The Long View | Jeffrey Sachs on the Global Economy and Rebalancing an Unequal World

Intelligence | The Long View

NEW YORK, United States — In the world of development economics, Jeffrey Sachs is a veritable rock star. He is the director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet professor of sustainable development, professor of health policy and management at Columbia University and special advisor to United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon. For over 25 years, he has advised international governments in the developing world — from Africa to

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The Long View | Why Fashion Brands Need APIs

Intelligence | The Long View

Oren Michels | Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

NEW YORK, United States — Today, rapid innovation in consumer technologies and accelerating adoption rates are driving explosive growth of new devices and platforms — from iPads and gaming consoles to web-connected cars and internet-enabled TVs — putting pressure on brands to design and support a diverse and fast proliferating array of digital touchpoints. Keeping pace with consumers means thinking beyond the web browser. The days

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The Long View | How Realtime Data is Reshaping the Fashion Business

New York | The Long View

Julia Fowler and Geoff Watts | Source: Editd

LONDON, United Kingdom — Clearance sales point to a perennial problem in the fashion industry: the misalignment of supply and demand. Using traditional market research, brands and retailers are unable to predict with high accuracy what products consumers will actually purchase during any given season. As a result, merchandise that doesn’t sell is marked down, while demand for popular items goes unmet, leading to significant loss of

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The Long View | Simone Cipriani Says Ethical Fashion is Good Business

Intelligence | The Long View

Simone Cipriani, Andreas Kronthaler, Vivienne Westwood, Federico Marchetti | Source: The Ethical Fashion Programme

FLORENCE, Italy — Simone Cipriani spearheads the Ethical Fashion initiative of The International Trade Centre (ITC), a joint agency of the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation. Connecting “the world’s most marginalised people to the top of fashion’s value chain for mutual benefit,” it enables communities of artisans and micro-manufacturers — the majority of them women — to thrive in association with the talents of the

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The Long View | Sramana Mitra on Web 3.0 and the Science of Personalised Shopping

Fashion 2.0 | The Long View

Sramana Mitra | Source: Sramana Mitra

MENLO PARK, United States — Since 2003, when Web 2.0 first hit the mainstream, we’ve seen an explosion of user-generated content (UGC). Since then, fashion innovators have harnessed the growth of UGC to build experiences like Polyvore, where consumers can mix and match their favourite fashion items for others to see and shop. But as more and more consumers become increasingly active on the social web, the volume of content being

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