Written by Dr. James Canton Posted on September 5, 2007
Dr. James Canton is CEO and Chairman of the Institute for Global Futures, a think tank he founded in 1990. He is a renowned global futurist, social scientist, keynote presenter, author, and visionary business advisor. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Research in Innovation at the Kellogg School of Management and serves on Motorola's Visionary Advisory Board. Dr. Canton will be giving a presentation on September 14 titled NextFinance: Meeting the Future at the Hitachi-sponsored WIRED NextFest 2007, which will be held September 13-16 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Accelerating change and radical innovations are reshaping the business landscape. Innovation is the key driver of competitive advantage. New industries, products, and services will emerge such as clean tech, nano-manufacturing, always-on Internet, on-demand pharmaceuticals, personalized medicine, personal security, Web 2.0 media, and alternative energy, to name a few. There are massive challenges and opportunities that confront business and society as we step into the 21st century. How will we manage climate change? What will be the impact of 100 new mega-cities? How will the next generation of Web 2.0 businesses compete? How business leaders and companies prepare for the future the emerging threats and opportunities is the central focus of my practice at the Institute for Global Futures.
At the same time, complexity in business is increasing and the need for more transparent business process tools are in demand. Managing the transaction knowledge space across time zones, geographies, and markets will be a challenge that few companies have mastered today. Many burgeoning industries are global and have global customers, supply chains, and partners. New tools that provide faster information that can support better decision-making are needed.
I think that XBRL can be a powerful tool for better transparency, managing the global enterprise, and increasing competitive value by streamlining all kinds of information. The full potential in a world of always-on networks, virtualization, and pervasive mobility demands that people have access 24/7 to their business-critical data. XBRL will enable this access and more.
I have been an early advocate of XBRL for a number of years. At first XBRL was viewed as solely a financial management tool. In this era of real-time business, global competition, and super-fast innovation, I think the future potential to use XBRL goes well beyond finance. I think that any company that wants to maintain a future competitive advantage will want to explore the potential use of this tool.
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