THE NEW DEAL ON DATA OWNERSHIP

Maysoon El-Ahmad on March, 2018

WHAT’S GOING ON

With more people online than ever before, the growth in wearable technology, sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT), data is being produced at an exponential rate, with some analysts estimating a rate of 50% growth per year.

So, by 2020 people and connected objects are expected to generate 40 trillion gigabytes of data, 10 times the amount generated only a few years ago.  

It is no surprise that data has been described as the new currency of the digital world with many companies owing their success to individuals (like you and me) freely giving away our data (most often at no benefit to us).

A recent Gartner report projects that by 2020 as many as 10% of companies will have profitable departments focused on “commercializing” and making money out of the data they collect.

As we become firmly embedded in the digital economy, we are starting to see the first signs of tension between individual ownership of personal data and how institutions utilise our personal data. 

This is supported by a study where 78% of people stated that they find it hard to trust companies when it comes to use of their personal data.

In a consumer empowered economy, this tension is stemming along two dimensions:

1. The issue of consent. As an increasing amount of personal data is being passively collected by sensors or synthetically generated by algorithms, asking for consent about data the individual knows nothing about becomes problematic.
2. Individual benefit. This is an area that is growing in momentum – as early as 2013 more than one new personal data service was launched every week over the year. These included data storage and management services, anonymisation services, identity management and personal analytics. 

There are many examples of this potential shift towards ownership of personal data:

• Citizenme, a start-up which allows users to put all their online information together in one place and earn a small fee if they share it with brands.
• Datacoup, also a start-up sells insights from personal data and passes part of the proceedings to the user.
• Internationally, countries like Estonia are creating digital ID systems for citizens which alert them each time a government agency attempts to access their data.
• Last month Microsoft announced plans to use blockchain technology to create decentralised identities for its users meaning greater data protection and ownership for their customers.
• Here in Australia, the federal government has promised to introduce a national ‘consumer data right’ allowing consumers open access to their banking, energy, and telco data. The consumer data right is intended to provide individuals information that will help them compare offers, access cheaper products, and more easily switch to new services.

GROWTH MANTRA’S PREDICTION

• While we don’t expect to see considerable consumer backlash in the short term, we do expect to see more empowered consumers demanding more in exchange for their data – more personalisation and more streamlined systems which will ultimately disrupt a range of industries – particularly traditional banking.
• We are already starting to see individuals taking steps to control their data. An American study found that 86% of Internet users have taken steps online to remove or mask their digital footprints, ranging from cleaning cookies to encrypting their email, avoiding using their name to using virtual networks that mask their IP address.
• As more data is generated, particularly sensitive data such as DNA, we expect this could heighten consumer awareness and education towards personal data. This is quite different to what one may see as the ‘trivial’ data we have been producing through our social media profiles and Internet searches over the last decade in particular.

THE ETHICS OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENT ALGORITHMS

Maysoon El-Ahmad on Dec, 2017

WHAT’S GOING ON

Artificial intelligence algorithms are becoming increasingly important in the development of product functionality.

Despite enabling greater accessibility, flexibility and personalisation, little consideration has been given to their ethics.

Recently, there have been warning signs that AI algorithms have the capacity to replicate our own unequal society and history of systemic biases.

Last month, Stanford University researchers made an AI algorithm that also works as a ‘gaydar’. When given photos of gay white men and straight white men from dating sights, the algorithm could guess which one was gay more accurately than the people participating in the study.

Even though the algorithm was developed to protect gay people, public outrage about the algorithm suggests otherwise. Critics are labelling the algorithm ‘flawed research’ and say that the tool could also be used to identify and persecute gay people.

This exposes the lack of transparent ethical guidelines in the AI age, where researchers must make ad hoc rules as they go.

