21/5/15: Global M&A and Economic Fundamentals

Here are some select slides from my presentation at this week's Alltech's Rebelation conference in Lexington, KY.

24/5/2014: UofL Student Wins Worldwide Alltech Young Scientist Competition

Some excellent news from the Irish knowledge 'economy' (society, really) front:

Gillian Johnson, from the University of Limerick, was the winner of the undergraduate competition run by Alltech Young Scientist Program. Johnson’s research work focused on comparative genomic identification and characterisation of a novel β-defensin gene cluster in the equine genome.

Gillian won in the field of more than 8,500 participants, representing the future generation of animal, human and plant health scientists from around the world.

In the graduate category, winner was Lei Wang, originally from China and currently completing her PhD studies in the United States with the University of West Virginia. Wang’s research work focused on novel functional roles of oocyte-specific nuclear transporter (Kpna7) in relation to developmental competency of rainbow trout oocyte and early embryo.


To participate in the program, students wrote a scientific paper that focused on an aspect of animal health and feed technology. The first phase of the program included a competition within each competing country, followed by a zone competition. The winners of each zone moved on to a regional phase and the regional winners competed in the global phase.

The Alltech Young Scientist Program is currently taking applicants for its 2015 competition. To enter, visit www.alltechyoungscientist.com.

17/10/2013: Customer-Activated Enterprise Research: Partnerships & Value-Added

I recently wrote about the upcoming publication of the IBM's Institute for Business Value CxO-level study: "The Customer-activated Enterprise: Insights from the Global C-suite Study" - the link to the original post is here: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ie/2013/09/592013-ibm-64-of-global-cmos-want-to.html

Now the study is out and available here: http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/gbe03572usen/GBE03572USEN.PDF

Some interesting insights from it will be forthcoming over the next few days as I slowly digest the paper (slowly - due to time constraints and not due to the nature of this superb piece of research).

First instalment a chart plotting CxOs' view of major changes in the business landscape in the next three to five years.

Note the emphasis on (opinions and views are my own - on foot of my interpretation of the data presented):
1) Bigger partner network is seen as a crucial trend changer by 73% of CxO executives - which is inherently driving the strategic focus of the enterprise development toward more diversified base of partnerships and networks.
2) Social and digital interactions are displacing face-to-face interactions and this implies that social and digital platforms will have to become also key tools for development and deployment of partnerships. End result of this (1) and (2) nexus is that business models will have to expand horizontally and beyond traditional nodes of corporate management and control. Risk will rise, uncertainty will rise both in scope and complexity.
3) This is supported by the shift in the partnerships nature: from lower emphasis on efficiency-driven partnerships toward more value-adding partnerships. In other words, not sub-contracting to specific tasks, but expansion of R&D, strategy and value-adding chains beyond the bounds of the traditional enterprise. This is very exciting, but adds even more complexity and uncertainty as well as more disruption to traditional (vertical or hierarchical) enterprise structures.
4) Focus on customer as individuals focus shift suggests that the era of Big Data will be moving toward the era of Small Data - greater granularity to follow with greater customisation. These can only be delivered via fluid, dynamic, non-contractual partnerships arrangements. Networks, not managerialism.
5) Not surprisingly, operational control weakens, organisational openness rises.

Much of the same that I have been talking about at TEDx Dublin and more recently at Alltech's Presidents Club meeting. You can also see my ideas on MNCs-led partnerships by searching this blog.