disruption
52 articles

High Fashion Meets Maker Manufacturing

The line between fashion and technology is blurring. What does this mean for future innovations?
Lyn Jeffery | Institute for the Future

Fashion has always been a form of communication and self-expression, a quick visual signal of one’s tastes, allegiances and socioeconomic position. During the next decade, personal fashion and personal computing will begin to blur, offering us a new way to think about what today we call “devices.” Whereas today’s personal devices help us communicate primarily through […]

Why Blockchain Matters

Blockchain has the potential to disrupt more facets of your life than perhaps any other technology. Here’s what you need to know.

In 2016, more than $1.4 billion was invested globally in blockchain startups. IBM invested $200 million and 1,000 employees in the technology. Walmart, IBM and Tsinghua University in Beijing are running a pilot project for tracking and tracing pork in China and produce in the U.S. Among companies in consumer goods and manufacturing, 42 percent […]

How 3D Printing Could Bend the Cost Curve in Healthcare

Additive manufacturing could provide a real breakthrough in treating patients around the world.
John Menna | UPS

Even as people around the globe enjoy longer, healthier and more productive lives, the rising cost of healthcare threatens to impede such progress. This is particularly troubling in the United States as Baby Boomers approaching retirement place a greater strain on an overburdened healthcare system. Policymakers and medical leaders are scrambling for innovative ways to […]

Seeing Logistics in 3D

From hearing aids to jet engines, 3D printing is revolutionizing the world of manufacturing.
Alan Amling | UPS

Of all the ways 3D printing will change the world, the democratization of manufacturing is perhaps the most important. Think of it as the Uberization of manufacturing, where supply can be accessed anywhere in the world to produce goods at the click of button. This is a once-in-a-generation logistics opportunity, as so-called additive manufacturing will […]

Disruption at the Edge: IoT Transforming Energy Grids

Utilizing the power of the Internet of Things would enhance sustainable practices.
Thierry Godart | Intel Corporation

Digital disruption is here to stay. Much like the electronic revolution that led to PCs, mobile phones and smart devices, energy grids are on the verge of a major change. Consider the network of power plants, utilities and power lines comprising energy grids, for a moment. What you effectively have is the largest machine in […]

Automating Supply Chain Resilience

To benefit from advanced risk identification tools and keep pace with customer expectations, companies need a new approach to supply chain resilience.
Dr. Luca Urciuoli | Zaragoza Logistics Center

Substantial investments in supply chain resilience have enabled companies to vastly improve their capacity for bouncing back after a disruption. But the digitization of supply chains is introducing new demands on company operations that require a different approach to building supply chain resilience. With the benefit of digital technologies, companies are using big data to […]

With AI, Answers Are Cheap, But Questions Are The Future

With knowledge growing exponentially, we should be running out of puzzles. Instead, we keep discovering greater unknowns.
Kevin Kelly | WIRED

Because of the tools of science, we know vastly more about the universe, our world and ourselves than we did a century ago. Yet the paradox of science is that every answer we uncover yields at least two brand new questions. More tools and more answers lead to ever more questions. Telescopes, scanners and atom […]

Assets are Dead … Long Live Assets

We’re overthinking it. Business success is about making lives better.
Alan Amling | UPS

Are assets losing value in this age of platform-based businesses? Conventional wisdom suggests that asset-heavy businesses, which dominated the Fortune 500 list for the last century, are in decline. Uber is on the rise despite not owning any vehicles, Apple is dominating music distribution without owning any record companies and Airbnb is disrupting the lodging […]

Drone Meets Delivery Truck

This CEO is re-imagining package delivery. Learn more about his vision here.
Stephen Burns | Workhorse Group

UPS on Monday tested a residential package delivery, using a drone launched from the roof of a delivery truck. The drone and the delivery truck were made by Workhorse Group. In this test, the drone flew autonomously to a home where it delivered a package and returned to the vehicle – while the delivery driver continued […]

Does Your Supply Chain Strategy Hold Water?

How conserving water can slow supply chain disruption and garner future rewards.

Companies have come a long way in their ability to manage supply chain risk, but they urgently need to step up their efforts in one key area: water scarcity. The Carbon Disclosure Project’s (CDP) 2016 Annual Report of Corporate Water Disclosure, published in November 2016, provides a wake-up call. A total of 607 of the […]

Can E-Commerce and Sustainability Co-Exist?