Other examples include:

• A Google image recognition program accidentally labelled the faces of several black people as ‘gorillas’
• A LinkedIn advertising program showed a preference for male names in searches
• A Microsoft Chabot learnt from Twitter and constructed multiple anti-Semitic messages

Whereas these incidents have been dismissed as “gaffes”, they signal a larger problem; that they are reproducing the systemic biases we have spent decades crusading against.

‘Deepmind’, Google’s AI research lab, has just opened a new unit that focuses on the ethical and societal problems that could be embedded in Artificial Intelligence software.

The aim of the new research unit is “to help technologists put ethics into practice, and to help society anticipate and direct the impact of AI so that it works for the benefit of all”.

GROWTH MANTRA’S PREDICTION

• Future developments and advancements of AI will need to be more human-centred.
• Although there are a few watch-dog organisations such as ‘AI Now’ that have recently emerged, the large scale impact of AI will mean considerable change in the world of work. We anticipate that this would include individuals in jobs such as ‘bias detectors’ and ‘algorithm analysts’ that ensure their AI system is as least biased as possible.
• It will be impossible to remove all forms of bias and build truly objective machines whilst humans are the creators. Therefore it will be important to be as self-reflexive as possible in this process in making algorithms as transparent as they can be.

DESIGNING PRODUCTS AND SERVICES FOR A DIVERSE WORLD

Maysoon El-Ahmad on Dec, 2017

WHAT’S GOING ON

Despite decades of fighting for equality, we are now seeing a new diversity problem emerge in the tech field which tends to be dominated by ‘young white men’. 

Speaking during a panel discussion on AI at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in January, the director of MIT Media Lab Joichi Ito said “the way you get into computers is because your friends are into computers, which is generally white men. So, when you look at the demographics across Silicon Valley you see a lot of white men”.

An example of the tech industry’s diversity problem recently went viral – it showed a white and a dark-skinned man both trying to get soap from a soap dispenser. The soap dispenser which senses skin placed underneath it was able to identify the white man’s hand and dispense soap but it didn’t work for the dark-skinned man.

Other examples include:

• Voice recognition platforms such as ‘Alexa’ and ‘Siri’ often don’t work for people from non-English speaking backgrounds or minority languages
• Facial recognition often doesn’t work for black people
• Car airbags are more likely to harm women as they were not designed to avoid breasts nor were they tested with female crash test dummies (lighter, smaller, with breasts). A 2011 study by the University of Virginia’s Centre for Applied Biomechanics found that seat-belted female drivers in actual crashes had a 47 percent higher chance of serious injury than belted male drivers in comparable collisions. For moderate injuries, that difference rose to 71 percent.

GROWTH MANTRA’S PREDICTION

• As more products developed by tech companies enter the market, we expect to see more product plunders which will give rise to the importance of diversity in product design teams.
• This will place greater importance on getting young females into studying STEM courses and the need to pursue careers in tech product design.
• Testing products across a diverse range of consumers will become increasingly important as companies look to avoid negative PR stories.
• While we don’t expect to see governments and companies imposing gender or other quotas to ensure diversity, we expect to see a greater focus on driving the diversity agenda in teams that develop and design products.

THE NEED FOR ETHICAL UX

Maysoon El-Ahmad on Dec, 2017

WHAT’S GOING ON

By definition, UX, or User Experience, is design tailored to enhance user accessibility and engagement. To do so, designers need to be intimately attuned to the behaviour and psychology of the user.

We are already used to ‘stopping cues’ or ‘active decision-making’; for example when we read a book and get to the end of the chapter, we decide whether to continue or not. However many technologies remove the interval between passive consumption and active decision-making – and the result is an increase in addictive behaviours.

An addictive product releases dopamine; a neurotransmitter which controls the brain’s reward and pleasure centres, regulates movement and manages our emotional responses. When an activity or a behaviour is deemed rewarding, dopamine fires rapidly and we fixate on that activity.

Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram adopt the principles of addictive UX design. The numerous notifications and interactions that demand our attention are based on the principle of ‘intermittent variable rewards’ which sees user actions followed by a reward such as a like or a message leaving one spending hours on them without realising it.

