As we enter a new golden age of technological innovation, nurturing talent will become more critical, according to the former chairman of Alphabet.

With his decades of experience in Silicon Valley, Eric Schmidt is regularly tapped for his views on the future of technology and how the latest disruptive innovations in areas such as artificial intelligence could shape the world. Yet he’s quick to point out that it’s the people behind the technology who make the difference, a sentiment he admits is oft repeated yet still somehow underestimated. Developing young talent into the inventors and leaders of tomorrow is a major focus of Schmidt’s philanthropic efforts—and Rise, a new joint initiative between Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust, embodies that mission.

At the recent McKinsey BLINK Conference in the United Kingdom, Schmidt spoke about the dizzying speed of disruption, as well as how to nurture and position people to harness technological dynamism for the greater good of organizations and society. An edited version of his remarks follows.

Talent: Where incredible meets profound

We’re at the beginning of another golden age. When I think about the next big tech innovations, I like to distinguish between those that are incredible and those that are profound. Self-driving cars could be incredible. They can potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives. But new technologies that allow a paradigm shift in the way we solve problems would be profound. Many of today’s toughest problems exist because we are at the limit of what we can understand.

In synthetic biology, for example, we’re only just beginning to understand how to make the changes that are necessary to stop and start biological processes that are beneficial to humans, animals, and plants. That field is about to explode.

When it comes to climate change, batteries look like they might be part of the answer, in combination with solar and wind. Developing longer-lasting organic batteries, however, requires a better understanding of their material properties.

Wouldn’t you like to have a drug that would cure whatever disease you have? The easiest way to achieve that is with drugs that figure out how to build the correct protein in your body to stop a virus from replicating.

All this progress is underway, thanks largely to techniques in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and generative design. Collectively, these technologies will allow the discovery of new solutions to important problems at a rate we’ve never seen before.

But when I think about how we’re going to solve the problems ahead of us, the answer is people. We need to acknowledge how powerful people are, particularly those who are willing to take risks and drive societal change. Exceptional people are the ones who change society. They’re just born different and are insanely capable—and they’re rare. Yet they don’t show up just in the elite organizations or the cities of the world. People confuse elite with exceptional; the elite are self-proclaimed, while the exceptional are identified. Thanks to the internet and the fact that about half the people in the world have a smartphone, we can reach these people in a way we couldn’t before.

Competition: Will people win over data?

Disruption is not going to slow down. If you entered a market last week, you have disproportionally greater economic gains than if you entered this week. One of the rules in my world is that it’s hard to catch up, and even harder to get ahead, once you fall behind. Time and again today, we see industries that were relatively static that are now drastically changed by digitization and the reimagining of their products. Winning companies are building software platforms, they’re interacting with customers online. There’s a proliferation of innovation and new design techniques, which some industries have been slow to take advantage of, that either a traditional company or new entrant can utilize to seize the moment and reimagine products or entire industries. You see finance being reimagined, even fashion. In the next ten years, we will likely see this happen to most everything companies do.

But, again, people are the answer. If you care about winning, you want to make sure you provide them with the right coaching and structure and ensure plenty of diversity. Throughout my entire career, I’ve always had the opportunity to work with people exceptionally smarter than I and to help them be successful. We are producing a new generation that’s going to be smarter than previous ones, because its members are growing up in a more sophisticated, digitally native, and intense world. Part of a leader’s job is to be a magnet for such people and to get them to be the best that they can be. Four in ten people in the world are under 25 years old. This next generation is going to change the demographics of the workplace in a profound way. They have enormous energy but lack business experience. Business leaders should embrace being educators and mentors for these people as part of their everyday role. It’s both good for business and personally satisfying. When I look back, people development is probably one of the things I’m most proud of.

There are also studies about innovation that indicate that diversity is critical for driving innovation. With a blend of different points of view, you’re much more likely to get the kind of innovation that pushes things forward. So not only is it morally good to support diversity but it’s also good for your business. The supply of diversity is getting better, even though the pace of change has been frustratingly slower than any of us thought it would be. The proportion of women in computer-science programs historically has been in the area of 18 percent but is set to increase. There are similar gains expected among underrepresented minorities, although at a much lower level.

With the right people, both large and smaller businesses can continue to thrive. There’s an argument I hear all the time: that, in the future, only large companies will exist, because they have access to the most data, and he or she who has all the data has control. While it’s true that centralization in certain situations has provided economic power, it’s much more likely that there are new sources of power. Consider, for example, the power of an online minority to spread misinformation, to make something seem more important.

