Cosmic has been working hard these past few years in supporting a wide range of businesses and organisations as they wrestle with the challenges and opportunities presented by digital technologies. We are regularly talking about the digital transformation of businesses and the digital leadership that is needed in order to take organisations forward. In the past few years we’ve worked with a growing number of top brands, individuals and their organisations to look at development of digital skills, digital leadership and digital strategy. This has included businesses like Axminster Tools, Appen, Torbay Development Agency, NatWest and many others. We have also worked with some of the region's top charities, including Exeter Leukaemia Fund (ELF), Devon Community Foundation, the Community Council in Somerset and more. In housing we have been supporting Yarlington for several years now and more recently Plymouth Community Homes. In the wider public sector we have worked with the NHS in Somerset and LiveWell SW in Plymouth. We are now developing work with local police forces too. This puts our business in a very special position to share learning across our clients and across a wide and diverse set of sectors and industries - the benefit of which we are very happy to share with clients.
In 2017 so far we have seen a number of key developments which will underpin the future success of the so-called Digital Economy UK. This includes the launch of the Government’s Digital Strategy back at the start of this year and various developments and investment since that time, primarily in digital innovation, digital skills development and in cyber security. It has also included the appointment of a new Head of Digital Skills Partnership, who visited Cosmic last month to open up discussions about how strong links can be made with regional partnership in an effort to boost and add-value to local work being achieved. Watch this space!
Business is responding strongly to developments this year too, with many investing in new skills training or talent development including from the range of new programmes of support now available (including from EU projects and from the new Apprenticeship programmes too). Lloyds Bank will publish their annual report on Digital Skills in November and that will bring a full update on developments in the past year and hopefully provide insights as to key focus points for the year ahead too.
Global consultancy McKinsey has just published its Q3 report: this highlights progress being made across industries and gives the strongest indications yet about the ‘blurring of boundaries between economic sectors’. In other words, more-and-more businesses are seeking to gain competitive advantage in other sectors based on their core digital skills and capacity which lends itself to operating successfully in other markets and business models. We only have to look back at the success of Amazon’s diversification plans of the past few years to recognise how successfully they have led the way.
You can read this report here: McKinsey Report
This week RSA has published its report on the ‘Age of Automation’, providing some revealing insights into the coming years and responds to the ‘gloom-and-doom’ predictions of recent months about the likelihood of mass job losses. This report highlights the opportunities which automation and robotics will bring, estimating that for every one new job developed in the tech sector, there will be potential to develop five more new jobs as a result. The report also calls for opportunities to lead to a better world of work in the future, and for all employers, educators and policymakers to respond to these opportunities sooner rather than later.
Copy of the RSA report here.
Cosmic will continue to work with businesses and organisations across the South West in development of digital skills, leaders and strategy and we are keen to hear from anyone wanting to find out more.