[ News ]

Silicon Valley Bank Startup Report HUB Consulting

[ US Startups Optimistic Business Conditions will Improve ]

  In its recently released Startup Outlook Report, Silicon Valley Bank shared the results of its survey of 1,400 founders and executives of global startups. The survey found these entrepreneurs upbeat about their business prospects. "The 2019 report series finds that despite economic and political uncertainty across the globe, startups are generally optimistic about their business opportunities, and they plan to raise capital and expand their workforces this year," concluded the report authors. Among the survey respondents were over...

Posted: 02/28/19 [ Read More... ]

Daimler BMW Ride Sharing Venture

[ Daimler and BMW bet on Ride-Sharing Services as the Future ]

  Daimler AG and BMW AG have forged an agreement into which they will pour more than 1 billion euros ($1.13 billion) into a car-sharing and ride-hailing businesses. They plan to take on established players like Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc.

Is Ride-Sharing the Future for the Auto Industry?

The new venture was first announced almost one year ago. It will combine Daimler’s Car2go and BMW’s DriveNow to create the world’s biggest car-sharing operator by users, according to BloombergNEF....

Posted: 02/23/19 [ Read More... ]

Innovation Job Markets HUB Consulting

[ Who Are the World’s Most Innovative Countries? ]

  Bloomberg has released its seventh annual Innovation Index. It ranks 200 countries by analyzing a range of criteria using metrics like research and development spending, education scores, manufacturing capability and concentration of high-tech public companies. "South Korea retained the global crown in the 2019 Bloomberg Innovation Index, though improvements by Germany in research and education brought Europe’s largest economy to near-parity in the annual ranking," Bloomberg wrote in a recent release. "The U.S. moved up to eighth place, a...

Posted: 01/31/19 [ Read More... ]

HUB Consulting India Amazon Walmart

[ U.S. Objects as India E-Commerce Rules hit Amazon and Walmart ]

  The United States government has expressed concern about India’s revised e-commerce regulations, pointing out to officials in New Delhi that the policy will hinder the Indian investment plans of Amazon and Walmart. These new e-commerce investment rules kick in on Feb. 1, and they ban companies from selling products via firms in which they have an equity interest. The new rules also bar them from making deals with sellers to sell exclusively on their platforms. The policies may be targeting Walmart, which just...

Posted: 01/24/19 [ Read More... ]

McKinsey design thinking at 50 Hub Consulting

[ Ten design practices to deliver business value ]

  For those companies that get design right, the prizes are rich. The S&P 500 companies that invested most into design processes, capabilities, and leadership over the past decade, including design stalwarts such as Disney, Nike, and P&G, outperformed the rest of the index by 211 percent.

Design Thinking Approaches 50. Yet it is still Misunderstood.

McKinsey published a recent brief on design thinking as it nears its 50th birthday. It found that many companies still struggle to realize value from design. "While...

Posted: 12/05/18 [ Read More... ]

Hub Consulting Nike NYC store opens

[ Nike Opens Nike NYC House of Innovation ]

  NIKE, Inc. opened its new Nike House of Innovation on November 15. Nike NYC, as it is called, is a 68,000 sq. ft., six-level, cross-category premium Nike store, with a 650 Fifth Ave. address. Nike NYC is "the pinnacle expression of modern retail, representing the best of Nike global product, experiences and sport innovation," according to their press release. Powered by digital commerce data and inspired by Nike’s newest retail concept, Nike Live, the ground floor features the new Nike Speed...

Posted: 11/20/18 [ Read More... ]

AI Artwork Sells Christies New York HUB Consulting post

[ Portrait by AI Program Sells for $432,000 at Auction ]

  An artwork created by an artificially intelligent (AI) program has been sold at auction through Christie's in New York for $432,000, about 43 times the initial estimate of up to $10,000 by the auction house. The portrait is the first piece of AI art to go under the hammer at a major auction house. The sale attracted a significant amount of media attention, according to a recent article in BBC News. "AI is just one of several technologies...

Posted: 10/30/18 [ Read More... ]

china hardware hack super micro HUB Consulting

[ The Big Hack: How China Used a Tiny Chip to Infiltrate U.S. Companies ]

  An attack that used a tiny microchip installed onto Super Micro servers during the manufacturing process by sub-contractors in China reached almost 30 U.S. companies, including Amazon and Apple, compromising America’s technology supply chain, according to extensive interviews with government and corporate sources.
Nested on the servers’ motherboards, testers found a tiny microchip, not much bigger than a grain of rice, that wasn’t part of the boards’ original design. Amazon reported the discovery to U.S. authorities,...

Posted: 10/11/18 [ Read More... ]

Artificial Intelligence Hiring Tools HUB Consulting

[ Artificial Intelligence: The Robots Are Now Hiring ]

Artificial Intelligence Hiring Tools HUB Consulting Nearly all Fortune 500 companies now use some form of automation in their hiring process, as noted in this Wall Street Journal article. From robot avatars interviewing job candidates to computers weeding out potential employees by scanning keywords in resumes, these companies are looking at AI tools to help. And more and more companies are using artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to assess possible employees. This...

Posted: 09/26/18 [ Read More... ]