Maureen Conners is a director of Fashion Incu- bator San Francisco at Macy’s Union Square and former director of Deckers Brands. She advises com- panies about the best use of new technologies for global growth. She has helped launch new products at Gillette, Levi Strauss, and Mattel.
Will your next board member be a robot? Probably not. But we are all living in an era of unprece- dented disruption and innovation that is driving the exponential growth of game-changing tech- nologies. Some call it the Digital Revolution or the Fourth Indus- trial Revolution, names that were coined to reflect that there have rarely been so many disruptive ad- vances in technology happening at the same time. New technolo- gies, such as self-driving vehicles, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and voice ac- tivation, are being adopted by businesses and consumers alike. Visionary CEOs and directors are realizing that these technologies present new ways to build global businesses.
Prudent directors and execu- tives are looking to become better versed in cutting-edge technolo- gies-including how major new technologies might be used in conjunction with other break- throughs. Unique combinations of technologies have the poten- tial to create totally new business categories. For example, the ad- vent of the smartphone-which combined the features of a cell phone with a digital camera and other hardware-spurred the growth of social media and the success of Facebook, Twitter, In- stagram, Snapchat, and others.
Smartphones revolutionized the opportunities for sharing and created other industries as by- products.
New technologies will continue to impact global corporate strategies. CEOs and directors should develop new skills and be even more open-minded and visionary about what is possible. They must anticipate techno- logical innovation and identify potential competitive advantages for their companies.
Suggestions for Action
1. Create a technology learning plan.
Applied across and at all levels of the organization, a technology learning plan can help your business stay competi- tive. New ways of thinking about future competition, strategy, and business models are critical. Companies that do not attempt to understand new technologies and integrate that knowledge into strategy development will contin- ue to be disrupted. Establishing a technology learning plan will also help companies compete for the talent required to execute the digital strategy.
Workers across the organiza- tion need to be able to learn quickly, integrate disparate piec- es of information, and figure out their meaning. As such, lifelong learning will be an important part of the culture and values of companies going forward. We are all learning the right questions to ask to prepare for the world of the future-and directors are impor- tant in that chain of curiosity.
2. Assess advanced technologies and their potential impact on your business.
The board should encourage management to develop scenarios outlining how the company will react to relevant innovations in the fol- lowing technologies. The board and the CEO should discuss how the company might invest in and test new technologies, as well as how to develop strategic alliances that could be beneficial.
- Artificial intelligence (AI). AI will likely have profound, pos- itive impacts on most industries. Al could enable companies to better anticipate customer needs, make more accurate diagnoses of health issues, and create more efficient supply chains, among other applications. Solutions al- ready in the marketplace include Medtronic, which is using Al to help improve the daily man- agement of diabetes, and IBM Watson, which Under Armour is using to provide customized sug- gestions for improved health and fitness to its customers.
- Virtual reality (VR). Com- panies are experimenting with a variety of VR applications.