Companies such as ‘Dopamine Labs’ use AI and neuroscience to assist app developers to turn their apps into addictive behaviours. Their website states: “Your users will crave it. And they’ll crave you”

Ironically, Dopamine Labs have also created an app called ‘Space’, which helps you recognise your addiction and take control of your iPhone. As they explain, “the smartphone has morphed from a productivity tool to an addiction”.

GROWTH MANTRA’S PREDICTION

• Governments have a history of taking action to control the consumption of products that are deemed harmful and addictive – like tobacco.
• It may not be quick, but we predict a not too distant future with increased levels of regulation imposed on technology companies forcing greater levels of accountability and responsibility, particularly on the consumption of technology by young people.
• Tech products (including apps) will soon come with disclaimers and warnings outlining the impact of the product on our lives before we use it.
• As new research pointing to the detrimental impact of addictive technologies on people and society starts to surface, we will see the field of ethical UX rise. Finding the right balance between what is good for a company and what is ethically right for people will become increasing issues to consider as a UX designer.

WHY BY-PASSING RETAILERS AND GOING DIRECT-TO-CONSUMER IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY IMPORTANT FOR MANUFACTURERS 

Maysoon El-Ahmad on Oct, 2017

WHAT’S GOING ON

Brands are facing unprecedented competition from both branded and private label products. For example, in 1980, there were 6 brands of blue jeans in the U.S. and today there are over 800.

There is a shift away from major retailers to discounters who drive a strong private label strategy (e.g. K-Mart).

Shelf space is becoming even more precious, as many major big-box retailers migrate to smaller footprints in urban areas (e.g. Woolworths Metro) and are driving private label strategies (e.g. Woolworths own brand is the highest revenue FMCG brand in Australia).

While the Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) channel strategy is widely common among start-up brands who leverage e-commerce platforms due to their low barriers to entry, there are many examples of major brands who have cut out the middleman by leveraging their market power and superior customer insight. For example;

• Nescafe: pulled off a double coup with the Nespresso brand by re-positioning itself as a premium brand and creating an exclusive DTC physical store and online presence. In so doing, Nespresso took control of their eco-system from sourcing of beans, to production and sale of the packaged product plus partnerships with manufacturers of patented extraction and brewing units.
• Dollar Shave Club: an online subscription service where members receive shaving blades in the mail monthly. Started in 2012, grew to 3m subscribers and bought by Unilever for $US1b in 2016. Gillette established a competitor club in response to the risk of impact to their market share.
• Procter & Gamble are trying to move into this space with their “Tide” brand: The Tide Wash Club (trialled in Atlanta) gives users free shipping for packets of Tide Pods which are sent to their door on a subscription basis. Tide Spin (being trialled in Chicago) offers customers a smartphone app to order laundry pickup and delivery from Tide-branded services.
• Nike is focusing on its DTC channel with plans to grow this part of its business by 250% in the next 5 years. In the company’s forecast, its DTC sales will reach $16 billion by 2020—a massive increase from the $6.6 billion this channel generated in 2015.

GROWTH MANTRA’S PREDICTION

• As superior customer experiences are becoming a significant advantage for a business, we expect to see more brands moving towards DTC models to remove the risk of unsatisfactory customer experiences that sometimes result with the traditional retail middleman.
• We think future opportunities for DTC disruption will include:
  • Digitisation and shifting of products to a subscription service instead of pay per use (think Netflix, Spotify)
  • Any product or service that is frequently bought on a regular basis, think nappies, pet food, shavers. The biggest growth areas of delivery in Australia are pet food and wines. They’re bulky, heavy and often repeat purchases.
• In an age of big data, for many brands, the most compelling reason to sell directly to consumers will be the potential to collect massive amounts of customer data to help forge more personalised and engaging relationships with them. We therefore expect to see more manufacturers developing and investing in more digital tools and platforms over the next decade.

