Today, I am equal parts proud, grateful, and utterly thrilled to announce the launch a new research and advisory firm, Kaleido Insights. I do so with my three partners, longtime colleagues, and close friends: Jessica Groopman, Rebecca Lieb, and Jeremiah Owyang.
One of the most common threads I’ve heard through years of researching digital transformation efforts within organizations is that it’s incredibly challenging for leaders and change agents to prioritize the disruptive technologies that matter. When should they pay attention, why, and how can they slot new technology strategies into their roadmaps amidst other pressing (and revenue-generating) digital, innovation, and departmental priorities?
That’s where Kaleido insights comes in. We formed our firm with the mission to enable organizations to foresee, decipher, and act on technological disruption with agility, based on our rigorous original research, trends analysis, corporate leadership network, and pragmatic recommendations. Our analysts’ complementary coverage areas bring clarity to our clients among the chaos of technological disruption:
Aristotle’s adage, “the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts” rings true at Kaleido Insights. Our analysts and founding partners lean on each others’ expertise to continuously collaborate in their research agendas, client engagements, and outlook for the future of humans, businesses, and ecosystems. Due to our broader focus on technology disruption through the combination of our individual lenses, we’re able to spot larger technology trends more nimbly as they change in real-time and advise our clients on how to act with intent.
Our company’s name reflects this outlook on an evolving technology landscape. “Kaleido” translates to “beautiful form” as a combination of two Greek words “kalos” and “eidos.” Like a kaleidoscope, the changing technological impacts to humans, organizations, and ecosystems reflect myriad patterns on our culture and business. Disrupt (rotate) the scope, and our clients are faced with exciting approaches to business models, customer experience, marketing, content strategy, automation roadmaps, and more.
Three Macrotrends Impacting the Journey to 2030
Our three-tiered approach to analyzing technologies through examining their impacts on humans, organizations, and ecosystems is reflected in our first research report, also launching today as a collaborative effort among our analysts. Three Macrotrends Impacting the Journey to 2030 is available for gratis download on our website. Within, you’ll find exploration into three core themes that will affect the roadmaps of every reader:
First, technology is enabling people to evolve into Super Humans. Born in the age of social media and accelerated through mobile and AI, consumers’ ever-expanding toolkit of capabilities means individuals wield more power than ever before.
Second, nimble and Fluid Organizations are those that survive. Early efforts in digital transformation reveal why shifting competitive forces require agility and fluidity across systems, internal culture, and within innovation programs themselves.
Third, Enlightened Ecosystems are the result of digital convergence with the physical world– as distributed systems become more integrated, machines and supply chains interconnected, we are building an intelligence more powerful than any single human or business.
I look forward to hearing your feedback on our report. There’s also a graphics-only version you can download from SlideShare if you’re interested in quickly grabbing the figures to share in your networks.
Now, I turn it to you. What excites you most about Kaleido Insights’ research agenda for the coming quarters? What are we missing? And, most importantly, how best can we help you succeed in adapting to and proactively anticipating the impacts of today––and, tomorrow’s––disruptive technologies?
My Well-Intentioned, Yet Woefully Insufficient Gratitude
The road to launching Kaleido Insights has been paved with excitement, stress, laughter, and countless late nights. It wouldn’t have been possible without the support and hard work from my partners, our tireless designer Vlad Mirkovic, our enthusiastic web programmer Taylor Christensen, and our talented press team at Blast PR (Lana, Hollis, et. al.).
Launching Kaleido Insights also required the love and belief in me from my ridiculously supportive personal network. Without Justin, my unwavering champion, and Ava, my energetic cheerleader, launching a company of this magnitude and commitment would not have been possible. I am also indebted to my parents, siblings, and close friends who have been understanding of my absence over the last seven months (I’ll still be your daughter, sister, and friend, if you’ll have me!). Finally, last but certainly not least, I am indebted to my mentor and very close friend Brian Solis, who has been my research partner-in-crime for many years and an incredibly supportive friend and advisor throughout my career journey.
Thank you all, a hundred times over. I can’t wait to share the next steps of this journey with you.
Jaimy Szymanski 