Commentary on Robots

Notes

Hi Lilian. I have just finished watching the broadcast you had asked me to view for you. It’s titled Rebooting Business. This was broadcast on TVO’s The Agenda on July 29, 2015. In my talk today with you, I am going to cover a couple of main points. First, I’m going to talk to you about the need for business to reboot. And second, I am going to then talk to you about the need for individuals to reboot.

The host of the broadcast, Steve Paikin, interviewed Mitch Joel on his new book entitled “Ctrl Alt Delete – Reboot your business. Reboot your life. Your future depends on it”.

According to Mitch, business needs to completely reboot because of this technologically growing world. Businesses are taking the old ways of doing things, such as traditional advertising, and trying to put them into this changing world. Mitch went on to give an example of a young girl going shopping for sunglasses. In the past, it was simple. You and a friend would go into stores, browse and try on sunglasses. It was just the two of you. Now, if you see two people going sunglass shopping together, it’s not just the two of them. Instead it is thousands, because we are all connected to our devices and social media. Businesses are finding it hard to understand this untethered consumer and what technology really means for them. These businesses need to figure out how to sell to a consumer who is so digitally and technologically involved. Moreover, consumers have potential buying opportunities that are present now that were not in the past. This includes buying off technological devices. Businesses are trying to find ways to make sure that consumers get what they want in the palm of their hands instead of having to go physically to a store to purchase. However, these businesses need to adapt to this ever-changing environment. They have always had to maintain a relationship with consumers. However, what has changed now is that not only do they have to maintain relationships with consumers while competing with their competitors, but they also have to compete with their partners.

This brings us to the next problem which involves people wondering where they will work in the future world of rebooted economy. A popular example was provided of Kodak, which was worth 28 billion dollars and employed 100 000 people and is now underwater. And instagram, which is worth 1 billion dollars, only employs 13 people. This makes us wonder how people will have a job in the new world. Mitch answers by putting forth a theory that we are focusing on the wrong area of technological advancement. We are focused on technology as in automation. Instead, we should be focusing on technology as a form of augmentation, which is allowing people to perform work more efficiently through the use of technology. Mitch refers to the challenge of education and deciding how to train people of today and the future for this changing world and economy, as we are long gone from the industrial economy.