It is summer, at last. For lazy days we have selected a few book titles that do broaden perspectives.

Alec Ross, Hillary Clinton’s Senior Advisor for Innovation, distils his observations on the forces that are changing the world in The Industries of the future. Robotics, artificial intelligence, the commercialization of genomics, cybercrime and the impact of digital technology. How will we need to adapt to all of this? You can purchase it here.

The other titles we recommend are Originals, Plattform Revolution and Crossing the Chasm.

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During the two-day innovation workshop initiated by HiQ in connection with Rally Sweden (Svenska Rallyt) in Värmland, we also discussed speed. Namely, how fast the business landscape is changing. The conclusion is that if you feel you have full control, you are not moving fast enough.

At a high transformation rate, what actually happens is very similar to what happens in the rally forest, sometimes one slides off the road. However, what distinguishes the most successful is how fast they can get back on track and how they use their experience to continuously improve their performance.

KTH Executive School is heading a study on eight small, dry European islands on how to save fresh water. To become more sustainable, they need technologies and they need to address people’s attitudes and behavior regarding water.

We use  Executive School’s ”Challenge” methodology meaning we don’t lecture, but let the highly competent islands Mayors and Technical Directors meet in frank discussions. You could describe them as well-prepared, thoroughly researched round table talks.

The study is led by Christian Pleijel at KTH ES with the support of Associate Professor Anders Nordström from Stockholm University, dr Christoforos Perakis from CRES (Athens), Professor Louis Brigand and Maxime Bredin from l’Université de Brest and Máirtín O’Mealoid from Cape Clear Island, Ireland.

The study will be presented to the European Parliament in late November with Tonino Picula as host. Mr Picula was Foreign Minister of the Republic of Croatia and is now Vice President of the European Parliament Intergroup for Seas, Rivers, Islands and Coastal Areas.

MTC holds its next lunch seminar on 1 February focusing on new digital technology, its influence on current marketing practices and the new opportunities it opens up. If you speak Swedish and you are interested in how new digital technology affects corporate marketing and the roll of various business divisions, you are most welcome to join us.

Our process leader for Round Table Industrial Management Maria Poppen Wiklander was today elected as a member of IVA, The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, among  for example Jan Gulliksen from KTH who is chairman of The Digitalisation Commission as well as belonging to our faculty in 2016.

Today the report Svensk konsultsektor i ny belysning (The Swedish consultancy sector in a new light) was presented by one of the authors: the Chairman of KTH Executive School, Eric Giertz. The report is based on a unique mapping of the consulting industry in Sweden.

The report concludes that the consultancy sector is expansive, but also that many of the companies are facing vast challenges and need to develop new business models and make new strategic choices.

Our programs usually start by looking into the future. Here the future of mobile networks at Ericsson 5g studio in Kista. 5g will be used to control traffic, power distribution and production plants. By 2020 it will be possible to commercialize the technology according to Professor Jens Zander, KTH/Wireless@kth

Sara Öhrvall has kindly accepted our invitation to lecture in the course Digital Transformation. Sara is an executive advisor, a writer and serves on the board of among other companies Investor and SEB. Her work covers the fields of digitalization, innovation, change and trends within technology and customer behavior.

Read more about the course here.

On site in Singapore it is striking how marginalized Europe is in the public dialogue. Beside Asia, only the US is in focus. We believe that Swedish enterprises still can benefit from globalization. We find South East Asia particularly interesting with its approx. 650 million inhabitants, 5,5 – 6% annual growth rate and a growing, modern middle class. We are therefore looking into an initiative aiming to improve the capabilities to capture business opportunities in this region.

Mr Lennart Evrell has kindly accepted the invitation to come back and lecture, in our Executive Program in Industrial Management. His presentation will be about “Strategy in reality: The case of Boliden Group” and will fit in perfectly in the first theme of the program; “Business environment and business strategy”!

And by the way, for Q1 2016 the Boliden Group surpassed analysts’ profit expectations by 19 percent!