Menu

Trends

Making friends with AI-2

AI – An Entrepreneur’s Best Friend

, , , , ,

One of many challenges that an entrepreneur faces when starting a business is lack of resources. In the digital age, this barrier has been softening. The Internet, open-source software, and 3-D printing have made it so much easier to tackle business ideas that once could only be accomplished by large organizations with deep pockets.

AI is catapulting us forward by providing us tools that reduce the initial HR expenses we once needed to invest in to launch a business, especially in operations / admin. Most of these tools cost money but are a fraction of the cost of hiring someone. Microsoft’s Power Platform is one of the more well-known, low-code suite of tools, providing incredible versatility in operations design and implementation.  Microsoft has a YouTube channel dedicated to teaching how to best use the various programs and within the channel has links to other channels that focus on each individual app. 

Hiding under a rock-2

AI- Don’t Ignore It!

, , , , , ,

AI innovations have been moving at an insane pace. OpenAI/ Microsoft, Google/ DeepMind, Meta, Hugging Face, and IBM have been grabbing the headlines but most of the truly mind-blowing breakthrough apps have been happening quietly off to the side and only known to those in the industry or the AI enthusiasts.

Hiding our heads in the sand about AI is not an option unless you wish to become obsolete in the workforce. AI will affect every industry and every job. The change will be swift, so it is necessary to get on YouTube and start learning!

Over the coming weeks, I will be posting my resource recommendations to help the community of small businesses and entrepreneurs ATTEMPT to keep current with the fastest revolution I have ever seen in my 30 years in tech.

Building a Business Plan

The Importance of Building a Start-up Using the 80/20 Rule!

, , , , , , ,

The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, states that 80% of the results come from 20% of the causes. This principle can be applied to many aspects of life, such as productivity, happiness, health, and wealth. As an entrepreneur about to embark on the start-up journey, it is especially important to identify and focus on the most important tasks that will generate the most value for your customers and your company. The Pareto principle can help you prioritize your actions and allocate your resources more efficiently.

Here are some steps to follow:

– Analyze your current situation and identify the key metrics that measure your progress and success. For example, revenue, profit, customer satisfaction, user retention, etc.

– Collect data and track your performance on these metrics over a period of time. You can use tools like Google Analytics, Excel, or other software to help you with this.

– Focus on the 20% of customers who generate 80% of your revenue. Identify who they are, what they need, and how you can serve them better. Don’t waste time and resources on the other 80% who are not profitable or loyal.

– Focus on the 20% of products or services that generate 80% of your value proposition. Find out what makes them unique, desirable, and competitive. Which features or functionalities are the most used and appreciated by your users? Don’t dilute your brand or quality by offering too many options or features that are not essential or differentiating.

– Focus on the marketing channels or strategies that bring the most traffic and conversions. Be very critical of the content you send out to the world. Ensure the message matches the audience. The worst thing one can do is focus on channels that will miss your target audience or a message that fails to touch your target audience.

– From an operations standpoint, focus on the 20% of tasks that generate 80% of your impact. Prioritize the most important and urgent activities that move you closer to your goals. Be very strategic with your hiring process. Design the job descriptions to fit in with the masterplan. Look for the synergies and interdependencies between positions from a matrix perspective. Only hire those that will bring the most impact to your organization.  

– Focus on the 20% of skills that generate 80% of your growth. Learn and improve the core competencies that make you a better entrepreneur, leader, and problem-solver and do the same to help your employees develop into their most productive selves. Don’t get distracted by shiny objects or irrelevant information.

Focus your efforts and resources on these 20% of factors and eliminate or outsource the rest. This will help you optimize your value proposition, improve your customer experience, increase your competitive advantage, and reduce your costs and risks.

Analyze regularly and adjust your strategy accordingly. The Pareto principle is not a one-time solution, but a continuous improvement method. You should always monitor your performance and look for new opportunities to apply the 80/20 rule.

By using the Pareto principle, you can build a lean and agile start-up business that delivers more value with less effort. You can also avoid wasting time and money on things that don’t matter and focus on what really makes a difference for your customers and your company.

REE

Needed Boost in Political Will to Stimulate Rare Earth Industry in North America

, , , , , , , , , ,

I recently completed an analysis on the global rare earth element (RRE) industry to see what the opportunities are for expanding production outside of China- specifically the North American market.

There is no shortage of resources, but extraction and processing has been expensive and environmentally challenging.  China has historically seen an advantage due to inexpensive labour, lack of labour and environment protection legislation, and general government support and domestic industry protectionism. In recent years, China’s labour costs have been increasing and the country has improved their labour and environmental policies, thereby, perceivably beginning to level the playing field with those producers outside of China.

