Microsoft’s purchase of Skype for a hefty $8.5 billion back in 2011 left a lot of people scratching their heads. Why? Fast forward to today where Microsoft and Skype have announced the launch of software capable of translating languages in real time. Could it be that learning languages in the future won’t be necessary? Not so fast….

Skype created a pretty cool video of school kids in the U.S. using the translator to talk directly to school kids in Mexico (http://tinyurl.com/n68of9h). This translator currently only works for two spoken languages, English and Spanish, but additional languages will be available in 2015. More than 40 instant messaging languages, however, are available to those who have signed up for the Skype translator package and use Windows 8.1 on their desktops or devices. There is always a catch.

With all of the hype surrounding Skype and its real time translator, it is easy to forget how amazing the human brain actually is. Neuroscientists for decades have been trying to understand how the human brain is able to perform simultaneous translation. It turns out that the human brain is capable of coordinating the activities of different parts of the brain in a highly efficient way. Some translators are actually able to do simultaneous translations and a crossword puzzle at the same time. There are some tricks that come into play, however, like the ability to predict what a person will say before they say it. The human brain, nonetheless, possesses incredible abilities that are constantly evolving.

Is it time for us to stop using our brains, kick up our feet, and rely on translators to do our talking for us? Not even close. The Skype translator is a useful development that can help facilitate a dialogue between those who do not speak each other’s languages. There are so many other factors, however, that influence communication besides word-for-word translations. This tool should be seen more as an inspiration to learn a language rather than not.

For more information on the Skype’s translator and the human brain, please refer to the following articles:

Inside the Weird Brains of Real-Time Translators, Gizmodo, Geoff Watts, Mosaic, November 19^th, 2014 (http://tinyurl.com/m9tlcgd)   

Skype Translator Preview – An Exciting Journey to a New Chapter in Communication, Skype Blog, Gurdeep Pall, December 15^th, 2014 (http://tinyurl.com/ld6mhrs)

Skype's newest app will translate your speech in real time, The Verge, Tom Warren, December 15^th, 2014, (http://tinyurl.com/ldckj6b)

For more information about the Corvinus Executive MBA blogger, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmjackson1.

Blog 9

The dramatic rise in social media during the past decade has empowered people to easily create and maintain an ongoing dialogue with friends and family regardless of their locations. Today, it is almost impossible to escape posts, Tweets, texts, chats, and even the old school SMS. For the upcoming decade, Peer-to-Peer (P2P) platforms will transform what social media has started into the next big thing: the share economy.

The concept of the share economy is really simple; rent out something that you are not currently using. One of the best examples is Airbnb, a global platform that allows people to rent out either a room or their entire home to travelers seeking a more local experience. Currently, Airbnb has more than 800,000 listings in 33,000 cities located in 192 countries. This incredible growth story has all happened since the company was founded in 2008, since then it has disrupted the entire hotel industry.

Another interesting example is RelayRides, a peer-to-peer platform that allows car owners to rent out their cars. They can set their own prices and RelayRides takes 25% for the connection. A partnership with GM and its OnStar division allows borrowers to reserve and unlock the GM cars using mobile phones. In the past, if someone drove off with your car, you were dialing the police. Now, you can expect money to be deposited in your bank account.

I can go on and on, since there are so many platforms participating in the share economy. TaskRabbit is a site for hiring people to do tasks. Liquid allows you to rent a bike from your neighbor. Fon is a network for sharing Wi-Fi access. And let’s not forget Uber, the global peer-to-peer giant that can turn anyone into a taxi service. The share economy is booming and it makes a lot of sense. For centuries, people have acquired lots of things so they can point to them and say, “That’s mine.” Nowadays, more and more people are pointing to things and saying, “I want to share that.”

For more information on the share economy, please refer to the following articles:

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbnb

Airbnb, Snapgoods, and 12 More Pioneers of the “Share Economy”, Forbes, http://tinyurl.com/ouy9qze

Airbnb Lifestyle: The Rise of the Hipster Nomad: Techcrunch, Prerna Gupta, October 3^rd, 2014, http://tinyurl.com/prjqdl3

For more information about the Corvinus Global Business blogger, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmjackson1.

Blog 8

While the first part of “The Power of Crowds” was dedicated to the different forms of crowdfunding, the second part will explore how crowdsourcing can be used to collect intellectual contributions from a large community for the purpose of completing a difficult task. Once again, it has been advances in technology that enabled crowdsourcing platforms to cost effectively operate on a large scale.

