Forbes TheNewCultureOFWork
Forbes TheNewCultureOFWork
OF WORK:
Don’t Get Left Behind
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
SUMMARY
Digital transformation is already redefining the way we live and work. By 2018, IDC
predicts that two-thirds of Global 2000 CEOs will have digital transformation at the
heart of their corporate strategy. The workplace of the future will be a borderless
nexus of cyber-physical systems, machine learning and cognitive assistants.
This digital transformation will touch every part of the organization. It requires an
all-around adoption of new tools, not a limited, one-off solution. The challenge will
be how to put enterprise technology in the hands of every employee in a seamless,
secure and intuitive environment that enhances creativity and collaboration. This
starts with embracing trends in the workplace that foster a culture that makes work
inspiring for everyone.
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INTRODUCTION
1 Hauser, Leslie, Shastri, Neil and Weiss, Reuben. Managing Millennials: Changing Perspectives for a Changing Workforce. Aon Hewitt, October, 2016: http://respond.
aonhewitt.com/managing_millennials_whitepaper
2 Kaku, Michio. Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100. Allen Lane. May, 2011: http://knopfdoubleday.
com/2011/03/14/your-cell-phone/
3 CareerBuilder’s survey with Harris Poll, published April, 2017, found that 55% of employers saw their business impacted negatively due to extended job vacancies, 45%
reported loss in productivity, and 29% were unable to grow their business because they could not hire the workers they needed.
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FOSTERING CREATIVIT Y IN THE ERA
OF THE AUGMENTED HUMAN
Automation means a lot of routine work is disappearing, says WATCH TOM DAVENPORT
George Westerman, principal research scientist at the MIT DISCUSS HIS
Initiative on the Digital Economy. This will open the way to RESEARCH HERE.
focus on innovation and creativity rather than repetitive work.
Imagine salespeople who don’t take orders or fill out expense
forms anymore; they can focus on client relationships instead.
Or manufacturing engineers who can exercise their creativity
to improve products and processes instead of troubleshooting
minor operational blips. Or human resource professionals
who can improve employee engagement and development
instead of pushing papers or managing compliance. “These
new technologies—machine learning, mobility, the Internet of
Things—are enabling new ways of working that were just not
possible before,” says Westerman. “It takes a rethinking, not “If a machine can do the same work
just a tweaking.” for us as it can for our competitor, how
Tom Davenport, professor of information technology and do we add the human creative spark?”
management at Babson College, has studied the role of
automation in wealth management. Robo-advisors are very TOM DAVENPORT, PRESIDENT’S DISTINGUISHED
adept at routine tasks such as tax-loss harvesting and portfolio PROFESSOR OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
rebalancing. But they are not so good with psychology. “The AND MANAGEMENT, BABSON COLLEGE
best system is a hybrid of human and machine that frees advisors
to do what they do best: be a financial coach,” he says.
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The workforce of the future will need to:
• Visualize terabytes of information
• Prioritize tasks
• Model outcomes
• Innovate and create at a rate never before imagined 88%
• Collaborate with colleagues, outside experts
and cognitive systems
4 Engagement and the Global Workplace: Key findings to amplify the performance of people, teams and organizations, May 27, 2016: https://info.steelcase.com/global-employee-
engagement-workplace-report?utm_campaign=2016-WPR-Campaign-En&utm_medium=Print&utm_source=Ad#engagement.
5 Knight, Will. “How Human-Robot Teamwork Will Upend Manufacturing,” MIT Technology Review, September 16, 2014: http://www.technologyreview.com/news/530696/how-human-robot-
teamwork-will-upend-manufacturing/
6 Harnessing Automation for a Future that Works, McKinsey Global Institute, January 2017: http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/digital-disruption/harnessing-automation-for-a-future-that-works
7 Rewriting the rules for the digital age: 2017 Deloitte global human capital trends, 2017: pg. 60, https://dupress.deloitte.com/content/dam/dup-us-en/articles/HCTrends_2017/DUP_Global-
Human-capital-trends_2017.pdf
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THE AGILE SCRUM:
TEAMWORK IN THE DIGITAL ENTERPRISE
8 Goran, Julie, LaBerge, Laura and Srinivasan, Ramesh. “Culture for a digital age,” McKinsey Quarterly, July 2017: http://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/digital-mckinsey/our-insights/
culture-for-a-digital-age
9 Austin, Tom. “Watchlist: Continuing Changes in the Nature of Work, 2010-2020,” Gartner, March 30, 2010: https://www.gartner.com/doc/1331624/overview-watchlist-continuing-changes-nature
10 Ginn, Anne Marie. “The digital workplace calls for a tech overhaul,” European CEO, July 28, 2017: https://www.europeanceo.com/business-and-management/the-digital-workplace-calls-for-
a-tech-overhaul/
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Work used to happen in a linear motion, explains James
Ludwig, vice president of global design and engineering at
Steelcase, the office design company. There was a process
moving from department to department. But these days
he sees a move toward “radical collaboration,” with teams
huddling around work in a highly collaborative effort, trying to
have as many iterations as possible in a given timeframe. “This
only works if you have everyone collaborating as if under one THE CYBER-PHYSICAL
roof,” he explains. “And technology takes the roof off.” Collaboration is not just for humans anymore.
More of us will be collaborating with robots,
To be effective, collaboration tools must be intuitive,
digital assistants and artificial intelligence
interoperable, secure and easily provisioned as needed. And
to do our jobs effectively in the future.
they must work in any necessary environment.