There have been no shortage of start-ups trying to take advantage of the RRE resources in North America since 2000 with promising technologies to allow those companies to compete with China but the companies get to certain stage and then fizzle out.

The inhibitor has been the value chain. China has strategically ensured that it controls the value chain from mining to finished goods. Any mining operations outside of China that were not controlled by China have been shut out or forced to sell part or all its operations in order to participate in the downstream part of the value chain. There are some players that occupy the latter end of the value chain outside of China but due to costs, only make-up a small percentage of the total market and not enough of a customer base to make any mining operation profitable.

With the tensions between the US and China growing, the US, feeling the realization and vulnerability of China’s complete control of the value chain of many critical products is in the process of conducting a study to understand the full extent of what it needs to transition domestically to ensure economic and general regional stability and security. Funding has already been given to a few RRE projects in the US specifically to produce key REE for military applications.

Canada has yet to develop a strategy. Given that a large percentage of RREs are located in Canada, political will is necessary for the future of the West.

The Dangerous Illusion of Limits in the Metaverse

The Dangerous Illusion of Limits in the Metaverse

, , , , , , ,

One thing that I have found perplexing is companies buying up virtual real estate in the metaverse for huge sums of money, to create a storefront or entertainment venue to promote their brands.

Even though current virtual world creators are limiting their environments to generate an illusion of real estate scarcity, with a few code additions and servers, metaverse land can be virtually unlimited.

Especially when virtual world environments become non-proprietary and inexpensive, democratizing metaverse creation, how will these brand real estate owners maintain the value of their virtual real estate? Loyalty is hard to purchase, and attention spans are shorter than they have ever been. A new virtual world pops up and becomes trendy, people are going to flock to that world and forget about the old one. Companies can’t be delusional about longevity on one platform. One would hope that they are analyzing their ROI over a fraction of a period in comparison to a brick and mortar or even a web site refresh.  

robot-1024x585

The Advent of AI Could Possibly See the Resurgence of the Middle Class

, , , , ,

There are multiple ways our AI future could unfold.

As we have seen with past advances in technology, jobs disappear but there are usually jobs that are created through the opportunities generated by the new technology and jobs produced in order to manage the new technology. AI will probably be the most disruptive innovation that has ever been created, as it will affect every industry, not only penetrating blue collar jobs but also white collar positions. Many have commented that the spread of AI may mean that huge numbers of jobs will be displaced while others think that AI may act to assist those humans occupying those positions to enhance productivity.

As an entrepreneur, I have a slightly different take on AI.

Entrepreneurship, freelancing, and consulting have grown significantly over the last few years. The ever-increasing portfolio of technology tools introduced over the last several years, has brought about the reduction in barriers to entry for entrepreneurs to invent and produce a greater range of sophisticated products. Innovations normally developed through the financial and technical resources only possessed by large corporations, are now being developed by garage-based, one-person start-ups. I have seen many friends and colleagues benefit from this trend.

Six technological changes have dramatically helped this effort:

Open-source software– such as GIMP, FreeCAD, and Inkscape provide FREE productivity software tools that would normally cost hundreds to thousands of dollars;

3-D printing– provides an avenue for quick prototyping and limited-run manufacturing at a fraction of the traditional cost;

User-friendly programmable industrial robotics– allows for small batch manufacturing services, providing small businesses with an outsource service to produce products without having to build manufacturing themselves;

On-line educational resources– such as youtube, allow people to learn new skills for free;

On-line crowdfunding– such as Kickstarter, provide start-ups access to small rounds of funding, which would normally be inaccessible to most people;

Incubators– provide in-house tools, expertise, and established networks to help get entrepreneur’s ideas to market, reducing start-up costs significantly.

With AI, I see barriers being reduced even further, with the automation of tasks that would require specialty skills that would normally be financially out of reach for the boot-strapped trailblazer. AI combined with the tools outlined above will provide an unprecedented ability for the average person to launch a product or service idea.

Those wishing to gain or maintain middle-class status have the opportunity to flourish in this new era of innovation. With extremely low start-up costs, and operational overhead generated by the tools outlined, one does not need a large customer base to do well, so mom-and-pop businesses with niche product offerings will be more able to survive and prosper.

There are some challenges ahead if we want to create the positive AI future outlined above. Currently, the education system is geared toward creating task-oriented employees. A change in mindset needs to happen, which needs to start with those still in school. The curriculum needs to evolve to foster creativity, problem-solving, and entrepreneurship. If we do not evolve the curriculum, then only a select few will flourish.