RETAILERS PILOTING NEW DELIVERY METHODS TO WIN THE LAST MILE

Maysoon El-Ahmad on Oct, 2017

WHAT’S GOING ON

In 2015, a Deloitte survey showed that 63% of people felt that “fast shipping” meant being delivered in 2 days or more.

In 2016, the same survey was run – this time 96% of customers said fast shipping meant “receiving parcels on the same day”.

Defined as “the last step before a product reaches the hands of the customer”, the last mile is a significant factor in gaining customer loyalty.

As such we are now witnessing the disruption of online retail shopping with countless retailers trialling new ways to get deliveries to customers faster.

Like a trial by Walmart in the US Coles recently ran a small-scale trial of grocery home delivery with Uber out of its “dark” store in Richmond which ran from August into September. Uber drivers worked alongside Coles’ existing network of delivery drivers to provide customers the service, with shoppers receiving emails showing their delivery is on the way via UberRUSH which is Uber’s on-demand delivery service.

Similarly, IKEA has teamed up with AirTasker, to speed up deliveries and add quick and easy installation to the offer.

In December 2016, Amazon launched ‘Prime Air’ delivery – a delivery system designed to get packages to customers using drones in 30 minutes or less.

Walmart recently applied for a U.S patent for a floating warehouse that could make deliveries via drones direct to customer homes. The blimp style machine would fly at heights between 500-1000 feet, has many launching bays and can be operated autonomously or by a remote human pilot – Amazon was granted a patent for a similar concept last year.

Walmart has only just announced a pilot where perishable groceries are being delivered straight to a customer’s fridge, one of its latest idea at making online grocery shopping more convenient.

Alibaba’s physical store play is not just about the experience, they are used to drive logistics innovations in their ‘last mile’ strategy. CEO of Alibaba Daniel Zhang recently stated that ‘buying stores and converting them into fulfillment centres will enable 1 billion packages to be delivered every day in the future’.

JD.com is also offering 100 million yuan ($15 million) to the winner of a drone delivery competition who have been tasked to design a solution that could enable widespread drone delivery in the country.

GROWTH MANTRA’S PREDICTION

• These examples highlight the urgent step that both traditional and modern retailers are taking to increase convenience for their customers.
• We believe last-mile innovations will see online shopping achieve exponential growth over the next 10-20 years.
• While few retailers have grasped the extent to which their business models and mindsets need to change to keep up with both consumer and market changes, we expect the Amazon’s and Alibaba’s of this world to blaze the trail and exceed our wildest predictions. 
• Consumers increased desire for fast deliveries at a low cost will see the rise of autonomous vehicles dominate the last mile, both in the air via drones and on the ground.
• Legislation and regulation will need to change dramatically (e.g. to cater for liability damages for autonomous vehicles).

PURE-PLAY E-COMMERCE GIANTS TAKE ON BRICKS & MORTAR CHANNEL

Maysoon El-Ahmad on Oct, 2017

WHAT’S GOING ON

Amazon disrupted the retail food chain when it moved into the bricks & mortar channel by purchasing Wholefoods in June this year resulting in an almost immediate slump in retail and manufacturer share prices.

This recent move is just one example of a growing trend among pure-play online retailers investing in bricks & mortar stores.

Alibaba, the world’s largest retailer and one of the largest e-commerce platforms has failed to attract the same level of attention despite an aggressive move into bricks & mortar that started well before Amazon’s purchase of Wholefoods.

Over the past two years, Alibaba has invested c. $8 billion in bricks & mortar retailing, acquiring stakes in local supermarket chains and Chinese luxury mall “Intime” and is building a five-floor shopping mall in the Chinese city of Hangzhou.

Alibaba is using these stores to test the use of technology as part of the company’s “new retail” vision.

The Hema Xiansheng supermarket which describes itself as an “e-commerce experience store” is an example. All products in the store are digitised allowing shoppers to scan barcodes with the app and pay using the Alipay e-wallet. Similar to the online experience “because you liked this, you might also like this..”, the app make personal recommendations for further purchases.

