The Technology-Driven World
Today the difference between technology and non-technology companies is no longer exist, every company is now becoming a technology company. The entire business world is applying technology for better efficiency and higher profits. If a company does not use technology, it cannot survive in this technology-driven world.
When companies connect to the Internet, they are no longer an isolated entity but a part of a business network where information flow seamlessly at the speed of the Internet. In this business world; things will be different because the competition is fierce and customers will determine who will succeed and who will not. Today, companies must become service-oriented instead of product oriented, regardless of their field of business. They have to satisfy customers because these people have a choice of who they will buy from and who they will not. In this fast changing world, companies must move quickly to online as the major way to provide products and services. To do that, they need to hire more technological workers to provide support and service to succeed in a growing digital economy.
For example, twenty years ago Amazon was a small online bookseller. Today it is the largest online retailer in the world, selling almost everything. Twenty years ago, Wal-Mart was the largest retail company in the world with several thousand stores in many countries. Whenever Wal-Mart went, it often drives out smaller retail stores that could not compete with its selection and pricing. Wall-Mart represents the old business rule “Bigger is better.” Today Wal-Mart begins to close many stores because customers do not shop in-store anymore but buy things online. In China, Jack Ma opened his online store in 1999 selling just a few things but today Alibaba TMall is the largest online store in China with over 40 million customers visit its website per day, and Jack Ma became one of the richest men in China. In just a few years, million small retail shops in China have to close as more people are buying thing online. A business analyst wrote: “Alibaba TMall means high-quality products, faster services, and better prices than small retail shops where quality is dubious with fake products, contaminated foods, and no guarantee.”
The question is: “What do students need to succeed in this technology-driven world?”
My first advice is to develop knowledge and skills in Information technology areas; selecting a good university and pursue a career in technology. Students must focus on acquiring the technology skills, not just getting a degree. Today, a degree does not guarantee a job anymore, but technology skills do. While this may make some students feel uncomfortable, I believe that with an open mind and a willingness to change, many students will succeed in this technology-driven age.
The second advice is to read more books. In this information age, if you do not read more, know more, and open your mind, you will be left behind. Students must be aware of the technology trends that are happening all over the world. Regardless where you live, you must understand the world outside and where you could develop your competitive advantage. You must understand the basic business rule of supply and demand, revenue, costs, profit, loss, etc. Today, technology becomes an inseparable part of the business everywhere. Technology is impacting everything, from manufacturing, retails to finance, sales or marketing, etc. Having technology skills is a necessity to increase your value to the job market. You must understand the market needs, its limitation, its goals because technology is needed to go beyond the operational efficiency to increase growth and profit.
Today half of the population on earth have smartphones, the market for mobile apps has exploded with over six million apps, but most are just games. Soon mobile apps will be used for business as some economists call this “the Apps Economy.” The future of business is in mobile, not just laptop or tablet. Today 40% of people buy things online using their smartphone. Most advertising companies are moving their works to mobile. Many newspapers are changing their formats to mobile news as more people are reading news via a smartphone instead of a laptop.
When people read the news, watch games, buy things online, there are valuable data available. These data are collected, analyzed and presenting to managers as business intelligence information. For example, a company owner knows how many people are watching their advertising; how does it correlate with the number of sales, thus how effective is their advertising. Today, sales and marketing belong to the Data scientists and Data analytics who know how to collect data and how these data means to the business. Today Business Intelligence, Data Mining, and Data analytics are the most sought after skills all over the world. Understanding what customers want, what they watch, and what they do in the “virtual world” is a special skill that goes into understanding customer preferences so the company can designing and building better products and services.
When the world is fully connected, the interaction between people is becoming more critical. Facebook knows how to capture this special need and develops a social network that allows people to interact with others in a particular way. Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg said: “People go online not just to watching or buying but also for meeting each other.” As more companies are moving quickly into this digital world, they need more technology-skilled workers and demand continues to increase fast.
Many students think information technology is about programming and coding. That is a narrow concept because the world of technology is moving far beyond just writing code. Another important skill is the “User Interface design” (UI or UX) where creativity is the main concept of developing the most appealing user experience. Apple is successful, not because of the function of iPhone, or iPad, but its elegant design and user-friendly experience. When I visited Apple, I am surprised to find that a third of people who work at Apple are artists, not hardware or software engineers. An executive reminded me that Steve Jobs was not a programmer, but an artist in visual arts, calligraphy, and painting. Apple's success is about making technology devices beautiful, elegant and desirable.
In this interconnected world, technology workers do not work in one country but often travel to work in many places, where their skills are in high demand. Having foreign language skills, such as English, will allow them to communicate with others. Most workers understand that technical skills alone are not enough, they also need soft skills to achieve success.
Today technology fields such as Artificial intelligence, robotics and Smart machines (Internet of Things) are emerging to disrupt many workplaces. Soon robots will replace labor workers; the smart machines will automate many office works and make things happen faster and more efficient. But robots must be programmed to do the work, smart machines must follow certain algorithms to speed up office processes, and they need software workers to develop programs for them. As technology is changing fast, professional have to assess their technical skills and adjust to the change. Lifelong learning is no longer a luxury for a few scientist but a necessity for everybody. New skill development is needed to maintain a professional career. The rule of this Information age is: “Lifetime learning and continued training and retraining.”
Today, traditional education with lengthy classes, big exam at the end of the year, is obsolete. The new education is "on-demand service" where coursework is divided into many smaller learning modules. Students will learn one module at a time and demonstrate their skills by applying things at the end of each learning module. The simple reason is technology changes fast, and students must be able to learn new things and get used to these changes so they can develop the lifelong learning attitude.
Last week, President Obama ordered the U.S. education system to make “Computer science" a new basic skill, along with Reading, Writing, and Arithmetics. He pointed out that nine out of ten parents want it taught at their children's schools. The president also issued $4 billion dollars to be spent in all schools, from kindergarten to high school make this direction succeed. His direction is well received by educators and parents, as many are worrying that their children may not be able to compete in this technology-driven world. In his speech, he also pointed out that many professions, including labor jobs, not only need to be able to work with computerized equipment but also need to be able to program them. He said: "Today, Nurses are analyzing data and managing electronic health records. Machinists in factories are writing computer programs to control robots. And workers of all kinds need to be able to use technology to their advantages."
Today the world is full of complex problems ranging from new technology challenges to social issues which are overwhelming. We cannot solve these problems with the past solution and old thinking, as it does not work. New problems require new solutions and new thinking. By having an open mind and willing to change, we can solve these problems and deal with them step by step. The first step is to improve education, especially technology education.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
