Online Gaming: Online games will be big in 2017. Sure consoles will still be in existence and hugely popular at that, but so will games played over the internet. The only difference is that the ones on the internet will be so huge that soon consoles will begin to be obsolete.

 Web development: Anyone doing web development will have to learn from CSS 3 upwards and HTML5 as well. Liquid graphics are in. Beach-side hotels want a website with a wave crashing in the background. They want liquefied tabs. They want to smell the humid salty air that hit their face when they visited Diani last holiday season. Make the website an experience that will sell the dream.

Chrome to run on Android devices: Currently, Chrome runs well on Desktop and particularly well at that. It is not a memory hog like some other browsers and is good on functionality such as Bookmark handling and password keeping. Only issue is that you lose some of this on the installation on mobile. Google are making changes on this though. Expect something better on all devices, including non-Android devices like iPads.

Better web navigation on mobile:  If you are not on mobile, then you are not thinking long-term. Or so the saying goes. Every website will be available on Mobile. There will be a growth in mobile themes for practically all content management systems (CMSs) to enable easy navigation, easy use and the clicks will now largely be generated on mobile browsers.

One of the key subjects in elementary economics is factors of production. You will learn about land, labor, capital and entrepreneur. Without land, in the old industrial economy, it would be very difficult to do business. How can you establish a mill factory where there is no land? Of course, that economic theory has since been updated as technology redesigned our world. Today, knowledge is the most important factor of production.

To compete in the market place, you need ambitious and talented team players to lead your firm. This is what separates iconic, dynamic and successful companies from the laggards. These firms are knowledge organizations. Driven by human intelligence, they live in the domain of innovation and forward-thinking business philosophy. Knowledge brings competitive advantage and creates an ecosystem that sustains market leadership through both creative destruction and disruptive innovation.

For organizations to succeed in this globalizing economy, human talent is very important. Without it, there is no pathway to success. The reason is that technology has reshaped the nature of competition. In the old industrial economy, you can depend on having scale to win the market place. Today, we have noted that innovators with brainpower can disrupt, by relying not, largely on capital, but ideas.

Google was nearly bought by Yahoo when it was rising up. Today, Google can afford to buy Yahoo. Google innovated and was forward-thinking, moving from web to mobile ecosystem while Yahoo was docile and static, focusing on email and news aggregation businesses. Many experts have argued that Yahoo has stalled in innovation because the company is not trendy to attract top talents like in Facebook, Zynga, and Google.

Across industries and markets, we have consistently noted that ideas are developed and scaled by the imagination and determination of man.  This has been as old as civilization. While we can see technology as the instrument for business processes, man remains the anchor and epicenter to make that technology work intelligently. One man sees the cellphone as a device to make a phone call, another sees it as a bank branch office. It is all about understanding the future with the knowledge of the present and using that to create business models that will align with market evolving patterns. You need talented people to do that. If your firm does not recognize that in the trio of People, Processes and Tools (PPT), that the most important element is People, you will not succeed.

I do not see agile firms as being driven by the outdated factors of production. I use PPT because it gets all the important variants I need. Irrespective of your business, it surely has an operation in it and there are tools that help you to execute that operation. That tool could be land, and capital. The People are then the entrepreneur and the labor (your team members) that drive the organization goal.

Interestingly, the Process is what the People have made it using the available Tools. So, it is very strategic that you get the right people to manage that tool if you hope to get your process working. How do you do that? You need to understand that every Innovation is only possible because it is humanly possible. That means you have to position your team to become that one that will make that innovation possible. You need to invest in mentoring and development to help them reach their fullest potentials and create a constant reawakening for all, irrespective of level in your firm, to understand the real power of People.

Specifically for entrepreneurs, they live and succeed by people. That is why the venture funds or private equity firms take time to understand a team, irrespective of the idea. To them: “it is not just the idea, but the people behind the idea”, says a Boston area serial entrepreneur in a private discussion. And he is  right, computers, software, sales, etc are nothing without People. So learn how to invest and maximize the potential of your organization “human element”.

by ndubuisi ekekwe

Since democratic system of governance was invented many centuries ago, the present transformation or redesigning phase it is experiencing across many nations is noticeable. From America to Africa, technology is restructuring how citizens relate with their leaders. With readily available information, the citizens have become more informed and active in the affairs of the nation.

Leadership has morphed into a very simple two-way feedback system that is cheap, efficient and timely. And that has come through the powers of social media networks which enable interactions between any interested citizen and the leaders. From American President to his Nigerian counterpart, Facebook provides a platform for dialogue. Citizens can go online and post simple questions and expect the leaders to take note.

