IN CONVERSATION WITH MANJULA LEE, FOUNDER AND CEO OF WORLD WIDE GENERATION The June issue of TIME magazine flopped through my letterbox with sombre urgency earlier this year. On the cover Antonio Guterres, UN Secretary-General, gazes at the camera, sad and preoccupied, as he stands thigh-deep in muddy water. Below him float the words, “Our Sinking Planet”.

Jonathan Phillips reviews the Book of the Month for September: "Alchemy" by Rory Sutherland.

Jonathan Phillips reviews the Book of the Month for August: "Brave New Work" by Aaron Dignan.

Keeping customers happy is crucial to any business. Happy customers rate you highly online, they tweet about their experience and most importantly, they come back. However, in a world driven by clickthrough-counts and loosely correlated stats, gauging how happy your customers are and utilising that soft data is much harder than it seems. Nimbus Ninety members gathered in the Covent Garden Hotel to discuss not only how to achieve the perfect happiness rating, but also how to measure it.

At a breakfast in the Gherkin, Nimbus Ninety members gathered to discuss how AI and machine learning can be utilised to improve sales in the retail industry. Common struggles centered around how AI can help automate certain processes, streamline their supply chain, and consolidate big data to provide real insight.

Over the last decade, we’ve seen data become the fuel for organisations globally. It’s spawned business models that could not have existed before, and with that, has forced data to become a market commodity - creating a global information supermarket. While businesses use it to drive their customer interaction, and - crucially - their sales, harnessing this power has several hurdles to jump. In order to address these, Nimbus Ninety members gathered in the Gherkin and discussed data enlightenment and artificial intelligence (AI) in the context of sales.

Cloud technology has been around for over a decade. In this time, it has allowed new business models to exist that weren’t previously able to, bringing in a whole host of disruptive influences into all sectors. However, despite its maturity in application, only 20% of cloud migration is achieved in businesses - and this is the most basic 20%. The other 80% remains locked to the ground with hindrances from legacy technology and the mindset that comes with it. At a breakfast in partnership with IBM and Skytap, a group of cloud experts and executives discussed the challenges in cloud migration and application, as well as solutions to these common pain points.

CRM stands for customer relationship management. In reality, the modern-day CRM system has gone far beyond the customer: it has become the heart pumping data lifeblood around the organisation and lies at the core of business strategy. Intelligent and strategic use of CRM can create new business opportunities and ROI; poor practice can allow inefficiencies to fester. Even with huge investment, careful implementation and technical expertise, two thirds of CRM initiatives significantly under-deliver. At a breakfast in partnership with Appirio, a group of CRM leads unpacked precisely why this continues to be the case.

INDRA JOSHI, DIGITAL HEALTH AND AI CLINICAL LEAD AT NHS ENGLAND, TELLS ME ABOUT INNOVATION IN HEALTHCARE. The NHS’s interaction with artificial intelligence has been met with a whole variety of reactions. While commentators from the national newspapers herald an “AI revolution” in healthcare, reports from the NHS suggest that the organisation’s infrastructure is not yet ready to take on these new developments.1

Priya Khullar, Head of Customer Experience and Insight at Sky Spain, tells me about personalisation in a data-driven world.