The BurbleBizarre quantum bonds connect distinct moments in time, suggesting that quantum links — not space-time — constitute the fundamental structure of the universe.
— Read on www.quantamagazine.org/time-entanglement-raises-quantum-mysteries-20160119/
Wow this is weird.
A recent report from PWC titled ‘Will robots steal our jobs’ summarised a number of investigations into the potential impact on jobs as a result of the rapid development and implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI, which in this context includes robotics and machine learning.) The report indicated that up to 30% of insurance and financial services roles could be impacted although exact numbers remain not surprisingly, elusive. Let me repeat that, up to 1/3rd of all roles in the insurance industry might cease to exist or have to change in a significant way.
That’s a pretty astonishing estimate. With some significant impacts.
Companies are going to undergo major transformations; changing what they do, how they create value, and how they deal with customers. And perhaps, the biggest impact will be on employees; how will they deal with this transformation?
As with all choices selecting the right take away coffee has taken on a level of complexity that was thought impossible only a few years ago. And so as I start off on my regular walk around the local park I am almost always sidetracked by what I’m going to order from my local cafe.
Now to be fair to them they don’t yet seem to be in the same league as Starbucks but there is enough to give me pause for thought. And as usual this time I managed to choose the iced coffee and after walking round the corner into a rain shower I immediately wanted the hot cappuccino.
And obviously this got me thinking about Jeremy Vine the UK BBC Radio Presenter.
According to an article in Business Insider millenials are killing certain businesses and I am glad to say that most of the ones being ‘killed’ are ones that I am cheerfully glad to see the back of. And I suspect most people of all ages will be. So here’s my take on some of what’s going on
Now I come to think of it I am a millennial after all. Just from the wrong millennium.
If you read my last blog on trust and business you might be forgiven for thinking that the argument was built on a little hype on the development of technology. And of course there is nothing out there at the moment other than hype about technology.
But I thought this article from ZDnet which arrived in my inbox about the same time I published my last blog posting provides some additional support for my argument that business and society are about to under go some radical changes. Technology developments tend to take longer than we envisage and tend to disappear off in various directions before reaching any form of conclusion but even supposing that AI exceeds human capabilities in more than 125 years that is actually close enough to imagine.
For anyone born today with a life expectancy of around 100 years it is possible that we will see technology become more advanced than humans. That should not scare us but simply drive us on to do more and better things with technology.
Companies and businesses have a problem – Trust. Put simply there is a decline in how much trust is being placed in business by customers and society in general. And a business that isn’t trusted isn’t going to survive for long. But is trust that important?
I think so. Customers are spending more time researching the companies they buy from, and the fact that so much information is available on line, opens up a business to a lot more scrutiny than previously possible. As customers are subject to exponential levels of change they will look to anchor themselves through relationships based on trust.
Would you go to a Doctor you didn’t trust?
And businesses play a huge role in society, providing income and rewarding places to work, generating wealth and making tax payments to help governments support their chosen areas of investment. The problem is partly guilt by association. As Edelman reported there is a collapse in trust in 4 of the major institutions (Business, Government, NGOs and Media) in many countries around the world.
At the same time however, businesses face some challenges that while not specific to industry will have a large and potentially dramatic impact. The 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) is beginning to reshape what business is and what it does and how it does it.
And trust is going to be come one of the most important topics businesses will have to deal with.
I admit it now that I am not the greatest fan of IT help desks.
Whether that is at work or at home I continue to wonder if the person I am speaking to has the first clue about the problem I am trying to solve. And that is of course if you can get to that person. You know how it goes when you dial the number and the first thing that happens is a recorded message saying that the call may be recorded for training purposes. Based on the number of calls I have made the training regime should be brilliant and all problems should have disappeared by now. But for some reason they still want to record the call.
Maybe it’s actually about training me? In which case can you tell me where I can get access to this training material as I am very willing to learn, if nothing else to make sure I don’t have to phone a help desk ever again.
Anyhow after you have ben advised that someone somewhere will benefit from training its time to press a series of buttons in response to being asked a series of questions. A series of questions that never seem to include anything that is relevant to the problem you have. In this case your computer won’t connect to the internet so
‘Press 1 for billings and payments
Press 2 for our latest best ever pricing on something that you have never heard of
Press 3 for voice activated data requests
Press 4 to hear the list again’
Now what?
