15 Things to Predict & Plan for 2018

If the events of 2017 leave you hyperventilating, frustrated, disoriented and sitting inside a thick fog of confusion, then brace yourself for 2018 as the pace of change, the degree of turbulence, and the digital impact on our products, services and presidents will become only more pronounced. If the stock and financial markets of 2017 leave you flushed with funds then look forward to more of that too in 2018.

1. Micro segmentation is going to have global ramifications: Personally: How many people that you did not know before social networks do you communicate with today. How many old friends have you connected with in the last 10 years. How many folks reading this have not used Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter or bought something on-line- we can safely assume ‘zero’. If you are reading this you are on LinkedIn and if you are on a professional social group then you must be on a personal social group too. Be careful of what you forward to your friends, who are your friends on your social networks and what you like or dislike, what you share and what permissions you give to your applications on your phones, i.e. we need your geo-location’ requests. Professionally Global digital connections are staggering and they also have staggering implications as discussed in my article on micro segmentation  followed by one specific region of personality amplifiers. allows companies to finally look at ever smaller segments to understand needs and expectation’s in order to provide micro targeted materials to specific groups or individuals. Social networks and digital enterprises are measured on numbers of transactions, clicks, follow customers so they only care about your interaction. Social content providers are measured on their members, their interactions and repeat interactions. Just like the leaders of some nations they need to grab your eye-balls and get individuals to spend more and more time on your content and applications. AI engines in social sites and digital enterprises conduct analysis on your selections, resulting in their understanding your political, religious and sexual and other preferences. With all this knowledge these sites will connect you to like minded individuals or groups across the planet to bring you an emotional “Ah-Ha’ moment of digital addition. Your aim has to be for your users, consumers and customers to become digitally addicted to your application, platform or service.
2. Disrupt or be Disrupted: Personally: As more and more companies go digital the customer wins. Think why you prefer to use Uber or Lyft to go from point A to B and then try and figure out a similar mobile, which will need a digital foundation, application that can disrupt your product or service. Professionally: I’ve been writing this since 2012 and even today it is time to listen. Micheal E. Porter wrote about this in HBR in November of 2014 ‘How smart connected products are Transforming Competition’ a must read. In order to succeed building the future digital enterprise we need to design on two mandatory deliverables. [1] The quality must become better; [2] The cost must become lower. The only way to do that is digitization, AI and Real-Time decision enablement, add robotics for manufacturers to that. NEVER, my apologies but I need to should this out, EVER think that there is no digital alternative that can disrupt your product or service. Corporations are now starting to try and predict what Amazon could do next. Companies like amazon have become ‘Mama Dragons’ and they have a trove of highly personalized data on how consumers search for products or services, how they see, select, order, receive and return goods. 2018 will witness a US corporate awakening from things that were an irritant till 2017 but now are seen as a clear and evident danger to current business models of traditional strategy, acquisitions, investments and divestitures. If you are not digitally smart in the next few years then expect a rapid slide as someone else simply digitizes, and visualizes, your full operational process chain.
3. Smart things will only become smarter: Personally, get ready for smarter products and services in everything you need. There are already smarter ways to buy (Amazon), Read (Kindle), travel (Uber), holiday (Airbnb), health (Fitbit) and all these conveniences will only become smarter and more pervasive. As smart things, like the smart TV, become smarter, they will attempt to gather more and more data about the users. This data is the ‘diamonds of the future’ and everyone will try to collect as much as they can via the small print of your activation agreements. Professionally Knowledge is being gleaned from patterns based on collective data. Individual and micro-segmented data is the key and a highly reusable commodity. Get ready to build smarter produces and services because customers and users are expecting it. An average customer has smarter interfaces to their personal needs than they have in their work places. This will change rapidly as we move into the future. “Disrupt or be Disrupted’ is the message on the wall since the last three years. It is now coming home to roost. When customers do not find a smart interface to your services or products they will move to someone that can provide it.
4. Climate goes down the drain: Personally: One of the greatest positive reverberations of Trump withdrawing from the Paris accord was that mayors and governors took it upon themselves to pledge to climate control. However, another thing happened simultaneously, at least to those that think climate change is inevitable unless we change our habits, we lost faith in our leaders and their reasons for doing things. Unfortunately this thinking process will become a global ripple effect of international politics. More and more leaders will now start to care only for their fringe voters, religious groups and their local hillocks. Just as we thought that humanity was retreating from this unfortunate status of ‘forever-war’ to a time of global understanding and harmony. The pendulum has swung right back to the ‘Only-I-me-my’ world of ‘I only protect my kind’ and 'let us build larger weapons'. We can see reverberations of this across the planet and this will reverberate farther with the micro-fragmentation capabilities of a connected planet where each group will aim be to ‘Make only us great again’. If everyone wants to become the greatest, at whatever cost, then there can only be turmoil, distrust and discord in the future. Professionally: The ‘Only-I-Me and My’ attitude will ensure that each terrorist group will become more violent than the last; [2] Each country, state, group and sub-group will only think and demand their own rights no matter what it does to others; [3] Long dead, and banned, groups will be reawakened by the blood of separatist and isolationist micro-communications like global vampires reawakening. Facebook will become the strategy hub and twitter the global group communication arm (as proven in the ‘Arab spring’ communications. New leaders will rise in this global climate change initiative as the US remains the only country that does not believe humans are impacting climate change. China today is stepping into the shoes that the US built and will probably lead the climate change initiatives for the near future.
