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The Bestem Network consists of entrepreneurs, financiers, managers and consultants who are active in the European energy industry. The aim of the network is to create strong, informal connections that create value for the members, and enable high-quality, best-in-class projects.
The world is woefully underprepared what AI will bring in the next five years. I don't think firm owners realise how much of the value of 'their companies' will be owned by NVIDIA, Google, and Microsoft in 5 years time.
If you think cloud costs are bad, wait until your company is run and operated by AI Agents that you rent. Cheaper than employees perhaps, but you'll be training up the AI as you use it.
If you think that's bad, ask yourself what's stopping the AI owners from replicating your firm. But better. And cheaper.
We're not there yet, but we are likely to be sooner than you think. ChatGPT isn't going to be basing their business model on charging you $20 a month to use it. They'll be basing it on charging rents to keep you in business.
Network member Robert West, CFA quoted in the FT. interesting ENI decision to do this in house. ..
Eni fires up €100mn supercomputer in race to find oil and gas reservoirs - https://on.ft.com/4gAfExm via @FT
Exciting times at ITS
One month into his role as our new CEO, Andrew Mills is already making waves and steering us towards a bright future. His fresh perspective and innovative approach are breathing new life into our operations.
Key highlights from Andrew's first month:
• Streamlined decision-making processes
• Launched initiatives to boost employee engagement
• Set ambitious goals for sustainable growth
We're thrilled to see the positive impact Andrew is making and can't wait to see what the future holds under his leadership.
Read more about his vision and plans for ITS in the latest issue of Tees Business.
https://joom.ag/RxSd/p74#LeadershipInAction#CompanyGrowth#engineeringexcellence#itsltd
We're thrilled to announce that ITS Ltd has been acquired by Andrew Mills! This exciting transition marks a new chapter in the company's history. Malcolm Knott, ITS’ founder will continue to contribute his valuable expertise as a Senior Consultant to the Board, ensuring a smooth transition and providing support to several ongoing strategic investments/initiatives. We look forward to the fresh perspectives that Andrew’s energy, experience and industry knowledge this change brings, while maintaining the quality and innovation our customers have come to expect over the past three decades. Here's to a bright future under new leadership!
https://lnkd.in/ebz7v6BM#NewOwnership#BusinessAcquisition#CompanyNews#ITSLtd
Fresh from the Advanced Engineering 2024 conference at Birmingham's NEC, the complex reality of AI adoption in manufacturing is striking. The narrative isn't about wholesale digital revolution, but careful, strategic integration.
Key observations:
> Only 2% of UK manufacturers are truly "advanced" in Industry 4.0 technologies, whilst almost a third are still finding their feet with industry 3.0
> Many small-to-medium enterprises are eager to adopt but resource-constrained
> AI and Machine vision-powered product quality control are emerging as low-risk entry points
And for manufacturers, AI implementation is less about grand technological leaps and one-size-fits-all platforms and instead more about:
> Carefully labeling and leveraging existing data to act as a starting point
> Building targeted internal tools for specific niche use-cases
> Creating practical workflow improvements to improve coordination and productivity amongst teams
Competitive racing sectors seem to be leading AI adoption, while aerospace moves with characteristic caution—each engineering decision potentially viewed through the lens of future legal accountability.
The digital twin dream is slowly emerging, but haltingly and not quite as imagined. One example: a 12-month deployment just to replicate a single factory environment, though mostly to act as a marketing tool than a decision-making engine.
Manufacturing's AI journey isn't a sprint. It's a carefully navigated transformation, one precise implementation at a time.
#Manufacturing#AITransformation#IndustryInnovation#DigitalTwin
Policymakers, business leaders, managers, and workers are now thinking and talking a lot about #AI. How should AI tools be used? What tasks should AI tools be used for? Often the way these questions are approached is by asking what human-like outputs AI systems can produce.
A much more useful approach is to ask what humans can do that AI systems can't. The answer is: Humans can make meaning (subjective decisions), and AI systems can't.
And though AI systems can’t make meaning yet, they depend on meaning-making work, always done by humans, to come into being, be useable, be used, and be useful.
Understanding meaning-making as something AI systems cannot do at all and cannot function without makes it easier to figure out how to develop, productize, and deploy good AI systems.
Read more about it here:
As our speaker predicted 7 years ago!
Like the military have to build processes that can deal with fake positives injected into their radars, so companies need to reconfirm these types of instructions now.
Have you looked at this? Does it call for 2 factor authentication?
The FT has confirmed that engineering group Arup, which employs about 18,000 people globally, was targeted in one the world's biggest known deepfake scams. https://on.ft.com/3QN9z5H
In 2019 we wrote about Solar:
𝙸 𝚞𝚛𝚐𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚊 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔 𝚊𝚝 𝚃𝚒𝚖 𝙷𝚊𝚛𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚍’𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚕𝚎 𝚘𝚗 𝚂𝚘𝚕𝚊𝚛 [𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚔]. 𝙰𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚊𝚗 𝚊𝚋𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚐𝚛𝚊𝚜𝚙 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚒𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚑𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛’𝚜 𝚍𝚘𝚗’𝚝. 𝙷𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚜 𝚊 𝙿𝚅 𝚌𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚜 – 𝚑𝚘𝚠 𝚒𝚗 𝟷𝟿𝟾𝟶 𝚂𝚘𝚕𝚊𝚛 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 $𝟷𝟶𝟶 𝚙𝚎𝚛 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚝 ($𝟷𝟶.𝟶𝟶𝟶 𝚝𝚘 𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚊 𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚋𝚞𝚕𝚋). 𝙸𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚊𝚕𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚢 𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚘𝚠 $𝟶.𝟸𝟻 / 𝚠𝚊𝚝𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚏𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐. 𝚄𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢 𝚜𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚍𝚎 𝚐𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚊𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚕𝚘𝚠 $𝟶.𝟶𝟷𝟻 𝚙𝚎𝚛 𝙺𝚆/𝚑. [𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚔]
𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚂𝚘𝚕𝚊𝚛 𝙿𝚊𝚗𝚎𝚕𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚊 𝚙𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚞𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚢. 𝙾𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚓𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝚜𝚒𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚎𝚗𝚎𝚛𝚐𝚢. 𝙽𝚘 𝚖𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚜, 𝚗𝚘 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚎𝚍 𝚊𝚜 𝚜𝚞𝚌𝚑. 𝚆𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎, 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍 𝚊𝚝 𝚖𝚊𝚗𝚞𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚝𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚜.