A successful company is a sustainable company, which also allows it to keep up with the e-commerce boom.
Greg Brown | UPS

Technology is transforming the retail landscape as we know it. According to Forrester, U.S. online retail sales are anticipated to exceed $520 billion by 2020. Globally, online sales are growing three times faster than GDP. Increasingly, online shopping is being combined with traditional shopping trips to brick-and-mortar stores. According to the 2016 UPS Pulse of the […]

6 Issues That Will Shape the EU in 2017

The EU reflects on past issues to identify challenges and opportunities in 2017.
Carl Bildt | European Council on Foreign Relations

A year ago in Davos, the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Europe published a short report: Europe: What to watch out for in 2016-2017. We noted that the EU “seems to be moving from one emergency to the next” and that “Europeans have taken their eyes off more profound long-term challenges.” We concluded […]

What We Loved at CES 2017

Here’s what caught our attention at the year’s largest tech summit – and what could become part of everyday life in the near future.
Dave Roegge | UPS

Convenience was the hot item at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) with everything – including the kitchen sink – designed to make our lives easier and better. This year’s smart devices were even smarter, artificial intelligence was more intelligent and virtual reality looked, well, more real. As expected, drones were one of the big […]

5 Industries That Will Be Completely Transformed by IoT

The true promise of IoT is massive connectivity across industries, but can it deliver?
Jennifer Alsever | Wired Brand Lab

Contrary to popular belief, the promise of the Internet of Things (IoT) is not just about your alarm clock knowing when you leave the house or your thermostat adjusting the heat upon your return. Yes, these technological advancements offer myriad possibilities, but IoT technology is so much more than a connected light bulb — it’s […]

How Knowledge-Based Analytics Can Drive Drug Discovery

Knowledge and data analytics will fuel the next frontier in healthcare.
Louisa Roberts | IBM Watson Health

Data-driven analytics is far from a new concept in healthcare. From improving population health and disease management to advancing precision medicine initiatives, data-driven analytics have laid the foundation for more targeted care for decades. But in today’s information-overloaded environment, where the data is only as powerful as the insights generated from it, the key actually […]

Generation Z in the Workplace: 4 Tips for Future Employers

An award-winning roboticist – and high school junior – offers advice to employers who will soon hire Gen Z workers.
Anna Nixon | STEM4Girls

Anna Nixon is seemingly tireless. She’s the co-founder of an educational nonprofit. She’s an award-winning roboticist with more than nine years’ experience. She’s an accomplished conference speaker and a teacher. And one more thing: She’s a high school junior. At 16, Nixon has received more accolades than most will in their entire professional careers. Most […]

TED@UPS: What if Everyone in the World Had an Address?

Here's why a simple address is no small matter.
Mario Paluzzi | Coyote Logistics

Mario Paluzzi crafts solutions to the shipping industry’s most head-scratching challenges. After developing a mobile app for drivers and an online web portal for customers and carriers, he wondered what our world would look like if we could give everybody an address.  Mario shares his story in his TED@UPS talk featured below. After you watch the video, read our […]

To Your Doorstep, Faster than the Speed of Sound

The logistics landscape is changing faster than ever. Here's what it might look like in coming years.
Bala Ganesh | UPS

Autonomous vehicles dominate the headlines. But they’re just one of the many futuristic technologies we could use to make deliveries in coming decades. Indeed, at some point in the future, the logistics landscape could barely resemble what we see today. Here’s an admittedly fanciful look at some of the cutting-edge technologies we could use one […]

Secure Data, Safer Delivery

Keeping the global delivery chain safe from terrorism means employing new technology and better data security, says Tom Ridge.
Tom Ridge | Americans for Securing All Packages (ASAP)

On Sept. 11, 2001, the shocking terrorist attack in the heart of New York City, at the Pentagon and in my home state of Pennsylvania prompted our nation to confront a very real question: Are we truly prepared? As we commemorate our nation’s deadliest terrorist attack 15 years later, we have come a long way […]

What is Next for Refugees Seeking Asylum in Europe?

