Australian business strategies - disruptive digital technology

The Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) completed its annual Directors Update series in the last quarter of 2016 providing an opportunity to hear what strategic priorities, challenges and forward focus, company directors should monitor in the year ahead. Of particular importance was the high level of attention paid to disruptive digital technology and what is termed the 'Fourth Industrial Revolution'  (best described as the increasing and rapid convergence of digital, biological and physical technologies).

Examples of the new technologies include:

• sensor technology and the internet of things: such as drones, satellites and home objects,
• big data and real-time mobile access to information: such as online advice and rating of health providers, wearable in health insurance,
• platform businesses which directly link providers and consumers such as Airbnb and Uber,
• cognitive computing and artificial intelligence (IA),
• automation and robotics: driverless trucks and cars,
• virtual reality (VR) technologies which use interactive computer graphics to create user perceptions of virtual worlds. A corresponding development is augmented reality (AR) technologies which can be applied through a smartphone,
• advanced machine learning (AML) which enables computers to discover insights and patterns from data using sophisticated algorithms,
• industrial analytics which use sensor data across a range of applications to improve efficiency and responsiveness.
• blockchain distributed database technology which creates the capability to record transactions between parties without third party involvement.

All of these changes however are moving faster than adjustments to the governance and oversight functions necessary to provide confidence to the wider community that sufficient safeguards exist. For example, privacy concerns and protection of personal information remains vulnerable with the new data sharing. Risk management systems currently used are poorly equipped to measure and mitigate business risks where the systems themselves are not fully understood. Related to this aspect, the level of expertise required to understand the functionality and operational impacts of the new technologies is not widely held by a large number of people. In short, these are but a few of the main concerns yet available solutions remain limited. The reliance to date, on proof-of-concept appraisals prior to adoption of a new technology is an insufficient process and Australian businesses would do well to devise strategies which encompass a greater risk evaluation framework.  

Mission to Mars - an unreachable goal for the forseeable future

Mars composite image - (c) Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Mars, the planet which has conjured many a science fiction movie and not a few novels. Seemingly close, the nearest planetary neighbour to Earth is nonetheless very distant to this planet and travel over such a large distance poses both technical challenges and extreme health risks for humans attempting the voyage.

In terms of orbit around the Sun, Mars is always 48.3 million or more kilometres away from the Earth which equates to around 140 times further than the moon. In terms of transit time, this distance would mean around 210 days to travel from the Earth to Mars depending on the best available launch window and capability in velocity based on the existing propulsion systems or those in the design stages. Once at Mars, a mission team would need to wait around 496 or so days before being able to commence a return flight to Earth.

What sort of space vehicle would be able to both propel the pay load safely to Mars and be able to sustain a flight crew during transit to the planet ? It would need to have sufficient speed to cover the distance with a size and scale to include the necessary life support functions including air and water to sustain the crew. Existing fuel burning engines would not suffice due to the amount of fuel which would need to be carried and a solar powered vehicle would be slow moving indeed. Mounting a nuclear engine on a manned space vehicle carries its own multi-level high risks.

The technology to reach Mars is not insurmountable however the physical health ramifications for astronauts may yet pose an almost impassable barrier. Existing data from Moon missions, Skylab and the International Space Station have demonstrated the punishing effect of long term exposure to weightlessness  on the human body - bones waste away at a rate of one percent of bone mass per month; fluid can collect behind eyeballs and cause blurred vision; radiation from solar flares and cosmic rays (which are high energy particles travelling at close to light speed) pose a direct threat to DNA and human brain cells. These are only the known factors as already identified with potentially many more.

So Mars travel remains a dream at the moment. NASA and private companies such as SpaceX have the intention to reach the red planet but for the now the only visitors will remain remote mobile robotic devices scanning the landscape for, as yet, undetected discoveries.

Strata at the base of Mount Sharp, Mars: (c) NASA Mars curiosity rover

                                                     

2017 - A new year but continuing and increasing challenges

2017 beckons as the end of 2016 draws near. Many of the challenging issues of 2016 will carry through into the new year in areas such as the economy, foreign affairs, terrorism, national identity and disillusionment with traditional politics. The ongoing baseline issue of the environment, climate change and energy needs will continue to pose an extraordinary and existential threat to all of the planet as it has for the past two decades.

In economic terms, the world's overall GDP movement remains patchy with small but incremental growth in the United States, continued slowing expansion in China and a flat line in Europe and Japan. South America continues to experience hard economic conditions and the glut of oil has led to falling revenues for producers in the Gulf. There is little insight into the impact of the United Kingdom exiting the European Union (Brexit) or the influence of Donald Trump in the United States until he takes office from January 2017 onwards. In many respects, it is a watching game.

In terms of foreign affairs and terrorism, the war in Syria and Iraq will progress until one side is finally victorious. The only certainty is the eventual defeat of the Islamic State/Daesh group. All other scenarios are impossible to predict as most professional military and foreign relations commentators have reported.

Traditional political parties will continue to lose support if they operate on a business-as-usual basis. Across the long standing democracies, large segments of society are dissatisfied with the responsiveness and conduct with many of the ruling elites and the political class in general. Elections in 2017 will show whether this is now an established situation or merely a short-lived transit protest. It will also be a watching game.

