What's interesting this week...

Develop Impact - Issue 161

Hello Develop Impact readers!

Good morning and happy Monday! I hope you had a great weekend and are ready for another week of exciting updates and news.

Today, I am back sharing with you another five articles that I found informative and thought-provoking. I hope that you find value in this newsletter for your current or future projects.

This community is all about learning, sharing, and growing together. Please let us know if you have any interesting resources or thoughts to share. Let's continue to use technology for the greater good.

Let's dive in!

Jesse

What’s interesting…

Micro Matters: Using Data for Development in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

India's Prime Minister announced that 'data for development' would be integral to India's G20 presidency. The G20 Bali Leaders' Declaration echoed this statement. India's G20 Sherpa and other Indian business and civil society leaders have spoken forcefully of the importance of fostering a data-driven culture, and a new wave of interest in the power of data has been unleashed. In the run-up to India's G20 presidency, several potentially game-changing data initiatives were launched, including the National Data and Analytics Platform (NDAP), which makes government datasets readily accessible and enables interoperability across the Indian data landscape.

Navigating the unpredictability of everything

When we build strategies, we predict how customers will receive our product, but so often the strategy is wrong. The Slack and WhatsApp stories of unpredictable success have at least two things in common: they had a strategy, they went where the customers took them, and they had brand new ideas. You must have a strategy, even though the world is unpredictable. You must decide quickly, get customer reactions quickly, learn quickly, make new decisions quickly, upgrade the strategy by following customer behavior, and build a moat or two.

What you really need to know about that fusion news

There are plenty of quips about fusion power, and there's a reason that the technology has a bit of a "boy who cried wolf" reputation. But a national lab reached a major research milestone, which should spark some excitement. Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Lab have been working on making fusion reactions happen in a controlled way in the lab and have achieved a 70% energy return. This is a crucial step towards creating a new, zero-carbon power source for the grid.

Tech for good: What it means and how we can deliver on it

Digital technologies can drive sustainable, equitable and inclusive development as well as economic growth. The Tech for Good sector is seeing increased investments, but there are varying definitions across the ecosystem, meaning varying expectations. Without a shared understanding, it's no surprise that technology is not delivering a net positive impact. TFGI believes that digital technologies and the digital economy drive sustainable, equitable and inclusive development and economic growth. It has developed a simple visual representation of how different approaches may deliver on technology's promise.

Why So Many Digital Transformation Projects Fail

According to a study by McKinsey, 69 percent of digital transformation projects fail. This failure has a negative impact on the organization's competitive position. The University of Waterloo reviewed the literature and conducted interviews with manufacturing companies about their digital transformation activities to better understand how failure rates can be reduced.