Activists, volunteer groups and corporations are helping refugees settle into their new environments, but it’s not easy.
Jill Hilbrenner | The Guardian

“They didn’t go out in public at all,” says Joung-ah Ghedini-Williams, an emergency response coordinator for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), recalling a Syrian couple she met in Berlin in February. The young parents of three children – a 4 year old and infant twins – had tried to wait out the bloody […]

Leaving the Electric Grid Behind

Take a closer look at the symbiotic relationship between the building and the car.
Zach Mortice | Redshift

They’re the twin pillars of the American dream and the current climate predicament: the single family detached house and the automobile—the convenience, freedom and independence enabled by inefficient and finite fossil fuels. As such, much of the urban-planning and architecture industries are focused on ways to radically subvert this inherited infrastructural wisdom. So what if […]

How Businesses and Governments Can Capitalize on Blockchain

Blockchain has the potential to transform not only the way commerce is done but the interplay between governments, businesses and citizens.
Jerry Cuomo | IBM

The emergent technology blockchain has been roiling the technology and financial services industries for months, and, now, people in other industries and government agencies are asking questions about it. I’m convinced that it has the potential to transform not only the way commerce is done but the interplay between governments, businesses and citizens. That’s why […]

VIDEO: Jeremy Rifkin Has Seen the Future

Take a closer look at the sharing economy, the nature of productivity and the intersection of communication, energy and transportation in coming decades.
Brian Hughes | UPS Longitudes

This is a defining moment for the future of the human race. As in other paradigm shifts in history, we must better understand how economic opportunities arise. If we know how such openings materialize, we’ll have a roadmap for harnessing our connectivity in this increasingly global society. That’s how bestselling author and thought leader Jeremy […]

Will Disruption Take a Bite Out of Logistics Jobs?

New technologies and trends will shake up the industry, but could boost employment.
Alan Amling | UPS

As advancing technology and business-model innovations gain momentum and threaten to disrupt logistics, some are beginning to worry about their impact on logistics-related jobs. Take 3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, for example. The concern over jobs is based in the fact that 3D printing eliminates the need for both high-volume production facilities and […]

Want to Thrive in Disruptive Times? Start With an Agile Supply Chain.

Here are seven ways logistics can help you find a competitive advantage in today’s marketplace.
Martin Christopher | Cranfield University

Companies operating in every industrial sector and in every market around the world are facing significant challenges, ranging from economic recession to demographic shifts and geo-political upheavals, to name but a few. The healthcare and pharmaceutical industries are no exception. When confronting these changes, it will be crucial for companies to develop agile supply chains. […]

On the Road to Disruption

Change comes to all industries eventually. Is logistics next?
Alan Amling | UPS

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most responsive to change.”   –Charles Darwin In their heyday, few would have bet against the ongoing market dominance of category behemoths Kodak and Blockbuster. We now use those companies as examples of the myopia that sends […]

The New Rules of Collaboration

Collaboration is becoming an increasingly powerful innovation tool, but it’s important to harness its power for good. Here’s how.
Jay Rogers | Local Motors

Never before in history has knowledge been able to have so much power. The primary reason is that the world is more connected than ever before, but it goes further than that. In an increasingly networked world, the ability to reach across disciplines, time and space and to work together is rapidly accelerating. Naturally, the […]

5 Ways Technology Will Disrupt Commerce

The mobile phenomenon demonstrates how interwoven technology and commerce have become.
Devin Wenig | eBay

In the final flurry of Christmas shopping last year, a buyer in Miami snapped up a new, 18-carat rose-gold men’s Rolex watch for $29,000 on the eBay iPhone app. The watch, which sold at 9.30pm on Christmas Eve and came with free one-day shipping, may have made a welcome last-minute gift for someone. It was […]

The Power of Resilience

A Q&A with Yossi Sheffi on how the best companies manage the unexpected.
Yossi Sheffi | MIT

In his new book, “The Power of Resilience: How the Best Companies Manage the Unexpected” (MIT Press), MIT professor Yossi Sheffi explains why modern vulnerabilities call for innovative processes and tools for creating and embedding corporate resilience and risk management. Sheffi spoke with Longitudes editor Samantha Slappey. Samantha: Your book is titled “The Power of […]

Will Cars Become the Next Smartphones?

The automotive industry has the potential to cause disruption across many sectors.
Sheri Hickok | General Motors Company

We hear the term “disruptive innovation” thrown around all the time – back in January, the Economist even described it as the business buzzword of the year. As with most words that fall into such common use, it means many different things to different people. I’d always assumed it referred to any breakthrough technologies that […]