Further to this point, in artificial intelligence and machine learning, there’s a great deal of research on how to build algorithms using much less data than is currently required. This notion that he or she who has the most data wins is ultimately going to be a temporal phenomenon. I think what we’ll discover is that he or she who has the smartest engineers developing the smartest algorithms is the one who will win.

From handing out salvaged soap to street cleaners, to AI technology for teaching school children quarantined at home, it’s all good

by Marianne Bray and Beh Lih Yi, BusinessDay

Hong Kong/Kuala Lumpur — Handing out soap to street cleaners in Hong Kong might sound like piecemeal work in the battle against coronavirus. But with schools and offices shut in the Chinese-ruled city and across Asia, social enterprises — businesses that seek to do good while making a profit — are rushing to tackle problems from a shortage of face masks to distance learning.

Among them is Soap Cycling, which distributes soap salvaged from Hong Kong hotels to street cleaners to try to maintain public hygiene and stop the virus spreading.

“During a crisis such as the coronavirus situation, people who are already struggling are hit hardest first,” Justen Li, chair of the enterprise set up in 2012, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.

The virus has killed more than 2,800 people and is spreading faster outside China than within, hitting major industries from manufacturing to travel.

With flights being cancelled and factories, restaurants and schools closed in many Asian cities, social enterprises have swung into action.

Hong Kong’s street cleaners, vulnerable to contagion and often seen pushing metal carts through the skyscraper city, approached Li’s staff when they were handing out soap to city-goers in February.

Face mask shortage

“They began asking us for masks,” he said. “The government provides them with masks but they are sweated through in an hour or two. Once they are sweaty, they are not helpful anymore.”

After teaming up with a local partner and activating a network of volunteers, Soap Cycling now provide hygiene kits and masks to about 3,000 of the city’s 21,000 street cleaners.

Other businesses for good are tackling education.

This week, Hong Kong prolonged its suspension of schools until April but with an artificial intelligence )AI) learning platform that can be accessed from tablets or phones at home, more than 12,000 students in China, Hong Kong and Vietnam are continuing to learn.

“When serious disruption occurs, from natural disasters to outbreaks of disease, education has traditionally suffered drastically,” said Priya Lakhani, founder of London-based Century Tech, which offered its product for free to affected students.

Students learn subjects such as maths and science through lessons that are tailored to their levels using AI technology on the platform developed by the social enterprise.

Other social entrepreneurs have sought to address the widespread shortage of face masks.

‘Unsung heroes’

Hong Kong’s Sew On Studio sells face mask kits with fabric made by elderly tailors that residents can assemble themselves at home.

Another Hong Kong firm, Rooftop Republic, which, in normal times, promotes urban farming, has teamed up with a uniform supplier to design washable, eco-friendly masks that workers can slip over surgical masks to wear in humid conditions.

Many respiratory infections, including the Covid-19, are spread in droplets that are released when an infected person coughs or sneezes.

In Singapore, which has seen one of the highest numbers of coronavirus cases outside China, one social enterprise simply encourages people to thank taxi drivers and domestic helpers, who they depend on in their daily lives, via e-cards. A token gesture perhaps but the founder of Emmaus Strategies — which runs programmes on mental well-being — said it is important to pay tribute to these “unsung heroes”.

“There is a lot of social distancing in place and cities are under lockdown to try to curb the spread of the coronavirus,” said James Lim. “But we still can reach people through electronic means to say thank you.” 

Global SME Finance Forum 2020 – Call for Insights

ICSB warmly congratulates and is proud to announce the launch of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) 2020 Global Report.

GEM has been keeping its finger on the pulse of the state of entrepreneurship since 1999, both in terms of the state of the entrepreneurial mindset, motivations, activities, and ambition, and the national framework conditions required to allow entrepreneurship to flourish in an economy. In this, GEM’s “coming of age” 21st year, entrepreneurship is in the spotlight as never before, with multiple governments increasingly focused on putting into place policy frameworks and mechanisms to drive and promote entrepreneurship.

Fifty economies participated in the GEM 2019 Adult Population Survey (APS), including 11 from the Middle East & Africa, eight from Asia & Pacific, eight from Latin America & Caribbean, and 23 from Europe & North America. Five of these economies are classified as low-income level, 12 as middle-income and the rest as high-income. Over 150,000 individuals participated in extended interviews as part of the GEM research in 2019. This is the solid evidence base for the GEM findings that are presented in this report.

An ICSB delegation led by Drs. Alex DeNoble, Jeffrey Alves, and Ayman El Tarabishy attended the launch of the GEM Global Report launch.