What do these trends mean for the future?

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Regardless, Robison won't be looking at Cisco's short-term results as much as its outlook for future quarters, a measure he says ties in closely with trends in the U.S. economy.

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They complain, for instance, that history is too much neglected in the consideration of future trends.

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Some sessions will focus specifically on silver and the platinum group metals, including future trends in off-road engine demand for platinum and pressures faced by producers.

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So food for thought on how you can tie socioeconomic and cultural trends to where the jobs lie now and in the future.

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For although the future path of technology can, to some extent, be extrapolated from existing trends, the social forces that help or hamper its adoption are far less predictable.

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But Mr Clark, a legend in Silicon Valley for his ability to spot trends in emerging technology, maintains that research using stem cells is vital to the future of medicine.

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"If properly harnessed to unleash their full potential, these trends hold the promise of more growth, much less poverty, and accelerating shared prosperity for African countries in the foreseeable future, " said World Bank economist, Punam Chuhan-Pole.

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Yet companies rarely use analytics to plan for the future, as good as they may be at using its data to look backward to identify trends.

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