Keynote for Hitachi at Wired’s Nextfest

Posted by Dr. James Canton on August 31, 2007 under Uncategorized | Be the First to Comment

On September 14, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, I will be presenting my Top Innovation Trends and the Future of Business keynote at Wired’s Nextfest on behalf of Hitachi

Accelerating change and radical innovations are reshaping the business landscape. Innovation is the key driver of competitive advantage. New industries, products and services will emerge such as clean tech, nano-manufacturing, always-on Internet, on-demand pharmaceuticals, personalized medicine, personal security, Web 2.0 media and alternative energy to name a few. There are massive challenges and opportunities that confront business and society as we step into the 21st century. How will we manage climate change? What will be the impact of 100 new mega-cities? How will the next generation of Web 2.0 businesses compete? How business leaders and companies prepare for the future—the emerging threats and opportunities—is the central focus of my practice at the Institute for Global Futures.

At the same time complexity in business is increasing and the need for more transparent business process tools are in demand. Managing the transaction knowledge space across time zones, geographies and markets will be a challenge few companies have mastered. Many of these new industries are global and have global customers, supply chains and partners. New tools that provide faster information that can support better decision-making are needed.

I think that XBRL can be a powerful tool for better transparency and managing the global enterprise and increasing competitive value by streamlining all kinds of information. The full potential in a world of always-on networks, virtualization and pervasive mobility demands that people have access 24/7 to their business-critical data. XBRL will enable this access and more. I have been an early advocate of XBRL for a number of years.

At first XBRL was viewed as solely a financial management tool. In this era of real-time business, global competition and super-fast innovation I think the future potential to use XBRL goes well beyond finance. I think that any company that wants to maintain a future competitive advantage will want to explore the potential use of this tool.