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How Algorithms Shape Our World



Kevin Slavin argues that we're living in a world designed for -- and increasingly controlled by -- algorithms. In this riveting talk from TEDGlobal, he shows how these complex computer programs determine: espionage tactics, stock prices, movie scripts, and architecture. And he warns that we are writing code we can't understand, with implications we can't control.

Watch this 15 minute video (which has divided opinion based on the feedback) to learn more...





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With over 10 years experience working solely in the Data & Analytics sector our consultants are able to offer detailed insights into the industry.

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Our Interview with Amit Jnagal

Our Interview With Amit Jnagal, CEO Of AI Firm Infrrd

Amit Jnagal is the CEO of Infrrd.ai, an award-winning Artificial Intelligence software firm in San Jose. We reached out to learn what had inspired Amit to start the business and what trends he predicted for the future of the industry. In addition, we asked his take on diversity in business as well as what he looked for in prospective candidates. Here’s what he had to tell us. What inspired Infrrd.ai? It’ll be ten years next month that I started Infrrd. The same age as my son, who inspired it. Well, I’d wanted to start a venture of my own since I graduated and spent the next 12 years working for two large organizations. These experiences led to work with some exceptionally talented people. So, being a forward-thinker, I made a mental list of their names and resolved to have them work for me once my own venture took off.  I was cruising with a high-flying career when our first child was born. It was then I realized if I was ever going to start something of my own, the time was now. So, I quit my corporate job when my son was 10 days old and got to work. I’ve been an entrepreneur ever since and was successful in getting most people on my mental list to join me - some agreed in a second, some took a couple of years of convincing, a few took more than five years, and there are a few people that I am still working on. While I’ve had my share of failed ventures, this is my success and it’s taken a decade to get here.  How have trends in the industry affected your business and what do you see in the future of say, the next one to five years?  In my more than two decades of experience, I have witnessed two revolutions which have fundamentally changed the way the world works. The first was the advent of the internet and the second was smart phones.  We are at the beginning of another such revolution in AI. It amazes me still, the things we can do for our clients using AI for automation. The demand means jobs, yet at the same time, there are a few which will cease to exist, which I wrote about earlier this year.  My son, now 10-years old wants to be a pilot when he grows up. But I suspect that will be one of the jobs which ceases to exist by the time he enters the workforce. AI is here. And over the next one to five years, it’s important for businesses to know how to redesign their business around it. In order to thrive, they’ll want to be AI enabled. What are your recommendations for building a team within a startup? Where do I start? Well, I have plenty of recommendations of how to NOT to build a team within a startup. But when you’re first scaling your business, there are different phases as you start up. As you grow, you’ll need people with different specializations.  During the first few years, you’ll need people who are generalists - folks who are happy to do whatever needs to be done to move the company forward. Sales on Monday, Customer Support Management on Thursday, and throughout the week continuing to build the product. People who thrive on ever-changing responsibilities would do well in the beginning of a startup. In fact, it’s impossible to get off the ground without them.   But if they do their job right and you start to grow, a time will come when you will need specialists that can create a system for each part of the organization and scale it. This is when you start hiring separate VP of Sales, VP of Customer Success, VP of Marketing, and fine tune your leadership within your data professionals team; let them build their teams. People who get the startup started and those who scale it have very different skills and styles of working. It is important to get the right people at the right time. What are some things to consider both as a business and a candidate in regard to diversity?  Here’s an answer that you might not expect. You need to consider nothing when it comes to diversity; rather you need to 'un-consider' stuff that might cloud your judgement.  With experience, everyone starts collecting heuristics that prejudice how they look at people. More often than not, this prejudice blocks you from hiring people by 'considering' heuristics that are irrelevant. Learn to evaluate people for what they bring to the table rather than their demography.  I was surprised when we won the diversity award for 2018. I had never looked at my team using a demography lens to figure out what kind of people to hire. To our mind, as long as you have the right skill and experience to do the work, you’ll get a shot at proving yourself at Infrrd. What are companies like yours looking for in a candidate hire?  We go through a ton of profiles before we make an offer to someone. What we look for in a candidate varies by experience.  At the entry level, we look for people who have shown some spark and done something that most other people have not - creating new algorithms, getting certified in some technology, presented paper at conferences or technical events, etc.  For mid-level hires, our primary concern besides skill is whether this person exhibits our values and if he or she will gel with our team. High performers are great. But make sure they’re a good fit with the rest of your team. Remember when I said I knew how NOT to build a team? We’ve had our fair share of people and teams who just didn’t click and it was detrimental to business.  At a senior level, we look for good experience, shared values and an ability to lead people. A good leader can get outstanding results from any team. That is what makes an awesome leadership hire for us. If you’d like to learn more and are interested in working with AI. Check out our current vacancies or contact one of our expert consultants to learn more. For our West Coast Team, call (415) 614 - 4999 or send an email to sanfraninfo@harnham.com.   For our Mid-West and East Coast Teams, call (212) 796 - 6070 or send an email to newyorkinfo@harnham.com.

