Before he took office in 2008, Barack Obama vowed to end America's grueling conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. During his second term, he pledged to take the country off what he called a permanent war footing. "Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue," he said in May 2013. "But this war, like all wars, must end. But Obama leaves a very different legacy as he prepares to hand his commander-in-chief responsibilities to Donald Trump. U.S. military forces have been at war for all eight years of Obama's tenure, the first two-term president with that distinction. He launched airstrikes or military raids in at least seven countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. Yet the U.S. faces more threats in more places than at any time since the Cold War, according to U.S. intelligence. For the first time in decades, there is at least the potential of an armed clash with America's largest adversaries, Russia and China.

Now is the time of the year when every marketer should well reflect on the achievements of 2016 and holistically examine what the New Year is going to mean for marketing, branding, and business. With this article I proceed with a good tradition by following-up on my previous and related articles for 2016, 2015, and 2014. As we all know, paying attention to what's on the horizon does offer valuable insights. Knowing the below-listed 16 marketing trends which I consider as highly relevant for 2017, should help you to build, expand, and keep strong brands. Although this should have been ingrained in every marketer s DNA for years, however, with all the data, tech, and buzzwords flying around, one of the biggest marketing challenges of 2017 will be to stay calm, focused, and to be obsessed with the only one that matters: Your customer! How to identify her, to reach her, to engage her, to make her purchase, to have her stay loyal, to make her to recommend you, and to have her even re-purchase more of your products in the future? There is a certain risk that (marketing) managers – more than ever – get confused and fall into the trap of mixing up data-driven insights with a real customer-centric business philosophy. Therefore successful companies and brands don t worship the data gods for the sake of it; instead they have a comprehensive and deeply rooted digital transformation strategy in place which is flanked by a crystal clear marketing action plan. Enhanced and lived by every employee of the organization and not only by a chief digital officer who very often is floating around the company in search for a home base.

In recent years we've seen Facebook go public with a $100 billion valuation and General Motors, formerly the world's biggest company, go effectively bankrupt and need to be bailed out. And hot digital properties like Instagram, SnapChat and WhatsApp have built communities of millions of people in a very short period with very lean resources. We are now witnessing the complete transformation of business models that we knew. Value chains are now being subsumed by value networks. Uber, the taxi replacement service, with a valuation of $50 billion has no cars. Alibaba, an ecommerce outfit, with a valuation of $167 billion has no inventory.

Before he took office in 2008, Barack Obama vowed to end America's grueling conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. During his second term, he pledged to take the country off what he called a permanent war footing. "Our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue," he said in May 2013. "But this war, like all wars, must end. But Obama leaves a very different legacy as he prepares to hand his commander-in-chief responsibilities to Donald Trump. U.S. military forces have been at war for all eight years of Obama's tenure, the first two-term president with that distinction. He launched airstrikes or military raids in at least seven countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. Yet the U.S. faces more threats in more places than at any time since the Cold War, according to U.S. intelligence. For the first time in decades, there is at least the potential of an armed clash with America's largest adversaries, Russia and China.

One of the newer technologies getting buzz these days is the voice-enabled digital assistant – and new data from Accenture [pdf] suggests that it's not all hype. In fact, the use of embedded voice-enabled digital assistants in smartphones and PC/laptops has reached the mainstream among 14-17-year-olds, per Accenture's survey of almost 26,000 consumers across 26 countries. The results indicate that 31% of 14-17-year-olds regularly use voice-enabled digital assistants, with another 20% just getting started using them. Adoption – not surprisingly – declines with age, but still remains above one-third (38%) of Millennials (18-34) and higher than one-quarter (27%) of Gen Xers (35-54). Although only 15% of Boomers (55) are currently using voice-enabled digital assistants, another 35% are interested in doing so.

"A reasoned, even cournterempathic analysis of moral obligation and likely consequences is a better guide to planning for the future than the gut wrench of empathy." This is the argument presented by Paul Bloom in his latest book, Against Empathy. He argues that a more fair and reliable guide for one's morality is rational compassion; a morality based on facts, cost/benefit analysis and rational thinking. For the most part, I agree with him. I think back to all of the conflicts that I have witnessed or been engaged in, whether with friends, colleagues or family.

Rising inequality and social polarisation are set to shape world developments for the next decade after contributing to Britain's decision to leave the European Union and the ballot-box success of US president-elect Donald Trump, the World Economic Forum says. Climate change was underlined as the third major global trend in the WEF's annual assessment of global risks, published on Wednesday at an event at Bloomberg's European headquarters in London. It said world leaders must work together to avoid "further hardship and volatility in the coming decade". If everything goes to plan, we should see Australian growth around 2.8% in 2017, but there are a number of risks in both directions. Bellamy's CEO Laura McBain has been widely credited for transforming the family-run local company to a global brand.

Since the dawn of the industrial revolution, the pace of change in the world is so fast that if someone from medieval times would come back, he will want to die again because he will not be able to adjust in this new world which is trying to turn science fiction into reality. Driverless cars, drone deliveries; every year is bringing something new for us. Here are those five technologies or ideas which will change the world in the years to come. In the modern post-industrial economy, investment on higher education gives more dividends than even capital. It has helped many to get out of the vicious circle of poverty across all continents. Attaining education from the world's top universities has been a dream for many people but few are able to achieve due to many constraints.

Do you think Hollywood has lost touch with American values? Do you think Hollywood has lost touch with American values? The contentious presidential campaign was filled with accusations of elitism and bias by the media -- from the news to entertainment. Many supporters of Donald J. Trump saw his victory as a repudiation of the so-called liberal elite. So as 2017 begins, we ask: Is Hollywood representing all Americans? Are Hollywood values out of sync with American values? It's the start of a conversation we'll have all year with Hollywood's creators, consumers and observers. Most of all, we want to hear from you. Is Hollywood out of touch with your America? Here's what our critics and writers have to say: KENNETH TURAN on potent Hollywood visions that helped elect Trump TV's affluent bubble: MARY McNAMARA on Hollywood's reluctance to deal with class issues Fear of the powerful woman: JUSTIN CHANG on working women and men still behaving badly Realistic or cliche?: JEFFREY FLEISHMAN on ...

The still-unannounced Huawei P10 has surfaced again in newly leaked renders. This time around, however, it appears as though the device's full specifications have been leaked as well. The Huawei P10 will be powered by the 64-bit octa-ocre 2.3GHz Kirin 960 system-on-chip (SoC) with a Mali G71 GPU, 6GB of RAM and up to 256GB of storage, according to Android Headlines. The leaked low-res render of the Huawei P10. As for its external design, the Huawei P10 appears to have a dual-curved display while still retaining the metallic frame.