Edition: July 3rd, 2021
Curated by the Knowledge Team of ICS Career GPS
- Excerpts from article published in World Economic Forum
The disruption caused by the Fourth Industrial Revolution has been accelerated by COVID-19, and increased our need for agility, adaptability, and positive transformation.
As the global economy rapidly digitalises, an estimated 70% of new value created over the next decade will be based on digitally enabled platform business models.
While digital technologies have the potential to enable new value for everyone, they risk further exacerbating exclusion, the unequal concentration of power and wealth, and social instability.
Companies must use digital infrastructure and data to collaborate, develop innovative business models, navigate disruption, and transition to a new normal.
The key issues that need to be focused on are:
1. Purpose and Stakeholder Capitalism
- Companies must exercise responsible leadership in the digital realm
- Businesses are increasingly being challenged on the role they play in society.
- Historically there has been a disconnect between public expectations and business leadership. But now the concept of stakeholder capitalism, where companies serve society as a whole and not just shareholders is becoming mainstream.
- Technology is enabling inclusive business models that support this shift.
- Apart from potentially enabling stakeholder capitalism, digital technologies have added new dimensions to corporate responsibility.
- Inclusion and empowerment in the digital economy, and the need for responses to related automation and job losses, in addition to online safety, privacy, and responsible data management issues.
- While some of these issues can be addressed through legislation and regulation, the lag between the policy-making and technology development means businesses can move beyond their basic legal obligations to experiment with new approaches to digital leadership.
Priorities for collaboration:
- Define, align and apply principles of digital stewardship.
- Identify, experiment with, and scale up new technologies, partnerships and models that serve the interests of all stakeholders.
- Mobilise business leadership to champion agendas and enable action and investment in responsible digital leadership.
2. Digital Transformation of Organisations
- The average lifespan for traditional companies is declining, while the revenue share for ‘digital ecosystems’ is expanding.
- Traditional organisations need to quickly reimagine ways to create and capture new business value in the face of this digital disruption.
- However, disruptive technologies are also creating significant new value opportunities.
- People increasingly expect technology to be personalised, convenient, and on-demand.
- These people also expect companies to play a constructive role in society.
- In response, many business leaders have transformed their organisations to create new value.
- Companies of all types now have a shared opportunity to exchange information and co-create new frameworks, tools, and partnerships to successfully transition to a new business normal.
Priorities for collaboration:
- Accelerate successful business transformation to respond to technological and social disruption.
- Identify collective learnings and strengthen collaboration across industries.
- Co-create new insights, models, decision frameworks, and tools.
3. Digital Infrastructure for All
- Public-private cooperation can accelerate digital connectivity for everyone
- 3 billion people remain unconnected, and therefore both unempowered and excluded from the digital economy.
- Even though legacy 2G and 3G mobile services in developing countries are now on the cusp of full adoption, broadband access in these places is still lacking.
- In developed countries, next generation 5G digital communications systems are being built, which promise to connect billions of devices at faster speeds and reduce network energy consumption.
- Public and private sector actors must consider the possibilities of this innovation in concert with the provision of basic broadband access.
- According to a joint action plan developed countries can provide necessary economic stimulus post-COVID-19 through accelerated investment in 5G infrastructure – creating new jobs, and moving towards carbon neutrality.
Priorities for collaboration:
- Strengthen public-private collaboration to advance new policies and investment models in digital infrastructure, and accelerate global connectivity.
- Identify and support the implementation of replicable business, collaboration, and investment models for the inclusive and sustainable deployment of 5G networks.
- Leverage technology innovation to expand connect-and compute capacities.
4. Business of Data
- Innovative approaches to data stewardship manage trade-offs while creating inclusive value.
- Increasing digital connectivity has led to unprecedented volumes of online data.
- Companies and governments are increasingly using data to try to add value.
- Data has been a particularly useful public health tool during the COVID-19 crisis.
- As data increasingly becomes a source of economic value, there is mounting pressure to share and use it in ways that benefit everyone.
- With most data-driven innovation and services coming out of the private sector, businesses play an increasingly important role in demonstrating responsible data stewardship.
- Meanwhile innovative legal and collaborative structures are being tested to streamline data sharing, such as data-trade marketplaces.
- Data is critical for national security and a nation’s competitiveness; governments are increasingly trying to reduce their dependence on foreign firms by asserting data sovereignty.
- The harmonisation and coordination of governments’ policy frameworks will be key for balancing national goals with the benefits of international innovation.
Priorities for collaboration:
- Identify and promote technology and policy innovation in trusted data sharing and use.
- Mobilise business stewardship and leadership on data.
- Coordinate global cooperation on cross-border data flows.
5. Technology for COVID-19
- Digital technologies have been crucial for the global response to the pandemic.
- COVID-19 created a pressing need for digital technologies that can help us respond to the pandemic, adapt to a new normal, and build long-term resilience.
- Companies and governments are deploying digital tools to share information about the spread of the coronavirus, support detection and containment measures, enable healthcare workers and authorities, accelerate treatment, and safeguard workers.
- It is vital that businesses not only partner with governments and academia on the use of digital tools, but also that they tailor them to local needs.
- The challenges raised by COVID-19 will not be short-lived, and businesses must prepare for the long haul by working towards greater global economic resilience and social cohesion.
Priorities for collaboration:
- Consult with global health experts, and align solutions and efforts with needs of global communities.
- Identify, evaluate and aggregate solutions that deliver value and with great potential for scale.
- Coordinate partnerships and contextualise solutions to influence effective deployment, uptake and impact in countries and governments in need.
(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the article mentioned above are those of the author(s). They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of ICS Career GPS or its staff.)
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