additional content
across all its online systems, studying not
just the moves of hackers but the actions
of legitimate customers as well. Both types
of visits, after all, are forms of repetitive
human behavior, opposite sides of the
same coin.”
It might seem as if the lack of trust in large
businesses and government institutions,
endemic throughout the world, will
compromise your ability to be trustworthy
and transparent. But it actually creates a
powerful opportunity to differentiate your
company. In PwC’s latest global survey
of CEO opinion, many CEOs recognize
as much. Just under two-thirds of chief
executives (and three-quarters of those
who head companies with revenues
of more than $10 billion) believe that
how their firm manages data will be a
differentiating factor in the future.
10. Put humanity before machines.
You might think the principle of
putting people before machines is so
obvious that it goes without saying.
But the history of technology is full
of examples where the opposite has
happened. The Industrial Internet
places unprecedented power in every
enterprise. As machines become
increasingly interconnected, the
quality of user experience will spread
in viral fashion. If people are shut
out — of jobs, creative opportunities,
income, and customer satisfaction —
embracing technology will backfire.
Business, in particular, will thrive
in this new world only if its leaders
understand the place of human values.
Set up your enterprise to foster
better connections among people,
to encourage humane behavior, and
to build the requisite capabilities
that overcome technological
isolation. The most important skills
for accomplishing this will be those
that can’t be replicated by machines.
Your company will need people who
can understand the technologies of
the industrial infrastructure, such as
artificial intelligence and analytics, but
who are also adept at working with an
organization’s culture. Helping people take
pride in their endeavors, as our colleague
Jon Katzenbach suggests, will be critically
important; so will establishing a diversity
of points of view, so that people from
different backgrounds can challenge one
another’s perspectives.
Most important of all will be a basic
attitude of respect for human beings;
as technology becomes more proficient
at this larger scale, the most distinctive
thing about people will not be their ability
to solve problems or achieve results,
but their empathy, intuitive judgment,
and authenticity; their abilities to care,
connect, and choose, in ways we can’t
predict in advance.
What place will your company occupy as
the next industrial revolution unfolds?
It depends on your ability to bring all
these principles to bear. You will combine
your people, your capabilities, and your
technological acumen in ways that you
never have before. We will soon not
just see individual fortunes change, but
also see them move forward in ways
that provide stability, self-sufficiency,
and a high quality of life. In a sense,
this represents the culmination of the
wave of digital technology that started
in the 1950s, and it still has a few years
to go before it stabilizes. By that time,
we’ll be just about ready to start all over
again with yet another “next” industrial
revolution —assuming this one works out
as well as we hope.
Author Profiles:
• Norbert Schwieters is a partner with PwC
Germany. Based in Düsseldorf, he leads PwC’s
global energy, utilities, and resources business.
• Bob Moritz is chairman of the
PricewaterhouseCoopers International Network.
Based on: Strategy + business
supported by EUROBAK
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