According to Nicole Fallon (Assistant Editor of Business News Daily, there is a change in technological trends, health care and labor laws. According to Denise Lage (vice president of channel sales and strategic alliances at Condeco Software), generation Z doesn't want the distraction and value being productive and they are different from generation Y and cannot be treated same.  Further Claire Bissot (PHR and HR consulting manager at CBIZ) said that
“HR managers need to engage with staff not in paperwork, but also become real strategic thinkers”. Read more at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/7930-4-big-issues-affecting-tomorrow-s-workplace.html

According to Rick Frascona (senior content manager with MadValorem), digital marketing is one of the parts of real estate marketing strategy. Event-driven marketing and predictive analytics can lower costs of direct mail marketing. A Real estate agent can find customers who have a maximum probability of buying or selling houses with the help of predictive analytics.  According to the National Association of Realtors, 92% of homebuyers in 2014 used the internet to search for homes. Read more at: http://www.inman.com/2015/04/21/can-predictive-analytics-breathe-new-life-into-direct-mail-marketing/

According to McNett (CMRP, Life Cycle Engineering), KPI (key performance indicators) should contain objectives, source, performance criteria and action plan to be effective. KPI helps managers to evaluate a company's performance and spot weak points which need manager's attention. According to Michael Porter (strategy professor at the Harvard Business School), KPI should be related to organizational goals and strategy, so that an organization can have a sustainable growth. Strategic asset management plans help to convert organizational goals into asset management objectives. Asset management functions support the company's goals and objectives. So, KPI helps to achieve organizational asset management objectives. Performance and evaluation of assets not only include technical performance, but also the performance of the physical asset portfolio. Read more at: http://www.industryweek.com/maintenance/monitoring-asset-management-strategy-execution-kpis

According to a survey, the Indian fashion industry is likely to touch $77 billion in a next five year. To understand the changing customer behavior and have a competitive advantage, e-commerce firms and retailers can use analytics. In a research from Technopak, the share of apparels and lifestyle in e-commerce is likely to increase by 30% and e-commerce will contribute about 6% of apparel sales. Fashion industry faces a challenge of understanding customers want and require quick access to market dynamics.  E-Commerce in retail is increasing, and all channels, firms are looking for advanced analytics to understand consumer behavior. Read more at: http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/data-analytics-can-help-retailers-know-consumer-behaviour-115042000358_1.html

According to Collen Jones (CEO of Content Science and co-founder of ContentWRX), big data help to identify new market opportunities and customers. But, most companies are facing problem with analyzing big data. Therefore, before analyzing big data, an organization also needs to analyze small data. • Understand your situation by collecting and analyzing the data.
• Interpreting the data you collected in a clear and compelling way
• Searching what to do next?
Collected Data should be focused on content and customers and should be accurate and reliable. And while searching what to do next try to find opportunities and threats.
To know more read at: http://www.cmo.com.au/article/573077/thinking-big-data-marketing-get-small-data-right-first/

According to Mary Shacklett (president of Transworld Data), organizations need big data and analytics capabilities for immediately transferring big data into actionable decisions. According to a Gartner September 2014 report, there is an increase in investment in big data by 64% from 2013. Jeff Kelley (Big data analytics analyst from Wikibon), says that “customers expect personalization when they visit websites, so companies need to develop analytical capabilities and in the long term apply real-time will grow as Internet of Things.” Preventive maintenance analytics can be developed, if data on the Internet to thing can be analyzed. To know more about real time analytics and Internet of Things read on:  http://www.techrepublic.com/article/surge-in-real-time-big-data-and-iot-analytics-is-changing-corporate-thinking/

Punk in Punk Analytics means working fearless and having an approach to ‘do-it-yourself way’. In the last few years with the rise of new technologies, we entered into the era of punk-style analytics. Some characteristics of punk analytics are:

