McKinsey: 8 Business Technology Trends to Watch

The McKinsey Quarterly's latest edition (20 December, 2007) features an article on "emerging trends...transforming many markets and businesses."
Authors: James M. Manyika, Roger P. Roberts, and Kara L. Sprague.

Article links (free registration required):
McKinsey Quarterly article [text]

McKinsey Quarterly article [audio]

Article summary:

Managing relationships
1. Distributing cocreation
2. Using consumers as innovators
3. Tapping into a world of talent
4. Extracting more value from interactions
Managing capital and assets:
5. Expanding the frontiers of automation
6. Unbundling production from delivery
Leveraging information in new ways:
7. Putting more science into management
8. Making business from information

TEDTalks: Richard Branson (2007)

When asked a question about how he manages to start up and manage so many companies, he responds that if you can run one company then you can run many
- running companies is about finding good people and then bringing out their best.
- previews the interior design of the Virgin Galactic craft.
- discusses the fact that he's dyslexic and left school at the age of 15.
- "capitalist philanthropy" - alludes to the fact that in a capitalist system extreme wealth ends up in the hands of a few people, and that responsibility goes with that wealth, and that it's important for those individuals to use that money to create jobs or to tackle issues, eg. global warming/alternative fuels; social problems in Africa (including AIDS)