Dreamforce 2017 - Keep calm and carry on innovating
- Summary:
- Technology innovation can deliver a better future in an uncertain world, but it's going to take time, say business leaders.
There are two words that dominate this week’s Dreamforce lexicon. The first is Trailblazer, the second is innovation.
The two are linked of course. The fabled Trailblazer is a company or an individual on the bleeding edge, those taking risks and driving innovation.
Of course, taking those risks, including major digital transformation programs, requires confidence and trust, both commodities that can all too easily be undermined by any number of factors, not least the macro-economic and political environments.
Given many of the pressures and developments in the world in 2017, from post-Brexit uncertainties in the UK and Europe through to Make America Great Again trade protectionism, it could be argued that the macro conditions are all too ripe for organizations to be tempted to put the brakes on too much innovation right now.
That was a thesis that I put to a panel of business leaders at Dreamforce today. The panel consisted of Miles Everson, Global & APA Cluster Advisory Leader, PwC; Henrik Ehrnrooth, President and CEO of elevator firm KONE; and Keith Block, President of Salesforce. The responses that I got were ultimately optimistic, but with no timescales attached - and potentially a lot of bumps in the road along the way.
Everson kicked off with the argument that:
We went through the financial crisis. We’ve moved into an era of national protectionism in many parts of the world. Oftentimes I say that anti-globalisation has now been globalised.
What happens now is up to us all to determine, he added:
We can decide to live in that mindset, but I don’t believe that that’s what’s going to happen. The forces of technology and innovation are going to push us through the national protectionist mentalities. The forces of advancement will push us through this. What I don’t know - and I wish I did - is, is this going to be three years or is it going to be fifteen years?
KONE CEO Ehrnrooth has been feted as effectively Trailblazer-in-Chief all week, the very embodiment of the power of innovation and reinvention. He took a similar tack to Everson, saying:
It’s clear that we are going through a difficult time. We are seeing backlashes in many parts of the world. But I also believe that science and technology are such a force for good. If we think broader, what is the reason for having wars? It’s energy, more people, nowadays the most valuable commodity is data and it doesn’t have borders. With AI you don’t need as many people. Over the long term this will be a force for good, but how long will the transformation be in between?
Eastern promise - or threat?
Ehrnrooth pointed to Asia as a warning to the Western nations of the perils of not pushing on with innovation investment
I spend a lot of time in Asia. When I look at China and South East Asia, change resistance is virtually zero because there is no legacy. In those countries they are incredibly fast at applying techologies that exist. If we want to keep up, then we will have to ensure that the US and Europe can speed up and get round the change resistance that we have.
Salesforce’s Block picked up on the Asia angle, recalling a conversation he’d had on a visit to Japan last month with some business leaders there which suggested that there’s a flipside to Ehrnrooth’s argument:
There is no legacy per se in Asia so they already get a leapfrog over some of the more established countries in Europe or the United States or even Japan. I was in Japan three weeks ago and talking to a bunch of CEOs about their digital transformation experience. What dawned on me was that the culture of Japan, the greatness of the culture, is that it is a design culture. They have perfected the art of design, to the point where it’s also an Achilles heel because it’s very difficult to move out of that with a beginner’s mind.
You could point to a country like Germany where it’s an engineering culture, a quality culture and it’s the same mentality. Moving into the future, leverating the technologies, changing the culture of the company or the country, this is no small task. That’s one of the reasons why there’s still a lot of opportunity for digital transformation in every industry and country and every size of company. But digital transformation is hard and there’s a lot to overcome.
There are lessons to be learned from history, added Block:
We are in uncharted waters here. Thousands of times we can point to things that have happened in history, where there’s been upheaval and social unrest. I think what’s going on right now in the world is little bit of a bottoms-up revolution. I don’t want to use that word, but we have seen things like what’s happening in Brexit, what’s happening in Spain, certainly what's happened here in the United States. I think it is because people are fearful.
But technological innovation should be looked at as an enabler for positive change, he suggested:
One of the great things that technology brings is that it’s an opportunity to open things up. There are examples for example of things that are going on in the Middle East or in Afghanistan where youth has learned all about technology and that is opening up those societies. In the long game - and we don’t know how long this is going to take - I do believe that technology is going to open up society.
Those people who are thinking in the past will now start to think in the future because they will have the technology that will enable that. As long as we have leaders in the world, who are leading both in the private sector and the public sector, and who are putting in place policies to embrace technology as a good thing, not an evil thing, then I’d like to think of this as a postitive future.
That said, Block can’t put a finger on how far away that future is, only that he firnly believes it will happen. Patience will be a virtue here, it seems:
Anytime you have a situation that required massive transformation, it requires leadership, it requires process change. It requires cultural leadership. It’s not always about the technology. Technology is nothing without people and process. Sometimes this is cultural change within an organization, sometimes it’s a country culture. These things take a long time.
My take
As the Chinese proverb (almost) goes, may we live in interesting times. There’s no shortage of ‘interesting’ going on in the world and it does have an impact on confidence. You only have to look at the investment uncertainties that are kicking in around the Brexit negotiations with the European Union to see that. But the point made by all three business leaders is a valid one - technology is an enabler for a better future. As such, the innovation and digital transformation agendas need to be underpinned by that other cliche - Keep calm and carry on!