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Start Today - Transforma-tech con Nicolás Bezek
A Survival Guide for Digital Transformation.
15 de December de 2021
Technology and digital transformation are here to stay. But we shouldn't be afraid. Some may adhere to this more than others, but we all must have surely felt a bit overwhelmed at some point by the excess of information and knowledge and by the fast pace at which everything is moving. At the ‘Start Today’ team, we felt it was necessary to have someone help us understand, process and, most of all, manage this new technological era. Ultimately, technology is here to make our lives better. Luckily, during the shooting of Stories that Begin at EAE, we found the perfect candidate to help us move through this new world. In this new section, Nicolás Bezek, EAE Graduate, gives us the keys to better understanding the technological environment and being able to work better and live better lives.
A Survival Guide for Digital Transformation.
Many of the history books in school and university were divided into centuries and, sometimes, even millenia. Have you ever wondered what the history books of the future will be like?
Besides discussing the ‘equipment’ or the platform in which it will be presented, I feel very intrigued by how our times will be remembered. Not only because of the fact that many chapters would be dedicated to only a few decades due to the great amount of impactful events that happened, but also because we’re experiencing big changes and advances at a social, cultural, work-related and human level.
VUCA is an acronym that, for many people, originates by the end of the Cold War, but that becomes popular, mostly in the academic and business worlds, with the dawn of the new millennium.
After the birth and popularisation of the internet, globalisatoin began to have an impact on the interconnection of people, markets (goods and services), capitals and ideas while, at the same time, a feeling of ‘no return’ started growing in our minds. We started noticing that contexts, societies and decisions, all exist at a time that has four main characteristics:
- Volatile: Changes happen at a dizzying pace. Everything changes fast.
- Uncertain: (uncertain en inglés)Absolute truths and absolute leaders fall. We feel like things ‘can change’.
- Complex: Possible scenarios multiply given the amount of factors we recognise and give importance to, whether we can control them or not.
- Ambiguous:Can we understand reality? Speaking of one or several, it becomes really difficult to properly understand the path we must take.
Digital Transformation
The term digital transformation, has become increasingly popular, which makes sense, since we’re living in a time in which the paradigm that keeps an ‘order’ is inviting us to get involved and combine technology with our routine, our daily life, no matter the time or the place in which we may be.
Now, like never before, technology leaves behind its role as a ‘tool’ in order to become an ally, a catalyst for the decisions and projects we embark on.
It’s ironic then, that in order to finally be able to benefit from this situation as a society, the key won’t be in the technological advances, but in the people.
The know-how, the algorithms and the new developments are all within reach and we can make use of them. And there’s an increasing number of people who can do it. Like never before in the history of humanity, information, resources and ideas can be accessed and all we have to do is ‘share’.
It is us who must change our mindset, the way we see and process things. We must decide how, when and where we’re headed in this new era in which we have to (co)exist.
Digital transformation is not measured through technology itself or the systems that we use, but rather through the changes and adaptation strategies that we must face at a cultural and social level. It will be measured through the way we train and educate ourselves, the way we do business, the new companies in which we will work, even the goals we aspire to achieve as people and as a society.
It’s us, the people, the ones who must begin to understand the new ‘rules of the game’ and be able to grasp the new challenges that we will have to face.
The New Contexts Around Us
We’re living in times of change and there’s no going back. The Internet has already broken every boundary and found its way into every industry, even in the way people relate to each other, whether to check our mails, work, use social networks, buy, sell, plan activities and even control our house remotely, among so many other things.
Regarding the economic aspects of our world,the tech based industry has quickly made the most of these breakthroughs, boosting and backing up disruptive deals, bringing along important changes. ‘New companies’ came up and reorganised every end-of-the-year balance sheet ranking on traditional business magazines.
Can anyone imagine a top 10 without companies like Alphabet (Google), Apple, Meta (Facebook), Amazon, Tesla or Microsoft?
The recent and violent shake that COVID-19 gave the world found its first shelter in technology, giving us the possibility to go back to work(ing from home), enjoy shows, shop and get it delivered to our houses, communicate and even organise ourselves. But we also know that not everyone was able to find shelter in technology, since not everyone has the same knowledge or access to this digital environment.