5. The US Economy is on fire: Personally, the US and Indian market is all but booming, but a cautionary note as this is the longest run on record and we are benefiting the investments of the last decade currently. Leverage the current state to invest into the future as there is no better time than now. If you can’t invest into the future today imagine when the market adjusts. We are predicting a continued growth, a hyper one actually in the first eight months of 2018. Companies and rich US entrepreneurs will get back a lot of funds and make a lot more profits but they will not create any proportional new jobs.  Professionally Plan your work and only then work your plans. This is the right time to invest into strategic discovery workshops and commence digital transformation, i.e. while your cash reserves are high. This is the right time to conduct strategic business initiatives. 2018 will see a super run for the first six months that are currently predictable, and it seems 2018 will be a great year for US stocks. Remember that unless you plan it well your BI, Big Data and digitization projects currently have a 70% probability of failure. So, focus on point #3 above when leveraging your budgets and spends. Just because you have the cash does not mean you can afford to squander it. A lot of US investments will come back to the US as manufacturing comes back. However, these funds will be better spent on robotics, AI and automation. It will certainly not bring back any jobs that the US economy is expecting. The excess money will make the top 3% the landlords of the country. While they will buy more and more properties, pay lesser and lesser taxes which could become permanent (i.e. permanent benefits to the very rich but temporary to the rest), the rest of the 97% will either buy more and more expensive houses where rents will not even pay mortgages and/or become renters sooner or later. This is the design of the future, this is what the US democracy is coming to. Add to that that by 2025 this 97% will get 4% less in hand than they do today. Their tax returns will only be higher, by 3.5% for the next two years, ie. till the next election. Globally some national currencies will become junk-bond as their central bank experiments go out of control. Read ‘Identifying patterns of Economic Meltdown’ to get a glimpse of why we thing countries, states and cities go bankrupt. It comes right back to the way democracy is run today, i.e. the process of buying votes today even at the cost of strategic meltdown.
6. Hyper Growth comes with Hyper Crashes: Personally, while a lot of things are on the way up there are some things that will need to go down to maintain the growth areas. Malls are out etailers are in. Cabs are out and e-rides are in. TV is slowly going out and e-media is coming in. News media has been dealt a death blow by ‘Fake News’ and alternative streams that maintain the truth will succeed. Oil is on a downward slope and alternative energies are in. Watch commodities, products and services that are waning and look for others that will wane. Professionally Once again we can attribute a lot of global change to one single individual that is taking the ride almost all on his own- Elon Musk. Don't no one tell me a single person cannot make a difference or that the mighty are too big. The big shift is on. Automotive is in for a big shift as more and more cars and trucks go electric and autonomous in the next five years. Private space as the highly complex Space industry goes private with Space-X. Oil and Gas as Tesla forever changes the very connections between oil and automotive and all sources of energy for the future. Elon has also proven that manufacturing will be coming back to America. Prior to Tesla the US auto industry firmly believed that cars could only be manufactured in Detroit and surrounding areas due to its low cost and affinity to cheap labor. Tesla built its factor on the most expensive real-estate in the US and knocked the socks off all the traditional manufacturers. The key is robotics. When we go robotics we no longer have to manufacture in China which is neither close to the raw materials nor to the market. China was an opportunist communist low paid hyper manufacturer. Now, with robotics it no longer makes any sense to manufacture there. Retail and the impact Jeff Bezos is having in commoditizing many things like book stores, malls, and retail as a whole. Amazon now wants to convert computing into a utility and already dominates over 42% of the Cloud hosting market. The winners will be digitization and e-corporations, i.e. the Amazons, Airbnb, Ubers and Lyfts, and any new digital disrupters with a user focused delivery model. The losers will be Oil and the middle east, Manufacturing in China, Retail across the planet, Peace and security as more and more micro groups demand their rights / as opportunities start to disappear in the middle east and China and they are convinced to spend their dwindling revenues on arms to protect themselves against their neighbors, Labor in the US as manufacturing returns but few manufacturing jobs will be created. There is a crash in unskilled jobs and this will create issues for any ruling party.
