Bricks and mortar to bricks and clicks - the future of retail innovation

We've all read about the apparent demise of high-street retail, most of it put down to the massive move to online purchases. Shopping centres report a drop in footfall of 3.5% in September, compared to last year. House of Fraser and Debenhams are in real trouble. It seems that bricks and mortar retail is in desperate need of innovation.

Whilst in New York last week, I bought a mini camera tripod from Amazon. Nothing special in that. However the way I did it was very different. Amazon are experimenting with channels that supplement their pure online offering. The store in Spring Street, Soho that I made my purchase in is their first 4Star location. Every item on the shelves is rated by customers as more than 4*, new or 'trending'. Shelf edge prices are updated dynamically to match online. The place was heaving with customers. I suspect that the store will also stimulate additional online sales.

Other store formats are also being trialled. In Seattle, their 'Amazon Go' store allows Amazon Prime customers to register on entry, select their items and simply walk out with them. No sales assistant interaction, no cash desk. Purchases are simply billed to their Prime account. The way they do this is through a combination of camera tracking, RFid tags and other tech. The Prime store may just be an experiment (they trialled it for a while with Amazon staff only), but all credit for trying.

Having worked in retail for many years, this is these are the biggest innovations I have seen in a long time. A perfect example of bricks and mortar turning into bricks and clicks.

This could be seen in two ways. Either Amazon are going to swallow even more of the high street by parking their tanks there, or existing retailers are going to see this type of melded retail offering as their future. Amazon have been pioneers and innovators without peers - and this proves it.

Chatbots & Digital Assistants: Shaping the future of work. (Sponsored event for Children In Need), 13 Nov 2018

Way back in 1966, the natural language processing program, ELIZA, played the role of a digital psychologist. This early chatbot was capable of "listening" to you as you shared your life story, delivering mostly coherent, yet vague canned responses to whatever you typed in. Chatbots have come a long way since then. Many in the current generation are equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), making them more powerful than ever. And today, chatbots are used by organisations to listen to and respond to requests, find the answers to commonly asked questions, or even help us order a pizza. Meanwhile, using our smart devices we can ask intelligent assistants, such as Apple Siri, Microsoft Cortana, Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, to set up events in our calendars, dictate emails, play from millions of songs, turn off the lights, and more. And the more we talk to them, the better intelligent assistants get at understanding and serving us, thanks to AI. Chatbot technology is becoming commonplace in our homes, on our phones and even in our vehicles – but what about in the workplace? This dedicated breakfast briefing will explore the contemporary world of chatbots and digital assistants and their increasing utility for automating routine tasks. Can they be relied upon to do some of the knowledge management 'heavy lifting', and if so, what will the future workplace look like? This event would be of particular interest to and benefit the following roles and functions: HR Customer Support Community Managers CIO's Innovators Knowledge Managers Legal/Paralegal The key learning points from this event will be: Understanding the current and emerging role of chatbots in the workplace Identifying the skills, resources and costs of developing a chatbot Seeing/interacting with NRF's latest chatbot Plenary discussion about how chatbots may shape the future of work A hot & cold buffet breakfast will be available during the briefing. Full details can be found on this event page: Roundtable: Chatbots & Digital Assistants: Shaping the future of work. (Sponsored event for Children In Need)' Tickets for this special event are £32, available from Workplace Week, with all proceeds donated to BBC's Children In Need charity.

A battery of problems

Whilst electric vehicles are becoming commonplace on our roads, we don't really think about the technology that powers them. The Innovation Network members had a unique opportunity to visit the Warwick Manufacturing Group's research facility at Warwick University last week. 

Part of our tour took us to the battery testing facility, where we saw the power packs that propel Teslas, Leafs, BMW i3s and other electric cars. The expectation that we would see revolutionary technology was quickly dispelled when we were shown the ubiquitous AA size batteries, of which hundreds power the Tesla. Sure, there is very smart tech that monitors and controls them. However it seems battery manufacture and chemistry has not moved on dramatically since the aptly named Professor John Goodenough invented the Lithium Ion cell in 1980.

