When it comes to branding, you learn that in order to build a brand, you need to define a mission and a core set of values. Externally, that’s how you drive growth: by offering a vision that consumers can identify and align with. Driving growth internally is another matter entirely.

In today’s fast-paced world, companies across every industry are impacted by the exponential rate of disruption. In my time as an expert in business transformation and corporate modernization, I have seen that innovation now happens in months, not years, which means that decisions need to be made instantly rather than quarterly. Companies must keep up with the ever-changing desires of consumers, or they will get left behind. Accordingly, many organizations are forced to operate in a stealthy startup-like mode in order to compete in the marketplace. Over the last two years as president of my company, a real-time consumer insights software platform, I have seen firsthand the massive business impact of what staying close to your customer can do.

It's almost a regular part of daily conversations -- or at least the interruptions are. Smartphones manage to take a big chunk of our time considering how small they are. Whether it's the ding of an email, a spam phone call or a notification from Instagram that someone posted for the first time in a long time, the effect is the same -- it interrupts a face-to-face interaction with another person.

Artificial intelligence and computing are currently as competent (in some areas) as their human counterparts. At what point will they surpass us and what are the consequences?

As services fine tune their platforms to better enable live content, brands will need to adapt their methods to take full-advantage of increased interest and rapidly evolving technologies.