Publications / In the Press

An article written by Arthur D. Little’s Dr. Michael Opitz’s about how organizations can become real digital companies. The digital revolution has changed the rules of the game; both for customers and for any company and expectations of customers towards the online experience have been raised dramatically. After studying companies like Amazon, Google and eBay to identify certain characteristics, Michael discusses how organizations can transform into an e-company. He discusses the framework for the transformation, the economic impact and prerequisites.

An article written by Michael Kruse and Julia Heizinger from Arthur D. Little about how offshore wind developers should look to the experience of the nuclear industry instead of the oil and gas sector to gain extra knowledge. The article states that offshore wind developers have previously looked to the oil and gas industry as both industries share the same harsh offshore environment, high health, safety and environmental standards; however, the authors note there are also substantial differences. The authors suggest that offshore wind should now look to nuclear as both have faced similar challenges and although they are competing technologies, it might be timely to consider what the offshore sector can learn from nuclear.

Currently, companies from several industries are searching for a viable integration of more NFC applications into smartphones. According to a recent Arthur D. Little study, there are currently around 200 global NFC-initiatives, but only a dozen of them have a commercial background. In order to discover the true added value, one needs to take a broader perspective on NFC. There are many more application areas like ticketing, transport, healthcare or identity management.

Arthur D. Little’s latest survey of 275 C-level executives has revealed that companies can become more innovative and profitable by analysing external sources of information such as social media. Rick Eager, Partner at Arthur D. Little says that Businesses get used to operating and thinking in a certain way and data gets filtered through the patterns of how we always do things. He says that when you always use the same channels for business intelligence, you are limited to what you can come up with. Anders Johansson, Partner at Arthur D. Little says that the economic slowdown is forcing companies to think more of the short term, rather than the long term benefits of innovation.

Similarly to the economic crisis in 2008, many people in Germany would rather invest in real estate than save money in their bank accounts. Producers of prefabricated houses often capitalize from these economic dips. According to Wilhelm Lerner from Arthur D. Little and his recent analysis of the market, the industry in Germany will thrive in the coming years. He expects the share of prefabricated houses to grow from 15 per cent to 22 per cent by 2025. One of the major drivers for this growth is the trend of energy efficiency.

Last year the global turnover with cloud services exceeded 75 billion US-Dollars for the first time in history. This is one of the findings of the new “Cloud from Telco” study from consulting firm Arthur D. Little. Following the results of the study, consultants are expecting a rise in turnover of about 30% this year. Companies like IBM, SAP or Oracle have invested billions of dollars in new business models with cloud computing services.

An article about the fast-growing market of online car sales. Andreas Gissler of Arthur D. Little is quoted as saying he doesn’t expect automakers to adopt a complete online model for car distribution in Europe or anywhere else around the world in the near future. He says that customers may want to purchase cars online and completely bypass the dealerships, but that automakers will not want to offer this.

An article about the implications that 4G will have on the business market. Arthur D. Little’s report on the Business Benefits of 4G is mentioned as saying  that organizations that adopt 4G will increase productivity and strengthen the concept of a “mobile” workforce. The article goes on to say that 4G will have a significant effect on the workplace atmosphere. Joseph Place, a manager at Arthur D. Little was quoted saying, “Broadly, 4G allows for a more mobile enterprise as salespeople never have to go back to the office.”

Arthur D. Little and Atkins have been awarded an Enabling Innovation Team (EIT) contract to map capabilities and markets for the rail sector. ADL/Atkins will work with stakeholders across the rail, metro and light rail sectors to highlight where the UK has potential to sell into international and domestic capabilities. EIT will use these areas to create proposals for the technical operations for rail. The work is being funded from the Pilot Rail Innovation Fund, the Technology Strategy Board and RIA’s Unlocking Innovation Scheme. Rick Eager, ADL project director said: “We are immensely proud and honoured to be given the opportunity to undertake this project.”

An article written by Arthur D. Little’s Michael Kruse and Julia Heizinger. The article explains how wind owners have not been able to meet expected performance targets due to a lack of standardization, rapid advancements of immature offshore wind technologies and inadequate planning. Although nuclear power has traditionally been a low-carbon rival to offshore wind, the authors argue that nuclear experience could teach wind a thing or two as both industries have faced similar challenges.