My typical response is to disconnect and phone again, hoping against hope that a new list of buttons will have magically appeared and there might be some help at hand. Of course there never is so I invariably hit 3.
And then of course it all goes wrong because there is another list of numbers and things to connect to and each seems further away from the problem you’re trying to solve.
Of course you might eventually find a combination of buttons that connects you to a human being but I would seriously avoid doing this as you will go mad.
The human at the end of the phone will sound helpful and reasonable until you explain the problem. And then they will ask for a serial number or a code that you will swear on your ancestors graves that you have never been given or seen. All the while the phone bill and the tutting at the other end continues to grow.
After a while, and a significant increase in your blood pressure, the human will then decide that they might indeed be able to help you? Always assuming it is a human rather than a new Artificial Intelligence Bot. And here’s another link if you’re interested to the top 10 bots? Who knew there was a top 10
Anyhow back to the story. The person at the other end of the phone will then ask you to click on something. Something that you cannot see on the screen in front of you. No problem says the person at the other end of the phone. Simply click on the link in the same precise order as the morse code for ‘wow clicking on this button really doesn’t make anything happen’ and sit back and watch.
Watch nothing happen at all. And so by now you are literally like the man below.
And then the final insult. The human (or bot) or whatever then tells you the best thing you can do is to switch your computer off and start again……
Featured Image Image courtesy of dan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Trust is something that is extremely important in business. Whether it is between colleagues or between companies and their customers or between companies and their suppliers trust underpins everything that is written down in a contract. Without trust business simply doesn’t work as well as it should.
Of course trust becomes even more important when dealing internationally with people from different backgrounds and cultures.
So let’s get a definition written down
Trust as a noun is the firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something.
The little Google Car pictured above is a prime example of a growing need to trust. In this case trusting a software engineer who has written the code that is helping you navigate your way around town. As I talked about in ‘Can sheep drive?‘ we will all to have a lot of trust in technology going forward.
But what about trust in business. Well there we seem to have a problem. According to a report by the World Economic Forum – We’re losing trust in business. How can we get it back? people are losing trust in business. And while this is not really a surprise with the focus on fake news currently it does present serious challenges, particularly to businesses that operate outside of their locality ie where the owner or staff are not known by their customers or suppliers.
The article goes on to highlight a number of areas businesses need to think through such as
And while I think the irony of the World Economic Forum highlighting a lack of trust in business is interesting in itself the article seems to miss one very major aspect. The almost complete focus on the investor and shareholder above all others. The quarterly reporting cycle focusing as it does on numbers and shareholder returns is probably the biggest contributor to a lack of trust.
Perhaps its time for a quarterly reporting process on what value has been added to society rather that just focusing on the eps?
Anyone have any other ideas?
Yes I have written the headline the right way round. According to a recent article in ZDNet beer marketers have found a new way to help their product stand out from the marketplace. By creating beer mats with inbuilt technology that work with your phone to link you to special offers, information or anything else that might encourage you to drink more of their products.
So now it appears that people who go to the pub together will spend even less time talking to each other and even more time talking with their beer mat. Well it beats staring at your phone.
I love technology.
I met up with a colleague in the office today who relayed to me that he’d just had dinner with someone who left the company a few months ago. Meaning it to be a positive statement my colleague regaled me with stores about how his friend was now doing all the things he didn’t have time for when working such as
And all I could think about was how sad that sounded. Sad that it was only when his friend was between jobs that he managed to find time for the rest of his life. And yet so much of what leaders seem to expect is to work all hours that exist. And this rubs off on their teams who get equally caught up in the working all hours syndrome mainly because their boss does the same.
I once worked for a leader who wanted to know what was going on continuously. He worked all hours and wanted everyone else to do the same. He demanded to know whatever was happening before anyone else. Presumably because this made him feel good. After a month of 24/7 working (at least that’s what it felt like) I picked up the phone to him and had one of the most difficult conversations I have had. I simply told him that I was not going to talk to him every hour, txt him every 15 mins and make sure he had regular emails. I let him know that I felt I was employed as a trusted officer of the company and once I had agreed with him the objectives he should trust me to get on with it.
He really didn’t like it. The silence on the phone spoke volumes
But he eventually accepted what I’d said and we then worked in the way we’d agreed and despite his nervousness it actually worked quite well.
Sometimes you need to lead your boss.
Or as I sometimes tell my colleagues – boss your superior.
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