How to lead a tech giant during the techlash?
I recently spoke to Brad Smith, the President of Microsoft. He’s seen the company through incredible transformations since 1993 when he first joined the company. Last year, Brad co-authored a book with Carol Ann Browne called Tools and Weapons about the promises and perils of digital technologies. In our conversation, we tackle the question of technology regulation and draw from Brad's wealth of experience leading a technology giant during the techlash.
?? Listen to the full conversation on your favorite podcast platform.
The tech industry has gone unregulated for too long
Brad Smith: "I was in a meeting that took place at the White House in December of 2013. About fifteen tech leaders were invited to that meeting with President Obama and Vice President Biden at the White House. And I've always found it fascinating that there was a moment during this meeting when around the table, all of us from the tech sector were really making the case to President Obama to pursue surveillance reform in the United States.
And he listened and in many ways he was responsive. He was clearly very thoughtful. And then he looked around the table and he said: "I have a suspicion that there will come a day when the guns will turn and all of this pressure that you all are putting on the government to change the way it uses people's information will be pressure put on the tech sector itself." And sitting there on that December day I thought it was a valid point at the time. I was actually surprised it took five years for the guns to turn.
Technology is global in a way that few other previous forces in human history have been
?Brad points out that there have been two major inflection points around technology in the last decade; one in 2013, with the Edward Snowden revelations, which was about government access to citizens' data, and what governments were doing with it. The other is the Cambridge Analytica scandal in 2018, when customers became concerned about what private companies could do with their data. Every kind of technology that’s been invented has been viewed as a complication in its own time. As these challenges span national borders, we see more complex issues emerging.
Corporations can’t wait for governments to regulate technology—they have to step up
Brad says at one point during our conversation, that no product, technology or company should be above the law. It’s unrealistic to expect countries all around the world to create and enshrine equal regulation around the technology. This puts companies into the spotlight: they need to step up to define the right principles and act accordingly. It needs to be voluntary, too, because companies and governments both have to be actively involved in this process. Ultimately, we need multi-stakeholder solutions to current problems and debates which are genuinely global.
Listen to my full conversation with Brad Smith, right here.