Here some trends to consider:

No matter what industry you’re in, your company can’t survive without technology. From smart phones and tablets to mobile apps and cloud-based technology, there’s a plethora of technological advancements to not only keep track of, but also to profit from.

To stay competitive, your organization needs to anticipate the most significant technology trends that are shaping your business and changing your customer, and then develop innovative ways to use them to your advantage, both inside and outside of your organization. Remember, if it can be done, it will be done. If you don’t use these technologies to create a competitive advantage, someone else will.

Over the next five short years the following game-changing technologies will transform how we sell, market, communicate, collaborate, educate, train, innovate, and much more.

1. Big Data Gets Bigger and Becomes a Service. Big Datais a term to describe the technologies and techniques used to capture and utilize the exponentially increasing streams of datawith the goal ofbringing enterprise-wide visibility and insights to make rapid critical decisions. Companies are learning the hard way that Big Bad Data can get you into trouble fast, so there is a new push to focus on the quality of the data as it is being captured. High Speed Analytics using advanced cloud services will increasingly be used as a complement to existing information management systems and programs to tame the massive data explosion. This new level of data integration and analytics will require many new skills and cross-functional buy-in in order to break down the many data and organizational silos that still exist. The rapid increase in data makes this a fast-growing hard trend that cannot be ignored. Big Data as-a-Service (BDaaS) will emerge this year as cloud providers offer midsize and smaller organizations access to much larger streams of relevant data they could not tap into otherwise.

2. Cloud Computing Gets Personal and Advanced Cloud Services will be increasingly embraced by business of all sizes, as this represents a major shift in how organizations obtain and maintain software, hardware, and computing capacity. As consumers, we first experienced public clouds (think about when you use Google Docs or Apple’s iCloud). Then we saw more private clouds giving companies the security and limited access they needed, as well as hybrid clouds that provided both, giving customers and consumers access to specific areas of a company’s cloud. Companies of all sizes are using the cloud to cut costs in IT, human resources, and sales management functions. As individuals increasingly use personal mobile clouds, we will see a shift to services and less of a focus on the devices we use to access our services. This shift will also help us address the three limiting factors of mobility: battery life, memory, and processors.

3. On Demand Services will increasingly be offered to companies needing to rapidly deploy new services. Hardware-as-a-Service (HaaS) is increasinglyjoining Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), creating what some have called “IT as a service.” The rapid growth of Collaboration-as-a-Service (CaaS), Security-as-a-Service (SaaS), Networking as-a-Service (NaaS), and many more are all giving birth to Everything as-a-Service (XaaS). All will grow rapidly for small as well as large companies, with many new players in a multitude of business process categories. These services will help companies cut costs as they provide access to powerful software programs and the latest technology without having the expense of a large IT staff and time-consuming, expensive upgrades. As a result, IT departments in all industries will be increasingly freed to focus on enabling business process transformation, which will allow organizations to maximize their return on their technology investments.

4. Virtualization of Storage, Desktops, Applications, and Networking will see continued acceptance and growth by both large and small businesses as virtualization security improves. In addition to storage, we will continue to see the virtualization of processing power, allowing mobile devices to access supercomputer capabilities and apply it to processes such as purchasing and logistics, to name a few.

5. Consumerization of IT increases,as consumers become the driving source for innovation and technology, which is fueled by rapid advances in processing power, storage, and bandwidth. Smart companies have recognized that this is a hard trend that will continue and have stopped fighting consumerization. Instead, they are turning it into a competitive advantage by consumerizing their applications, such as recommending safe and secure third party hardware and apps. Encouraging employees to share productivity enhancing consumer technology will become a wise strategy.

6. Wear Your Own Device (WYOD) will take off this year as wearable technology goes mainstream with big players launching smart watches, smart glasses, and more, creating new problems as well as opportunities for organizations of all sizes. Over the past few years, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) caught many IT departments by surprise; it’s now time to get in front of this this predictable hard trend and turn it into an advantage.