A couple of TED talks that helped shape my thoughts on this topic-

Maurice Conti– the Director of Applied Research & Innovation at Autodesk. He demonstrates how CAD combined with AI can be used by the average person to design new products.

Ann Makosinski– a young innovator who invented two revolutionary products by the time she was 19. She owes a significant amount of her education to her parents who taught her the mind-set on how to create her own things.

ly2t4vul_se-sebastian-pichler2

The Business Opportunities to Combat Our Growing Global Resource Crunch

, , , , , ,

I attended a Green Forum last week hosted by my old university, RRU. It got me thinking about what will be the realistic opportunities in GREEN technology and where an entrepreneur can truly make a social, sustainable difference and make a profit at the same time. Observing challenges in society are always a good way to look for new opportunities and the dominant story in the news has been the instability in the Middle East.

Looking at what caused the latest destabilization, the tipping point was the rising costs of essential foods and other daily requirements. The rest of the hardships endured by its citizens had been tolerated up to that point but when it came to essential needs, the people snapped. As we have seen repeatedly, when a country destabilizes, it can have a global affect either through a disruption in the supply of goods or the growth of terrorism/ extremism and usually creates a domino affect. Example- the uprising in Libya resulted in the reduction in supply of oil to the Western World which meant an increase in fuel prices, creating a rise in transportation costs which in turn increased/ will increase the prices on food and other essentials.

Although global trade is becoming more of the norm, in my opinion there are certain goods and services that need to be PRIMARILY produced domestically in a renewable fashion in order to ensure domestic stability and security and ensure no country is truly at the mercy of another in order to eliminate the domino affect, explained above, on essentials.

The top three goods that I feel need to be managed/produced domestically are:
– Clean water
– Essential foods / staple foods
– Non-food crop sustainable energy

Through adversity comes opportunity and I think development of technology and techniques to economically produce these goods in range of climates and other environmental conditions could be extremely lucrative given our continuously growing population and limited global resources.

Water

There is a growing shortage of water in most countries around the World either due to a lack of the resource or because industry and government have been too short sighted and polluted their water table through industrial run-off or other toxic pollution. For coastal regions, desalination technology will be a focus but currently it is rather expensive so not truly economically feasible for most countries. Technological improvements to bring down the cost will be in high demand and a great opportunity for any entrepreneurs and scientists in that area.

As for inland countries- water purification, water/ soil remediation, as well as water from air technologies will be market opportunities. Water purification and water / soil remediation to clean up existing water tables has been around for a while as well but again, cost is an issue so there is definitely a demand for technological innovation to reduce the costs. Water to air technology has seen some breakthroughs in the last couple of years but there has always been a problem with the growth of bacteria and fungus within these systems, creating the need for continuous maintenance to avoid contaminating the water produced. A few companies locally have helped to reduce the problem but if anyone has a sustainable solution, I know a few companies will be interested to hear from you.

Essential Foods/ Staple Foods

With the growing population, meat which requires a large amount of inputs to produce will become more a luxury than a staple due to an increased scarcity of land used for growing livestock, more expensive inputs, due to reduced supply, and more mouths to feed. In order to substitute our need for meat, recipes that product foods that taste like meat or bio-technologies that produce economical artificial meat will be in demand within the next 20 years. Hydroponics has been a solution for growing tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and other vegetables and fruit with small physical footprints but given the growth in extreme weather, it will be necessary to increase our use of hydroponics for other sources of food, including grains which are staples for most 2nd and 3rd world nations. If areas like the Middle East want to stabilize the prices on their food supply to help reduce political instability, they are going to need to change their deserts into hydroponic oases. With growing population, land is becoming scarce, so vertical farms (basically high rise hydroponic farms), which historically have been cost prohibitive are now garnering serious scientific study in places like Singapore and China. It won’t be long before places like India and Indonesia will be seriously considering the technology as well. Investment in this area is essential and those that come up with economical, proprietary solutions will be highly in demand.

Non-Food Crop Sustainable Energy

Renewable sources of energy are going to become extremely important. However, I don’t believe that biofuels from food crops or food crop waste non-edible crops grown on agricultural land will be viable sources given that land to produce food will become extremely valuable and nutrients from the food waste will be necessary to go back into the system to help grow the food.

I have a history with waste to energy (WTE) to dispose of municipal solid waste but am becoming increasingly adverse to the technology as it basically incinerates resources that should be recycled back into the system.

I don’t think solar, wind, and wave power are stand alone energy solutions and instead should be used in concert where practical.

