Digital Transformation is remaking the human world, but few are satisfied with how that’s been going. That’s especially true in media, where the dominant model of targeted advertising derived from data surveillance and used to fund free-to-the-public services like social media and search is increasingly viewed as unsustainable and undesirable. By THINK 18 Speaker Jaron Lanier: A Blueprint for a better digital society. “But there is an alternative: an emerging class of business models in which internet users are also the customers and the sellers. Data creators directly trade on the value of their data in an information-centric future economy. Direct buying and selling of information-based value between primary parties could replace the selling of surveillance and persuasion to third parties. Platforms would not shrivel in this economy; rather, they would thrive and grow dramatically, although their profit margins would likely fall as more value was returned to data creators. Most important, a market for data would restore dignity to data creators, who would become central to a dignified information economy.” Insightful Digital Transformation report: “The bottom line is that digital transformation is very painful. Digital technologies are so pervasive that it is no longer a question of whether companies should use them. Companies must have a digital strategy for everything they do because it transforms customer engagement, employee engagement and optimisation of operations. If you don’t do it, you are not in the game.” Product Differentiation is gone, it’s time for personalized engagement. “To succeed, financial institutions need to move away from traditional marketing of products to AI and centralized decisioning tools that engage seamlessly with consumers and create valuable relationships. When banks take a personalized, next-best-action approach — and put the consumer in the center of every interaction — they are better able to deliver the type of individualized engagement that customers are expecting.” THINK 18 Speaker Beth Comstock on 3 Rules for Spotting Trends & getting ahead. “Getting people to adopt a new way of doing things, mobilizing them around a new story, is the hard part of innovation.” THINK Speaker Scott Belsk – Be Frugal with everything except your bed, your chair, your space, and your team. “Most companies classify their spaces the same way they do office supplies: negligible. Facilities planners tend to focus on the cost per square foot and logistical efficiencies rather than how space impacts the psychology of its inhabitants. But how you locate and design your space is as important as your team’s skills, because your environment impacts how focused, motivated, and creative you are.” Naysayers vs Soothsayers. When the naysayers outweigh and outvote the soothsayers in any organization, the result isn’t safety. It’s stasis. And that is the riskiest position of all.