7. Gameification of Training and Education will acceleratea fast-moving hard trend ofusing advanced simulations and skill-based learning systems that are self-diagnostic, interactive, game-like, and competitive, all focused on giving the user an immersive experience thanks to a photo-realistic 3D interface. Some will develop software using these gaming techniques to work on existing hardware systems such as both old and new versions of Xbox and PlayStation. A social component that includes sharing will drive success.

8. Online Learning and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) have been embraced by highly recognized and traditional educational institutions, putting them in a position to challenge all educational systems by making Location and Tuition far less of a barrier to receiving the information, training, and knowledge people need to know in order to succeed in a rapidly changing world. This hard trend, combined with Gameification systems, will change the face of global education.

9. eBooks, eNewspapers, eMagazines and Interactive Multimedia eTextbooks are finallypassing the tipping pointdue to the abundance of smart phones and tablets that provide a full color experience, and publishers providing apps that give a better-than-paper experience by including cut, copy, paste, print, and multimedia capabilities. Interactive eTextbooks will finally take off thanks to easy-to-use software such as Apple’s iBook Author and other competing tools, freeing new publishers to create compelling and engaging content, and freeing students from a static, expensive, and literally heavy experience.

10. Social Business Applications take on a new level of urgency as organizations shift from an Information Age “informing”model to a Communication Age “communicating and engaging” model. Social Software for business will reach a new level of adoption with applications to enhance relationships, collaboration, networking, social validation, and more. Social Search and Social Analytics will increasingly be used by marketers and researchers, not to mention Wall Street, to tap into millions of daily tweets and Facebook conversations, providing real-time analysis of many key consumer metrics.

11. Smart Phones & Tablets Get Smarter with the rapid advances in processing power, storage, and bandwidth. Smart phones have already become our primary personal computer, and the Mobile Web hasbecomea must-have capability. An Enterprise Mobility Strategy Becomes Mandatory for all size organizations as we see mobile data, mobile media, mobile sales, mobile marketing, mobile commerce, mobile finance, mobile payments, mobile health, and many more explode. The vast majority of mobile phones sold globally will have a browser, making the smart phone our primary computer that is with us 24/7 and signaling a profound shift in global computing. This new level of mobility and connectivity by many millions around the world will allow any size business to transform how they market, sell, communicate, collaborate, educate, train, and innovate using mobility.

12. Mobile Apps for Business Processes such as purchasing, supply chain, logistics, distribution, service, sales, maintenance, and more will grow rapidly. There will be an increasing focus on Business App Stores within companies giving users access to personalized information they need on their mobile devices anytime and anywhere.

Sinead Kaufman is often referred to as the ‘mayor’ of Tom Price: A West Australian mining town of 4500 residents with a Coles supermarket, post office, and temperatures that regularly hover around the 38 degree mark.

She’s that involved in the day-to-day operations of the growing Pilbara-based town – including supporting family-based facilities such as the childcare centre and two primary schools – that she’s earned a reputation as keeping the place in order.”

It’s all part of the job for Kaufman, who oversees three mines in the region as General Manager of the Tom Price and Marandoo Operations for Rio Tinto, managing 1400 staff and producing 40 million tonnes of iron ore a year. But not quite what she imagined studying geology at university twenty years ago. “I had a hugely romantic view of being off in a landrover somewhere exploring huge mines! It was highly romantic, in my mind.”

Last week, Kaufman was named one of Chief Executive Women’s seven education scholarship winners and the recipient of a $55,000 prize to attend a month-long Advanced Executive Program at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.

Working 12 hour shifts and travelling extensively between the three mines, Kaufman’s responsible for overall operations issues at the mines and dealing with the various employee and township issues that come up. With more than 90% of the houses in Tom Price own by Rio Tinto, that means dealing with everything from allocating houses to managing community issues and supporting the development of relevant facilities. She’s also on the board of the Tom Price Primary School, the Nintirri Community Centre and leads the Rio Tinto Iron Ore Mental health working group, supporting the health and wellbeing of miners across the state.

It’s a tough place to live, Kaufman concedes, but an interesting place to be. There are plenty of activities and facilities for the kids and some unique hobbies to explore on the ‘off’ days, such as gold prospering which Kaufman does with her husband and a metal detector whenever they get the chance.