Online orders are fulfilled and delivered within ½ an hour through the store, which acts as a fulfilment centre for the surrounding area.

GROWTH MANTRA’S PREDICTION

Amazon and Alibaba’s move into physical stores is testament to the belief that bricks & mortar retail is far from dead.

Both companies have made moves to become hybrid-commerce companies – combining the best of e-commerce with the best of physical stores.

This new model is fast becoming the future face of retail and we already know neither of these global tech giants will remain in their respective geographical spheres.

Australian retailers are rightly worried about the entry of Amazon into the market but Alibaba may also be the sleeping giant to take them by surprise.  

While many retailers around the world are investing in more experiential retail experiences, we believe Amazon and Alibaba’s play into bricks & mortar will see new retail innovations and developments that will really push the boundaries.

They are born innovators and disruptors both led by ambitious founders who have built companies from the ground up purely based off the unyielding philosophy of serving the customer.

Customers have been crying out for more engaging retail experiences for years. We believe we are now on the cusp of an exciting era in retailing and expect to see some radical innovations play out in the next decade forged by the tech giants which will force traditional players to re-think their business model.

While Australia is ahead of the pack in food experiences, our offline retail experiences are sadly lacking.

3D PRINTERS BUILDING FACTORIES OF THE FUTURE

Maysoon El-Ahmad on July, 2017

WHAT’S GOING ON

Beyond some of the extraordinary creations that 3D printers are making such as Dubai announcing the world’s first 3D printed skyscraper and a start-up in San Francisco printing a house in less than 24 hours, 3D printing is set to impact the manufacturing world as we know it.

Adidas has just introduced 3D printers to produce shoe soles in new highly automated factories in Germany and the US – a big move for the industry which has traditionally relied on low-cost labour in Asian markets.  

Other very recent developments in 3D printing point to an industry that is about to experience some unprecedented growth:

• HP has entered the market with a range of 3D printers starting from $130K.
• According to consulting firm Wohlers, there are now 97 companies manufacturing high-end kits for 3D printing (systems priced from $5K to over $1million)
• GE has just invested $1.5bn in 3D printing. They have recently spent $50m on a factory to print fuel nozzles for the new LEAP jet engine. The new nozzles are said to be 25% lighter than older designs which save fuel and are 5 times more durable which reduces servicing costs.
• GKN Aerospace, a British firm has recently entered into a 5-year agreement with Oak Ridge Science & Technology National Laboratory to find new ways to print large structural aircraft parts in Titanium.

GROWTH MANTRA’S PREDICTION

• Unlike conventional factories that use a template to drive a production line of cutting, drilling and milling, 3D printing runs to a program which is easy to change. As a result highly personalised products will be possible without costly changes to production and productivity.
• We expect 3D printing will reduce the cost of production while increasing the personalisation and speed of output saving companies millions.
• This will also change the mix of professionals required – with more focus on design and science and less on operational skill.
• On the downside clearly, is the massive impact this new industrialisation will have on emerging economies who rely on labour intensive factory jobs.

‘DAIGOU’, THE SILENT TRANS-BORDER PHENOMENON

Maysoon El-Ahmad on July, 2017

WHAT’S GOING ON

A Diagou (pronounced ‘dye-goo’) is not only a Chinese word meaning ‘buying on behalf of’, it has become a lucrative silent trans-border operation serving mainland China with authentic foreign products whilst avoiding conventional channels.

The Diagous (often Chinese students or Chinese migrants) act as ‘shopping agents’ who buy sought-after products for their customers in China.

With counterfeiting of foreign products a big problem through online and offline channels in China, buying from a Daigou (who is often known to you personally) has become a more trustworthy alternative.

Most of the trade is facilitated via the Chinese social media platform WeChat.

The need for trust coupled with a ballooning Chinese middle class with cash to spend, has resulted in an estimated $15 billion annual global Daigou sales.

