IBM run a Spark type event called the Global Innovation Outlook where they went round the world holding meetings and inviting senior thought leaders to discuss global issues, the results of which they have published here. The three topics they covered were the future of the enterprise, energy and the environment and transport and mobility.

I found the future of the enterprise section interesting. The focus of this section was around the changing nature of the enterprise to be a collection or aggregation of entities (large partners, small partners and individuals) working on an Endeavour, similar to my slime mould model.

The main areas that the report came up with are:

 

Power of Networks: This is of course Web 2.0

Line of sight: How to improve understanding of the business and effects of decisions

Flipping the equation: How to think about the business in another way. This is sort of like my flipping from product to customer innovation.

Free enterprise: Fluid and transparent organizations

Reputation: In a dynamic world reputation is everything

Small world: Small organizations can scale and reach

Flexibility of people is key

Distributed innovation.

 

Very interesting and well worth a read. Its nice the way that these areas map onto the pillars of Edge architecture:

 

Identity and Relationships (Reputation)

Rich Content

Collaboration (Power of Networks, Flexibility, Small world, Distributed innovation)

Discovery (line of sight)