"We saw a marked slowdown in September in client buying behavior, and our results also point to the unprecedented pace of change in our industry." CEO Ginni Rometty said this in IBM's Q3 earnings announcement, which revealed tumbling revenue and profits at the company. The statement is troubling because as a global provider of business software and services, IBM is a bellwether of business spending. And a boom in business spending is central to the bullish outlooks of many economists and market strategists.

“Organisations need to move from data being this asset that is hidden and processed and managed by one team and make it an asset visible to the entire organisation,” says Yael Cosset, CIO of global customer science company Dunhummby.

Retailers are increasingly heeding customers' desire to weave the physical and digital worlds together.

Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella said that female employees should trust that their employer will offer them fair raises, rather than asking for them—a statement he later recanted on Twitter and via an official statement from Microsoft.Nadella appeared on stage at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, where he was interviewed by Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd College.The majority of the interview covered topics like how Nadella handled the balance between work and his personal life—a topic familiar to women who have to juggle the roles of mother and career execut