My name is Euan Davis. This is Frida we've just done a culture breakfast
and it was real interesting actually to hear what the audience was saying. I was
really interested in your research. Perhaps you can give a a lowdown on what
your research has been, because it really does key into these issues I think
around technology and people. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I'll be happy to... so... yes, I'm
leading a research project on the digitalization of expertise and the main
question of this product is what happens with experts in organizations when more
and more other tasks can be automated or replaced by an AI solution. So we're
really looking into different kinds of internal work processes are changing,
need for new competences of course and the cultural changes that are needed to
really make this happen to transform. Yes, huge... I mean in your conversation of
the clients how are they beginning to tackle this because it's huge. In
our own breakfast this morning, you talked about this executive class
which is on a track to partnership and they're really resistant to some of
these tools and technologies. How are some of their leaders reacting to those
things? Yeah... I think there was quite surprising finding from the research and
the leaders were surprised themselves and just to share an anecdote with you
one of the partners of a leading firm in professional service industry said that
he invited all the partners for individual chats so where's the future,
what should we do, how can we remain relevant in digitalization etc what
should we do and I said well one a group of people were sitting like this... all the
time they just didn't want to engage and as I said these are the people who are
in partner-track... the junior partners who are played exactly by the rules so far
and are so close to get there to get a go but now the rules of the games are
changing and they don't have the time both technical skills that the juniors
have and don't have the experience and also the platform to just sort of
not lie back but sit back a little bit as it seniors can do and say okay we
need to change, we need to work in new ways and that's okay. So I think this
group of people are super dedicated to the companies...well it's really important
that we take care of this group of people to make sure that they feel
that I can still contribute and what I do counts at this company, even
though we're transforming. That's really interesting. So what do you think is gonna
happen to that group because I think you're right that they are key to
unlocking how say for example a professional company, your professional
services company operates. How in your discussions with senior leaders, how are
they beginning to communicate and try and support that group forward. So I
think one of the key issues here is about the performance measurement... the
metrics that you apply in the organization and also of course the
culture. What kind of expertise and skills are they valuing highly in this
organization and if you start to change that a little bit... that also changed the
behavior and attitudes of this group of people because then you have got new
rules to play after so to say. So if you are rewarded for learning more about new
technologies for example or engaging a service innovation process innovation
then that is going to sort of nudge them into that kind of behavior and I also
think it's very important to reduce fear. I'm pleased of course but especially in
this group that you're not going to be bypassed by these young people because
they're more digital native but you still have an important role to play in
this organization... we are going to help you to to do that nice way. No, I think
what was really interesting from your presentation which can be found online is you talked
about the pipeline of talent and the pipeline of people coming
through and in the other expert views we had as well, they were talking about how
problematic it was finding people that wanted to join a ...I hate to say... a
legacy company as opposed to you know a Spotify or a digitally invented company.
Is that something that your research has unpacked or begun to look at as well?
Yeah... absolutely this is a big challenge for most companies and also within
the professional service industry trying to attract for example data scientists
or data analysts or whatever it is programmers. So what we can see here is
that one way of doing it is to just sort of widen the scope and not go for those
who have a large or huge background or a very long education but
picking people directly from school who have a strong passion for programming
for technology and so on and then give them on-the-job training
inside the professional service firm. They might be little bit easier to
attract but still have technological insights and expertise that is really
valuable. The fact that things are changing so quickly and the skills that
people need are almost a moving target and it's difficult to know where to
land and say this is what you need to focus on and it was
interesting I don't know if you have a perspective on this but it was real
interesting to hear about this... I mean everyone talked about startups at
today's event. So we're talking about work culture and for me the big learning
was you need to figure out how to plug this energy at the edge of the business
into the heart of the business and you need all new organizational mechanisms
to do it and we heard from SEB and very interesting kind of initiatives which
felt very top-down... which felt right but they felt top-down, then there was Sandvik
that had a very bottom-up approach with this portal so I'm kind of curious
to sort of see what you felt when you saw that as well. Yeah I
think you're right... it's really interesting to see these different
directions that it can take and I do think it's really important as was
mentioned here they at the Snapshot to really be sort of in tune with or
listen to the startups what's happening out there
but then I think also as part of the research project and running we're also
talking to these startups. So what kind of role do they see or envision for
themselves and surprisingly most of them are not saying that while we are at the
new competitors or the disruptors or industry, rather they really see them as
a complement, as a partner to into these larger companies. So I think there is a
strong willingness to collaborate across the organizational boundaries which i
think is... but also puts new demands leaders to be able to organize with a
kind of collaboration. I listened to the startups or listen to the hubs or
whatever you want to... See your work actually looks at that.. doesn't it? Look
at organizational models and processes and so on can you give us any a flavor
of that as a release maybe to culture and how that's beginning to
change. Yeah, yes I think one interesting group that has spoke about this morning
is the sort of the translators inside companies... people are have a good
knowledge both our technology and business or the kind of business that the
company is running and they can actually act as a bridge between different groups
of people inside a company but also a bridge between the company and its
partners or it could be startups could be other types of partnerships that we
see. But just they're trying to educate or train or and also keep these kind of
people is so important and we can see that some companies they're creating
platforms and also internal training courses where people with for example a
business background or background within law are getting trained by the technical
experts and vice versa so that both groups get a feeling for the other ones.
And quite connecting the dots isn't it between... I mean interesting enough I just
came from Zurich where we had a hackathon and it was fascinating to sort
of see how this hackathon was run and how these startups were engaged and also
how potentially disruptive it could be for not just us but for our clients and
prospects and so on and I almost think what I have to do is try and translate
it in a way which doesn't scare the senior leadership because if you're
going in to say I'm really sorry but your business is toast you know it's
not going to gonna fly but you always have to think about how you message and
make it work and think about maybe some of those partnership approaches to get
it done I think if there's one big learning for me about culture it's
thinking about making culture shared and actually thinking about bringing
together a broader field of providers, people, leaders, startups, whatever trying
to sort of think about how you can sort of create these new mind maps
between different organizations and so on and it's quite interesting we're talking about
what you think signpost of a good culture is and a healthy culture and I
think it's aspects like that... being open to some
the fresh ideas at the edge of the business. I look forward to reading your
research. I know it's a three-year project.. is that right? Yes, right. So when
will the results be available or when can we have a look? Well... research is a
slow business but we're working on it then we are producing different types of
papers and articles and so on so yeah the project ends in 2020, but we're going
to have lots of information come out. I think it's very timely and if you take
that piece of research alongside what we've been writing on culture I think
it's very interesting how you bring those two pieces together... so, thank you.
Appreciate your time. Thank you.