McElla Pappas

McElla Pappas

22. August 2019

The Art And Science Of Tech In HR

The Art & Science Of Tech In HR

Human Resources. Talent Acquisition. People Officer. No matter what title a person has whose responsibility is finding the right person, for the right job, at the right time, the heart of the matter is they’re dealing with people. You know, humans. So, as the word “tech” becomes a suffix to every industry, think FinTech, MarTech, AdTech, and so on disrupting the old ways to make way for new, more efficient ways, what does that mean for the human resource industry? While there remains some concern about the industry in the age of the fourth industrial revolution, for the most part, many companies see technology in HR as good overall. But first, let’s get some misunderstandings out of the way. What Tech in HR Is Not Automation, Robotics, and AI are not taking over jobs, they’re helping to make a Hiring Manager’s job easier. By automating certain processes, it can give hiring professionals the time they lack to get back to the human side of things. You know, human-to-human communication. In fact, it’s not really disrupting jobs at all, rather it’s disrupting tasks. It’s either substituting or augmenting, just as humans do but wish they didn’t have to, so they could spend more time on the people side of things. Though we’ve mentioned a few things, Data Science in HR is not, there still remains some debate. Check out this article on whether or not Data Science will save the industry or forever change it leaving years of best practices in the dust? What Tech in HR Means for Growth Today’s tech world is a robust ecosystem of art and science. In Human Resources, the merging of a person looking for a job with a company looking for someone qualified to fill it takes a delicate touch of personality and technical prowess. HR has always been a science, of sorts. Now, it’s got the tools to help your company grow and keep up with your competitors. These tools include software applications which can offer improved reporting metrics, people analytics, Machine Learning, and NLP to help you improve such areas customer service. Would you rather have a person at the computer 24/7 or a chatbot to answer basic questions until a human can get online and take the conversation further? This is just one way in which technology is helping to improve the industry, not hurt it. Besides, when your customers are happy, so is your company’s bottom line. There is not a one-size-fits all approach and as technology learns to navigate the complex systems of people, businesses, and their behaviors, but there is much to learn. However, with the near limitless storage, computer processing ability and availability, and data models for predicting outcomes, the sky really is the limit. The mark of HR will be its ability on using data to steer the organization’s future with an upskilled and reskilled workforce. How to Not Get Left Behind There’s comes a time in every organization’s life in which it knows what it needs to grow, but isn’t yet ready to part with the old ways. The only problem, especially in today’s world, is that world doesn’t wait, and if you’re not ready and willing to pivot, you could get left behind. KPMG International’s Future of HR global study, which surveyed 1,200 global HR executives, reports conflicting attitudes and approaches to the challenge between action and inertia. According to the report, only 41% of respondents recognized the need for transformation but were in a “wait and see” position, while 72% of CEOs reported they’d rather be the disruptor than the disrupted. So, where is the disconnect? We know now, that even with a degree, pedigree, and a solid set of technical skills as a foundation, transformation is happening at a breakneck speed. So how can companies ensure their employees can keep up? One of the hottest topics across industries is reskilling and upskilling. Following in the footsteps of Google, IBM, and Microsoft, businesses today are more focused on ensuring individuals can demonstrate their skills, not just list them on a document. Think skills assessments and simulations, practice projects, virtual and mock experiences. It’s the “try before you buy” model. This is a near 360-degree shift from historical practices.  Every industry had its growing pains as it marched forward toward progress, but with the demand for highly skilled data professionals who can also resonate at personal level across the business landscape (read: soft skills), then the potential, if executed well, could be a boon for the industry.  Disruptions are meant to shake up the way we do business and answers the needs of our buyers. Easier, faster, more efficient, smoother, and the list goes on. Technology can free up time by taking on those repetitive and redundant tasks, giving you more time to be with your customer, whoever and wherever they are. Are you looking for a new opportunity in Data & Analytics? We may have a role for you. Check out our current vacancies or get in touch with one of our expert consultants to learn more. For our West Coast Team, call (415) 614 - 4999 or send an email to sanfraninfo@harnham.com.  For our Mid-West and East Coast Teams, call (212) 796 - 6070 or send an email to newyorkinfo@harnham.com.