7. Mandate your Projects with Customer First, Middle and Last: Personally, The days of ‘Product is King’ is dying and now it is ‘Customer is king’. Digitization is NOT the biggest disrupter in the next five years it is going to be customers. If your digital solution does not fit the customer, you and me, it is of little use. Customers want to connect and transact anywhere and everywhere, in places and ways that traditional IT just cannot manage. They expect more tools, more features, easier to use interfaces, more options and better decision informatics. Whatever you build, design or architect keep your final end-user or customer always in focus. Not only that ensure you also have their environment locked into the design criteria’s. Remember that today you expect and demand more from your shops, malls, and your new digital retailers, so why should your final users expect any less. Think what would ball you over towards a company, their product or service and then plan to exceed all the emotions in your design and expectations from your prospective suppliers. Professionally Plan with your targeted users in their actual environments. Design for their success. “Don’t build products you want to sell, build products they need to buy’. Plan to not only design to meet anywhere and anytime informatics but also unique delight factor interfaces that become emotionally addictive. Emotionally satisfying and digital or process addiction, achieved by intuitive user experience and ease of use, must become the foundations of your design and build. I have talked to many Technology suppliers, mostly your Triad partners (SW,HW,SI), and most of them do not touch the business users in a deep enough manner, the final users or the customers. SI’s believe they touch business stakeholders but most of them mandate business keep out of their project ‘war rooms’ rather than becoming an integral part of the roadmap ad deliverables. They still believe that they are basically a technology company and often live in the technocratic assumption “IT alone can deliver most of your needs and it alone will always exceed your expectation’s.”. However, according to Gartner reports since 2009 this continues to be a very flawed methodology. So if your Triad partner wat to become your strategic advisor remember what one customer learnt after spending $12 million, “..they (the SW partner advisors in this case) understand the technology but have no clue about how business is run, or what business stakeholders need..”
8. Plan on some Digital Detoxing & Digital Competence: Personally, we all need to opt for digital detoxing. If you thought you had seen enough digital stuff then you need to glance at the future. Do not start your day with your digital addiction, 92% of folks today start they days by looking at the Facebook, twitter, local and global news, texts or emails even before they get out of bed. Clear your head from the digital addiction and take control of your and others lives via digital connections, but don’t get sucked into the vortex. Don’t get your child an internet connected toy, because they occasionally come with a microphone or camera pointing into the sanctity of your home.   Remember that most homes already have more than 3 unsecure cameras today. Professionally you need to plan to become the next digital disrupter in your industry, or better your competition if they are ahead of the curve. Remember Uber started the shard ride concept and Lyft just raised over $1 billion. In this industry being first does not give anyone the rights to bragging.
9. Do it Right the first time Every time: Personally, we all need to decrease the incidence of failures. Failures are not good for anyone including the owners, stakeholders and managers when things go wrong. Failures have nothing to do with your capabilities, but with your belief that your partners had your best interest at heart. Arm yourself with the ‘Blink’ perception and demand business excellence in order to safeguard your decisions  Professionally According to Gartner over 70% of BI, Big-Data and Digitization projects do not meet business expectations, i.e. Fail. This has a detrimental effect not only on the project or the company but also on the leaders, owners and project teams. Read the ‘(f)Actual Cost of a BI Project Gone Bad’ to get a deeper glimpse. Make sure you partner with successful partners, ‘advisors’ and projects that deliver true strategic benefits. Be suspicious of partners that may have conflicts of Interest in their recommendations- in every such recommendation find yourself a neutral advisor you can trust. Keep exceptional decisions at the center of every project, i.e. think BI and actionable information. 
10. A Dystopian Future: Personally: Our digital future has a beauty and a beast imbedded into it. Social and global connectivity is going to explode for good and bad causes unfortunately. AI driven Connections have no empathy, ethics or morals they simply facilitate connections. Initially it was the books that were dystopian, then came the movies and TV shows and not dystopia is pervading into our real lives. All across the US and China people are being micro profiled for their predictable patterns and they are being segmented based on their political, financial or other attributes for isolate and ignore, use for a specific task or shower them with gifts and presents. China is leading in this dystopian segmentation and the US is not far behind. Watch out on your likes and thumbs up in social media. Be careful of social comments and receipt of auto ads. Harvey Weinstein and the ‘#MeToo’ explosion globally is the tip of the iceberg in the social disruption that are yet to come. We need to thank Harvey for opening a timely Pandora’s box that hopefully we will never need to shut again, at least in developed nations. We are seeing a lot of accusations but so far, few convictions as even this sexual discrimination governance still remains highly male dominated. While this may be true in US and EMEA we know today that it is almost impossible to prosecute a ‘sexual abuse’ case in most of the middle east, China, Russia, North Korea and a lot of other countries where this is non-existant. But still it is a beginning a good beginning. Professionally: Each time you plan to add a camera or a microphone to your product or service think privacy and ensure that you inform the users of its existence, security and how to mitigate known risks. Ensure that your products and services are designed on the beauty side of the dystopian future and not the beastly side. We have to plan for what happens when a group of kids throw barbeque sauce on a crime-fighting robot. Data Privacy is going to be a big thing moving forward starting with GDPR guidelines which go into effect in May 2018 across EMEA. One of two things will happen. In the short run the #MeToo will have a very detrimental impact on women in top positions. Companies might actually stop hiring women to key positions fearing sexual legal backlash cases. It will take a little time backed by a lot of female grit to stabilize the pendulum to an arc of perfection where there is fairness in dealing with women irrespective to their race, beauty or color. We predict a decline in global beauty pageant as more and more sexual violations get key members fired and possibly some jailed. Over time beauty pageants will be run more by women and the new focus on global sexual equality by nation. We have probably reached a point where ‘Democracy is dying, if not dead’. The only problem is no one has come up with an alternative and better governance and process to lead countries. People are losing faith in the democratic process as it does not generate the best leaders but elects those with the most money and influence.
