20 June 2018 Smartworking Summit Precis

A precis of this Summit can be found here.

Recent rapid technological advances in digitisation and analytics have been reshaping the business landscape, supercharging performance, and enabling new innovations.  Yet progress is uneven.  Many companies struggle to harness the power of these technologies, however those that are fully leveraging the capabilities are capturing disproportionate benefits, transforming their businesses and outpacing – and occasionally disrupting their competition.

At the same time technology itself continues to rapidly evolve, bringing new advances in robotics, analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and especially machine learning.  Together they are a step change in capabilities that are having profound implications for business, the economy, and for society as a whole.

Machines increasingly outstrip human performance in a range of work activities, including those that require cognitive capabilities, learning, making tacit judgments, sensing emotion, and even driving – activities that used to be considered safe from automation.

Such technologies bring significant productivity gains and transformational benefits that go beyond notions of substituting labour and lead to previously unimagined breakthrough performance and outcomes.

Throughout the morning, 350 plus people attended this Summit to explore the challenges of enlightened automation.  Debating these issues were…

• Lord Tim Clement Jones CBE.
  • Chairman of the House of Lords Select Commitee on Artificial Intelligence, former Managing Partner of DLA Piper (UK’s largest law firm).
  • Former member of the House of Lords Select Committees on Communications (2011-2105) and the Built Environment (2015-2016).  He is Deputy Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on China.
  • Chair of Ombudsman Services, and a member of the Saudi–Britain Joint business Council.
  • Last but not least, Tim is former Group Company Secretary and Legal Adviser of Kingfisher Plc.
• Matt Meyer, CEO, Taylor Vinters
  • Disrupting the work practices of major law firm, Taylor Vinters and also is a pilot with a full commercial aircraft licence.
• Julian Lesaicherre, Director Facebook EMEA
  • Delivering new ways of collaborating and communicating across the largest organisations.
• Bhaskar Dasgupta. CFO, Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
  • A truly original creative thinker about what makes work work.
• David Plumb, Former Chief Digital Officer, Telefonica
  • David is a highly experienced main board Director with a background in growing businesses, most recently as Chief Digital Officer at Telefonica O2 where he delivered growth of over £1.5bn.  He’s passionate about helping businesses who want to grow on their journey from digital to smart.
• Deborah Lee, Chief People Officer, YOOX Net-a-Porter
  • YOOX Net-a-Porter Group is a £2 billion, 4,300 employee organisation boasting a mighty 17% net annual growth.  Deborah was voted ‘HR Most Influential Practitioner’ in 2017 and was announced in the 2017 BAME100 Board Talent Index for her professional successes.  She is renowned as a catalyst for positive change in business.
• Steven Boyd MBE, Director Estates HMRC
  • Steven is responsible for the provision of the estates service to 60,000 HMRC staff and to other government departments that share HMRC facilities.  He also leads HMRC’s Locations Programme, the largest office property programme in the UK.  The programme is enabling modern ways of working in HMRC, disposing of 140 properties, providing significantly enhanced facilities at 13 major city centre sites.  Before this Steven was a Brigadier responsible for the Army estate where his significant achievements included leading the design and building of Camp Bastion.

​The afternoon saw four intimate round table sessions offering deeper dives into the issues challenging all organisations, including;

• Understanding productivity – According to ONS, UK productivity is down 19% over the last decade.  This provokes 4 questions – why is productivity down – what can we learn from each other – what needs to change – how to manage the changes?  Simply, what are the positive steps going forward?
• AI in the workplace – Looking at three key themes.  What needs to change?  How can technology support change?  How do you get engagement for change and what part does technology play?
• Workplace Sustainability – Digital technology is helping companies sweep barriers aside.  Sustainability platforms capture all types of data, from energy and social value and apps help engage employees, measure team performance and maximise workspace utilisation.
• Workplace Evolutionaries are a coalescing of thought leaders & disruptive thinkers in the workplace arena to identify a higher strategic value from work. The community is formed of emboldened individuals to shape a formula for improved work interaction and integration. If you’re a disruptive thinker or innovator in the workplace field, then join our community.

A precis of this Summit can be found here