Since my book came out, I have been blessed with an unbelievable range of feedback – from readers I have known for a while, others i have never met, and those I have been meeting on the book tour. To most it is about how technology is changing business but to many it is about a rethink of personal priorities and to many others it is about revisiting various ethical issues around technology.
I invited a few to express their big “aha” from the book. The first batch of contributors with links to their websites/LinkedIn pages is here. Here’s the second batch:
“What struck me most, and stayed with me long after reading the book, was the rising dilemma we have in Corporate America. I feel it is twofold . First, the constant pressure of the new and powerful Board of Directors- managing for short-term results and the balance of the leadership’s desire to innovate for long-term survival. There is certainly a gap today where you see that the strongest firms seem to balance this better than others. The second is I recently travelled to Italy where I saw first hand the awe of Leonardo, and Michelangelo’s work first hand. Their time period was a true innovative period . When I think of the parallels the book drew to that time, it reminds me of today’s young adults. They are grown up digital. Their brains are developed far differently than those that lead them. The dilemma I wonder about frequently, is how prepared Corporate America is for this and what we are doing as leaders to prepare ourselves for this reality. Are we tapping into the new brains? I fear not. I look forward to reading more thought provoking ideas from Vinnie who challenges us and educates us at the same time.”
“My partners and I at our firm RocketBuilders have been involved for a decade with many technology and other startups in Vancouver, BC. I also write a blog which reviews business books. I had the chance to review The New Polymath for that blog, and when I heard the author was coming to town, I hosted a breakfast where he could present some of the concepts. Now our city virtually empties out during August and I managed his expectations about attendance. To our surprise, we drew a nice crowd with some of the best tech brains in the community - educators, entrepreneurs, CEOs, investors and influencers. The discussion was far reaching and invigorating for all. Afterwards I received many thanks for hosting it as well as how enlightening the discussion was. This is more than a book, but the start of a thought movement. It has made me and my partners to think of hosting more authors and creating a regular salon for thought in our community here in the Pacific Northwest.”
"This entire book is one big a-ha moment from my vantage point. I'm a sucker for inspiring customer stories that offer hope and this book has plenty of those. What I particularly love about this book is it highlights innovation in analytics; not just evolutionary approaches to improving todays number crunching approaches that are meant for the executive brass.
The National Hurricane Center that's cited in the book was particularly inspiring. The Center leverages dynamic data every six hours, compares that to historical trends to make predictions about the future. Whilst it is an extreme use case and certainly one that has life threatening ramifications compared to customer dynamics, it gives us a good sense of how to meld dynamic with historical, and structured with unstructured data sets to make more meaningful judgments about how to react with minimal latency if necessary and to make long term bets. IBM's Collaborative User Experience Research Group case study in the book offers another excellent glimpse into how we can visualize large unruly streams of real time social interactions, map them to historical data and more intelligently forecast trends.
21st century businesses will demand innovation in analytics that focus on action based on dynamic data points. The case studies in the book really help crystallize some of this forward thinking and expose pockets of innovation from seemingly edge cases that I believe will become price of entry for tomorrow's buyers. Insight from dynamic, unstructured data will compliment structured analytics of today to become critical indicators of business strategy validation, effective competing and finally, sourcing new market opportunities for growth."
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