There are 1200 “gift stores” in Australia which cater specifically to Daigous, sourcing, ranging and packaging products ready to post to China.

An estimated 40,000 full-time Daigou operate in Australia with 5 or 6 “Mega Daigou”.

GROWTH MANTRA’S PREDICTION

• As the Chinese middle class grows and this network becomes more entrenched, it will continue to strengthen and disrupt conventional channels.
• We believe the only thing that could disrupt the Diagou market will be new measures introduced by the Chinese government. For example, each product that is purchased outside of China represents tax revenue they are not collecting. With Chinese purchasing power stronger than ever, the Chinese govt. will be looking for ways to get a piece of it and therefore introduce measures that encourage spending inside the country.
• However we think the Diagou market is so strong, they’ll find a way to get around this.

WE ARE ON THE CUSP OF AN ENERGY REVOLUTION 

Maysoon El-Ahmad on May, 2017

WHAT’S GOING ON

• Last month, Britain went for a full day without turning on its coal-fired power stations for the first time in more than 130 years.
• China recently ordered 13 provinces to cancel 104 coal-fired projects in development, equivalent to almost half of the 305 gigawatts of the U.S.’ entire coal capacity. Of these 104 developments, 47 of them were already under construction.
• Three technologies – solar, batteries and electric vehicles (EVs) – are poised to disrupt a $6 trillion energy industry over the next two decades.
• Over the last 30 years, solar prices have dropped by a factor of 100 and in some Sunbelt countries, solar is already undercutting coal and natural gas.
• In 2016, Chile and the United Arab Emirates broke records in generating electricity from the sunshine for less than 3 cents a kilowatt-hour, half the average global cost of coal power. This year Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Mexico are poised to hold auctions and tenders which could see solar generation prices fall even further.
• Every major car manufacturer is working on electric vehicles – the number of EV models on the market has grown from 2 in 2010 to over 25 today.

GROWTH MANTRA’S PREDICTION

• China’s cancellation of its big coal plants is evidence that the world is entering an energy mind shift. This signals the first step towards a future of declining use and reliance on coal in China and around the world.
• With China recently issuing its first ever ‘red alert’ due to smoke levels breaking all air pollution levels, this may be the catalyst that forces China to become the leader in the climate change movement.
• We believe the coal industry will be faced with many challenges in the coming years if the cost of solar continues on its current demonetization trajectory.
• One limitation of solar is that it’s only available during the day so we expect to see many breakthroughs in battery technology to help us transition fully into a solar economy.
• Within the next two decades, it is predicted that electronic cars will be the cheapest and most widely used vehicles on the market.
• The convergence of solar, batteries and electric vehicles will create disruptive forces that will hit the energy industry over the next two decades like never before.
• As new technologies continue to drive down the cost of solar, batteries and electric vehicles, we expect the pace of consumer adoption will accelerate within the next 5 years. This will create new economies of scale which will further drive down the cost and create a new economy of energy and technologies.

AI: CREATING JOBS TOMORROW THAT DON’T EXIST TODAY

Maysoon El-Ahmad on May, 2017

WHAT’S GOING ON

• Historically, robots and machines have made our lives a lot better leading to significant improvements in our standard of living.
• We are now on the cusp of the digital industrial revolution with artificial intelligence (AI) at its core – and some major disruptions are inevitable. Blue Collar jobs, for example, are at risk of extinction.
• BCG predicts that the share of tasks performed by robots will rise from a global average of around 10% across all manufacturing industries today to around 25% by 2025 while a report by the Committee for Economic Development of Australia stated that 40% of Australian jobs could be replaced by technology by 2025.
• While we should be concerned about the imminent changes to the future of work (with some already taking place), the AI revolution will also see the creation of many new jobs that look nothing like anything that exists today.
• A recent global study identified the emergence of three categories of jobs, uniquely human jobs that are completely novel as AI takes hold. 