Wherever you are, all the best for 2017.

Christmas 2016

Christmas - a time when religious and national leaders express their good wishes and desire for a better world, often couched in terms of peace, health and hope for the coming year. The choice of December 25 is associated with the birth of Jesus, the central figure in the Christian faith and part of the Holy Trinity of  Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  The actual date of birth of Jesus is unknown and hence the choice of 25 December originates from the 4th Century AD through the Western Christian Church and recorded in the Gregorian calendar. The Easter Christian Church uses the Julian calendar which would place the date at January 7, however there is little actual disagreement on the date itself. Through the mechanism of the 12 days of Epiphany both the Eastern and Western Churches are, in any case, linked.  The origin of the the use of the 25th December may also be more an influence of the pagan Romans who used this date to acknowledge the start of the Winter solstice. During the early period of the Christian Church, there was various attempts at over-running existing Roman festivals which occured at year-end thus creating an early form of spin doctoring and brand message creation.

Wherever you may be, happy holidays.

Exhibition review - Nude: art from the Tate Collection - Art Gallery of NSW

Pablo Picasso
Nude woman in a red armchair

(Femme nue dans un fauteuil rouge) 1932
oil paint on canvas

For this year's major Summer exhibition, the Art Gallery of NSW has partnered with the Tate Gallery in London to bring a selection of over 100 works representing the nude image over two centuries of art. The exhibition is titled, not surprisingly, Nude: art from the Tate collection.

The exhibition’s main highlight, placed centre-stage is Auguste Rodin’s sculpture The kiss 1901-04 which is being displayed for the first time outside of Europe. Other works of note include Pierre Bonnard’s The bath 1925, Picasso’s Nude woman in a red armchair 1932 (very standard abstractive Picasso), Sylvia Sleigh’s Paul Rosano reclining 1974, Ron Mueck’s Wild man 2005 (as with most Mueck works it's an enormous semi life-like sculpture) and Rineke Dijkstra’s Julie, Den Haag, Netherlands, February 29 1994.

The exhibition is themed in nine rooms in the Gallery with titles such as The Historical Nude, The Private Nude, The Modern Nude, Real and Surreal Bodies, Paint as Flesh and so on. The titles of each segment predominantly correspond to periods of time demonstrating the evolution of the nude through different art interpretations and representations. Given the scale and depth of the Tate collection, this is a relatively small, thin veneer selection of works of major artists worldwide who have used the nude human form.  Although much lauded, Rodin's sculpture, the kiss, is quite underwhelming, as quietly whispered by many members of the Art Gallery of NSW Foundation at a private viewing. Its more representative of the general physical movement of a man and woman kissing whilst in the thralls of an embrace but an awe inspiring sculpture it is not.

The exhibition runs from 5 November 2016 to 5 February 2017.

Donald J Trump's America - 10 reasons why Americans should think about moving to..... Australia

Donald J Trump  - President-elect of the United States

With the election of Donald Trump to be the 45th President of the United States, its understandable that many Americans may be considering where they may wish to spend the next few years. The Canadian immigration website crashed in the first few hours of the election result, but there is another option available and that is - Australia. There are ten good reasons to think about moving to Australia if you're an American of good heart and sound mind -

1.  Australia's political system is understandable to Americans. We have two Houses of Parliament for our National Government - the House of Representatives and the Senate. In fact, this was based on the US system and Congress which we copied. Our national capital, Canberra, was designed by an American, Walter Burley Griffin. We have States and State Governments, just like the US, only smaller and less crazy. 
2. Our voting system is compulsory and if you don't vote, you get a fine. None of this voter registration stuff and the need to get people out to vote. We have a very high turn-out and the silent majority can vote, all the time, so absolute surprises are rare. 
3. You can own a gun here but we have gun control laws - there is no Constitutional Right-to-Bear Arms and assault rifles are banned. You can have a firearm but you're on a register and the police can find you.
4. We have a public health care system called Medicare which is the envy of many people in the US. If you work here and pay taxes, you also pay a contribution called a levy to fund Medicare but everyone is covered. The Democrats in the US wanted the Australian system and even used it as an example in Congress but were unable to get Republican support.
5. We use the metric system like most of the rest of the World. The US does not, so you would need to learn how to measure things differently.
6. We have Australian Dollars which are similar to the US Greenback currency.
7. We have our own football codes and occasionally watch American football but it's not as big here. Our national summer sport is cricket which also uses a bat and a ball similar to baseball - except our bat has a flat surface and the batters don't have to run around a diamond shaped field.
8. We have public transport systems of rail, light rail and buses. Many US cities have similar services but many cut back on this public spending but we think its essential to have it.
9. We have national parks just like the US. In fact, Australia was the second country after the US to establish national parks and protect our flora and fauna.
10. Our official language is English, not so different to American English but its our own version with its own local words. Not too hard to learn

So there it is..... ten reasons why Australia is a good option if a Trump America does not appeal. Our politicians can be a bit silly but nothing compared to the parties with an elephant and a donkey as their logos.