roundtable ... continued from previous page
‘Knowledge-based professions will be at risk from technology …’
Angela Shields
On the subject of technological advantage, Naha cited the importance of introducing new products, with “customers continually looking for a competitive advantage”. However, he went on to stress that he saw this as evolving rather than disruptive technology: “We have to be hungrier to sustain our position, so we need to constantly look at innovation, at doing things better with our staff.”
Poole picked up on the theme of technology impacting employment, citing the disruptive technological threats within his business (accountancy), which had the potential to “render most processing work redundant over time.
Chris Sykes
“Knowledge-based professions will suffer – you can now google the factual answers to many accounting or law problems, so our differentiator is even more about relationships analysis and interpretation than pure knowledge.”
Regarding differentiation, Shields highlighted the importance of “client focus and the delivery of services”, while Jeffers reaffirmed the need to be able to “apply and implement technological solutions for our customers, who want to work with us on a strategic basis”.
Lesley Reeve
Williams described the changing effects of technology on the banking sector, the most striking example being the reduced presence of banks on the High Street, as customers now prefer to use different channels for their banking services. “Digitalisation is also changing the face of corporate and commercial banking albeit our directors still maintain active relationships and work proactively to become a trusted partner of their customer.”
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and new ways of working ...
Alan Poole
Rob Pickering, business coach, ActionCOACH suggested that the biggest growth area in technology at present was AI, which would continue to have huge implications for economies; for example, if autonomous cars do become mainstream within 10 years (as projected), whole industries will have to adapt accordingly: “It’s incredibly frightening or exciting ... depending upon how you look at it. If you were to automate all of these jobs and replace the existing people, what would they do then? On that point, it’s interesting to note that Uber is now one of the biggest investors in AI and in autonomous cars ...”
Paul Williams
As a counter-argument, Poole noted that “history suggests that technology will never take over all of our jobs”, while Magal
36
businessmag.co.uk
noted that “legislation will always hold back technology”, but the point was generally accepted that technology will continue to drive changes in employment and in the workplace.
Sykes highlighted the technological advantages of smarter working using technology whereby some of his employees were able to live far away in places such as the North East and Scotland, and still be fully connected and functional within the company. “We pay them the same wage ... because they’re doing the same job, but with lower costs they now enjoy a better standard of living.”
Regarding smarter homes, Sykes highlighted a recent device, Amazon Echo, which integrates the Internet into households (it can play music via Spotify, control heating via Hive, respond to voice commands ... etc) and is viewed as a taste of things to come: “Millennial, disruption, transformation ... those are three words which make my blood boil. We’ve all been there before, but our past behaviours continue to condition us against change.”
On the technological work front, Bloxham highlighted an interesting AI development called Blue Prism, which markets itself as delivering “the world’s most successful digital workforce”. This is an automated development tool for call centres, which “has lots of opportunities for growth ... but will also affect people’s lives as it takes jobs away”.
Hence the need for improving the individual’s skill set to cope with such technological change, something which “the Thames Valley has to do more of, with Science Parks, incubators ... etc. The main players are already based here – we already have a culture of technology.”
Jon Atherton, group commercial director, Centerprise International, noted that as a specialist provider of IT to the public sector, the Thames Valley has been a good source of jobs and skills for them: “We’re constantly developing new technology; for example, we’re currently in the process of helping the MoD with a new virtual reality system.”
Employees need to develop new skills sets
“The number one challenge for the Thames Valley is how to attract upper quartile talent”, stated Rogers, pointing out that macro- economic trends aren’t currently helping the region: “The Thames Valley really has to think about its value proposition – careers, housing, family life in general. Successfully attracting top talent to the Thames Valley is the oxygen which drives business in this region.“
Reed agreed that the region had to get the culture and the infrastructure right, while also becoming more progressive about developing skills, especially interpersonal
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – APRIL 2017
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
