“Who innovates, begins to lose, who does
not innovate, ends up losing”. Guillermo Beuchat
According to Carmen Cuesta from BBVA
Research, the information age began in the 50´s,
with the entry into operation of the first computers, which started the change
from analog to digital.
However, only until the last two
decades the radical changes brought by information and communication
technologies have taken place and brought to our society a true industrial
revolution.
According to the Organization for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the digital economy is defined as
the result of a process of transformation triggered by Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT). This revolution made technologies cheaper and
broadly standardized them, improving business processes and driving innovation
in all sectors of the economy (OECD, 2015).
The impact of digital revolution on
the world economy is really relevant considering that in the G-20 countries the
digital economy was expected to generate 4.2
trillion dollars by 2016. In Europe, it could contribute 4% of GDP, in Colombia
6.12% and in the United States already represents 6% of GDP. (Towards a
measurement of the Digital Economy in Colombia, August 2016).
On this occasion, instead of
referring to the economic fact itself, I´m going to point out the impact it has
on economically active people. At the beginning of 2016, the World Economic
Forum estimated that seven million jobs will be lost in the fifteen largest
countries in the world before 2020. This phenomenon is motivated by automation,
disintermediation and the redundancy of tasks and processes.
Nevertheless the creation of new
jobs will also take place, especially in more technical and specialized
professions such as mathematics, computational engineering and technology
systems architecture.
Clearly, not all professionals
will survive this natural selection motivated by the fourth industrial
revolution, therefore it is of vital relevance to illustrate the skills and training
that will be decisive in this new work context.
Nowadays we are experiencing a
rapid technological change that dramatically affects the traditional business
models, therefore the market will require experts in analytics, artificial
intelligence, automation, virtual reality, Big Data, Data Mining; among others.
Technicians in computer
technology, specialists in analytics, software developers, philosophers, pure
mathematicians; will play a leading role in the digital age. We are going to
witness a phenomenon that can be called “The Nerds revenge". These
professionals will appear on the scene as the great privileged that all
companies want to have. Those formerly discriminated and victims of bullying, will be considered as the new owners of the work
scenarios. Far from being despised characters, will become a pride to which all
want to belong and just a few will be accepted.
On the other hand, under these
new circumstances competencies and skills such as flexibility will be highly appreciated.
Professionals that handle change well and that are able to perform
different functions and tasks will be highly appreciated. The market requires
workers able to either be leaders or member of specific projects, who do not
have difficulties with moving to different countries and adapting easily and
quickly to different types of cultures.
Likewise,
the ability and willingness to learn and unlearn will be crucial in the
digital age. Technology and business models continuously change, and if
individuals are not in a continuous learning process, the relevance of the
company´s value proposition can be destroyed in the blink of an eye.
Strategic thinking,
communication, transformational leadership, emotional intelligence, and negotiating
skills will be soft skills that must be cultivated in order to fit in the
fourth industrial revolution.
As we can see the digital economy
is only a topic of value generation, economic development and competitiveness,
to make it a reality in our companies and our countries it is vital to have
technically trained professionals with the necessary skills in order to adapt to
a very competitive market, which will leave behind countries, organizations and
of course a large number of individuals.
You're welcome to be part of this
exciting world, however it's
up to you.
Oscar Javier Jiménez
Yepes
MBA Universidad Javeriana
Twitter: @Inntegrity8
Facebook: Inntegrity onestopsite
Mail:
jimenez.oscar@javeriana.edu.co
Find below the link of the Spanish
version of this article
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7667782876541115080#editor/target=post;postID=7244217696876203880;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postnam
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