How Emerging Tech Strengthens Tomorrow’s Competitiveness with Purpose

Juergen Mueller
Aug 24, 2017 · 4 min read

Some would argue that technologies like deep learning, natural language processing or blockchain represent untapped opportunities for developing new products that every customer wants. But from my perspective, the even greater gain is found in changing how people work, how businesses innovate, and how customers are served in ways never before thought possible.

Take, for example, how these emerging technologies and their behind-the-scenes role transform the standard definition of work. Thanks to a steady stream of statistics and news headlines crossing our social feeds and mobile devices on a daily basis, we’re all aware that the workplace of the future will look different from today (e.g. a much closer collaboration between humans and machines). But even when some job requirements change in the future — particularly around routine tasks, new technologies will allow people to focus on meaningful, purposeful work.

Bringing purpose to the future of work

Today, people often still have to fulfill tedious, repetitive tasks in their workplaces. For instance, recruiters manually go through hundreds of thousands of CVs to find the best job candidate for an open position. Or professionals working in financial service centers who often still manually match invoices with incoming payments. Or employees who manually type data into software systems to fulfill specific processes. All of these are not necessarily tasks that employees would describe as meaningful or valuable. It’s nothing they want to do, but — somehow — it has to be done.

Workers of all generations and backgrounds want opportunities that allow them to make a difference — from contributing directly to the success and growth of a business to igniting a sweeping change for the common good of local and global communities. According to a recent study conducted by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM), 29% of surveyed employees cited meaningful work as a reason to stay in their current organization — ranking higher than challenging work, beneficial supervisor relationships, low workplace stress, and career advancement or training.

Emerging technologies like machine learning or conversational artificial intelligence will help create the space to make such a difference, to focus on the meaningful responsibilities. Instead of manually handling these business processes, employees will be supported by machines, which take over the cumbersome tasks. This will happen in a beautiful symbiosis as we see it in well-designed manufacturing plants. Employees’ abilities are amplified by technology. For example, they will focus on dealing with complex challenges and unexpected situations through human creativity. Moreover, employees will be able to interact with software in a much more convenient and efficient way, through voice and chat. Already today, people increasingly get used to having voice-based digital assistants like Apple’s Siri or Amazon’s Alexa at home or even in their pocket. They also use text messengers like WhatsApp, iMessage, WeChat or Facebook Messenger to exchange documents, pictures, location information, and even cash. Applying these capabilities to the enterprise context will allow employees to significantly increase productivity and — most importantly — to save time. Time that employees can use to focus on work that is purposeful and satisfying to them and that also has more impact for businesses.

Becoming purpose-led

In fact, bringing more purpose to the future of work has very positive implications for businesses: As research shows, employees are 2.8 times more likely to stay with an organization that is purpose-driven (The Energy Project and Harvard Business Review 2014). But it has also other important competitive advantages for companies to align every element of their business in a purpose-driven way: Purpose-led companies outperformed the S&P 500 by 10 times between 1996 and 2014 (Raj Sisodia, Firms of Endearment, 2007), they stand out with a 75% customer retention rate, and are perceived by 89% of clients as to deliver the highest quality products and services (EY 2016).

Becoming purpose-led is a key differentiator. It strengthens your tomorrow’s competitiveness significantly. It embraces having a clear reason for being, and fostering a level of transparency that allows all employees to understand how they each contribute to the company’s success. It’s about a culture that supports self-direction, collaborative teams, transparency, and accountability — fueled by trust. Where employees are seen as value contributors, customers are advocates, and goals embrace the triple bottom line — economy, society, and environment.

I am convinced that this is a natural consequence of our transformation from the industrial age into the information age. Being purpose-led will be a main differentiator for organizations, leading to much greater employee satisfaction and driving the success and stability for the organization and the business at large.

For more on how technology is shaping the future of work, feel free to register for my webcast “Evolve. How Emerging Technologies are Transforming Business” on September 7. Also look forward to seeing you on twitter.


Originally published at www.digitalistmag.com.

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Juergen Mueller

Written by

CTO and Executive Board Member @SAP. Dedicated to pioneer new markets, disruptive technologies. Triathlete. Soccer enthusiast.

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