Esteve Almirall

eDreams – Native Digital Companies

We are all familiar with native digital companies like eDreams, the Spanish on-line travel specialist.

However, native digital companies work differently than normal companies. There, you are not going to find product managers but product owners. Project Management is basically SCRUM and you cannot meet your clients but you know a lot about them.

Digital experiments is the tool for taking decisions and personalization is the name of the game.

Here you can find the interview ith Manuel Bruscas, Director of Analytics and Insights at eDreams ODIGEO, where we talk about the differences between native and non-native digital companies and how both work !

I am sure that you will find it not only very interesting but enlightening !

 

Los deberes para una Barcelona digital

Para que Barcelona se transforme en una sociedad digital no se necesitan más laboratorios, más programadores y más emprendedores, que también. Debe ser una sociedad que busque de forma constante mejorar y poner en marcha nuevas iniciativa.

ESTEVE ALMIRALL. PROFESOR DE ESADE BUSINESS AND LAW SCHOOL

MARTES, 28 DE FEBRERO DEL 2017

 

Parece que el mundo avanza hacia una sociedad digital en donde buena parte de las actividades humanas o bien se trasladan al ‘software’ o acabarán en manos de máquinas inteligentes o robots. Quizás alguien puede pensar que tardaremos mucho en ver este mundo, pero de hecho ya está aquí. La venta ‘on line’ está ganando terreno rápidamente, los fondos de inversión ya empiezan a estar gestionados por ‘software’ en vez de humanos (Bridgewater, Sentient, Numerai …) y los coches, camiones y autobuses se autoconducen. Los Tesla ya hace tiempo que van solos por las autopistas… Que esto va a más y con gran rapidez no hay ninguna duda. Ahora bien, si esto es así, ¿qué le hace falta a una sociedad para tener éxito y no terminar atropellada por el tsunami de la innovación digital?

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Tim van Kasteren – Data Scientist @ Schibsted

 

Even if Schibsted is one of largest media groups in Europe maybe you don’t know it. However, you are probably familiar with brands like InfoJobs, MilAnuncios.com, Vibbo (Segunda Mano) or coches.net, all of them part of the group.

With Tim we discuss the role of a Data Scientist in a native Digital company, the problems, the opportunities and also the advice that he can provide to aspiring Data Scientists.

Enjoy !!!

Interview with Gloria Macias-Lizaso – McKinsey’s partner in charge of Data Science & Business Analytics

Gloria Macias-Lizaso, McKinsey’s partner in charge of Data Science in Spain talks with me about Data Science & Business Analytics, how McKinsey sees the sector in Europe and what could be its evolution in the near future.

We also discuss on the qualities that makes candidates more fit for a Data Science or Business Analytics position. What are companies looking for? There you will hear about a new concept, the one of translators, professionals that bridge between business and tech, trying to make tech relevant and understandable for organizations.

In such a changing world, it is difficult to find anybody that is equally good in both tech and business. In fact, for many of us it is difficult to keep up with the fast pace of the area. Having people that know how to best apply tech to business and apply it in an effective way is rare.

This is the kind of people that we aim to train @ Esade in our new program, the Master in Business Analytics. If yo are interested, please contact me !

A conversation with Soh Kim – d-school Stanford University – about Design Thinking, Food Hackatons and Data Science

Soh Kim is responsible for the FoodInno initiative in the d-school @ Stanford University, as you all know the d-school is the meca of Design Thinking, a collaboration between Stanford & IDEO that resulted in the conceptualization of Design Thiking. 

Soh is one of the main researchers around Open Innovation in the Food industry. She is interested not only in conducting research but also in driving change. Food Hackatons is one of her proposals to link the instruments commonly used in Innovation & Tech to the Food Industries.

This interview was precisely recorded in one of this Hackatons in Esade where we proposed to reinvent TAPAS.

Our collaboration with the d-school goes however well beyond Food Hackatons. In our new program on Data Science, the Master in Business Analytics, our students will have a 2 week study trip to the Stanford’s d-school to work on how to use Design Thinking in Data Science.

Many of the Data Analytics projects don’t fully reach their objectives or end up in products that don’t fit the needs of users. With the use of Design Thinking we want to change that, increasing their success rate. 

Open Innovation – the Last 10 years – the next 10 years

During December 15-17 we had in ESADE Barcelona the World Open Innovation Conference 2016. About 250 scholars, industry, government and researchers gathered to present, network and talk about Open Innovation in what is possibly the largest conference in the world on this area.

It will be difficult to highlight only a few things because we had so many. From the State of Open Innovation introduced by Henry Chesbrough to the commitment on Open Innovation of the European Commission presented by Carlos Moedas or the one of the City of Barcelona introduced by Francesca Bria. Or the intersection between Open Innovation and food with Ferran Adrià and Marcel Planellas or with soccer with Ivan Bofarull. The state of Open Innovation in China. Even a food hackaton held by Soh Kim from Stanford and myself.

Of course, lots of papers, academic research and also challenges posed by companies where academic and industry can both relate and discuss.

It was a really nice conference with many different flavors, reflecting the reality of a discipline that is becoming increasingly important as companies move towards ways to compete where innovation is more prevalent.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to give a talk in Berlin invited by Fraunhofer FOKUS (Vielen Dank !!!) about the past, the present and the future of Open Innovation.

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¿Por qué esta revolución es diferente?

thenewrevolutionSi algo nos diferencia como especie, es nuestra capacidad para construir herramientas, nada hay más humano. Estas herramientas nos han permitido aumentar nuestras capacidades, haciendo no sólo más de lo que podíamos hacer sino cosas de las que no éramos capaces.

La revolución industrial supuso un punto de inflexión importante. El multiplicador de nuestras capacidades se incrementó notablemente y con él la participación del trabajo en productos y servicios se empequeñeció. Aparecieron las primeras películas y narraciones que nos mostraban una humanidad donde las maquinas lo hacían todo. En ese momento sólo eran sueños.

Sin embargo, aquellos sueños se están convirtiendo en realidad.

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