1. TRAINERS: Individuals who teach AI systems how they should perform. These jobs could include anything from assisting with language translation to mimicking human behaviours, to empathy trainers who train digital assistants with sympathy.
2. EXPLAINERS: These jobs will clarify technical jargon, problems, and operations to businesses. As more and more companies deploy advanced AI systems they will need employees who can explain the inner workings of complex algorithms to nontechnical professionals.
3. SUSTAINERS: Ensures AI systems operate as designed and are making ethical decisions.

GROWTH MANTRA’S PREDICTION

• We believe the AI revolution will have one of the most profound implications on the job market in human history.
• These changes will see many menial and process jobs of today disappear (most likely in the next 5 years) and the emergence of many new jobs to help us adapt to new technologies driven by AI.
• We are already seeing companies advertising new jobs in the AI space with Amazon recently creating their first ever AI team.
• We expect that the next 2 years will see a flurry of new AI jobs mainly in the science & engineering space coming out of technology companies, the government, and universities – such as avatar designers, voice developers, digital crime specialists, AI language interpreters & AI consultants.
• Humans will be doing less repetitive work (taken over by machines), so we expect to see a rise in job satisfaction as work becomes more deliberate driven by more demand for creative skills, emotion, and deep thinking. 

HEALTH AND NUTRITION. HOW OUR GENOMES WILL DICTATE WHAT WE EAT

Maysoon El-Ahmad on April, 2017

WHAT’S GOING ON

Eating is becoming personal, so personal that in ten years experts predict everyone will have their own diet, based on their own DNA.

According to ‘Plainsmart’, a clinic that specialises in wellness and weight management, people on genetically appropriate nutrition plans lose up to 76 percent more weight than those following a generic plan.

We are already seeing many start-ups around the world built around offering food solutions to customers based on their DNA.

‘Habit’, a company that has just launched in the USA offers personalised nutritional programs based on analysing a person’s DNA through a blood sample kit. They create individualised food plans and deliver the ingredients to the customer’s home – Lite’n’Easy on steroids!

‘Lifenome’, a company that specialises in genome science offers personalised health and wellness trait reports based on the unique genetic makeup of individuals. People can access reports ranging from nutrition, skin, food allergies to fitness profiles all based on DNA testing.

‘Nutrigenomix’, a start-up biotechnology company offers healthcare professionals and their clients with comprehensive genomic information aimed at improving health through personalised nutrition. They offer test kits that allow health professionals to counsel their clients according to their unique genetic profile.

London-based genomics company ‘DNAFit’ also offers programs to help their customers refine their exercise and nutrition plan all based on DNA testing.

And outside of the food world, a new gym in London offers customers with the choice to have DNA testing aimed at providing them with insight into what works best for them in terms of recovery, training methods and diet.

GROWTH MANTRA’S PREDICTION

• While personalisation has been an enduring trend ever since the advent of the Internet, we believe we are now at its pointy end.
• While creating your own Nike shoe with your favourite colours is fun and novel, personalisation in food based on your unique DNA will have some real ground-breaking implications on the health and well-being of populations around the world.
• While the last two decades has focused on fad diets advocating weight loss, protein, cutting out sugar from your diet and so on, we believe we are on the cusp of a food revolution that will see a shift away from generic diets to diet plans based on the unique genetic makeup of individuals
• This could mark the end of the multimillion dollar weight loss industry that feeds off fad diets that until now have had little to no impact on the obesity epidemic we are facing.
• With predictions stating that parents could soon begin to outlive their children because of an epidemic of obesity afflicting the younger generation, we could start to see mandatory DNA testing in schools.
• We predict home cooking will undergo a renewed emergence as more people shift away from manufactured and industrialised food products that disrupt their DNA.
• We also expect to see more food services popping up offering personalised meals based on an individual’s DNA. Customers will start building their DNA food profile to share with food service companies, governments will start running campaigns to educate people about healthy eating based on DNA results and people will suddenly have more energy to get the most out of life.