Disruption, Digitalization and Data

As part of SDG Impact’s Prosper with Purpose webinar series, in an insightful discussion titled “Disruption, Digitalization and Data,” our guest speaker, Dr Usama Fayyad, was generous with his insights and advice in navigating these times of accelerated digitalization. Some of the key learnings are below:

Change is Here to Stay - Accept it and Embrace it

• Biggest mistake companies can do is to think we just need to wait this out and then it is business as usual. 
• Changes being brought about by the pandemic are fundamental and more permanent than many imagine.
• The lockdown experienced in many parts of the world has given people and companies a first hand lesson on the importance of digitalization for resilience in all fields.
• Sudden change comes with built-in opportunities. It is up to us to determine how we react to turn these opportunities into benefits for society. 

Going Digital

• Digitalization has taken a huge leap forward out of necessity. 
• Let go of the notion that you need to know what you have to do from the onset, there are many unknowns as you go digital.
• The waterfall approach to digitalization is too slow; design, plan, execute, test, launch. By the time you are done the world has changed. The evolution is too fast.
• Go agile. Approach digitalization projects in steps, and with each step/ each iteration, adapt approach as needed. 

Data is your Eyes and Ears

• Avoid being blind to behavior and customer interaction as you digitize. Whilst digitalization allows you to scale your customers, it does mean losing human-to-human interaction. 
• The economy has evolved from an economy of transactions to an economy of interactions. The more data you measure about these interactions, the better you are able to understand your business. It helps explain the context, create the content that is relevant and predict what is needed.
• Plan for the data from the beginning of your digitalization process. Learn new ways of measurement and new ways of analyzing the data.

Be Relevant to the New Reality

• There will be huge ramifications in terms of shifting the kinds of skills and types of jobs that will survive, prosper and grow beyond this transformation.
• Many jobs will get replaced at an accelerated pace because of this accelerated digitalization.
• Layoffs are inevitable as companies realize they don’t need their full teams and as companies scramble to cut costs.
• 20-30% of the jobs that existed pre-Covid will exist no more.
• Huge demand world-wide for many technical roles such as data scientists and cyber security specialists. Countries that are able to re-skill their people fast stand to benefit from this opportunity.
• This requires collaboration between academia, policy makers and the private sector to re-skill people to be relevant to the new reality.

The Startup Opportunity

• Startups we have the advantage of speed, agility and innovation. Think how do I use that to my advantage. 
• This new reality comes with great opportunity if we embrace the change, if we are to adapt, if we identify the new areas of demand and if we shape ourselves to respond to the change.
• The larger companies and governments also need to adapt to the change, who better to help them adapt than the startups working on relevant solutions.

Data Monitoring Won’t Go Away

• In normal circumstances, people are converging to idea that it is ok for government and companies to record behavior. The ownership and the ability to utilize those behaviors though falls in the hands of the users/ the consumers/ the people who actually generate the data. 
• We will see a new generation of companies that will evolve to help capture and protect that data and allow the consumer to benefit from it whenever it is used. 
• Just like we have banking in money, we will have banking in information.
• In states of emergency, the first victim is always the notion of data privacy. Post emergency, we need to think how to take away the temporary emergency measures that are used as an excuse to takeover a lot of this data that should be private.

Allow for the New Directions to Take place

In times of change, government needs to relax certain rules, allow more freedoms, and then go back and legislate and figure out how to regulate once things take off. 

A warm thank you to Dr Usama Fayyad for sharing his insights with our audience and Reem Khouri for moderating the conversation.

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