I've been preparing for the KIN Spring 2019 members' workshop 'Work in 2030 - it may not be what you think'. In talking to members about a potential case study on horizon scanning, it's become clear that techniques that keep a collective open mind are just as important as any innovation process. As one individual said to me 'horizon scanning only shows you what's already possible, not what seems impossible today'.   There is a wonderful 1964 clip of Arthur C Clarke predicting the future (3 mins). Clarke starts with 'Only if what I tell you seems completely unbelievable, have we any chance of visualizing the future'. 

This fits with a recent posting from Greg Satell on 'We need to re-engineer our organisations for a new era of innovation'. As he says 'It’s becoming more important to prepare than adapt. By the time you realize the need to adapt, it may already be too late'.

The second point that he makes is that 'it is crucial to build a continuous pipeline of problems to solve'. Whilst Apple is renowned as a tech innovator, the reality (certainly in the early days) was that Steve Jobs was a brilliant problem-identifier. He didn't have the solution to 'put 1000 songs in my pocket' - he gave the challenge to hard drive manufacturers.

Innovators need to re-engineer their organisations and people to think in this way, in order to vizualize the 'completely unbelievable'.

https://www.digitaltonto.com/2018/we-need-to-reengineer-our-organizations-for-a-new-era-of-innovation/

Enabling Technology Announcement: New Roundtable Event: Supercharge Collaboration With O365, 16 Oct 2018

The most recent Enabling Technologies Survey (conducted April – May 2018) identified two topics that could potentially be combined into one Roundtable event, namely the generic 'Collaboration Tools & Technologies' and the more specific 'Sharepoint/Office 365'. Whilst recognising that KIN Member organisations are using a wide variety of technologies and platforms for user engagement, collaboration and knowledge sharing, (e.g. Jive, G-Suite, Facebook for business, Wikis, Microsoft etc.) it is proposed we focus primarily on Sharepoint and O365 for this Roundtable. Recognising that our member organisations are at different stages of their implementation journey from Sharepoint to O365, this Roundtable provides an ideal opportunity for knowledge sharing between those at the beginning of their journey and those who are just starting it. As with previous Enabling Technologies events, we don't just talk about the technologies themselves, but look at the pragmatic issues around their implementation and effective use. For this Roundtable, we are seeking: People who have knowledge to share about … People who want to know more about …. Sharepoint Online Searching for Information using Delve  Understanding document libraries  Using Groups/Team Sites for collaborative working Setting up Communities of Practice  Grouping and Sharing documents using Boards  OneDrive for Business Navigating OneDrive Uploading content Sharing Documents and Collaborating Synchronising OneDrive to the Desktop Skype for Business  Communicate using Instant Messaging, Voice and Video  Setting up Group meetings  Integration with Outlook  Sharing – Presentations, Content/Screen, Polls, Virtual Whiteboard Office Desktop Applications What's new in Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint? Creating and editing documents in 'The Cloud'  Sharing documents and collaborating with colleagues online Strategies for encouraging user adoption and engagement      When registering for this event, it would be helpful if you would indicate whether you have knowledge to share, or whether you are there to learn. Full details can be found on this event page: Roundtable: Supercharge Collaboration With O365'

Enabling Technology Announcement: Gartner Hype Cycle for AR and VR

As can be seen from the Gartner Hype Cycle, AR lags VR a little on the slope of productivity, yet it is clear that the technologies have navigated the hype cycle in tandem. There is a very real distinction between the wider adoptions of AR and VR; whereas VR has generally been driven by entertainment applications particularly in relation to gaming, the adoption of AR is increasingly being driven by the workplace. We'll be looking at some examples of how AR, VR and MR (Mixed Reality) are being used in the workplace environment at the Autumn Workshop (10/11 September), and particularly how they are being used to drive better collaboration and productivity.