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Thoughtnomics
Winter | 2019
Dear readers,

We hope you are all off to the start of a great 2020.

2019 was a terrific year for ESI ThoughtLab. We are grateful to our staff, research partners, and subject matter experts who helped to make the past year a memorable one.

We reached several milestones, including the conclusion of our second pioneering multi-client study on smart cities. After months of in-depth research, in November at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, our team released findings from Building a Hyperconnected City . Primary data was gathered from 100 cities worldwide and we conducted in-person interviews with city and business leaders in order to produce an innovative benchmarking data base, eBook, and case studies.

Our next step: a project to analyze the role of the latest technologies in underpinning not only smart and hyperconnected cities, but also sustainable ones.

In 2019 we also began work on our latest cybersecurity research program, Driving Cybersecurity Performance . It will go beyond our prior research by collecting unique cybersecurity data on investment levels and performance metrics across industries, regions, and companies of different sizes. We expect to release our results and a benchmarking platform in April.

These are critical issues facing corporations and governments around the world. Our unparalleled evidence-based thought leadership focuses on such top-of-mind concerns through an economic lens. We will continue to advance research in these and other areas, such as technology-enabled innovation, customer and employee experience, the platform economy, the adaptive enterprise of the future and similar cutting-edge trends.

True thought leaders always push the boundaries to inspire innovation that sets them apart. We are committed to help organizations achieve their goals and meet the highest standards of excellence.


Sincerely,
Lou Celi,
Chief Executive Officer
ESI ThoughtLab
Building a Hyperconnected City PHL
ESI and the Penn Institute for Urban Research recently held an interactive half-day event on the impact of smart city solutions. The event provided an overview of the Building a Hyperconnected City program's research objectives and explored how cities are using technology to generate return on investment.

Presenters included:

  • Richard Voith, President & Principal, ESI
  • Daniel Miles, Vice President & Associate Principal, ESI
  • Eugenie L. Birch, Co-Director, Penn IUR
  • William Baver, VP Smart World Team, NTT DATA
  • Ana B. Moreno, Director, Tomorrow.City
  • Martin O'Malley, Former Mayor of Baltimore and Former Governor of Maryland
  • Piyush Pandey, Managing Director, Cyber Risk Services, Deloitte
  • Joseph Viscuso, Senior VP and Director of Strategic Growth, Pennoni
Case Studies
Below are case studies from the Building a Hyperconnected City research program. Additional case studies and all publicly available findings can be found here .
Officially Launched at the 2019 Smart City Expo World Congress
Building a Hyperconnected City was officially released at the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona during the Internet of Things: Connectivity for Data-Driven Cities theme session.

View the full presentation .
Cutting-edge insights through economics
ESI ThoughtLab launches cutting-edge, global research initiative on
cybersecurity investments, practices, and performance results
To fill the cybersecurity knowledge gap, ESI ThoughtLab is conducting a rigorous benchmarking study of 1,000 CISOs in companies across the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The study will cover firms of varying sizes, from $50 million to over $50 billion in revenue, spanning 15 industries and differing stages of digital maturinty. The study will provide insight into:

  • Investments in people, process, and technology as well as in key cybersecurity areas (prescribed by NIST).
  • Information on cybersecurity roles, responsibilities, internal and external resources, and organizational approaches.
  • Over 25 key cybersecurity metrics, from mean time to identify, contain, and recover, to number of times a year that phishing tests, backup restoration drills, and employee security awareness training are conducted.
  • The full costs of cyberattacks, including direct costs (fines and legal fees) and indirect costs associated with reputational, IP, and productivity losses.
  • Stages of cybersecurity maturity and their impact on cybersecurity investments and returns, including the ROI on cybersecurity organizational measures, and risk mitigation processes and technologies.

Sponsors and media partners include Verizon, Fiserv, Inc., Optiv, KnowBe4, Check Point Software Technologies, Arceo.AI, Cowbell Cyber, Edelman, and WSJ Pro Cybersecurity.
The End of the Beginning: A Report on Digital Transformation
Cognizant's latest research reveals real-world lessons and practical tactics to help companies grow and profit through digital transformation.

As part of this research, ESI ThoughtLab completed a comprehensive survey of nearly 2,500 of today's business and technology leaders from an array of industries worldwide that together represent $21.6 trillion in revenue.

We also developed benchmarking indices that allow business executives to gauge their own firm's digital maturity. To separate the leaders from those whose digital journey is lagging, our team analyzed:

  • Ranking on a digital transformation framework.
  • Ability to influence revenue through digital methods.
  • Benefits generated from digital.
Cognizant's Jobs of the Future Index explores the trends and patters in a set of fifty jobs. The index is a real-time demand tracking instrument - allowing for the identification of shifts and changes in employer demand for these jobs.

Jobs of the Future Index finishes 2019 with strong growth across all job families
2019 was a booming year for the US labor market: unemployment hit a 50-year low, employers continued to add more jobs faster than job seekers could fill them, and wage growth--while still sluggish--is at its strongest level within the current economic expansion. The fastest growing jobs over the year in Q4 of 2019 were:

Caregiver/Personal Care Aide (+526%)
Home Health Aide (+449%)
Career Counselor (+277%)
Physician (+146%)
Solar Installer (+78%)
Upcoming research
Driving ROI Through AI
There is little evidence-based research on the economics of artificial intelligence (AI) for businesses. While early attempts have been made to measure ROI, this research often fails to present the variations by industry, company size, and location needed for proper benchmarking.

To fill this gap, ESI ThoughtLab is launching Driving ROI Through AI, a multi-client thought leadership program that will provide the market intelligence, strategic insights, and data needed to become successful cognitive enterprises of the future. The study will analyze the use of five main areas of AI for driving corporate performance and will provide executives with the definitive analytical platform for benchmarking AI practices and results.
We are proud to announce that Appen, Cognizant, Cortex, Dataiku, DataRobot, Deloitte, and Publicis Sapient have signed on as partners for this innovative research.

For more information on how you can join this program, please contact Barry Rutizer , Corporate Director and Vice President of Client Relationships.
ESI ThoughtLab in the news
Dr. Richard Voith was quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer . He explains the transit dichotomy vexing revitalization of Philadelphia neighborhoods.

Lou Celi was quoted in Smart Cities World , outlining the ROI cities are seeing as they become hyperconnected.

ESI ThoughtLab was mentioned in an article published by Efficient Gov which explores the top challenges cities must overcome on their journey to becoming truly hyperconnected.

Building a Hyperconnected City was highlighted on Forbes.com . The article focuses on how cities get their start in modernizing their services to become hyperconnected urban ecosystems of the future.

Cities Today reported on the ROI cities could collectively benefit from if they were to become fully hyperconnected
Trendsetters in evidence-based thought leadership
ESI ThoughtLab is the thought leadership arm of Econsult Solutions, Inc. (ESI) , a leading economic consultancy headquartered in Philadelphia, PA. ESI ThoughtLab specializes in analyzing the impact of technological, economic, and demographic shifts on industries, cities, and companies. Our in-house team of over 40 thought leadership, economic, and subject matter specialists, along with our global network of experts, excels at creating valuable decision support that sits at the intersection of visionary thinking, analytical excellence, and innovative content formats.
Fresh thinking to stay ahead of the curve