Tek Briefs™
Course Background
For busy executives, keeping up with evolving technologies can be impossible. These big picture sessions bring you up to speed on emerging trends, technologies, and business models that are impacting companies around the world. We give clear background briefs on major developments, helping you understand how each innovation works and why it’s potentially revolutionary. Then we look at real world cases and scenarios to see practical uses of the innovation. Finally, we engage in a group discussion about implications and applications to understand how your business might be impacted.
Objectives
- Identify and explain key innovations with the potential to disrupt you and your competitors, including technologies, devices, business models, companies, and more
- Understand what’s new about the innovations, why they’re taking hold, who is using them, and what the future might hold
- Explore case studies of how those innovations are being used
- Understand the implications and applications of the innovations, with a special emphasis on relevance to you and your business
Typical Program Structure
Most of our programs consist a series of one-hour sessions in half-day or daylong formats. Each hour course is spent on exploring just one trend, giving you time to sample, contextualize, question, and discuss—but short enough to force focus on salient issues. The sessions are interactive, hands-on, and dynamic. Our goal is to make information memorable and meaningful, drawing you in and making you part of the conversation.
Typical session structure
- Big picture: setup, backstory, context
- Examples, interactive demonstrations
- Q&A
- Market brief: market position and competitive landscape
- Case study: review and discussion of a topical case
- Implications and applications: exploration of impact on and opportunities for your business
- Wrap-up: summary of key points
Topics Covered
Because we select topics based on what’s important at the moment and to the client, we do not have a fixed roster of courses, but rather customize our offering to your needs. However, sample courses include the following:
Daily Deal Sites: Do they work for big brands?
We explore the meteoric rise in social couponing, with a special focus on Groupon, to understand how this trend is impacting consumer behavior and business bottom lines. We also look at how some national brands are testing this local phenomenon.
Ratings & Reviews: Are your users putting your best foot forward?
Your customers are telling their friends—and anyone else who will listen—what they think of your brand, your products, and their last interaction with you. What are they saying and what can you do about it?
Harnessing the Crowd: Successfully collaborating with the world
From crowdsourcing to crowdfunding, enterprising firms are finding new ways to get work done, raise money, and tap into the collective power of individuals. What can the crowd do for you?
Connecting with Mobile Consumers: Doing business on the street
How are companies like Foursquare and qponomics.com making use of location-based deals to generate business? What deals are they doing and how are they using data to foster future interactions?
There’s an App for That: Tools that strengthen brands
We'll discuss the proliferation of brand apps. Some replicate old tools in new ways, but many empower new behavior. What tool would empower your customers? Can you afford not to have an app?
Virtual Cash: The finance behind fake money
People are exchanging real money for fake money at a staggering rate. We'll discuss these monetary transactions and their implications for real-world finance. Can you turn fake money into real money too?
Mobile Payments: Paying goes local
We'll explore the growth in new payment options (micro-payments, mobile payments, etc.) and discuss the implications for buyers and sellers. What are the consequences when traditional financial barriers fall?
Goldmining the Data Mountain: Turning big data into business intelligence
Chances are you are sitting on a mountain of data about your customers. Are you doing anything with it? Maybe you're not asking the right questions or maybe you don't know what questions to ask. We'll discuss some promising new strategies for turning your raw data into business intelligence.
Blogging, Micro-blogging, & Twitter: Are you part of the conversation?
We'll explore the implications of a world where everyone has a public platform. Anyone can join the conversation, and customers are speaking up. Are you listening? Are you talking back?
What’s Around the Corner: Emerging but unproven ideas with provocative potential
In this quick-hitting session, we explore 5-10 groundbreaking ideas that may, or may not, be the start of something big.