I think a very important solution to add to the mix will be sewage to energy. Anaerobic digesters have been used in Europe for a while to convert a large percentage of sewage waste into bio-gas (mostly methane) to be burned for municipal heat or as an input to produce electricity. Currently, most of North America just treats its sewage to remove most of the deadly bacteria, breaks it down into smaller pieces and dumps the output into the lakes, rivers, and oceans. There are a few pilot projects in North America, especially in the area of agricultural (chicken, cow, pig) waste but currently not accepted practice over here. I definitely believe this technology is the future but I am definitely keeping my eyes on the technology that uses bacteria and enzymes to convert sewage waste into hydrogen instead of methane. Simply, igniting methane (very bad greenhouse gas) produces carbon dioxide ( still bad but not as bad greenhouse gas) as a byproduct while igniting hydrogen produces WATER (potentially drinkable water). Given that electric transmission wires are inefficient and lose more energy over greater transmission distances, sewage provides more localized production of energy, reducing those inefficiencies. Sewage to energy also provides a 24/7 energy solution and reduces waste output that traditionally would pollute our environment.

Closed Loop Solutions

Closed loop systems or creating opportunities for waste outputs as potential inputs for other processes is going to be essential to help reduce our global footprint. I have been looking at the above areas of opportunity and brainstorming possibilities to provide cost efficiencies by combining the systems above that may not occur if these facilities were built separately.

I wonder if an economic project could be put together combining a:
– Desalination/ Water Treatment plant
– Hydroponic facility
– Sewage plant

The sewage plant could provide energy for both the desalination/ water treatment plant and the hydroponic facilities. The sewage can potentially provide nutrients to be used to grow hydroponic foods. Although at first thought this sounds gross, we currently use animal waste all the time time to grow our food- this just provides another source which will become of greater importance as the population growth reduces opportunities for the production of meat.

The desalination/ water treatment plant can provide fresh water for the hydroponic facility and grey water for the sewage plant. It could also provide nutrients for the hydroponic facility in the process of desalination.

The biomass waste from the hydroponic farms (either single layer or vertical farms) could be disposed of in the sewage facility for either the production of energy or broken down for the production of nutrients to be put back into the hydroponic facility.

In addition to sewage power, the hydroponic farms could be powered by solar and wind and potential wave/ current technology from the body of water the facilities are situated near.

Combining the resources of these facilities is nothing new as NASA has been working on this closed loop challenge in order to undertake long space missions to other planetary bodies. I think NASA would be a good source to collaborate with in order to obtain the answers for an economical system that could be used in the future.

If we fail to answer these opportunities, I think the World will slowly destabilize over the next twenty years with more and more failed governments and increase in extremism to wreak havoc and disrupt the rest of the World. Not only is it an opportunity but a necessity for our global well-being.

_l8zdgj9m7w-biel-morro

Using Nature for Technological Evolution- Biomimicry

, , , , ,

I recently came across a very interesting video on TED that summed up a fundamental ideology that science is progressively undertaking in order to come up with our next generation technological advances.

As described by Michael Pawlyn in this TED video, nature has had an R&D program for 3.8 billion years, working on many of the technological challenges that we currently are trying to overcome. We might as well learn from nature and its accomplishments to help us on our technological journey! Biomimicry studies the design and application of materials and systems within nature to help evolve our technology and solve problems that plague our society. This is a growing field and many scientists and organizations are actively looking at nature to try to use our finite resources more effectively.

Nature has developed a way to maintain balance. There is constant recycling of resources within natural closed loop systems (ecosystems), creating an interdependence between various organisms- one organism’s outputs are another organism’s inputs. Many organizations, especially in manufacturing tend to see byproduct outputs as disposable instead of creating ecosystems to generate additional revenue and reduce waste. There are a few scientists out there that are wanting to change that. An example- the largest source of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions other than fossil fuel consumption from power plants and vehicles is cement production- a company called Celera is taking a lesson from how coral grows to combine the flu gas from coal/ fossil fuel plants and mineral-rich seawater to form cement and as a bi-product, actually sequester CO2 in the process, reducing the green house gas footprint of power plants and cement production. So Celera is taking two independent systems that create an abundant amount of CO2 and combining the systems together making them interdependent and reducing CO2 in the process.

