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25 Industrious news bits challenge YOU to connect the dots

It’s not so much in the collecting of the dots as it is in the connecting a link to your business that matters. Just last week one of my favorites, the best selling business author, Seth Godin wrote “Connecting dots, solving the problem that hasn’t been solved before, seeing the pattern before it is made obvious, is more essential than ever before. Why then, do we spend so much time collecting dots? More facts, more tests, more need for data, even when we have no clue (and no practice) in doing anything with it.”

In fact it is difficult to come up with news for industry that isn’t related to digital technology and/or the mere collection and measuring of data points—and it’s supposed value. I include a couple of factoids in that regard in this very post.

Consider these 25 timely news bits, appetizers for real discussion. Consider how each one just might be at the end of a tail wagging you about.

Godin said, the ability to connect the dots is “what’s rare, and valuable”. In fact, a bag of dots isn’t worth as much as an ounce of your insight.

I hope you find my sample interesting, and motivating. Be industrious.

44 percent

Capacity utilization at Fiat’s European factories vs. more than 100 percent at Chrysler plants in the U.S.

IHS Automotive

10 billion

Projected number of smartphone devices on the planet by 2017—an equivalent of 1.4 units per capita worldwide (7.6 billion people)

Cisco study

$1.2 billion

Amount Toyota agreed to pay to settle the largest criminal penalty ever levied on an automaker in the U.S (for concealing safety defects)

NYtimes.com

70,000

Number of temporary workers Amazon hired during the last holiday season—up 40% from the previous year

NPR.org

375

Number of planned new vehicle introductions U.S. automakers will roll out between 2013 and fourth-quarter 2015

POLK Research

$200 million

Amount Apple paid for analytics firm Topsy, allowing the world’s most valuable company to gain access to every single Tweet in real time

Evan Applegate/Bloomberg

0.64%

Total U.S. farmland devoted to certified organic food crops—notwithstanding the tripling of retail sales of organics since 2003

Nutrician Business Journal

 $726 million

Amount Corning glass spent in the last fiscal year on R&D (9.1 percent of revenue) to maintain its lead in the manufacture of smartphone display screens

Businessweek.com

6000

Number cyberwarrior positions, including digital spies, hackers and investigators, the U.S. defense department is attempting to fill by 2016

Businessweek

19 percent

Harley-Davidson’s first quarter jump in profits—gained in large part from new model sales abroad

Bloomberg

+84%

Projected increase in Twitter’s ad revenue over 2013, estimated at $1.1 billion

CBSnews.com

290,000

Shortage of professional inspectors, engineers and teachers estimated by 2020

American Welding Society

2,717 feet

The height of the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai is 1,266 feet taller than the Willis (Sears) Tower in Chicago and more than double the height of the Empire State building

WIKI

$12.9 billion

Projected revenue from “big data” in 2014—up from $3.2 billion in 2010

Fast Company

189 percent

Gain in manufacturing output per hour, attributed to investments in laborsaving machinery over the last 30 years

Bloomberg

$1.1 billion

Amount Monsanto spent to acquire data-analytics businesses that help farmers micro-manage their fields

Modernfarmer.com

21,000

Pieces of metal space wreckage and debris the size of a grapefruit or larger orbiting the earth at 17,000 mph

Bloomberg

$29,400

Average student debt load for the class of 2012

Institute for College Access & Success’ Project on Student Debt

271,000

Tonnage of nickel mined in Indonesia in 2013 along with 18 percent of the world’s bauxite, used to make aluminum

Bloomberg

$20 billion

Market capitalization for Tesla Motors—already worth more than Fiat and three Japanese automakers, Mitsubishi, Suzuki and Isuzu (the latter have withdrawn from the U.S. market altogether)

Reuters.com

900 gigawatts

Amount of wind capacity floating turbines will tap from their proposed location off the U.S. Pacific coast

Businessweek.com

$365 million

Amount of customers’ dollars “misplaced” by Mt. Gox the Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange that went offline February 25

Theguardian.com

+7%

Projected increase in spending on equipment by manufacturing companies in 2014 (to $211 billion) double that of the prior year

IHS Global Insight

$750 million

Dollar investment BMW made at its factory in Spartanburg, S.C., making it the largest car factory in the United States by number of employees

Huffingtonpost.com

4 years

Waiting time for delivery of a $64.5 million G650 Gulfstream by General Dynamics

IHS Global Insight

 

HIT Solutions believes the more your business keeps up with important trends, the more you will improve your product, and improve your bottom line.

Leave me your comments below; share your thoughts.

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