Although the term “crowdsourcing” was coined by Jeff Howe from Wire Magazine in 2006, the concept of tapping into the wisdom of crowds has been around for centuries. There was the famous Longitude Prize back in 1714 when the British government offered a cash prize to whoever could come up with the best way to measure a ship’s longitude. The Oxford English Dictionary was created with the help of 800 volunteers, including a major contributor, W.C. Minor, who was confined to the Broadmoor Assylum for the Criminally Insane. Finally, there was the Planters Peanuts logo contest in 1916 that was won by a fourteen-year-old boy and his logo is still being used today.

Fast forward to the present where Coca Cola China is using the crowdsourcing platform eYeka to generate creative ideas for future advertising campaigns. Participants that submit videos about what Coke tastes like before January 18^th, 2015 are eligible to win more than $31,000 in prize money. I can imagine the prestige of winning the contest is the biggest reward.  

The realization that there is strength in numbers has been around for a long time, but technology has taken this to a whole new level as platforms can enable people to globally collaborate with each other in real time. Even NASA used crowdsourcing for its 2013 Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge, and the aerospace, defense, and aviation industries are now leaders in the crowdsourcing space.  One of these days we might even see a Nobel Prize be given out to crowds of people rather than just people.

For more information on the power of crowds, please refer to the following articles:

Coca-Cola China Looks to Crowdsourcing Platform for Extra Creative Fizz, AdAge, Angela Doland, November 26^th, 2014 (http://tinyurl.com/ow62l98)

NASA finds big payoffs in crowdsourcing, Venturebeat, Jenn Gustetuc, March 10^th, 2014, (http://tinyurl.com/ojp83wd) 

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing

For more information about the Corvinus Executive MBA blogger, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmjackson1.

Internet penetration in all parts of the world has enabled crowdfunding to become a global phenomenon. Crowdfunding involves the funding of a project or business venture by motivating large numbers of people to provide monetary contributions. This phenomenon has the power to change industries and we are already witnessing evidence of this right now.

The three players that make crowdfunding possible are the project initiator who proposes an idea, the people or groups who support the idea, and the platform that makes the connection between the initiator and the supporters possible. There are now three types of crowdfunding models that are currently in practice: reward-based, equity-based, and debt-based.

The most common form of crowdfunding is reward-based and can be seen on popular platforms like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The project initiator sets a financial goal with a specified time limit and markets the idea to as many people as possible. People can then donate certain amounts of money in exchange for various gifts related to the size of their donations. While this model has been particularly popular with art and design projects, there has been backlash over projects like Oculus Rift that was just sold to Facebook for $2 Billion. The Kickstarter supporters of Oculus Rift only received an early version of the virtual reality headset and missed out on the huge financial success that came thereafter. 

The concept of equity-based crowdfunding has evolved to allow people to receive actual shares in a company rather than gifts. This is now redefining how companies raise capital and there is a push to harness the power of many as opposed to venture capital from a few. Similarly, credit-based crowdfunding enables people to pool their money together and then have that money leant to various borrowers at agreed upon terms. It is clear that venture capitalists and bankers could be facing a new form of competition in the future.

The power of crowds is undeniable and has the potential to change the way entire industries operate. Just recently, New York based Lexshares launched a platform to give investors the opportunity to support those who cannot afford the legal costs of lengthy court battles. If the case is successfully won, then investors get a piece of the action. The power of crowds, however, does not stop with crowdfunding itself and I will be exploring how crowdsourcing works in my next blog: Power of Crowds: Part II.

For more information on the power of crowds, please refer to the following articles:

Crowdfunding Becomes Global Phenomenon, Forbes, Devin Thorpe, September 29^th, 2014 (http://tinyurl.com/jvlckr4)

Anyone can now crowdfund their legal battle, Springwise.com,November 28^th, 2014, (http://tinyurl.com/klcocnm)

The 10 Most Funded Kickstarter Campaigns Ever, Nina Zipkin, Updated September 2^nd, 2014 (http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/235313)

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdfunding

For more information about the Corvinus Executive MBA blogger, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmjackson1.

Blog 6

During my childhood in the U.S., it was a Thanksgiving tradition to eat too much on Thursday and shop too much on Black Friday. I never really understood why it was called Black Friday until many years later, but it was always the start of the holiday season and one of the busiest shopping days of the year in the U.S.

The name Black Friday refers to how retailers operate at a financial loss (in the red) from January to November and then turn finally turn a profit  (into the black) the day after Thanksgiving. Since I have lived in Hungary for the past seventeen years, Black Friday has not been a day I have thought much about for a long time. This all changed this year as I have heard people in Hungary and around Europe talking about taking advantage of incredible Black Friday deals.

