What a great start to the new year: I am absolutely thrilled and grateful that my book, Decisively Digital, is the #1 best-selling Computers & Technology Industry book on Amazon!
When I first started writing this book, I had a strong belief in the message that I wanted to share with the world. I wanted to share my insights and experiences on how businesses can harness the power of digital technologies to drive growth and success by interviewing thought leaders from a variety of industries.
I hope that Decisively Digital will continue to inspire and empower readers to embrace the digital age and harness the full potential of technology for their own businesses and organizations. Thank you again for all of your support, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds!
Alexander Loth featured in BNN regarding his career boost at CERN
The world’s largest particle accelerator not only unleashed hidden particles but also unlocked my career growth. As a young data scientist, my journey at CERN was a career boost that laid the foundation for my future endeavors. Read about my first day at Microsoft here.
Der Daten-Verarbeiter: Der weltgrößte Teilchenbeschleuniger war für Alexander Loth ein Karriere-Turbo
BNN, 14.07.2021
Today in the news:
A Career Turbocharged at CERN: CERN offered more than just research opportunities. Working at CERN was a defining moment for me. The cutting-edge technology, incredible talent, and the massive amount of data were the catalysts that propelled my career to new heights.
Data as the Common Thread: My time at CERN reinforced my belief in the transformative power of data. “Data is the common thread that runs through my professional life.” From CERN to Tableau, and now at Microsoft, my passion for data continues to drive my career forward.
Decisively Digital – A New Publication: My new book, 📖 Decisively Digital (Amazon), published by Wiley, reflects my thoughts on digital transformation. It’s a culmination of my experiences and insights from various stages of my career.
I am grateful for my journey from CERN, via Tableau, to Microsoft. The opportunities, learning, and growth have been truly enriching, and I look forward to what the future holds. Stay connected and follow my journey on Twitter and LinkedIn.
My new book Decisively Digital — From Creating a Culture to Designing Strategy is now available for pre-order at most bookstores. The ebook is already available:
Check out 24 gripping interviews with Elissa Fink, Mohamed Abdel Hadi, Dr. Henna Karna, Derek Roos, Edna Conway, Kerem Tomak, André Rabold, Bora Beran, Florian Ramseger, Tatyana Yakushev, Patrick Kirchgäßner, Jordan Morrow, Yilian Villanueva Martinez, Lee Feinberg, Mark Kromer, Sarah Burnett, Andreas Kopp, Cameron Turner, Christy Marble, Prof. Dr. Patrick Glauner, Vladimir Alexeev, Sofie Blakstad, Sven Sommerfeld, and Ian Choo. Thanks also to Bernard Marr for the foreword, Patrick Walsh for editing, and everyone for supporting me in the preparation and reviews.
More about the book — from the back cover:
INSIGHTS AND APPLICATIONS FROM 24 LEADERS OF THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION FROM CREATING A CULTURE TO DESIGNING STRATEGY
Today’s business world is Decisively Digital. Across the business landscape, the leaders rising to the top are the ones who can think big-picture about data, AI, analytics, and beyond. How do we build new capabilities around digital, so we can push into the future with full steam? That’s the question at the heart of the twenty-four incisive interviews inside this unique collection of up-to-the-minute expertise from the people who are moving business forward.
With this book, your mentors are the very digital masterminds behind some of today’s top global organizations. Discover how tech giants are reinventing the world of work, how the financial sector is streamlining with data analytics, and what the latest AI research means for the businesses of today and tomorrow. You’ll also gain access to a toolkit of updates, further reading, and digital strategy ideas on the included companion website.
Discover the inspiration you need to evolve your business for the digital age and learn to:
Establish a digital culture that empowers people to work smarter
Implement data democracy and analytics to discover new capabilities
Generate tangible business results using new tech tools
Realize efficiencies with artificial intelligence, blockchain, and the Internet of Things
Apply real-world examples as you build your own future-proof digital strategy
“Alexander […] has brought together some of the brightest voices and smartest thought leaders from leading organisations across many industries, to bring you unmissable insights and real-world examples to showcase how technology can improve your businesses and drive business results today and tomorrow.” —Bernard Marr, Futurist, influencer and best-selling author of Tech Trends in Practice and The Intelligence Revolution
“Decisively Digital is decisively executive. Great experts, great interviews, and great insights combine to a crisp, cohesive and powerful story. It would be quite a mistake for any (aspiring) leader not to dive into this book, so I will definitely put it on the list of mandatory readings for my future students!” —Markus Maedler, Director Executive MBA Programmes at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
Thank you all who helped me to complete this book — and please feel free to share the news:
The panel discussion “The empathy machine: are digital technologies the best bet in telling about your cause?” took place on the opening day of the 2018 Fundamental Rights Forum (FRA). This forum was organized by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, and took place at the METAStadt Vienna 25-27 September 2018.
In this panel discussion Kadri Kõusaar (a Oscar nominated film director), Fanny Hidvegi (European Policy Manager) and me discussed if digital technologies really are the “empathy machine” and how innovative applications can help human rights defenders to achieve some challenging goals such as a change in public attitudes or meeting tough fund-raising targets. The panel discussion was moderated by the virtual reality artist Dr. Frederick Baker.
In this blog post I want to share some of the panel’s questions, which I answered:
1. How do algorithms interfere with human rights?
When algorithms make certain decisions, these algorithms tent to mirror what they are shown with training sets. This is especially apparent for issues such as bias and machine discrimination. Both might be the result of the content of the training data, which reflects existing inequalities.
2. So, it’s about the data? What else makes data so important today?
The effective use of data is vital for our understanding of fundamental issues, such as human rights violations and political instability, for informing our policy-making, and for enhancing our ability to predict the next crisis. Furthermore, the scope, complexity and life-changing importance of the work being done on topics like these across the European Union has made it more important than ever for everyone participating in the public conversation and in demographic decision-making to have access to and to be able to derive insights from key data sources.
3. Where is data coming from and how can people benefit?
Every time we google something, send a tweet, or just browse a website, we create data. With the rise of visual analytics we can benefit from this vast amount of information. Visual analytics is a hands-on approach to interacting with data that does not require any programming skills. Furthermore, communicating with data, is seen as one of the most relevant skills in today’s information age.
5. What is required to enable organizations to use data for good?
Data can be used for the good of society, but private- and public-sector firms, nonprofits and NGOs still lack analytics resources and expertise. Data and analytics leaders must cross traditional boundaries to use data for good, to better compete for limited talent, and to foster an ethical culture. VizForSocialGood and Tableau Foundation are good examples.
6. How can the private sector contribute for good?
Some private sector organizations are making data open and available to researchers, nonprofits and NGOs. Examples include:
Mastercard anonymizing credit card data to be analyzed in smart city initiatives.
Google making search data available to hospitals to predict infection disease outbreaks such as flu and dengue fever.
Insurance companies providing anonymized healthcare data to improve patient outcomes and prevention strategies.
Yelp providing ratings data to cities to prioritize food safety inspectors.
The panel discussion was followed by workshops in the afternoon:
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