11. Crypto Currencies: Personally: Our If you had invested a thousand dollars in Bitcoin in Jan 2017 it could have been 19,000 by Dec 1. If you had invested 1 thousand dollars on Dec 15th it would be worth $600 on Christmas day. Crypto currencies are a market and opportunity pure-play. Bitcoin for example has no government or owners so when things go wrong there is no one you can go to, or to bail you out. Reportedly there are seven global miners that manage the global currency and six of them are supposed to be in China. Unlike, traditional currencies where if there is a run for the money the currency, and country is in trouble. However, if Bitcoin customers go for a run then the miners can devalue the currency overnight to $1 per bit coin and give you all the Bitcoin's you want back based on an invisible valuation decision that is independent of any and all external facts. Remember when no one owns a commodity, a currency in this discussion, then no one can be taken to task. Also, there is no master bank like the US federal bank or the Swiss gold reserves to guarantee any percent of its current valuation to be maintained should all people decide to re-convert one fine day. The only things going against crypto currencies is privacy and the need to get out of the grid and government tracking your every spend. Professionally: Our prediction is that Bitcoin will face severe peaks and troughs in 2018 resulting in a slow crash to oblivion. Here is what Warren Buffet thinks about Bitcoin, and I tend to agree. If, for whatever reason it does not then it will start to erode and corrupt conventional currencies. Some companies have started trading in bitcoins but they may be in a shock if the sell something when the value is 19,000 will they be able to deliver if the value falls by seventy percent. What we predict is that countries will develop their own Crypto currencies for example US-Coin or Saudi-Coin for all large denominations and transactions. This will meet the primary goal of making corruption and black trades more difficult, but also add a dimension of reliability from invisible valuations and drops. This will meet the two criteria's for crypto currencies; [1] to weed out the large value dark/black trade and transactions via total traceability; [2] to provide ease of transactions and difficulty of theft.
12. Digital to AI Excellence: Personally: Our smart devices know where we are to send a taxi, know what we like to recommend books and items and select movies that we could like. The foundation for all this is digital and the recommendations and delight factors AI based on your personal patterns and historical selections. . Professionally: If you have not started thinking of going digital then we are both wasting our time here as you and your company could be heading towards a cliff at high speed and gravity wins. If you are on your path to digital then that is a baseline for a competitive future and not a guarantee to success. Companies are already leveraging AI, VR and AR to exceed their customers emotional experience quotient. Build your professional roadmap and path to a successful ‘digital Enterprise’ with clear markets for AI, AR and VR integrations.
13. AI Informatics will preempt decisions: Personally: Currently we undertake decision based on reports tht are normally out of data and based on information tht may not be entirely relevant or true. The quality of our decisions directly impacts our future in an enterprise. Many decisions are quite rule based. For example, should you be selling to a customer or ensuring you get paid for prior deliveries. Or what is the right medicine for a patient based on their medical and current medication history. Decisions in the near future will be driven by AI that is directly linked to desperate data sources where the original data sits. This will represent ‘Real-Time’ decisions based on status right now i.e. Professionally: Based on your role, authorization and task AI will soon start recommending you with ‘In-Process Informatics’ as you start to process any order or request. AI and real-time data-hubs will provide automated decision assistants tht will recommend the best option available based on current reality at the time of the interface. The information provided will be on a ‘No More and No less’ tht required to make a clear and knowledgeable decision.
14. Micro Leases for Malls and Retail: Personally: As we travel less and less to the Malls they will keep less and less stocks in their outlets, also these retail outlets will decrease resources and probably also cut wages. This is a double whammy, for if we do go to the mall then we will not find what we are looking for and the underpaid sales staff no longer have incentives to make my experience great again. This will force more and more of us to buy things online. So, the big question is on how to get you, the customer, back into the mall. Professionally: W have been studying satellite images of parking lots outside malls and can today accurately predict which malls will close. As malls face declining tenancies and as more and more retail giants close their doors there is an opportunity for new businesses that can still round up customers in great brand malls with micro leases, something unheard of even a year ago. Malls are looking at gyms and workout stations in malls hoping to attract health conscious folks in the mall. So, if you think you have some great ideas contact a mall owner and review your very competitive options available today. The unfortunate thing is that even as we can predict that Malls are a dying breed country like India, Africa, Indonesia and other developing economies are investing in building hyper malls even as you read this. Unfortunate, as we can easily predict the futility of these malls as the etailers take their business away.
15. Morphing as a Job Perk: Personally: As the speed of change accelerates proactive more and more employees are attracted to morphing perks. These are mandatory ‘X’ days of mandatory morphing, or re-tooling, that ensure employee skills are tuned to the future and the company is investing in a the mutual future of employee skill development as a potential for promotions. Professionally: Corporations such as AT&T and Walmart have already started retraining programs and this is an important aspect of employee retainer ship. Companies like Google, LinkedIn, Facebook and Amazon give perks to employees with learning desires followed by startup ideations. This is a win-win game for both employers and employees. One of the only ways to leverage current assets is to rapidly retrain and retool your existing assets to meet the demands of your company tomorrow.     