Kyle Wong

Kyle Wong

15. August 2019

AR & VR Breathe Life Back Into Our Lives

AR & VR Breathe Life Back Into Our Lives

Remember the bicycles piled in the yard that showed where your friends were? What about the jingle of coins in your pocket as you headed to the arcade? Stranger Things may have recalled these distant memories, but what if you could still see bicycles piled against your neighbors’ door or listen to the jingle of coins as you played with your friends? This is Augmented Reality and its aim now is to get you off the couch, exercising, playing, and enjoying camaraderie. Ready, Player One? Five Trends to Watch As we navigate the next stage of our virtual and augmented realities, there are a few trends to watch. AR, VR, and AI Will “See” Objects - Augmented Reality (AR), combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Computer Vision, will help computers “see” and label what’s being seen. Machine Learning will ramp up to offer increasingly correct identification of objects whether it’s the dinosaur exhibit at the natural history museum or connects the dots for stargazing in a planetarium.VR Gets More “Real” for the Mainstream – In other words, developers are able to offer more immersive experiences. New developments in hardware technology, such as eyeball tracking and field-of-view help power the idea users can interact and explore less like a video game and more like real-life.AR Can Help Keep Your Eyes on the Road – Remember KIT? The car who talked, could self-diagnose, and navigated with barely a hand on the wheel? It’s not so far-fetched now as it once seemed as vehicle manufacturers increasingly opt for voice assistants and some begin to offer graphics’ overlay of footage around the car. Others go a step farther, projecting data onto the car windshield, assisting with navigation, lane identification, and potential hazards along the way.AR-Based Entertainment Branches Out – No more piled high pizza boxes, sitting in the dark of your parent’s basement. AR today is about getting moving; physical activity and balancing tech life with real life. Toys and Gaming companies are on the bandwagon to get families moving. Location-based gaming has grown by leaps and bounds as has interactive projection-based technology. Some applications can transform your immediate environment into an immersive gaming experience while others can transform playgrounds which, when unlocked by parents, can offer choose-your-own adventure types of projects to complete. Enter whole being of mind, body, spirit. And we’ve barely scratched the surface.Worldbuilding, Personalized Character Building, and Augmented Board Games – Each of these are about bridging the gap between the physical and digital world and is most changed when it comes to board games.  As exciting as these trends are, it’s not all fun and games when it comes to the next advances of AR. This technology is also being used to help discover early onset of Alzheimer’s and most recently has found its way into the operating room. Or at least, it will be soon as companies look to bring the AR and VR technologies into the OR. Training and Teaching with AR AR & VR technologies are being used for teaching and training in just about every industry it seems. From Walmart to the Military, business is seeing the benefits of allowing individuals to practice their roles without the associated real-world risks. But when it comes to the healthcare industry, this is where AR begins to really shine. What if we could predict not only detect early onset dementia, but catch the onset of mental illness as well? One company, recently cleared by the FDA, is working toward just that, with the specific goal of predicting Alzheimer’s early. With an estimated cost of around $290 billion which could rise to over $1 Trillion by 2050, their claims of 94% accuracy in detection 6 to 10 years early is good news for families. Memories are how we share our stories and no family wants to miss theirs. Could technology as disparate as it once made us be bringing us closer together? With these latest, that just may be the case. So, whether you want to let out your inner child, practice a new skill without real-world ramifications, or simply know your memories will be with you for a lifetime, AR offers something for everyone. Every industry. Every business. It has infused our world and is breathing life back into our lives.  Want to be the wizard behind the curtain, the Data Analyst to know what’s next, or the Data Engineer who builds the next great technological advance in the AR spectrum of services and capabilities? We may have a role for you. Check out our current vacancies or contact one of our recruitment consultants to learn more. For our West Coast Team, call (415) 614 - 4999 or send an email to sanfraninfo@harnham.com.  For our Mid-West and East Coast Teams, call (212) 796 - 6070 or send an email to newyorkinfo@harnham.com.