It seems that what we're commenting on might be part of a broader margin squeeze based on China's manufacturing dominance. It will be an interesting time—if we keep focusing on GDP, the West will lose the race, but in many ways, I want to live in a society with different values than those created by Beijing—so what will we be measuring and optimising for next?
🇨🇳 ⚡️ 🇩🇪 Qualifizierte Fachkräfte aus China für den deutschen Arbeitsmarkt.
❗ SCMP: "Western protectionism will fail – China’s success isn’t down to subsidies"
✅ Commentary from Shanghai-based economist Andy Xie, Morgan Stanley’s former chief Asia-Pacific economist.
"Solar panel prices, for example, have fallen by 95 per cent since China entered the industry two decades ago. Prices of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for EVs have halved in the past year and are expected to halve again this year. No amount of subsidies could have made this happen. The real story is China’s innovation and scale."
"The West did not complain about China’s overcapacity in the past because it was good for them. When Chinese companies were mainly making parts and products for global companies, their overcapacity meant customers could squeeze prices and fatten profit margins. Now that Chinese companies want to make and sell their own products, these easy margins are gone."
"And as Chinese companies rise up the value chain in the global market, a clash of business cultures is shaping up between the West and China."
Yesterday's strategic advantage can become today's liability, underscoring the importance of agility and adaptability. A classic example is the massive concentration of assets in industries like steel, cement, and oil and gas. For decades, these sectors enjoyed unassailable positions thanks to scale economies, driving super-profits and creating barriers too high for many competitors to overcome. 🏗️🛢️
However, the same concentration that fueled their ascendancy has also concentrated the production of carbon, turning these giants into the focal points of environmental scrutiny. In a world increasingly conscious of climate change, carbon has transitioned from an unnoticed by-product to a significant liability. 🌍🔥
The scale that once made these companies is now is a double-edged sword. As carbon becomes a global concern, these industry behemoths find themselves with a target on their backs, facing stringent regulations, changing consumer preferences, and urgent calls for sustainable practices. Transitioning away from carbon-intensive operations is not just a strategic shift but an existential one, requiring monumental effort and innovation.
On the flip side, smaller, more nimble players who previously couldn't compete on scale suddenly find themselves at an advantage. With less of their profits tied to carbon-intensive processes, they can pivot more quickly, adopting greener technologies and practices without the burden of overhauling massive infrastructures. 🌱💨
This scenario highlights a critical lesson for businesses: flexibility and the ability to pivot are invaluable. In a world where yesterday's asset can become today's liability, the ability to adapt and evolve is crucial. Companies must constantly reassess their strategies, remain vigilant to external shifts, and cultivate a culture of innovation that can navigate the unpredictable tides of business and environmental stewardship. 🔄🚀
#StrategicManagement#Sustainability#BusinessAgility#ClimateChange
CEO & Chairman @ SiriNor | Driving Aviation's Green Revolution | #flyfossilfree
80% of global emissions from 2016 through 2022 can be traced back to just 57 corporate and state producing entities, mainly fossil fuel and cement companies. Urgent replacement of their products with sustainable alternatives will go a long way towards avoiding the worst effects of global warming. Let's work together towards a more #sustainable future.
Gareth Davies foresaw the vital role of digitalisation in enhancing transparency, a prediction now underscored by initiatives like Google's methane mapping project—demonstrating the power of foresight in navigating the future of sustainability and tech.
In an era where public access to environmental data becomes a norm, companies are increasingly compelled to self-monitor and disclose accurate, trustworthy information. This proactive approach to digitalisation and data transparency is not just about compliance; it’s a strategic asset that enables businesses to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving landscape.
Companies gain unparalleled insights into their environmental impact by instrumenting their operations, fostering operational improvements, ensuring regulatory compliance, and solidifying their competitive advantage. More importantly, this strategy aligns with a growing societal demand for corporate accountability in environmental matters, enhancing a brand's reputation and stakeholder trust.
As we continue this transformative era, the message is clear: embracing digitalisation is indispensable for future-proofing businesses against the backdrop of increasing public scrutiny and environmental challenges. The journey toward digital maturity is complex, yet it offers a pathway to not only mitigate risks but also uncover opportunities for innovation and leadership in sustainability.
This digital foresight is a testament to the power of technology and a call to action for leaders to embrace transparency and sustainability as central pillars of their strategic agenda. The time to act is now, to navigate the digital age with wisdom and lead it with integrity.
#DigitalTransformation#Sustainability#Innovation#EnvironmentalStewardship#CorporateAccountability#CleanTech#FutureProofing#DigitalForesight#EcoInnovation#GreenTech#MethaneMapping#ClimateAction#Digitalization#SustainableBusiness#TechForGood
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