ARE YOU IN THE KNOW?

I get the Phoenix Business Journal delivered every Friday. I read it over the weekend and as I find, what I consider, are important articles, I try to see if I can involve myself in something I read and help my business. The following are several of the articles that I think will be game changers.

Bill Gates’ company pays $80 million for Arizona land.  The land totals almost 20,000 acres of interstate 10 and could be along the alignment of the proposed Interstate 11 highway linking Phoenix to Las Vegas.

In my opinion, when the second richest man in the world makes this type of investment with the thought of developing a new city with 80,000 homes and 3,800 acres of commercial real estate projects, I better pay attention because it will impact our Valley and open a lot of new opportunities for all.

Another article that drew my attention is the launching of the driver-less cars in the Phoenix area. I have seen them around my neighborhood but always with a person in the driver’s  seat.

Anytime someone says that they will bring another 1,000 jobs to Phoenix (USAA just announced this move) there are business growth opportunities for many small business owners.

A new 15 story hotel is coming to downtown Phoenix, another opportunity.

The cover story is even more important; it’s about how AI (artificial intelligence) is transforming local businesses. For the past several years I have been sharing information on things that will change small businesses. AI was one, along with Virtual Reality and 3-D printing. The following are a few predictions:

• 20% of content used by companies will be created by machines by 2018.
• 100 million consumers will shop using augmented reality by 2020
• 45% of the companies will have more smart machines than employees by 2018.
• 3 million workers will have a “robo-boss”

There is a lot more to this article, but unless you take the time to read it and figure out how to change and adapt these new happenings to your business, you may be left behind.

Find another BizQuack member (or more) and set up a group to discuss these fast moving changes and how they can be incorporated into your business. Remember, you want to lead change, not follow it.