She believes finding local, relevant hobbies is essential for getting involved in the local community and learning about a new town. In the far North Queensland where she was last posted, she took up fishing.

Meanwhile, having been flung far from her Irish upbringing to some of the globe’s most off-beat locations, including the Australian outback and underground copper mines in South Africa – she believes a close life partner and help at home are key to managing such a unique career. Her husband left the British Army to follow her mining career around the world, ultimately landing his own job with Rio Tinto.

Raising two children, ages two and six, the two have become a Rio Tinto “husband and wife team” by both sharing parental leave and flexible work arrangements. Kaufman took the first six months off when they hand their last child, while her husband followed it up by taking a further 18 months and continues to work flexibly and in line with ‘school hours’ to manage the childcare and school drop-offs.

Kaufman also takes great pride in supporting minority groups across the employee base – such as the 20% of the workforce that is female, and Rio Tinto’s Aboriginal employees. “We do spend plenty of time putting in support mechanisms for theses different groups,” she says. “The joke often is, ‘is there anything for the white males to do’?’

Women’s Agenda in Australia reports:

Spare time is a valuable commodity for many women. Whether you’re working full-time or part-time, managing kids or not, few of us can say we have too many additional hours available to help out other women with their careers.

And yet there are so many experienced and seemingly busy women out there who are willing and able to share their wisdom and offer a helping hand by mentoring women. They find the extra hours, oftentimes mentoring multiple women at once or even making themselves practically available 24/7 to offer guidance on pressing issues.

So why do they do it? And, more importantly, how can we ensure they keep doing it?.

EY Sydney managing partner Lynn Kraus has been mentoring four women over the past five years and sees building such relationships as a responsibility. “I am a believer that once you have ascended upwards on the corporate ladder, it is your duty and privilege to extend a helping hand down to help the next generation of female leaders.”

Kraus, who won the ‘Mentor of the Year’ prize at the NAB Women’s Agenda Leadership Awards, has been a ‘mentee’ herself and knows just what it means to be on the receiving end of excellent advice. “While these two [female mentors] were very different in many ways, they did share several things in common: personal resilience, self confidence and both were excellent communicators. They invested in me and believed in me and I feel it is my job to do the same for others.”

She says she never tells her ‘mentees’ what they should do, but rather listens to their issues and challenge them on their responses, encouraging them to find their own solutions. “This makes for a more sustainable solution than simply telling someone what to do,” she says.

Allied Health director Penny Munro also mentors multiple women and sees it as an opportunity to ‘give back’. “It’s my contribution to the community and to providing support and hope and encouragement to women.”

But Munro personally benefits too. “I get to constantly learn from remarkable people who often don’t think that they are remarkable. Listening to their stories always provides me with lots of food for thought, personally and professionally,” she says. “The second thing for me is the joy. It’s so lovely to watch women develop and be courageous and take risks and achieve. Mentees provide me with lots of joy and laughter and humility.”

Given the energy these women invest in their mentoring relationships, mentees have a responsibility to uphold their end of the bargain and ensure they’re not taking advantage of the arrangement, or wasting their time.

Munro believes mentees should enter such relationships with purpose. They should be prepared to engage themselves fully in the conversation, do the work that’s required and take risks.

That means getting over or being willing to at least see past any ‘imposter syndrome’. “I find just about every mentee starts with feeling like they are a fraud and believing they can’t possibly achieve what they aspire to so it’s important I give them regular feedback and encouragement, but I also ask them to reflect deeply on our discussions,” says Munro.

If that many mentees feel like a ‘fraud’ when they start out, we can only hope more women find the time and energy to continue creating mentoring relationships in the future.

People come to recognise gender imbalance and inequality at different times for different reasons. For many people  trying to find childcare, can be the first tangible, and illustrative, obstacle that the world isn’t quite as equal as they might have hoped.

For one professor seeing the data on MBA enrolments, proved a turning point. While women comprise about half of all enrollments in business courses and degrees at university, they make up only 35% of MBA students. And that figure is quite constant the world over.

