What Next

The last few years I have had a ringside view of the changes sweeping through every sector because of the digital technology. My role has given me a closeup of the way digital technology is reshaping every single industry. Every sector from farming and mining to healthcare is going to be reinvented with the digital tech.

Every sector is changing

Chatbots are changing the way customers interact with companies. They are acting as personal assistants, enabling individuals to book flights, order food and much more. Computers are not only defeating humans in Jeopardy, Chess, and Go, they are also helping us find tumors in X-Rays. They are doing it more efficiently than radiologists. Sifting through reams of case laws and court judgments to be able to advise clients is now being done by artificial intelligence. Police are using digital technology to nab criminals. Drones are delivering medicines in places that do not have motorable roads. Search engines like Baidu and Google are making driverless cars. Virtual Reality is in the process of letting us rethink how people learn new skills.

Yet it is a mistake to think that digital is all about technology. It is actually about putting the human being at the center and building the organization around it. Yet like a tsunami it will sweep through organizations, employees, and jobs; destroying what was familiar. There will be new employment models, new opportunities, and new skills will be in demand. The familiar career paths we have seen in the analog world will vanish.

Education will not change as fast

Educational institutions will find it increasingly difficult to keep up with these changes. India needs to create almost a million jobs a year. My book The Digital Tsunami talks about the new world and the opportunities it will throw open. But who will introduce the youth of India to the new paradigm? In India, there is no middle class in education. There are a few elite institutions and then there are the rest. Higher education is in urgent need to getting revamped to keep our youth employable.

Someone told me that the smaller towns are keeping Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal very busy. It is true that eCommerce is growing in the smaller towns, but the consumers there are not buying books. Who will point them towards the new career options possible? Who will tell them that expertise and not degrees will matter more. Who will tell them that being able to solve problems in teams will be far more important because problems have become far too complex for an individual to solve.

If only organizations or individuals would donate copies of the book to the educational institutions in the smaller towns of India, I would, in turn, spend time talking to the students about the new rules. I can bring my years of experience in coaching CXOs and business leaders to the colleges and institutes that I would not have had a chance to connect with. I am ready. Any takers?

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Pre-order The Digital Tsunami (releasing 10th Oct 2016)

First written for The Times of India blog Oct 2, 2016

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