A United Nations provided a shared vision of humanity and a social contract between the world's leaders and the people. The agenda for Sustainable Development calls on countries to begin efforts to achieve the 17 SDGs over the next 15 years. The goals address the needs of people in both developed and developing countries, emphasizing that no one should be left behind. Broad and ambitious in scope, the agenda addresses the three dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic and environmental, as well as important aspects related to peace, justice and effective institutions. At the least, we must ensure that our innovation effort do not negatively impacting any of the metrics. Read more at un.org

A Japanese initiative to go beyond Germany's Industry 4.0. A human-centered society that balances economic advancement with the resolution of social problems by a system that highly integrates cyberspace and physical space. In the information society (Society 4.0), cross-sectional sharing of knowledge and information was not enough, and cooperation was difficult. Because there is a limit to what people can do, the task of finding the necessary information from overflowing information and analyzing it was a burden, and the labor and scope of action were restricted due to age and varying degrees of ability. In Society 5.0, however, people, things, and systems are all connected in cyberspace and optimal results obtained by AI exceeding the capabilities of humans are fed back to physical space. This process brings new value to industry and society in ways not previously possible. Social reform (innovation) in Society 5.0 will achieve a forward-looking society that breaks down the existing sense of stagnation, a society in which each and every person can lead an active and enjoyable life. Read more at go.jp

In the fourth industrial revolution we move from 'just' the Internet and the client-server model to ubiquitous mobility, the bridging of digital and physical environments (in manufacturing referred to as Cyber Physical Systems), the convergence of technologies (Internet of Things, Big Data, cloud, etc.) with additional accelerators such as advanced robotics and AI/cognitive which enable Industry 4.0 with automation and optimization in entirely new ways that lead to ample opportunities to innovate and truly fully automate and bring the industry to the next level. Read more at plattform-i40.de

You know what to do.

• Gathering Market Insight and trends, a step beyond traditional Voice of the Customer.
• Structured Ideation to address market insight

• Value Proposition is where you filter those ideas into what will make sense to a stakeholder – customer, user, business owner, …. If created someone will use it.
• Concept qualification is to further filter down those, into ones that will make business sense to pursue. While we have someone willing to use at the end of step 3, we have someone willing to invest in development because there is a return possible on creating this in step 4.

• Filter that evaluates the business worthy concepts to what is the right thing to do.
• Process to rank order and create a portfolio to pursue as projects.

• Prove that the concept works and delivers to the projected performance.
• Deliver 1st few pieces to a customer and prove it in market place. Gauge the price point.
• Develop a multi-year business case and seek further funding.
• Capture real customers and secure to reach a market share.

We know the 9+ key technologies and 4 principles of Industry 4.0. We understand its impact to our business and also have some idea on how to use it for our growth. We are aware. We are not yet prepared to address the change.

We know which technology to adopt when, and we will be able to do it as soon as our customers are ready for it. We have the necessary skill set to follow the industry leaders, in time, without sweating out of business.

We understand the opportunity for us to enhance our customer’s experience. We have embarked on adaption of some of the relevant technologies to create value proposition in anticipation of customer demand. Our leadership team can see the near future, and invest wisely. Our organization has a dependable and proven innovation process.

We are pushing the boundaries in some of the top 9 technologies and educating our customers through enhanced experience. We understand the risk in creating customer demand. Our organization has the exploratory mindset. We get it and intend to lead the consumers in this.

We have the 3 things required to be robust and resilient as the fourth revolution unfolds. We can handle disruptions.