No matter how we look at this time is linear to most of us humans. 2017 is now gone and 2018 is the new year filled with promises and hopes. Luck is when we take opportunities and tune them to our advantage. There are too many opportunities but so far too few are reading the writing on the walls. 2018 is a wakeup call for digitization and making the changes into our next QSA enterprise.

ADDENDUM 1: Dec 27, 2017 - STEVEN HAWKINGS PREDICTIONS

1. 2014 prediction -we may have less than a thousand years left on Planet Earth before a global disaster. In 2017 he changed this to may have less than 100 years..So Elon Musk better accelerate his Space-Mars program.
2. Global warming is at a tipping point. However, humanity's natural greed and disinformation by the very rich and powerful will make reversing this more and more difficult. Will Earth become like Venus, if Yes by when?
3. By AD 2600 our planet will not be able to keep up with the current population and technology growth
4. AI will replace humans and take over and crash our systems more efficiently than we ever can. If humans can design drastic, paralyzing viruses imagine what an AI could be made to design and update in true real-time. (This could result in a total breakdown of technology systems and civilization itself.)
5. Trump is the hallmark of the dismal future and fact denial from the powerful.

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ADDENDUM 2: 9 QUESTIONS OUT OF OUR CONTROL

1. What will happen with Trump's presidency in 2018
2. Will Trump go to war with N. Korea? Can it the go nuclear?
3. Will US tear down the Iranian deal? Will Iran then go all-out nuclear?
4. Will the Russia + Iran alliance pull US into Syria?
5. Will the Saudi decisions save or damn the kingdom?
6. Will Putin restart the cold war or go to another war somewhere?
7. Is Democracy Dying, or is it actually already dead? Will fringe populism spread in 2018
8. Will manufacturing depart from China with the advent of Robotics? OR, With Russia, US and Europe sparring will China become the dominant. China influences governments without human rights considerations- how will this change the future?
9. Will AI become the biggest threat or boon to humanity?

