Introducing Kaleido Insights

A new firm and new original research to help corporate leaders act on technology trends shaping the future, Kaleido Insights. By Jeremiah Owyang, with my partners Jaimy Szymanski, Jessica Groopman, and Rebecca Lieb

What happens when the pace and scope of technological change becomes exponentially greater than an organization’s ability to adapt?

This isn’t a prophecy, it’s today’s state of the business world. The scope and velocity of change brought about by technologies are only increasing. We’re surrounded by a proliferation of devices and interfaces; an untold velocity of data generation and networked services; and an ever-shifting tessellation of new capabilities and bright shiny objects. Innovation is no longer a choice, it’s an imperative.

To support organizations in this ongoing journey, today we launch Kaleido Insights.

Our mission is to help companies foresee, decipher, and act on technological disruption with agility.

Kaleido Insights is a research-based advisory firm founded by four proven industry analysts: Jaimy Szymanski, Jessica Groopman, Jeremiah Owyang, and Rebecca Lieb. Not only have we shared a deep history of collaboration, in both research and client project capacities, we’re a trusted team of friends. As research analysts, our collective expertise offers a wide range of coverage; when leveraged as a whole, we are greater than the sum of the parts.

When interwoven, we help organizations find sanity and strategy in the chaos, transforming this ‘kaleidoscope’ of technological disruption into a clear vision for innovation.

To substantiate our unique methodology for analyzing the impacts of emerging technologies, we are publishing an introductory research report. This research identifies and analyzes three macrotrends driven by emerging technologies which impact us all.

First, technology enables people to evolve into Super Humans. Born in the age of social media and accelerated through mobile, consumers’ ever-expanding toolkit of capabilities renders individuals more powerful than ever before. When devices communicate and learn from others products and services around them, pulling historical and real-time data to enhance context, Super Humans’ powers to act and make decisions dramatically increases. Super Humans demand a new type of corporation that not only meets their needs but predicts their future state and delivers before need arises.

Second, nimble and Fluid Organizations are the survivors. Early efforts in digital transformation reveal why shifting competitive forces requires agility and fluidity across systems, internal culture, and within innovation programs themselves. Kaleido analysts look at Fluid Organizations like Amazon, Tesla, Google, GE, and others to identify common traits. These traits encompass the whole of an organization, and infuse cultural and structural areas like leadership and governance, strategic areas such as product and business model innovation, as well as functions and lines of business themselves.

Third, Enlightened Ecosystems are the result of digital convergence with the physical world – as distributed systems, machines, and supply chains become more integrated, interconnectivity across ecosystems is forging intelligence more powerful than any single human or business. Ecosystem enablement has already become a tenant in digital strategies, but emerging technologies will shift and accelerate what it means for companies to open up.

Within each of these trends, Kaleido analysts surface key implications, examples, and offer clear direction on how to apply insights to help organizations participate. To access the full research report at no cost, visit our website. While you’re there, check out our research agenda for upcoming reports we’ll be publishing in the coming months.

In the meantime, feel free to be in touch: we welcome your feedback, comments, questions, or briefing requests. We are thrilled to offer Fortune 500 businesses, technology leaders and start-ups, and non-profit organizations rigorous, best-in-class research and strategic advisory services to innovation leaders across industries and functions. Together, we look forward to working with you to create and execute strategies to adapt to the consumer, business model, and ecosystem impacts of disruptive technologies.

Please let me know if there’s anything we can do for you: info@kaleidoinsights.com