Mairead Holt

Mairead Holt

08. August 2019

Diversity in Data

Coming Together: Diversity In The Workplace

Diversity. It’s a hot topic fused into every discussion from the board room to the upper echelons of government. And it’s more than the gender pay gap. It’s about bringing people together with different backgrounds, ideologies, processes, and creative persuasions. This is how you create your dream team – different ideas focused on a common goal.  We all know this at our core, but what does it mean to put it into action? In our 2019 Salary Guide, we covered a wide spectrum of how to hire and retain employees and within it discovered where the diversity gaps lay within the Data & Analytics industry. Marketing & Insight roles may have had the smallest gap, but Data Science teams had the largest. On the heels of our Salary Guide, keep an eye out for our upcoming Annual Diversity Report. But before we can do anything, we need to talk about culture. Specifically, changing our business culture to embrace diversity and inclusion. Did you know this change could help attract top talent and drive stronger teams to more innovative results? How to Put Diversity Initiatives Into Practice According to a 2018 study from McKinsey, diverse companies from their general workforce to their leadership are 33 percent more likely to have higher profitability than their competitors who are not as diverse. For gender diversity, the margin is 21 percent. Add to this, government regulations, candidates’ evaluation of diversity in an organization, and the company’s own plans to improve their efforts, and the task seems daunting enough. Diversity questions are no longer relegated to the just one group or another, now the question comes from every direction. Every location.  Below are just a few ways to begin your Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives Be Open to New Things and Establish a Sense of Belonging. Create a space where each person can bloom and shine. Establish a connection in which people are relaxed and can be themselves. Give them opportunities to create and engage in the workplace. Leadership is Key. Lead by example. Show empathy and avoid making diversity and inclusion the exclusive domain of HR. This is a time for everyone to get involved, to understand, and to remember why diversity is important. It’s more than ticking a box and it’s not one-size fits all. But each step forward is for the betterment of the business.Make Inclusion Part of Your Company Culture. Don’t think of diversity and inclusion as a one-day workshop. This is the time where you bring everyone together to learn what it means to be inclusive. Have you ever felt out of place or uncomfortable in a situation? Did anyone come to include you into the goings on or were you left to your own devices? Put yourself in other’s shoes and have your team do the same. Then identify behaviors and build new habits which support open and honest communication. It is okay for people to disagree, it’s what leads to real change. The key is to not let biases be mistaken for healthy discussion.You are Your Brand. Wear it Well. Company culture and brand are linked. They are infused in the products and services you offer to the world. Does your company culture of diversity reflect that of your customer base? What do you want your brand to say? How do you want to be known as a company? What new idea might you come up with divergent voices giving their thoughts and opinions? These are just a few of the ways you begin to establish a diverse and inclusive culture in your business. Now is the time to adapt your processes to scale for these behaviors. Ask yourself about the makeup of your meetings. Who attends? Who speaks? Is anyone being left out whose input you value? People First, Then Data As companies struggle to begin their diversity initiatives, there are still some caveats. The first is to remember you’re hiring people, not the data on a spreadsheet. Every business knows the importance of data and People Analytics is no different. But the problem begins with too small numbers as businesses try to pinpoint where they need to improve their diversity efforts.  Limited data about certain groups within the larger can be misleading. So, while it may seem counterintuitive, the answer is to broaden categories. Rather than focus on ethnicities, age, background consider the group overall. It’s the breaking down of demographics, where businesses begin to misstep on their path to diversity. So, what are some steps you can take to help improve your diversity initiatives? Well, here are a few to get you started. Avoid sample-based analyses. Focus on a range of outcomes. For example, are women represented well? What about women of color? Is there a wider variety of ages? Is the male contingent homogenous or are different demographics represented?Talk to employees and dig past first glances. Interviews with staff help to remind you these are people who cannot be defined by a statistic. It’s during this time you can learn more about them, their struggles, aspirations, and cultural insights. Descriptions take into account surface information such as race, gender, socio-economic status, and so on. Decisions based on data ripple through people’s careers and can affect their livelihoods.Ensure managers are engaged as allies. Just as leadership is key to ensuring the company culture embraces diversity, so too are the managers. It is they who are crucial as they make key hiring decisions, determine projects, and develop employees for advancement. Leadership offers an overview, but it’s the managers who shape the day-to-day of the employee experience.  One Final Thought… Most of us don’t start out intending to exclude anyone, but we naturally gravitate toward people like us or whom we imagine can best benefit our business. But when we open ourselves up to the possibilities of a more diverse workforce, the possibilities are endless. To begin, however, we must understand where the problems are, and from there fix them. At Harnham, we’re proud to be diverse in our company culture. In our inaugural Diversity Report, we showcased our near 50-50 split within our leadership and our efforts to be inclusive throughout our organization.  If you’re interested in Big Data and Analytics, we may have a role for you. Take a look at our current vacancies or contact one of our expert consultants to learn more. For our West Coast Team, call (415) 614 - 4999 or send an email to sanfraninfo@harnham.com.  For our Mid-West and East Coast Teams, call (212) 796 - 6070 or send an email to newyorkinfo@harnham.com.

Elizabeth Sobel

Elizabeth Sobel

30. July 2019

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