On average, women earn about 17.6% less than men and over the course of a career this adds up.   It is still mostly women who take the longest breaks from work to have babies. Their return to work is then, often, impeded by the cost and availability of childcare. In that regard, their lower income can disadvantage them again; if the cost of childcare exceeds the income of either parent the family might choose for the person earning less to stop working, or to work part-time. By and large it is still women who are in that position. Aside from the short-term income lost, this arrangement has longer-term ramifications in terms of that parent’s career advancement and future earning potential.

Another relevant factor is that women still do the lion’s share of unpaid work, from caring for children and elderly relatives to domestic duties. The less ‘unpaid’ work you do, the more ‘paid’ work you are available to do, which is another reason why far more women work part-time than men.

Because the negative stigma around part-time and flexible work still abounds, this can be limiting again in terms of potential career advancement and future earning. Once again, the consequence is that individual women earn less both in the short term and the long term.

These factors all conspire to limit, rather than facilitate, women’s workforce participation. The retirement income gap is indicative of that and I would argue the gender composition of MBA students is too.

An MBA requires an investment of time and money, resources which, crudely, thanks to many of the above factors, women are less rich in than men.

Women comprise only 35% of MBA enrolments. An MBA is undoubtedly a valuable tool for anyone aspiring to an executive career.  In corporate Australia, looking at the ASX500 for example, you might conclude investing in an MBA might not procure a return. If women held 35% of top roles in companies we’d all be laughing, and an MBA might make sense to more women.

The “wisdom of the crowd” argument

Entrepreneurs may require external support on how to run their company or to assess the economic potential of their product. Unlike business angels or venture capital funds, crowdfunders might not have any special knowledge about the industry. However, the “wisdom of the crowd” argument states that a crowd can at times be more efficient than individuals or teams in solving corporate problems. Hence, crowdfunders as a crowd would be more efficient than a few equity investors alone.

From another point of view, the risk taken by crowdfunders might be smaller, and not only because of the small amounts that they provide individually. The crowd may further become consumers once the product has been brought to the market and have an incentive to disseminate the information about the product it if they participate in the profits of the venture. In contrast, similar information dissemination would require significant advertisement campaign if the venture were financed by a few, larger investors.  Schweinbacher-Larralde on Financing Entrepreneurs

Difficult times in the Ukraine.  But women entrepreneurs are more important than ever.

Female-owned companies have a special place in transitioning economies.  They employ other women more frequently, which reduces the effect of discrimination against women in the labor market.  Employing women helps reduce the trafficking of women, a big problem in transitioning countries. Third, female business owners are role models for the next generation.  Women Entrepreneurs in Ukraine

Selena was formed to promote and aid entrepreneurship in Bulgaria. Their purpose is:

To support women entrepreneurs and professionals in their professional and entrepreneurial development, through training courses, information exchange and business meetings, through intensification of international contacts and business internationalization, exchanges within the best European practices and participation in projects financed by the EUTo adopt and administer professional ethics, to create the conditions needed for women entrepreneurs to contribute effectively toward solving problems regarding the development of women’s entrepreneurship, at a national and European level

To collaborate with all the competent institutions in order to promote support activities for the development of women’s entrepreneurship, to enable women to join any public or private local, national or international organization, to collaborate with bodies, movements or associations with which it is considered useful to have contacts

To promote the professional training and goals of the Association through information dissemination, the organization of conferences, seminars, publications and professional modernization aimed at enhancing women’s knowledge of enterprise innovation

To promote partnership initiatives at a national and international level with associations having analogous activities and aims, and to implement the European projects and programmes

Women entrepreneurs are one third of all people involved in entrepreneurial activity. Since entrepreneurship is considered a key driver for growth, the Nordic Innovation Center explored a Nordic initiative on women entrepreneurship.  Their aim was to identify obstacles that prevent women businesses to grow and to learn from other countries initiatives and their best practices.

Nordic countries differ in their policies and strategies towards women entrepreneurs.  Denmark has no specific policy for women entrepreneurship.   Sweden launched a massive 100 million SEK. project for Women Entrepreneurship.

Though the performance differs between the Nordic countries investments does not seem to be the only factor explaining gender gaps.  Diversity, networking, access to role models and mentors seem to effect entrepreneurial success.  Nordic Entrepreneurship