Factory workers are already training robots
and working alongside them. The trucking
industry is introducing automation in a way that
COLL ABORATION complements human drivers. For any producer,
ESSENTIALS FOR THE digital design tools eliminate the need to ship
DIGITAL ENTERPRISE physical prototypes back and forth, reducing
product development time substantially.
Collaboration tools will need to develop around
these cyber-physical systems.
THE UNIVERSAL
The breathtaking velocity of change
1 Providing physical and digital spaces across the businesslandscape is upending
for teams to gather and create business models and driving collaboration
across industries and functions. Think of
2 Connecting everyone with the extraordinary partnerships between
company-wide communities
ride-sharing tech startups and the Big
Giving people flexibility and Three automakers in Detroit. Or Microsoft’s
3 ownership in how they work together surprising partnership with Amazon to
integrate their Cortana and Alexa digital
Addressing the needs of every assistants.11 Or Salesforce.com’s partnership
4 group across different projects and with Philips Healthcare to build a collaboration
diverse working styles platform for doctors and patients.12 To remain
Opening communication channels agile in the face of convergence, collaboration
5 throughout the organization, from tools need to work in a wide universe of
the frontline to the CEO potential partnerships.
11 Alexa Meet Cortana, Cortana Meet Alexa: Amazon and Microsoft collaborate to help Alexa and Cortana talk to each other, August 30, 2017: http://www.businesswire.com/news/
home/20170830005357/en/
12 World Economic Forum. Digital Transformation of Industries: Digital Enterprise, Jan. 2016: pg. 25: https://www.weforum.org/reports/digital-transformation-of-industries
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THE INTEGRATED PL ATFORM: ENABLING
THE ANY TIME, ANY WHERE WORKFORCE
Our digital experience is distributed. It no longer lives on one machine; it travels with us. We expect it to work on
every device we touch, and in the very near future, we will be interacting with sensors and intelligent systems. Users
and systems will have less tolerance for delays and breakdowns. At the same time, the information from sensors
and cameras will create more information than a human can process at one time. Embracing this rich telemetry,
experiencing the advantages of machine learning
and enabling human creativity are all part of the
digital transformation now underway.
For machine intelligence to work optimally, one of the biggest issues is cleaning up messy legacy technology and
process platforms, says MIT’s Westerman. “It’s really difficult to streamline your operations and make them agile and
efficient if you don’t have visibility straight through your business processes,” he explains.
This is a challenge for anyone responsible for IT in a large enterprise. How do you transform legacy systems, integrate
device management, and maintain data security and integrity all while keeping end-users not only productive but
creative? From the C-suite to individual users, digital transformation is as much about a cultural shift as it is about
technology. “Thinking about this as a technology problem is the wrong way to start,” says Westerman. “You want to
think about how you can enhance your customer experience or how you can improve your operations or how you can
enable new ways of working, and then you find the right technologies to make that happen,” he explains.
13 Kane, Gerald. “Digital Transformation is a Misnomer.” MIT-Sloan Management Review August 7, 2017: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/digital-transformation-is-a-misnomer/
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An integrated device management system can save money on hardware and applications with devices and applications
that inspire creativity and collaboration. But more than that, an integrated system can make the data flow from all
relevant sources easier to see and easier to secure.
INTEGRATED IT
MANAGMENT CHECKLIST
INTELLIGENCE
Artificial intelligence will be built into much of
our technology—from autonomous vehicles
to construction equipment to factory controls
to hospital systems.
SECURIT Y
Emerging security technologies such as
containerization can protect enterprise data
and applications if a device is lost or stolen.
1 Self-service deployment
2 Cloud-based management
and support
THE EDGE
Much of the computing that happens in the 3 Predictable,
cloud now will be moved closer to the device unified updates
or machine itself—the edge of the cloud.
Think of an autonomous vehicle. The delay 4 Rich telemetry
or latency of processing every sensory input
would mean very slow reaction times—far
too slow to be safe on the road. 5 Reduced costs
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SECURIT Y FIRST: PROTECTION
IN THE BORDERLESS ENTERPRISE
For example, if a user logs on from a potentially insecure location, the system can implement security protocols by identifying
the device, the user, the location and the network a user is connected to. It is also possible to run analytics about a particular
network and to determine where a user is relative to other users in the area. Rather than rely on user compliance, such a
system can let users work as safely as possible wherever they are. Forrester Research calls this a “zero-trust security model”
that combines network visibility and analysis with maintaining productivity.
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and AI bring a big potential benefit to security, says Ponemon. Companies are already investing in user-behavior analytics
that can pinpoint unusual activity or negligent practices. “But most companies lack the resources and skilled people to
chase down every potential problem before it’s too late,” he says. “We can’t afford to hunt down potential problems only
to find out we’re wrong,” he adds. Advanced analytics and AI can help identify and prioritize the vulnerabilities that need
immediate attention. At the same time, complying with tightening regulations in every jurisdiction promises to become
increasingly complex—and expensive. Compliance will need to be automated to be effective.
• Protect applications,
data and devices
• Build cognitive
capabilities to help
prioritize potential
vulnerabilities and
security lapses
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CONCLUSION
“GLOBAL WORKFORCE:
THE NEW CULTURE OF WORK”
READ MORE ABOUT THE GLOBAL WORKFORCE: THE NEW CULTURE OF WORK HERE:
https://resources.office.com/en-us-landing-Modern-Workplace-EP402-Video.html
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Forbes Insights and Microsoft would like to thank the following individuals for their time and expertise.
• George Westerman, Principal Research Scientist, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy
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