Flexible tech. The kind that scales as businesses scale, that goes where the payments go — where the technology resides in the cloud rather than on-premise with speed and security as hallmarks as old rails work alongside, and then give way, to new rails. Firms across any number of verticals are expanding into new geographies, and international transactions now take their place alongside domestic ones. All the while, enterprises must grapple with changes across various regulatory environments — ones that take shape far from home. And when it comes to technology, what may have worked in the past may need some … reworking.

Why faster payments need flexible tech. “As the marginal costs of payments are trending toward zero, having a low-cost system that is going to continue to improve functionally while reducing the total cost of ownership is going to be critical; outdated legacy systems will always struggle in this regard.”

Data-Savvy Banking Organizations will destroy everyone else. “According to Accenture, “Enterprises must put data at the core, leverage applied intelligence (the spectrum of automation, advanced analytics, machine learning, natural language processing, and other AI technologies) to unlock unique intelligence that is powered by domain and industry expertise. This unique human-machine capability is required to drive innovation and breakthrough results.

Market leaders of the future will be able to access a single source of insight and intelligence that will enable seamless back office processes and digital customer experiences that are in real-time and add value both for the organization as well as the consumer.”

Forrester: What CMOs can learn from Amazon’s success. “Using a combination of frequency, emotion and convenience, Amazon builds "the best customer relationships possible," per Forrester, which attracts more customers as well as brands and service providers to its ecosphere. The e-commcerce giant then works to ensure the widening experience doesn't become overly complex through automated and intelligent value. Brand marketers must try to replicate this formula or they will find it increasingly difficult to succeed, the report insists.”

Good, foundational article: What is the IoT? Everything you need to know about the Internet of Things right now. “As the price of sensors and communications continue to drop, it becomes cost-effective to add more devices to the IoT -- even if in some cases there's little obvious benefit to consumers. As the number of connected devices continues to rise, our living and working environments will become filled with smart products -- assuming we are willing to accept the security and privacy trade-offs. Some will welcome the new era of smart things. Others will pine for the days when a chair was simply a chair.”

THINK Alumni Nilofer Merchant writes To change someone’s mind, stop talking, and listen. “To listen is to pay attention to. Listening means stepping outside one’s own interests, to actually want to know more, and to care what others’ interests are. To not just hear words, but to pay attention to the underlying needs and frames of reference.

Which gets to why we aren’t already great listeners. We’re afraid that if we’re listening, we’re not advocating for our own ideas and why those ideas matter. We’re afraid we’re giving up on our convictions.

But we can all have more faith in ourselves. And each other.”