As an executive who has spent the last twenty years promoting the promise of enterprise software, I find myself pondering the following question: Is technology failing us? It is a valid question, and one that weighs heavy on my mind as I look to the future.
The recent US elections, BREXIT, and many other movements globally show a growing divide between those who have benefited from the "progress" that technology has driven and those left behind - the so called "digital divide."
There are officially more mobile devices than people in the world. And a growing part of our human population is connected to the Internet.
China for example, is in the midst of a significant digital transformation. The Chinese government is making massive investments in the building blocks of the Internet economy such as cloud computing, wireless communications, new digital platforms and the Internet of Things. That's progress. Yet for every step we have taken forward, we have fallen a few back.
While Internet usage in China has grown tremendously and given way to an e-commerce boom, user rates remain relatively low, especially in rural areas. In fact, studies have shown that many parts of rural China are being left behind while urban areas reap the benefits of technology. Specifically, according to China Internet Watch, 72 percent of the population living in urban areas of China have Internet access, compared to only 28 percent of those living in rural areas.
What's more, this digital divide has left people in many countries unemployed - despite the shortage of workers among tech companies. The latest advances in technology like machine learning, artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles are making us more intelligent and efficient by augmenting human skills. But in many cases, they are displacing workers. And the profits of a select few technology companies dwarf the profitability of the rest, as those leading the massive change that technology is driving reap the greatest rewards.
Successful enterprises today - from industrial to retail - are embracing a digital future and pursuing initiatives to make the world a better place, like digital farming and sustainability initiatives. But to really achieve this, companies must also be cautious of the unintended consequences that disruptive innovation can create.
In the spirit of creating a more equal society, we have inadvertently created a new digital divide that relates to the ability to capture opportunity and benefit that comes from accessing technology. The goal for every technology company should be to innovate with the purpose of closing this gap. This however, will require new ways of thinking and operating, along with different measures of success. What will these measures look like?
In 2011, the McKinsey Global Institute cited that the "Internet accounted for 21 percent of the GDP growth in mature economies over the past 5 years." GDP measures productivity well, and will further improve as we automate and displace jobs. Perhaps we should be more concerned about statistics that show displaced jobs compared to created jobs and give a more realistic view of the societal impact of technology. At a recent conference, a passionate speaker raised the point that tech companies should move call centers into the mid-west and hire people there rather than to go abroad or invest only in the coast lines.
When thinking about the next big thing and where it will come from, we should look at what is core to our business and how we can leverage it to not only drive game-changing innovations, but to serve a higher purpose.
We live in an age where data is the new currency and allows us to re-imagine our businesses. Companies that harness this data can provide greater transparency and insights into supply chains that enable businesses to know who they are dealing with and ensure they are acting in ethically responsible ways.
For example, technology today has the power to help organizations do more than just look for slavery and forced labor in the supply chain, which has become an increasingly troubling issue in many countries - it can actually help mitigate it. By scouring intelligence from hundreds of global government, business and other data sources, technology makes it possible for corporations to gain completely new levels of visibility into the supply chain and identify areas where they may be exposed to the risk of forced labor and take action to eradicate it.
There are plenty more of examples of how technology can help the world - from green data centers to software that can be used to diagnose patients. In In operating with a higher sense of purpose and making social responsibility part of their everyday agendas, companies can not only do well, but do good.
Technology is a powerful tool. Just like a hammer, it can be used to construct entirely new worlds. But if swung in the wrong direction, it can destroy them. As we look to the future of technology and innovation, we must swing with a purpose so that we can build bridges that close the digital divide and lead the way to promising new realities.