As you step into the world of work, you are bringing to it the freshness of ideas and the power to change things. And yet, there is the danger that all too soon you will forget why you came to a place like this.NO, you were not here to understand the corporate sector or the intricate theories of management. You came here to understand yourself and your strengths. To believe how easy it is to make a difference. That is the power of higher education. To instil in you the belief that you can make the world a better place.
India needs to add a million jobs a month every year to feed the youth who are entering the workforce. Every AI agent will need to be trained through millions of iterations. As more AI applications emerge, the need for training AI will grow exponentially. Labor arbitrage will make India an attractive destination for jobs that involve training AI. A study has found six areas where the use of robots will create new jobs: automobiles, electronics, renewable energy, skilled systems, robotics and food and beverage. Jobs like robot psychologist, personal online shopper, robot ethicist did not exist before. This may even be the next outsourcing wave for India. But the jobs we get will have their consequences...
Laws are boundaries that we draw to keep us safe and protected. When people follow traffic rules, people are unharmed by vehicles. The boundaries of knowledge also expand when innovators challenge these rules and laws. Innovation necessarily happens in the fringes. Sometimes when the laws become hindrances, the hub of innovations shifts to other spots. For drones that innovation hub seems to be Africa.
Travis had described the 14 values as a “philosophy of work” that Kalanick and chief product officer Jeff Holden, an Amazon vet, had spent hundreds of hours putting together. The values were built on a world view that there was room for only one ride sharing company in the world. There was no doubt that it demolished the taxi service companies that used to limit the supply of cabs to be able to charge arbitrary prices. Supply of cabs was restricted keep demand higher than supply. Uber demolished all this.It was built on a view that for me to succeed I must kill my peers. The value of “principled confrontation” was designed to encourage employees to challenge authority without fear. On the ground, it translated to bullying the weak colleague.
HR was all about creating one set of rules then apply to every employee. Today employees expect a customized experience when they go to work for any employer. The process of creating an individualized experience is dependent on the unique identifiers we have for an individual. While most corporations have still stayed on with gender options being limited to three at best, Facebook offers 71 gender options to UK users. That allows them the ability to target ads more specifically. Facebook allowed people to type in whatever they wanted to describe their gender and from that data set created more categories. Amazon can be the best model for your HR department.
Software developers release "unfinished code" and constantly add new features after that. That's called the Beta version of the code. But living like that perpetually is not for the faint hearted - unless you are Brian Chesky, CEO of Airbnb. In that case you will decide to disrupt yourself. He says, “If we don’t grow past what we originally invented, what leads to your success leads to your death.” He has cut himself off from his existing business and building his next gig.
Firstly, this year, let HR take a boundary-less view of data. Go beyond structured data to unstructured data sources. Throw in data from all sources till you cannot use Excel to do analysis any more. You have to invest in Artificial Intelligence.
Technology is becoming like electricity — it is invisible. Its presence does not draw attention any more, but it periodically strikes like lightning, leaving behind a trail of devastation. Unable to keep pace with fast fashion and the consumers’ preference to shop online, The Limited shut down 250 stores in 2017. 460 outlets of Sports Authority went out of business in 2016. PacSun, Aeropostale, and American Apparel filed for bankruptcy in 2016. Macy’s has just slashed 10,000 jobs and shut 68 stores. All sectors are tech sectors. All jobs are tech jobs.