This evolving trend is possible because communication systems have become cheaper and accessible. In the old network TV model, only the very influential people could get on the TV to make suggestions on how the country could be managed. But today, what is important is an idea-have an idea on what government could do better, then visit the necessary website and post it. It turns out that if they ignore it, another website will escalate it until they notice it.

It is not just the political leadership that is using this citizen energy. Businesses are increasingly sourcing and sharing ideas from the consumers of their products. They get insights that help them shape future products. And the consumers also pass across their feelings when they do not get the products rights. In this piece, I will focus on the political leadership.

Never before is the citizen exerting more influence than what we have today. And the future looks more exciting because Moore’s Law will guarantee us more access to networks of more people as technology prices continue to go down even with more efficiency and performance.

In the midst of this development is a challenge for government to be ethical. Every citizen is a pseudo journalist and control over the media empires will not stop any bad act to be transmitted across the globe.

It used to be, take care of the big networks and any scandal will never be made open. It does not work anymore because there are many avenues to break news without the media houses. And those can move faster with devastating impact that even retraction makes no sense since the digital footprints are always there.

This implies that governments must be mindful that in the era of modern democracy, it has become more open. And this openness brings a challenge to act ethical at all times. There is no more a season of deals because anything can appear on the web. Technically, there is no secret.

Governments must understand that the tripod relationships between them, citizens and institutions have changed drastically over the years. Globalization makes it possible to have access to information for benchmarking what other constituencies are doing. And immediately, firms and people change their expectations from their governments.

Over the course of many centuries, governments have moved from central, regional, then central, and now to citizen government, especially in democracies. The self-aware citizens do not accept polices hook, line and sinker. Even in feudal systems, the citizens are asking questions and that old dominance has since been challenged for accountability.

In America, the citizens could organize under a Tea Party umbrella; in Nigeria, they have Enough is Enough. Despite their different names and modus operandi, these organizations and many that can be found in any democracy are pushing leaders to be more open, accountable and responsive. And they honestly think that directing the future of the nation must not be left alone to the politicians. They want to influence dialogue and the nation’s trajectory. They ask questions on areas of national concerns and they want change.

Forty years ago, they may appear to be ill-informed. Not anymore! They have access to information that used to be seen by only government officials as technology has made dissemination easier. From Think Tanks to universities to non-governmental organizations, anyone could read their analyses online, free. Even the government’s own writings are easily available and suddenly that secrecy that leaders enjoyed over things that shaped their policies is eroding. People now challenge them with data and can authoritatively make their points for new directions.

Leadership in this era provides an opportunity that a star could be born overnight as performance news pass across boundaries. It offers an opportunity to be ethical and honest in dealing with the citizens. One understands the difficulty leaders face in trying to engineer the nation to long-term prosperity when most of the citizens are interested in the short-terms. How you communicate the need for minor pains today for major joy tomorrow will depend on how trustworthy you are. Citizens will believe an honest leader and can give concessions for the good of the nation.

As the opportunity is also the threat. It is easier to see politicians resign quicker and faster after scandals are broken. The bad news go through the same pathway the good ones pass.

In open democracy, what is truly leadership? Can we argue that China which shortened a century of western innovation into a quarter century under no internationally accepted democratic norm is not displaying leadership we could envy? No open democracy, but the world, especially Africa is looking towards China. They envy that state capitalism where the leaders build world class public institutions that Wall Street gladly accepts even when they criticize governments going into business in America and Africa. From banking to energy, we have pseudo government-run empires in China that best investors welcome though successful IPOs.

The reality is that under a citizen government, economic vibrancy is not the only gain of governance. People want freedom, by nature. Nonetheless, leadership and good one minus other externalities is not only found in democracy. However, to the people, denying them the right to attain that position of leadership, if they choose, shows the leader is not a good one. It is about having rights to exercise wishes under the law. And every person irrespective of birth can fulfill a dream. Under this hypothesis, many African leaders that oppose elections are designated as bad leaders by the West irrespective of their efforts in other areas. By acculturation, the West thinks that a political leadership should be expressive and open.

Finally, I conclude that I dream of a world whose governance is open and transparent with a vista not only to economic greatness, but individual rights. It must be one where citizen energy is exerted in the affairs of the nation and leaders stewards not only to the citizens, but the nation. And those leaders taking the opportunities that technology brings through openness and continuous improvement to restore the dignity of man.