The globalization of Black Friday really began back in 2010 when Amazon started advertising eye catching, Black Friday deals in the U.K. It did not take long for British retailers to join in and Wal-Mart owned Asda took things a step further last year when it offered deals in its U.K. stores. Visa Europe forecasted that online sales in the U.K. would be up more than 20% year from last year’s Black Friday as no British retailer can ignore the importance of the last Friday in November. Unfortunately, some of the violence and craziness from the U.S. has also been exported along with the tradition.

Promotions for “Le Black Friday”, “Viernes Negro,” and “Fekete Péntek” represent only a few examples of how an American tradition has gone global. Extreme Digital and Best Byte were but a few of the Hungarian retailers looking to boost online sales by riding the Black Friday wave. It is ironic, however, that Black Friday’s global popularity is no longer related to Thanksgiving, which is a holiday where people sit down and give thanks for what they have. In the midst of all of the fighting and scrambling around for the world’s best retail deals, it is important to remember that Black Friday is here because of Thanksgiving and not the other way around.

For more information on Black Friday, please refer to the following articles:

‘Le Black Friday’ Goes Global With Deals Just a Click Away, Bloomberg News, Tom Beardsworth and Andrew Roberts, November 28^th, 2014 (http://tinyurl.com/k6rq2h4)

Black Friday 2014 explained - retailers gearing up for day of deals, Telegraph, Graham Ruddick, November 19^th, 2014 (http://tinyurl.com/px22rnb)

Black Friday shopping is not just a U.S. sport, Marketwatch, Andria Cheng, November 28^th, 2014 (http://tinyurl.com/mk6fgk3)  

For more information about the Corvinus Executive MBA blogger, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmjackson1.

Blog 5

When I saw the headline about a bus that runs on “poo”, I was sure that it must be a joke. As it turns out, the poo bus is not a joke and is now shuttling people back and forth from Bristol Airport to Bath City Center. Once one gets past the word “poo”, then the technology speaks for itself and represents an efficient way to produce clean, sustainable, renewable energy.

While some may see the sewage and food waste as pretty disgusting, the Bristol sewage treatment works sees it as a valuable resource capable of producing enough biomethane fuel to meet the annual energy needs of 8,300 homes from their facility alone. According to their view, poo and old food should never be tossed into landfills or incinerated when it can be ultimately used to replace 10% of the U.K.’s domestic gas needs.

The poo bus itself can travel up to 186 miles on a single tank of biomethane fuel, which requires the annual waste of five people to make. Even better, the bus gives off 30% less carbon emissions than diesel vehicles. Perhaps one of these days our toilets and garbage chutes will all be connected directly to our houses and cars.

A bus that runs on poo sure sounds funny. I could not help but think about what it would be like to be in a car behind the poo bus on a hot, summer day. The truth is, however, that this amazing green energy opportunity has nothing to do with how we feel about human sewage and food waste, and everything to do with what it becomes after the anaerobic process: green gold. 

For more information on the poo bus, please refer to the following articles:

UK's first 'poo bus' hits the road November 20^th 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/20/uks-first-poo-bus-hits-the-road

Eco-friendly Bristol 'poo bus' powered by human waste, November 20^th, 2014

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30125792

For more information about the Corvinus Executive MBA blogger, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmjackson1.

Blog 4

I guess a few of us are old enough to remember the 1989 film, “Back to the Future Part II,” where Doc Brown takes Marty McFly to the year 2015 so that he can prevent his kids from making terrible mistakes. The world in 2015 in this film is full of flying cars, robots, and the famous hover board. As it turns out, the only thing that turned out to be correct was the hoverboard prediction, as a company called Hendo just recently launched the world’s first hoverboard on Kickstarter (http://tinyurl.com/n92v8zv). There are a few weeks left in 2014, so perhaps we will see a flying car before the end of the year. Maybe.

One thing that does remain a constant is that experts are always trying to make predictions about what the world will be like in the future. Robots seem to have a permanent space in these predictions and a recent Bloomberg article (http://tinyurl.com/lhw3laz) says that according to a consensus of AI experts there is a 10% probability that human level machine intelligence will be reached by the year 2022, 50% by 2040, and 90% by 2075. All this recent forecasting has stirred up a reaction from Elon Musk (billionaire Paypal and Tesla founder), who claims that super intelligent machines represent the single biggest threat to humanity. Consequently, Musk has been buying into AI companies so he can keep on eye on them.

