2016 EMERGING ISSUES

Technology

types

Concerns

Cybersecurity

Digital protectionism

Rise of digital giants #

Loss of jobs #

maybe not
Commoditisation of machine-generated expertise opens doors for SMEs

"PhD APIs" for complex tasks; APIs as middle mgmt, Uber uses API to dispatch workers

Automation in expertise-based sectors,
eg. Lex Machina, a legal analytics software

Supports growth in freelancers - freed from mundane tasks, can use skills more productivity elsewhere #

Asset-light but very productive; 12X more profitable than others, but hires little (0.5% of US workforce)

More tech coys moving into adjacent industries, growing clout, eg. Tencent launched China's first online bank, WeBank, to leverage data from WeChat

Geographically barriers are breaking done, eg. Upwork is a platform that connects freelancers with jobs - 50% customers based in US but only 20% freelancers are there #

2014/5 cyber attacks on large organisation in insurance, telco etc

IoT security not a priority for companies

Wearables being too intrusive for workers, as orgs use them to monitor workers productivity and behaviours

EU single digital market - deepens antitrust investigation into American tech firms (eg. Google, Uber) in Europe

Thai's great firewall - to block info flow from overseas

Digital india - PM Modia sets a net-zero import target for electronics mfg under "Digital India" by 2020

Digital Five - world's first formal cyber alliance formed among 5 small economies in 2015

Wearables #

Cyber attacks go physical, eg. Ukraine energy grid hack

IoT #

Work, Workforce, Wages

Shifting market power

EU

China

Asia

US

Emerging market growing rapidly, competing for attractiveness as location for global HQs

Infrastructure financing struggles

Brexit

"Made in China" 2025 - aggressive localisation of mfg activities

Private owned enterprises leading next Chi capital wave. Since 2010, M&As by POEs increased from 10% to 41% of the overall Chinese overseas M&A deal value

Energy independence? Sheikh vs Shale

Reshoring of mfg operations to US

Innovating innovation

Increasing outward FDI in developing markets, at 16% CAGR from 2011-2014

"One Belt, One Road" in >60 countries to bolster China's trade through financing construction of critical infra and forming new trade networks

Leverage platforms to design and create prototypes, eg. Nascent objects allow developers to use plug-and-play system to assemble modules into products #

Accelerating the Chinese Way - break down complex R&D processes into simpler, modular ones and do concurrent engineering

Tap on smart algorithms to source for solutions to plug R&D process gaps, saving on manpower and time #

Extreme engineering - modular construction methods (build offsite, assemble onsite), eg. Chinese Sanyuan overpass was demolished and rebuilt within 43hrs

Job polarisation across countries

Fluid labour contracts

blurring of lines across tasks, jobs, coys, sectors

Need for fluid and unbundled education system

Unbundling of work - freelancer issues

requires new forms of social interactions

protection and insurance considerations

"Winner-takes-all" - talent is concentrated in top 1% of coys #

Income security/insecurty

No more annual pay raise? GE and Gap are scraping it because they think it is ineffective to drive performance

Universal basic income? if tech succeeds in removing jobs, UBL can allow citizens to meet basic needs

Opportunity to enable a circular economy?

Crowdfunding for infra?

executives freed up to focus on tasks that utlilise creativity and emotion

Blockchain # #

"Smart contracts" that execute themselves automatically under the right circumstances

Protects records, eg. Everledger for luxury goods

Overcome centralised monopolies # #