Elena Prokopets

Unconscious bias, binding the business success
The extent to which unconscious bias has an impact on our society and the professional services industry is hard to capture in full since the very nature of the problem is evasive and unintentionally cultivated for years. What can be attested with certainty is that a consequence of biased behaviours is an industry lacking diversity, particularly at higher organisational levels.

Challenges arising from the global pandemic caused major operational, strategic and financial havoc. As businesses work to adopt new safety measures and adjust their operational model to adapt to the ‘new normal’, one important aspect often gets pushed lower on the agendas — customer confidence and trust.
The constantly aggravated anxiety about the future finds direct reflection in consumers’ trust levels in businesses. Edelman reports that 50% of customers believe that companies have failed ...

Late summer has always been a hot season for retailers, eager to move some overdue stock and capitalise on customers’ anticipation for good deals. In 2020, most brands are facing a challenging choice when it comes to seasonal discounts — liquidate deadstock as fast as possible to gain an immediate cash injection and restart the supply chain operations or stick with the ‘no sales’ strategy to avoid diluting the brand and alienating loyal customers who are hesitant to start spending again?

Healthcare providers, from clinics, to private practices, to hospitals, are all moving to digitised patient records. And, in this transformation, many are also doing their best to standardise and synthesise patient records into collaborative databases, so that all practitioners can access the full patient history of those they treat.
Add to this, the increasing demand that patients also have access to their health records, and that patients who choose care outside of their normal “networks” m...

Artificial Intelligence has been a hot word across all industries lately. Think all the fuss around self-driving cars, Google’s updated Assistant and the general talks of how conversational interfaces are the future of tech.
Around 54 percent of retailers already use or plan to add artificial intelligence technology to their toolkit, with 20 percent planning to introduce some AI within the next 12 months, according to the latest report from SLI Systems.
The increased adoption of AI in retail ...

There is even a new term for it – “edublocks”
Of all the institutions that resist change, education is high on the list.
In fact, our basic structure has not changed since public schools were first established. Students are required to attend school up to a certain age. They are herded into classrooms with a teacher up front, and the same curriculum is delivered to all.
This does not change even when students attend college. Professor’s lecture, students take notes, coursework assignments are...

Bitcoin — it has gone from being deemed a “crazy and worthless fad” to a mainstream method of financial transactions. And its exchange value as of publication is around US$7,200 per BTC. No one is laughing at Bitcoin now.
The bigger disruption of the cryptocurrency phenomenon, however, may not be the currency itself, but the blockchain technology that is used to record and encrypt every transaction. There are implications for the technology in almost every sector that relies on secure data – ...

IoT has already transformed multiple industries, ranging from banking to fleet management. Health and wellness seem to be the new frontier for conquering. It’s predicted that remote health monitoring alone will push the global health market to a compound annual growth rate of more than 24 percent by 2020. What’s more curious though, is that IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) goes well beyond the clinical institutions and now enters the personal wellness space.
Considering that the health and w...

The graveyard of startups is growing. In fact, twice a year CB Insights conducts a post mortem on some of the most reported startup failures, citing the reasons why doors are shuttered. Founders and investors provide their reasons why the companies failed, and these provide some good lessons for new startups who want to avoid death. Here are a few of the most recent failures and their “causes of death.”
1. Unmanageable debt
ChaCha was a great idea – a mobile answering service. Users could ask...

The sailfish is the fastest swimming creature in the ocean, clocking in at close to 70 miles per hour. The whale, on the other hand, perhaps partially due to size, clocks in at an average of about 14 miles per hour.
If we were to draw an analogy between these two sea creatures and business enterprises, Coca-Cola is a whale, and a young startup is a sailfish. In terms of growth, the whale (Coca-Cola) is happy with about 5 per cent a year. Why? Because the whale already has a huge customer base...

Being an innovator is exciting and fun. And the tech world is always “abuzz” with the latest software startups, especially in such areas as fintech, healthcare, entertainment, and AI. A tech-savvy gamer can create a new game app and become a millionaire in short order. Crowdfunders and venture capitalists love to invest in software startups. Why? Because software development, while it may be complex and time-consuming, is relatively inexpensive.
But What About Hardware Innovations?
Cost has b...

In Seattle, Washington, there is a world-famous fishmonger retailer – Pike Place Fish Market.
Every day, especially at lunch time, regular workers meander over to the place to take part in the action – the throwing of fish, workers talking to the fish they are wrapping or telling stories about the fish to a young child.
Admit it. Working in a fish market is one of the dirtiest and often smelliest jobs there is.
But somehow, these workers are passionate, energetic, and love their jobs. They ha...

Sure, it’s great to have a massive audience on social media. Who wouldn’t want to have Kim Kardashian amount of followers? But at the end of the day, it’s not the number of followers that matter, it’s the amount of sales those channels have landed your business.
You can have a moderate, but dedicated following and boast at least 18% conversion rate. Or have a wide and diverse audience to speak to, yet who stops listening once you talk about your product.
Here are the four strategies to help y...