or more people, one with the other (s). The term derives from the Latin conversatio that was used initially to "live with, to meet frequently", formed by "together", more vertere, "to turn, to turn to." It later changed to the current meaning and is often used as a synonym for dialogue or conversation. The conversation supposes a communication through some type of language (oral, gestural, etc.). It involves an interaction where two or more people construct a text together (as opposed to the monologue).

Many say that the digital transition that we live has date to end. 2029. I think it's because this year robots are expected to be as smart as humans, at least according to Google's director of engineering, Ray Kurzweil, who by the way is 66 years old. Even so I decided to investigate a little more. This year, which will begin on a Monday like so many others, we will have the second of the twin metronic eclipses, which happen every 19 years, when new and full moons return to the same days of the year, and as some astrologers mark a moment of changes and forces us to look ahead. It will also be the year in which the famous time capsule 'The Message from Earth' will reach its destination on planet Gliese 581c and the Nasa New Horizons spacecraft must leave the solar system. Here we will be 8,430,712,437 inhabitants. The 2004 MN4 asteroid is expected to pass scary near Earth in April with a chance to hit us from 1 to 60. John Connor must invade Skynet this year and Wolve...

What does my 76 year old mother have to do with Design Thinking? Okay, she's modern, always was. One of the first in the team to get a license and have her own car, bought with her own money, but so what? Maybe all the limitations that age brings to her make me seek solutions that will improve her well-being? Or that she helps me get a different perspective on things? Also, but mostly because I see her as my consumer. I explain: One of the precepts of Design Thinking is to engage your user in every step of the process - I know no one closer to me than my mother - and to work on the person's experience with the product, in this case me, or what I think. If I can get her to understand my ideas bingo if not I try understand what's wrong and try again. This is the iterative or fuzzy-front cycle. Only that? No! This beauty of client has thirty-five years more than me of tactical knowledge. You know what it is, do not you? That knowledge that is not learned in schools, onl...

It is no secret to anyone that reading posts and articles from colleagues is what inspired me, some with whom I fully agree, others not so much and that is the grace of it all. Startups can teach a lot without a doubt but they are not the answer to unemployment, productivity, innovation and so much other problems of the real world and if all the good professionals that are out there do not understand so we're in big trouble. Is the world mobile? I've never heard of a product being manufactured by an app. I've also never heard of an application that teleports or give us any type of sensory experience. The mindset of startups, oh yes, this is a valuable asset. The entrepreneurial mindset. But many confuse this with dropping their jobs to create an application and become a digital entrepreneur. In addition to this not being feasible remember that 90% of startups fail at the start and something like 70% of the rest does not survive 5 years. Doing the math my friend 3 out of ...

Once again inspired by my friend (I already think so) LB - I will not say his name this time because the intimacy is not enough to know if he like's or not - I wanted to talk a little about the expected skills of the future leaders. Not of the future, of today! I'm lying, actually since yesterday! Yes, we all know the qualities of a good leader, and they DO NOT CHANGE OR WILL CHANGE. You can come with blah blah blah, rename as much as you want, but not. Unfortunately those who do not change either are selfish, autocratic and pretentious people. Looking a little further I prophesy: Leaders of the future will lead a bunch of robots - in both senses of the word. I ask God to be wrong and that 99% of takers of this world learn something from what they are taking home.

I've written about the theme but I still wonder how people abandoned their privacy and how this can become a major problem in the work environment. Apparently it's normalI let your GPS with the help of Wi-Fi and Bluethooth know precisely where you are even indoors but trusting your entire schedule, worse letting a snoopy software manage your time no way. In search of efficiency or simply through laziness we outsource our lives.

I think one of the biggest changes of our times is about disclosure. If you are attentive, several professionals post details of their areas of expertise that we did not even imagine. A short time ago they could be fired for it and some would be paying for this knowledge. Unfortunately, I also noticed that very few people are interested in learning these days.

I heard a colleague from a major bank say they had a desired AA application of hundreds of thousands of dollars that was only accessed by a senior manager and no one had ever seen anything drawn from it. I thought about it and today I discovered the possible reason. AA or Predictive analytics, as you prefer, are the most advanced BI tools that can deliver predictions and solutions through mass data analysis. Connected to it are practically all the cutting-edge techniques we've heard about such as machine learning, data mining, predictive analytics, location analytics, big data analytics, and location intelligence that have allowed it to evolve to the point where it can respond to major problems, improve business performance and generate competitive advantage. Therefore it should take 40% of the new investments of the area in the next years. But back to my colleague. There is a consensus among all the companies that develop this technology: The lack of skill of the users inhibits ...

Brazil, fascinated by fads, dictated by the trend topics where much of the thinking elite is driven by its ego and personal marketing, there are hundreds of influencers, fanciful terms, concepts and formulas, commented and celebrated while forgetting the basics. Yes, but the truth is one. There is no shortcut or as they say there is no free lunch. Endeavor and innovate are arduous , systemic, and procedural tasks that require discipline, knowledge and long-term vision. You can talk as much as you want that so-and-so "pop" invented such a fantastic application. In addition to probably be lie applications, or rather the Internet, does not represent an economy, not even far away. And as enthusiastic as I may be on the subject, it will never do. After all, what is more important is the road or the vehicle. And endeavor, which by itself is not an easy task, does not mean innovating and innovating is not synonymous of technology. You can innovate products, services, pr...

Inspired by an article about Klopr I decided to write about specificity and how this is related to problem solving. Remembering that a problem is the starting point for innovations. Almost 20 years ago, during the Internet boom, I was doing my masters degree and I can not forget a conversation we had at the cafe with some of the most sensational teachers I've had the pleasure to interact with and this conversation was summed up in this - specificity. The more specific your Internet business the greater the chances of success and internationalization. These days, back in school, learning about Agile Scrum I realized that this was never so true. I think I can say that all techniques or methods of critical thinking, innovation or design of agile processes start from a question, a problem whose answer will only be answered considering its specificity. It looks like a counter census but it's not. In fact even to set the problem, which is often not clear, you should think of spe...

Paraphrasing my mobile solution teacher "Cyclops was to be the leader of the X-Men. He ended up betrayed and died. Long live to the short and sturdy Wolverine's! And you, what are you learning from your customers?"

Why is it that the stereotype of young, newly formed, tech-savvy innovator is so strong? The average age of these guys in the US is 47, in Europe 45 and in Japan 39! Of course this varies according to the area of performance, location, and several other factors. There is even a "DEMOGRAPHICS OF INNOVATION" for anyone who wants to know how things really are. Ps. Far be it from me to create brawl between generations, but here between us, if it were to release the creative potential of someone whom would choose? As I have read, "Making use of creative thinking usually requires a ton of experience."

This deserves sharing Western Digital made Mercado Livre Brasil (a kind of ebay from here)  cancel the ad I had made of a HD that I took out of my new Lenovo because it is NOT ORIGINAL. Even after I sent an image similar to the one below. This is very serious! Maybe I write a post "How a stupid algorithm can end your business". Oops I already done it!

Last Saturday my Mobile Solutions professor (I'm not going to say the name to not be cursed again) asked me something interesting: "Have you stopped to think that soon (if not already I would say) the largest users of the Internet will not be human ? " Yes, if your refrigerator has a chip, the lock other, the vacuum cleaner plus one and so on.

Researchers have recently discovered that penguins moving around together create a unique warm-up structure. So the emperor penguins mass dance to warm up. They warm the planet dancing. But you do not expect something so small to make a difference. A penguin could not warm up this way alone. It heats up by joining others. Maybe you do not imagine that but the Antarctica has 37 volcanoes baptized many of them buried under layers of ice.