The Reading Room – updated daily

For two weeks, I’m guest editor on EMSNOW, while Jennifer takes a well-earned break! For that period, I’m taking the liberty of posting some daily musings. My day generally starts with my own “reading room”, a quick review of my favorite news sources, usually including this publication. Here’s what caught my eye with this morning’s coffee.

• Interesting times in consultancy as we read that Accenture Interactive is to acquire Droga5, and push further into user experience and marketing. David Droga said: “The world of advertising is changing, and we are excited for this incredible opportunity with a company that will add more dimension to our best ideas and help push us beyond our existing ambitions. The proposition we can bring to market with Accenture Interactive will transform the industry.
• We seem to be on a roll of female CEOs, starting with EMS companies Flex and Enics and now Aston Martin appoints first-ever female president. Laura Schwab, head of Aston Martin the Americas, says her promotion signals a “pivotal moment in time for women”. This is even more significant in the male dominated automotive sector. Let’s hope for and celebrate more of these appointments!
• Another interesting use case for AI from IBM. The claim is IBM artificial intelligence can predict with 95% accuracy which workers are about to quit their jobs. IBM HR has a patent for its “predictive attrition program” which was developed with Watson to predict employee flight risk and prescribe actions for managers to engage employees. Rometty would not explain “the secret sauce” that allowed the AI to work so effectively in identifying workers about to jump (officially, IBM said the predictions are now in the 95 percent accuracy “range”). Rometty would only say that its success comes through analyzing many data points.
• And finally, if you have time for a few slides, well more than fifty actually, take a look at “Leadership: Driving innovation and delivering impact” The Deloitte Global Chief Procurement Officer Survey 2018. It’s a lot of data, but some really solid insights.

  Have a great weekend, more on Monday…

  Read more, watch more, know more – that’s the SCOOP!