• No barriers for information search, as you can download easily and free of cost.
• Mistakes are part of the process, but we can overcome by using analytics software and by having familiarity with the data.
• Fast and to the point is good.
• Idea should be transparent and it should have less processed time.
• Punk Analytics are basically concentrating on the issues of the moment, as it is the starting point for active exploration.
•   Working collaboratively is important to achieve a common goal.
To know more about punk analytics follow the article link of James Richardson (Business Analytics Strategist at Qlik): http://www.itproportal.com/2015/04/19/rise-punk-analytics/

According to Mike Proulx (Executive VP-director of Digital Strategy), social media marketing is also known as advertising. Social media marketing is also called paid marketing, as brands have to pay for showing the messages to target audience. Dick Costolo (Twitter), say that out of 20 tweets 1 is an advertisement. Brands are using social media for marketing as it more automated, targeted, instant, shareable and optimized. There are several ways to use social media marketing for advertising which are as follows:

• Open your wallet
• Play Blackjack
• Show Restraints
• Measure what matters
• Connect the dots
Read more at: http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/social-media-advertising/297841/

According to Jolanta Pilecka (Contributor), mobile users behave in a different way from desktop users. So, you need to add a little wizardry to ensure that it looks good on a mobile screen and different from desktop view. As mobile users want that with every step they reach to end goal and it should be quick, easy to access. Ways to optimize the mobile path:
• Don’t Shrink, Rethink
• Incorporate navigational cues
• Maximize native functions
• Incorporate Apps
• Get Your Data in order
 Therefore, for designing an app, you need to redesign your process from a mobile user perspective. Read more at: http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/business-process-management-bpm/articles/don-t-shrink-rethink/

According to Vincent Weafer (Senior Vice President of Intel Security), analytical capabilities will help you to be ahead of your competitors. Predictive Analytics help you to analyze the future trends more accurately and help you to realize your threats and opportunities which affects budget, purchase and staffing decisions. For prediction, a large amount of data is required from a range of activities which organizations perform, historical events and third party intelligence and to make predictive analytics more effective, you need to build foundational abilities like real-time hunting, prioritization and scoping of security incidents in their environment. You need to analyze your stakeholders for blocking decisions. Read more at: http://www.darkreading.com/partner-perspectives/intel/predictive-analytics-the-future-is-now/a/d-id/1319956

According to Saritha Rai (Contributor), e-commerce companies like Amazon, Snapdeal, ShopClues, Flipkart etc. find innovative solutions to timely delivery of their products by collaborating with Kirana stores, Dabbawallas in Mumbai, post office for reaching especially in rural areas and gas stations in Delhi and Mumbai. In a Morgan Stanley Report, Indian e-commerce market is expected to boom up to $100 billion in revenue by 2020. Timely delivery in the cities of India is a big challenge for e-commerce firms as roads are congested, streets are not numbered sequentially and customers many times don’t write zip codes or landmarks.  Finding these innovative solutions will not only benefit the e-commerce firms but it will also benefit local sources. To know more about these innovative solution read at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2015/04/15/from-dabbawallas-to-kirana-stores-five-unique-ecommerce-delivery-innovations-in-india/

According to Jacob Morgan, small teams are better than large teams because in small teams we find a fast decision with better communication between teams, less bureaucracy, etc. In the state of the American workplace report, in smaller organizations, employees are more engaged as compared to larger organizations and according to reports, 43% of employees work at companies of fewer than 10 employees are engaged at work whereas in big organization it is only 30%. According to the Ringelmann Effect, as the number of the employee increases they become inefficient. Social loafing helps us to understand why individual efforts reduce with the increase in size of the organization. Therefore, organizations should always think about their team structure. Read more at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2015/04/15/why-smaller-teams-are-better-than-larger-ones/

According to Andre Lavoie, small business has to perform various tasks like accounting, marketing, the managing workforce, recruiting, operations, etc. Small businesses don’t have a separate HR department, so they ignore many HR tasks like making job analysis before recruiting, employee handbook, etc.  In a 2013 Career Builder Survey, it was found that the wrong hiring cost is more than $50,000. In a small business, due to less attractive job description they can't afford to hire the right candidate for their company. To help small business, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) also has guidelines to differentiate between employee and contractors.

Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245008

According to the World Bank report, there is a fall in the growth rate of developing countries like East Asia and China. According to the Washington-based lender, growth in China is going to be 6.7% in 2015 and 2016 from 6.9% growth in 2014.  And according to the World Bank, developing East Asia countries excluding China is expected to grow at 5.1% in 2015 and 5.4% in 2016 from 4.6% in 2014. Reason for China, is slow down in its policies that aimed at putting its economy in a more sustainable way.  And higher US interest rates and an appreciating US dollar may raise borrowing costs. Read more at:

 http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/world-news/world-bank-cuts-east-asia-growth-forecast-warnsrisks-to-outlook_1355974.html?utm_source=ref_article

According to John Mills (Industry week), manufactures have less visibility than others and manufactures can’t wait for a longer period. In manufacturing companies conditions change frequently. In North America, factory activity has been trending down after the fall of 2014 and the Institute for supply Management said US index falling is falling since five consecutive months. Therefore, we need to predict the future of manufacturing firms by conducting some test quarterly. To know more about test read at:

http://www.industryweek.com/leadership/assume-nothing-5-tests-every-manufacturer-should-run-quarterly

Amazon launches new supply chain management technique “Dash Button” which allows the customers to order products automatically at the actual point of use.  According to Paul Myerson (Industry week), Amazon’s new launch Dash button puts pressure on the retailers, especially grocers who have very small profit margins (1-2%) and have a huge impact on the retail order fulfilment process.  This will bring a new concept called focusing on value to the customers and eliminating waste not only in the business environment, but now at the actual home of the customers. To know more about dash button read at: http://www.industryweek.com/inventorymanagement/amazon-dashes-make-consumers-and-their-supply-chains-leaner

According to Mike Dalton (Industry Week), innovation requires risk and the goal of a firewall is to identify that risk. The firewall block projects that score low on five feasibilities i.e. commercial, technical, manufacturability, regulatory and intellectual property. At the project charter stage, it is useful to identify all of the stakeholders and solicit their input on all the potential ways the project could fail and what the impact would be. A study of the telephony industry (Ogawa & Ketner, 1997) showed that bottom 80% performers cancelled nearly 30% of their projects late in the process and about top 20% top companies cancelled the same percentage of projects early. Read more at: http://www.industryweek.com/product-development/obstacles-new-product-growth

According to Aaron Agius (Contributor), social media is an effective marketing medium. There are many marketers who use Facebook followers, retweets, etc. to monitor their performance, but there are some other metrics like brand search volume, lead growth, brand sentiment, inbound links, and klout score. Social share provides very little information about the overall effectiveness of your campaign because: Many social shares come from bots.
• Social shares many not come from your target customers.
• Social shares can be from people that are speaking negatively about your brand.
Read more at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/244669

According to Travis Hessman (Industry week), the digital revolution will take us in the digital age from the information age. This will bring massive changes in our computing ability, our access to the internet and access to and proliferation of mobile devices. We use mobile digital technologies which allow us to stay connected to information and helps in taking decisions. We want to grow in this competitive world and move towards the fourth industrial revolution which opens up many opportunities.

Read more at:  http://www.industryweek.com/digital-revolution

 According to Dave Blanchard (Industryweek), customer’s demands for lower delivered costs are seen to be a big challenge. But, by using predictive analysis, we can identify patterns and predict future events. An organization using predictive analysis can make better decisions. George Prest (CEO of MHI) says that companies that continue to use traditional supply chain models will struggle in the future.  According to the MHI/Deloitte study, it was found that less than 25% of companies have adopted predictive analytics though that number is expected to climb to 70% over the next three to five years.

 Read more at: http://www.industryweek.com/supply-chain/predictive-analytics-let-manufacturers-see-more-clearly-their-supply-chains