The advances and changes that we think about as a society are, and will be, for everyone.We can’t leave non-digital natives behind. There cannot be a break or separation. We’re all part of the same society. Governments, companies and even institutions from the third sector, must all commit to achieving a general digital transformation, making sure every social group is ensured access and digital literacy.
Currently, in work and family environments, people from different generations work and live together. Beyond their knowledge and ways of managing, the way and moment in which they have accessed modern technology is decisive.
Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials (Y), a part of the Centennials (Z) and in the medium term, Pandemials… they all share the same stages, making decisions and sharing responsibilities and obligations.They all live and work in different ways but, most importantly, they have different ways of committing to work and projecting themselves in it. The challenge will be centred on how they manage to live together and work in coordination as a team.
The Multi-Sector Trends
Some of the following multi-sector disruptive trends and technologies coexist in this precise moment in time, interactively and with low access barriers:
- Big data, Internet of Things (IOT) Cloud computing.
- Exponential data generation in every device, connected to an increasingly big and potent network (5G)
- Cybersecurity and GDPR.
- As the amount of personal and sensible data increases, so should the capacity for control and the ethical discussion on their manipulation.
- Virtual and Augmented Realities
- The ‘metaverse’ is only the beginning of a new era of stimulation and ways of consuming information and relating to each other and with brands.
- Blockchain, cryptocurrencies and NFTs
- New ways and sources of financing are appearing, fighting for the ‘order and power’ over the market against the traditional players.
- 3D Printing
- New materials, of a better quality and cheaper, are giving way to new solutions for the development of tools, buildings and even food, among other things.
- Quantum Computing
- For many, it’s the possible explanation to how we’re going to process all this new data and take a step forwards in the field of computational capacity in our devices.
- Agile Management Methods with Constant Sprints
- New management models suggest decentralisation of work in order to make the most of the economies of scale per niche and to develop more solid and dynamic MVPs (faster and shorter cycles to design, test, control, iterate)
Will it be a matter of skills, attitude or both?
Besides having an increasingly necessary technical training, developing digital skills will be decisive for our adaptation to the societies and jobs that lie ahead.
These skills won’t just be developed in formal educational institutions. In fact, it’s a topic that’s getting a lot of attention and that we will discuss at some other time. There are a series of skills and mechanisms to be acquired, besides technical training, that will be necessary no matter which way we choose to go. Here are some of them:
- Commitment to leading and/or working with multicultural teams asynchronously.
- Teams will be made up of people from all around the world, sharing uses and customs, cultural and professional.
- Decision making
- Understanding and making decisions in different settings and in short times. The use and understanding of data will be decisive for the control of a great amount of variables that interact with each other.
- Developing a creative, flexible, resilient and critical mindset.
- Due to the constant changes, there will be times where we may feel disappointment and frustration. We must be prepared to question everything and think of a great variety of alternatives. We must also be capable of recovering and learning from our mistakes.
- Being open to learning new technologies.
- We cannot stop training in a world that is always presenting new ways of doing things. 70% of children of up to 12 years old will work in jobs that we may not even know about today.
- Humanising processes and technology
- We cannot forget about off-line life and relationships. We must improve our future developments in order to make life better for everyone, not forgettingour human characteristics.
The sooner we realise that we’re part of this change and that the future is in our hands as a society, the quicker we can become involved, both to produce impact in our personal life and to contribute to the context in which we live. I invite you to reflect on the following:
- Be aware of the moment, be open to change and never stop learning. If the only thing we know is that there will be changes, then we must be willing to improve and get proper training.
- Start-ups and new economies. How and why to do things have somewhat moved away from an absolute truth. Markets are completely open to new ways of making business with new products, services and, most of all, experiences.
- Owners are consumers and the power lies in their coordination. We live in a time where millions of people can coordinate quickly and concretely. The Internet will give more power, more presence and more power to those who use it and surf it.
Do you know what’s my favourite history book? The Internet — that, besides telling me what has happened, makes it possible for me to write the present and to dream of tomorrow.