“Adapt or die” is the reality contended with by businesses at what appears to be the dawn of digital disruption and transformation.
According to Prof Wesley Rosslyn-Smith of the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Centre for the Future Work (CFOW), this was largely set in motion before and worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic altered the landscape, offering possibilities for hybrid and remote work.
The recent Business Day Focus 4.0 conference — hosted in partnership with Adapt IT, The CRM Team, Payfast, CloudZA, UP, Fixed Mobile Telecoms and the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) — explored the themes of crafting a future-fit workforce and harnessing disruptive technologies. (Watch the recording of this event below.)
During his keynote address, Rosslyn-Smith zeroed in on the reality and current projections for the future of work:
- First, graduates of 2030 will occupy 85% of a category of jobs that have not yet been created to date.
- As it stands, by 2040, the Sub-Saharan Africa region will contend with 20-million jobseekers per year, against a margin of only 9-million jobs provided.
After painting a gloomy picture about the current job landscape, Rosslyn-Smith offered a silver lining by suggesting that businesses in the Sub-Saharan Africa region are in a unique position of upskilling already existing employees in attempts to adapt to shifting markets.
Building a future-fit workforce
Following the keynote address, MC Nastassia Arendse, a well-known TV business news anchor, introduced a panel discussion focused on cultivating a workforce that is future-fit.
Panellists included:
- Tony Vicente, COO at Adapt IT; and
- Prof Khumbulani Mpofu, professor of industrial engineering at TUT.
Tying in with assertions of a need for entrepreneurship by Rosslyn-Smith, Mpofu assured that the university context has adapted teaching models to include a focus on entrepreneurship and bridging the gap between the academic teaching space and the real-time happenings of industry. For instance, students are given the opportunity to work on industry projects as a means of exposure.
Mpofu emphasised partnerships between industry and academic institutions as paramount to producing graduates fit for industry.
Vicente echoed Mpofu's sentiments, highlighting Adapt IT's commitment to skills development, rural infrastructure, and graduate programs to bridge the gap.
Vicente also believes that, in the context of developing already existing skills, upskilling employees to adapt to shifting technology and providing them with mentorship is crucial.
Harnessing disruptive technologies
The second panel discussion focused on artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics and automation, and how these so-called disruptive technologies translate to the consumer experience.
Panellists included:
- Dr Sean Kruger, senior lecturer at the CFOW;
- Eduard du Plessis, CEO of Fixed Mobile Telecoms;
- Wynand Roos, co-founder of The CRM Team;
- Jonathan Oaker, founder and CEO of CloudZA; and
- Brendon Williamson, MD at Payfast.
“Is tech disruptive — or is it a function of the business model?” Arendse posed to the panel. Panellists were unanimous in their responses, with Williamson posing the counter question: “Does business accommodate disruption?”.
There needs to be an alignment between disruptive technology and business. Williamson continued to say that he believes there must be a strong collaboration between the two; you can’t have one or the other.
Next, these industry heads tackled issues that account for the failures in the execution of digital transformation within an organisation.
“Failing to align a business model with tech ... failing to answer simple questions like ‘what is the tech for?’, accounts for these failures,” said du Plessis.
Roos affirmed these assertions by adding that “the failure to formulate strategy on the digital transformation journey nearly guarantees failure”.
It is important for companies to align the digital transformation strategies of varying divisions with those of their own internal IT.
“The misalignment between the customer’s needs and the company’s offerings,” said du Plessis, also accounts for huge failures in digital transformation efforts.
A lack of understanding of the workings of AI tools, panellists agreed, is another huge challenge in the industry today. They concurred that technology is meant to strengthen human capability rather than account for its failures.
For an effective digital transformation journey to happen, there needs to be involvement from top management with intervention by middle management and encouraged innovation in general employees
— Jonathan Oaker, founder and CEO, CloudZA
In addressing whether the harnessing of disruptive technologies is a top-down or bottom-up approach, Oaker concluded that the approach varies by organisation and model. “For an effective digital transformation journey to happen, there needs to be involvement from top management with intervention by middle management and encouraged innovation in general employees”.
Management needs to be open to listening, not only to their consumers but also to the younger generation of employees who are exposed to marketing tools such as social media. Kruger reiterated that there needs to be a meeting point in the middle.
The meeting point alluded to by Kruger affects organisational structure in such a way that the younger employees, experienced in tech, can collaborate with senior employees experienced in areas like sales and commercialisation. Kruger further shone the light on inclusivity in the form of making sure not to leave the older workforce behind while adapting to ever-shifting markets.
The final consideration of the discussion was the adoption of cloud technologies. Oaker asserted that “private and public consumer journeys vary. The public sector focuses on the elements of providing security, compliance and regulation, whereas the private sector is about cost and how to develop these solutions”.
AI and other tech solutions are meant to provide time- and cost-effective solutions, while there is still a human element driving and improving the systems of operation. It is apparent that technology is important, but skilled labour to operate and improve the technology is equally important. This was a key takeaway from the conference.
This article was sponsored by Arena Events.
