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| Edited By: Raveena Singh |Source: DNA |Updated: Jul 12, 2018, 07:42 AM IST
Ever thought of what the coming times will look like?
WTF... Wow! The Future!
At least that's what it is going to be like, according to VC Gopalratnam, Cisco's president, IT and CIO –international. "This is the best time for humans to be alive, and the best time for humans and technology to co-exist," he says, at the CISCO India Summit, 2018, themed Future Reimagined. In an interaction with Raveena Singh, Gopalratnam talks about supply chain human resources (HR), Neuro HR and the quotients that will prepare one for surviving the technological disruptions happening globally in the reimagined future.
We just cannot be doing the same things that we've always been doing. Particularly, monotonous jobs that even machines can do. Obviously, we have to train the machines to do that but once they figure that out, they will do it. But I really believe this is an opportunity for human beings to develop their skills more and do more high end-jobs that can, in turn, programme the machines to do better jobs. So it's almost like a cycle of continuous improvement but if we get stuck with what we are doing, then we will get replaced. Hence it's important that we understand this and proactively upskill in order to get more high-value jobs. I mean, jobs will go away, but the jobs will be replaced by higher-value ones.
It's not a question of firing. I would almost call it an opportunity to re-skill, so they're probably looking for different skills. And some people may not fit the bill so the companies look for alternate resources. Generally speaking, news like that hits the press faster than the news for re-skilling, hiring. As a result, we also hear a lot of stories about what the financial institutions are doing to upgrade the skills within their employee base. That is actively happening today. Also, remember that technology is changing and things that were relevant 10-15 years ago from a technology perspective may not be that important five years from now. Unfortunately, with the speed at which things are changing your customers are not going to wait for two years for you to come up with a solution. So in the process of speed and re-scaling, you will have to take some action to completely re-engineer your workforce and that's exactly what's going on.
If you think about what drives supply chain, it's about fulfilment. It's about just-in-time management. So someday there is a demand which has to be fulfilled on time. People are the base cost for a company. They need to get productive and contribute to an organisation quickly, and therefore, this whole concept of the supply-chain phenomenon can be applied to talent acquisition. When I may not need a security specialist for a week, why do I need to hire them today and keep them in my roles for a week? Is every company going in that direction? Probably not. But it is a trend that is catching on. One of the reasons why freelancing and crowdsourcing are so popular is because of the same. If someone has certain skills and can contribute to my organisation, he/she doesn't have to carry the company's badge all the time. They can deliver those capabilities just in time.
On the Neuro side, I would say, HR is ultimately about people and understanding the psyche of what motivates a person [to work]. The model that is used here is SCARF: Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness. So, when I'm going to get promoted, my mind works differently. Somebody tells me you're out of a job tomorrow, my mind will work differently. In constructs like these, how to work with employees and how to manage them and what to expect in situations like these is the foundation of the research. This is a concept that HR leaders of companies are talking about and a lot of research is happening on how do we actually understand its working and make decisions accordingly. The world is looking for one very important skill-psychology. People may not be talking about it, but recruiters actively look for people with those kinds of skill-sets. Now, why are people interested in those skill-sets. It's because you have to be able to understand how to work with people, which again, but reinforces the fact that people aren't going away.
That's gonna happen because most freelancers don't want to be tied down to one company. It's important that these companies establish rules of governance/engagement within that framework so that intellectual property rights and privacy are protected. It is also incumbent upon the freelancer to make sure they demonstrate compliance and governance.
Well, there are a few characteristics that all human beings should have and work on. Everyone has a certain level of Intelligence quotient (IQ). Can you increase your IQ? Yes, but not beyond a certain point. But there is another dimension --emotional quotient (EQ). To me, self-awareness is so critical for any professional, you need to know what you can do and what you cannot, and you also need to know how good you are and accordingly plan [the trajectory ahead].
Not everybody can do everything and we all have to find that sweet spot according to our technology quotient (TQ). It is important in the world today for you to have a technical mindset because technology is changing our lives and you can't run away from it. It doesn't matter which industry you work in for technology is here to stay, and therefore what you do with it and how you get yourself up to a certain level, your TQ has to enhance [for that].
The fourth one again goes back to this neuro kind of thing. I call it the social quotient (SQ) because you need to be able to understand how to work with people, collaborate with individuals and make decisions with teams. Nobody succeeds on their own, especially in the world today where everything is collaborative. So SQ becomes pretty significant.
The last one is the global quotient (GQ) because the world is big, and whether it's new business models, products or whatever it is, it goes across boundaries, globally. And in all of these, your employer can only do so much. In the world where talent is scarce, the ones that invest in their development and not wait for others to work with them are going to go ahead in life.
It is basically an exchange, say a skills exchange. It's almost like a barter. Exchanging skill for time. So for example, it could just be that I may have skill in a particular area and you may have skills in a particular area. My company today, may need your skill except they don't need to hire you. I have a contract with the company that says that I can get you the skill, but it requires a bi-directional commitment on my part for somebody else to leverage my skill in a different area. And so without me leaving my team and you leaving your team, we just exchange skills. You will just contribute to my project and my company while you're still part of your company and your team. So that concept of time bank is very similar to outsourcing except that crowdsourcing is one way.
It's AI because they're not born. You can call it fake, but they don't have innate intelligence. It's what you teach them. So that's the difference between a machine and a human being; I wouldn't call it fake intelligence.
No, I don't think it's one or the other. Honestly, so far machines have been the service providers to humans. But moving ahead, humans may have to become the service providers to machines because to me that's how you improve your job when delivering intelligence to the machine and moving up the value chain
Yes.
So cybersecurity insurance is something that companies are going to think about. It's much like any kind of insurance against a natural disaster or catastrophe. Cybersecurity incidents can cause problems with brand value, with customer data being compromised. It can lead to penalties, fines, etc. Insurance is one way to safeguard and is an evolving thing. I don't think it's necessarily there, but it's around the corner, at a very nascent stage.