Takeaways:       

PERSONALLY

1. 80% of highly successful people do not watch TV. If you watch TV you fit into the mediocre populace- the ones that will be influenced (& we are willing to pay for it). Think about shutting down your TV access or at least don’t pay for it. Don’t get paid to be brain washed. TV is all about what the advertisers and influencers want you to listen to. Replace that with YouTube and reading books.
2. Trump may be right that there is ‘Fake News’. If we read carefully there are nuances and influencers in all news. Also, news is only about bad. DON’T start your day by reading about the news as it gives a very bleak picture of humanity in its best phase, by making it look like our beast phase, for all of our known history

PROFESSIONALLY

1. 2018 is the year of Digital acceleration and disruption. Companies and stocks of digital providers will zoom across the night sky as traditional and legacy enterprise become shooting stars that burn and die at every faster rates, or if lucky get acquired.
2. Disrupt or be disrupted’ as true today as it was stated in 2012. Think Digital and digitization. Make the day-to-day life of your users and consumers easier and more decision optimized.
3. Don’t stop at digitization. If there start thinking AI, AI and AR. The greatest names today use this across the board and that is why malls and retail outlets are going bankrupt and etailers are growing
4. Countries will now start to eliminate the middle men and processes that do not add any value to the service or the product. UAE/Dubai is already proposing to become the first totally digital country in the next five years.
5. Crypto currencies will become nationalized as that will add a level of confidence on the currency itself as non-responsible currencies like bitcoin will either disappear or remain a dark currency in the future. Bitcoin should logically crash in 2018 as its gets traded globally thus exposing its strengths and weaknesses.

                                                  .....--ooOoo--.....

 HARI GULERIA I VP SAP HANA Business Value Solutions I SABBATICAL

Hari is on a sabbatical, since October 2017, planning his next move. Am planning to finalize that in January 2018. He is a platinum future mentor, due to his core competency in Analytics & Digitization design to deliver decision excellence through operational and strategic design and deliver informatics that delight customers.

 Hari has been designing BI, Analytics & digitization solutions before they became Analytics, Digitization or Informatics. In our new digitized world of information and decisions Hari is a globally renowned executive leader in the SAP analytics world, an author and a voracious publisher of blogs and white papers, and a design confidant of the ‘C-suite’ executives. He is best known for permanently living in the future, readers say his book is more relevant today than when it was written in 2011. His approach has always remained focused on partnering with actual end-users prior to designing solutions. His designs are consistently audited for future compliance. Hari is a highly engaged, team oriented and actual-user benefit focused global solution leader who has been in successful startup phases across his many tenures and designated divisions, i.e. in IT, Analytics and building the next generation Digital Enterprise, a perfect fit both for mature global enterprise as well as start-up companies. He routinely assists startup companies align their go-to-market plans for free and as a network offering.

Hari is the author of ‘BI Valuenomics- The story of meeting business expectations in BI’ a book far more relevant today than it was in 2010 when it was published. He is currently working with Bill Inmon the father of Data Warehousing and TR Palle the Global Business Architect at Genentech/Roche to release a new book on ‘Analytics in the digital Era, and another book called ‘Digital Shock’ as an eye opener to the digital future and its impact on every one of us.

With over 10 years of executive level business experience followed by over 20 years of IT consulting leadership experience Hari has been a Business focused technical expert helping companies meet, and often exceed, their business user expectations. He continues to assist Fortune 1,000 companies crystalize and articulate their decision systems and remodel them for the disruptive digital economy, Hari applies his business, consulting experience, and structured scientific skills to provide consistent leadership in deploying vision, strategy and long term-planning that assure high performance information delivery while enhancing competitive decision enablement.

Prior to this Hari worked at three leading IT services companies, as VP Global SAP HANA Business solutions with PrideVel, as the Director for SAP HANA Solutions at HP Enterprise Services for the Americas. Before that at HCL Axon as the Director for HANA Analytics for North America, and prior to that with SAP America in their Value Realization/Engineering group. In all assignments Hari provided business focused design solutions for IT projects as the right-hand advisor to the IT project owners like the CFO’s and the CIO’s. Hari worked closely with the ‘C’ suite, Program directors, Project Team leaders, External Partners and customer business leads with clear dual focuses. The first being business benefits and the second was optimized TCO deliverables, i.e. “Highest Quality at Lowest Cost”. Hari may be contacted at [email protected]