Nature stands to propel us into the next millennium in the are of design and construction. Insects are often overlooked and considered a primitive form of life but their societies are very organized and sophisticated and most have created skills to efficiently use their resources and in the process maintain a minimum footprint on their surroundings. The housing structures that termites, ants, bees, wasps and other colony type insects have created are far more effective systems than anything humans have created. Architects are now learning from these species to create advanced building, design, infrastructure and materials, waste recycling systems, and climate control systems. On other fronts, bacteria is being analysed to create glue that can shore up cracks in cement, helping to increase the longevity and safety of our buildings.

Renewable energy and water scarcity are two large challenges for our growing population this century. Our insect friends, specifically the shells of beetles are teaching scientists how to efficiently collect water from the atmosphere and create more cost and energy effective solar cells.

Nature in the ocean is equally amazing. The study of the adhesive that allows muscles to stick to rocks has provided potential breakthroughs for medicine and waterproofing. Calcite, an abundant crystalline form of calcium carbonate that forms naturally as one of the main ingredients of seashells is providing insight to create visible spectrum cloaking technologies that not only will be able to hide objects but also assist in providing better scanning technologies.

Our home electronics are even seeing advancement with the help of nature. Flies and other insects that have sophisticated compound eyes are helping us develop advanced lenses for cameras that can see in wider angels and spectrum and allow for greater manipulation of images. Study of woodpeckers is providing inspiration for shock-proofing our electronics.

This article mentions only a few of the applications that are being developed using biomimicry to help improve our society for future generations. If you want to check out more examples, there is an organized effort now to provide inspiration for using lessons from nature for technological design. Sites like Ask Nature are being designed to collect and share findings and ideas from nature so we can collectively improve our infrastructure, processes, and products we use in society.

One can only hope that we as a species become enlightened as to how interdependent everything is in nature and that we fit within that ecosystem despite our arrogant thinking to the contrary. We have an incredible amount to gain from learning and respecting nature and lose from its destruction.

rey_bjc0lcw-michael-eggerl2

Taking Greenhouses to the Next Level- Vertical Farms

, , , , , , , ,

I am always looking for innovative ideas that will help solve global challenges.

Food prices have been rising due to: increases in population, reduction in arable lands within many countries, and extreme weather causing the destruction of crops. Another reason is the growth of middle and upper classes in 2nd and 3rd world countries, allowing them to consumer a wider variety and larger quantity of food. The strain on food supplies creates a strain on social stability as we are seeing in India and some parts of the Middle East. In order to move forward, countries are needing to find new and economic ways to feed their people in order to remain intact.

One idea that has been studied is vertical farming. Vertical farms are basically high rise greenhouses that allow for farming in urban environments. Given that the farms are indoors, the structures allow farmers to have greater control over the environmental conditions that their crops are exposed to, theoretically reducing the chance of crop damage. Also, given that vertical farms do not take up as much horizontal space as traditional farms, the vertical farms can be integrated countries where arable land is not abundant and positioned in urban settings, providing a shorter distance to the target consumers, thereby reducing transportation and storage costs, providing a fresher product selection for consumers, and reducing foreign reliance- reducing risk of volatile food pricing.

Vertical farming is an unproven concept but has been getting increased attention. There are many variables that need to be proven including whether or not: the operating costs will be in‐line with food prices; growers can truly manipulate the multi‐floor, in‐door environments to suit the unique conditions necessary to grow multiple types of crops; and growers can control pests and disease. A few low cost prototypes have been built but no sophisticated vertical farms have been erected to date to begin proving the concept due to the substantial upfront infrastructure development costs.

The most likely places that will start experimenting with this concept will be places such as China, Singapore, and India given their population size and density, their urban mobilization, and the fact that their arable land is growing scarce. Many cities around the World are waiting for someone to take the first step to prove the concept and if shown to be a valid design, we should start seeing vertical farms constructed in many urban centers.

Rare_earth_minerals_2

Better Use of Rare Earths

, , , , , ,

On a daily basis I conduct scientific and industry research. Many of the Green and electronic innovations I come across in my research tend to rely on exotic materials that make them high risk propositions, especially if the exotic materials are extracted from mines located in unreliable markets or from singular sources.

Through adversity comes opportunity. It seems the big squeeze on rare earths has the scientific community scrambling to find a technical solution to get the most of what we have and finding materials that are more common and accessible to replace the rare earths that we need.

On one front there are those in the US trying to be more efficient with the use of the rare earths, mixing them with other composites. Over in Japan there are trying to replace rare earths all together with materials that are more common through redesign or through man-made substitutes that have similar properties to the rare earths that are being replaced. Given that rare earths mining tends to be a very toxic process, China could be doing the environment a favor by forcing us to look for alternatives that either reduce our reliance on mining the rare earths or eliminating our need for some of them all together.

Load More