Tom Kadala

Writer, speaker, and facilitator

ATC Inc.

Tom Kadala is an internationally recognized researcher, syndicated columnist, speaker, and facilitator on topics targeted to chief executives and political leaders. His background is in economics, engineering, technology, finance, and marketing. His views are regularly published by industry publications and distributed to executives. He has worked both in government and the private sector and served as the founder and CEO of Alternative Technology Corporation for 20 years.

Tue, 04/29/2014 - 09:19
Yes, You Can NASA That The space agency is centralizing a massive collection of ideas into a collaborative search engine
Tue, 04/29/2014 - 09:19
When you need an address, definition, or information about anything on Earth, friends will tell you to “Google it.” However, what if your smart device or robot needs to look something up? As part of the Internet of Things, it may well have to. For…
A Modern-Day Greek Tragedy The country’s entrepreneurs have good ideas, but the culture doesn’t support them
Wed, 02/12/2014 - 18:07
O ne can just imagine the frustration that Greece’s vice president and foreign minister, Evangelos Venizelos, must feel every time he notifies European Central Bank (ECB) officials about Greece’s economic progress or lack thereof. At a recent ECB…
Harnessing Big Data With a Systems Thinking Approach A Harley Davidson case study
Wed, 01/15/2014 - 11:34

With 90 percent of the world’s data created during the last two years, what can we expect our data vaults to hold two or even 20 years from now? Today we measure our lives in peta-bytes, but by 2020 estimates show a 2,300-percent increase in…
Improving the Odds of Entrepreneurial Success MIT’s advantageous ecosystem reveals three keys
Mon, 12/16/2013 - 10:09
If you were sitting at a Las Vegas gambling table with a 3-percent chance of winning big, would you continue to play or fold? Guessing your likely response, let’s compare this example with launching a startup company. Statistics show that 97…
Could PayPal Become the Global Reserve for Cash and Data? Everybody’s pal eyes its transactional data to mine customer-specific buying preferences
Mon, 09/30/2013 - 11:16
As PayPal continues to reinvent itself, expect the mother-of-all disruptions: a global currency comprised of cash and data. Similar to how voice and data coexist over the same copper wire today, PayPal’s next move will commingle cash and data over…
To Byte or Not to Bite The myths, realities, and trends behind big data analytics
Fri, 08/09/2013 - 16:47
Without data, a company would never survive today. With a little data, it might have a fighting chance, depending on the quality and timing of the information. But what happens when a company has access to too much data? Ironically, the company…
Data-Mining Lessons for Obama Some best practices for avoiding a ‘trust rift’ between the U.S. government and the American people
Thu, 06/13/2013 - 12:48
Earlier this month an ex-CIA employee and whistleblower, Edward Snowden, exposed the federal government’s 6-year old, clandestine initiative, referred to internally as PRISM, a covert data-gathering program that began in 2007 as a corollary to the…
Will Sustainability Become the Feared Equalizer? Maybe, but not before fuel prices continue to rise for years to come

Wed, 05/15/2013 - 11:41
Why is the price of oil still hovering around $100 per barrel, if global demand has fallen and the supply of alternative energy sources, including shale and renewables, are increasing? Could it be that commodity traders are reacting to a new series…
Systems Thinking Your next competitive edge
Mon, 05/06/2013 - 10:32
Imagine for a moment that a friend followed you with a webcam and recorded every moment of your typical work day. What could you learn from so much data? Probably not much, unless you matched each video frame with a related task. Once you did,…
Brave New Factory Model Advanced manufacturing is GE’s response to full employment
Tue, 04/23/2013 - 10:51
When Tom Donilon, the National Security Advisor for President Obama, was asked what were the two most pressing issues that kept him up at night, he cited terrorist attacks and the U.S. declining national competitiveness. The backdrop of 600,000…