Strategy and Transformation

The Responsibility is Shifting When Adobe and Microsoft announced their partnership – and that Microsoft Azure is the preferred platform for hosting Adobe Marketing Cloud – the line between marketing and IT became even more blurred. The crossover between marketing technology and IT is not new, but it is continuing to increase year-on-year with no […]

A recent Financial Times article highlighted a report which found that oil and gas companies with more ethical operations are more profitable and valued than their competitors. According to the report, “For oil and gas companies, the valuation premium was almost a fifth for those that combat corruption, have better health and safety processes or […]

How is your company’s transformation going? Thought I’d ask, since it seems just about everyone is transforming their organizations these days — or at least talking about it. In fact, talk (and search) of “digital transformation” has been steadily rising since early 2014, when this phrase started moving up the charts. And like it or not, […]

We commonly think that B2B customers don’t really need mobile.  After all, most B2B sales are highly driven by actual sales people, with web sites supporting them through content like white papers, product information, etc.  B2B customers are also thought to be desk-bound, mainly accessing your B2B content through traditional desktop browsers. Recently, however, we […]

At the end of the day, a streamlined business can witness tremendous cost and time savings, not to mention deliver better experiences for customers and employees. Most, if not all, leaders in the communications space have ongoing initiatives for optimizing their business, whether it’s the implementation of sophisticated software and technology, or process reengineering to […]

Energy companies continue to collaborate with other organizations to further research. For example, Shell recently opened a mobility research center at Tsinghua University in China. According to a company press release, “This new centre will focus on developing solutions for the automotive sector, including the development of high-efficiency lubricants and additives; cleaner use of conventional […]

Microsoft reported yesterday that Azure revenue nearly doubled in the company’s second quarter of fiscal year 2018, ending on Dec. 31, 2017. According to CRN, 2018 Q2 marks the tenth straight quarter of reports that Azure revenue grew 90% or more on a year-over-year basis. According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella: “The intelligent cloud, intelligent […]

Machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and cognitive computing are all hot topics in the industry. When discussing these subjects, questions revolving around the impact of AI on human labor typically come up. Vikram Pandit, the former CEO of Citigroup, was recently asked what the banking sector might look like in the future. He said that […]

Over the years, the industry has found better ways to drill for oil. That’s very important because the world consumes approximately 97 million barrels of oil per day. Of that amount, the U.S. uses 19 million. However, since the U.S. produces 12 million barrels, it net imports. The market is roughly balanced in terms of […]

As it stands, the outlook for broadcast, cable, and telecommunications providers looks very bright. In a Q3 2017 earnings call, John J. Stephens, senior executive vice president and chief financial officer of AT&T, said: “We continue to track well against our full-year guidance, and we continue to invest for the growth of our business and […]

A look at how one of the nation’s largest video, high-speed internet, and phone providers came to be shows just how far the communications (i.e., cable, satellite, telecommunications) sector has come. After all, the rich histories and legacies of many companies have made the industry what it is today. Brian Roberts, chairman and CEO of […]

During an interview last year, David M. Rubenstein, president of The Economic Club of Washington D.C., and John S. Watson, chairman of the board and CEO (retiring February 1, 2018) of Chevron, discussed the antipathy that exists toward oil and gas companies. It’s true. Consumers typically do not tout their excitement about oil and gas […]