World Monitor Magazine WM_5 | Page 111

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 109