The bottom line is that we all have to choose who to believe and to what extent. As for me, I think that the more technology advances, the more accurate the predictions will become. “Back to the Future Part II” was filmmaking, but today’s leading AI experts are not making predictions to sell tickets. I do believe that the innovation curve is exponential and change will happen more rapidly and more dramatically in the near future. Let’s just all hope that the future will reveal more things like the hoverboard as opposed to psycho, killer robots featured in the famous “Terminator” series.  

Robot Brains Catch Humans in 25 Years, Then Speed Right On By, Bloomberg, Tom Randall, Nov 10, 2014

• http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-11-10/robot-brains-catch-humans-in-25-years-then-speed-right-on-by.html

For more information about the Corvinus Global Business blogger, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmjackson1.

Blog 3

What if you could have a printer in your home that would allow you to print your own lipstick, eye shadow, blush, nail polish, and brow powder? Sound crazy? Not to thirty-year-old Grace Choi, who has created a printer called Mink.

While Grace never lacked the talent or credentials, she could not quite fit in to big company culture. After she finished Harvard Business School, she spent a brief three-month period working for Burger King in food innovation before quitting and going back to being an inventor. I can imagine that trying to come up with new ways to build the perfect Whopper can get pretty old.

Grace became interested in how cosmetics companies created their products and the hefty premium they put on top of ingredients that are actually really cheap to buy individually. The idea for the Mink printer was born and she began with using four computer printer colors (black, cyan, yellow, and magenta) to design a way for anyone to create their own makeup colors right in their own homes. "The makeup industry makes a whole lot of money on a whole lot of bullshit," explained Grace during her TechCrunch Disrupt presentation. "They charge a huge premium on something that tech provides for free. That one thing is color."

The Mink printer only puts a top layer of ink onto a blank shadow, cream or moisturizer. This allows the user to sample the top layer and see if it works. If it doesn’t, then the user just needs to scrape off the top layer and try again. Grace feels this is a far more efficient process than producing large batches of product that might have to be discarded.

Starting next summer, be on the lookout for the Mink printer that will be priced at $300. Grace Choi plans to disrupt the $55 billion a year beauty industry one printer at a time. Considering the prices people pay for makeup, the Mink Printer is looking like a pretty good deal.

For more information on Grace Choi and her Mink printer, please refer to the following articles:

• http://www.cnbc.com/id/102066524

• http://www.forbes.com/sites/deniserestauri/2014/06/30/a-harvard-woman-is-blowing-up-the-55-billion     beauty-industry-with-3d-printed-makeup/

• http://www.businessinsider.com/grace-choi-mink-2014-9

For more information about the Corvinus Executive MBA blogger, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmjackson1.

Blog 2

Welcome to the Corvinus Executive MBA Blog. In this blog, I will be touching on areas that are transforming how we live and work such as robotics, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), big data, e-commerce and m-commerce, iBeacons, mobile payment, augmented reality, virtual reality, wearables, omnichannel, and a whole lot more.

To kick things off, I would like to call your attention to a slide deck that was recently created by Business Insider (http://tinyurl.com/np5fjq9). While this presentation focuses on the status of retail in the United States, it is also signaling how global retail will fundamentally change in the next five years. Ironically, we are now witnessing the simultaneous death and rebirth of bricks and mortar stores, as old school retailers leave the scene to be replaced by stores offering both interactive experiences and 24  hour delivery support for e-commerce and m-commerce.

Amazon announced in early October that it will open the doors to its first bricks and mortar store in mid-town Manhattan just in time to catch the eye of holiday shoppers.  Another Amazon store in is scheduled to open in San Francisco early next year. Why? Retail 2.0 is characterized by what is called omnichannel marketing, which involves a seamless customer experience across all platforms. Apple is the omnichannel leader with its elegant fusion of offline and online and this has both bricks and mortar and e-commerce players scrambling to catch up. The retail game has changed and technology is leading the way. 

Relevant Links:

•       E-COMMERCE AND THE FUTURE OF RETAIL: 2014 [SLIDE DECK]: Business Insider, http://tinyurl.com/np5fjq9, October 20^th, 2014

•       Amazon to Open First Brick-and-Mortar Site: Wall Street Journal: http://online.wsj.com/articles/amazon-to-open-first-store-1412879124, October 9^th, 2014

For more information about the Corvinus Executive MBA blogger, go to https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinmjackson1.

Blog 1