"Technology forces us to ask new questions"

Not everything that is technologically possible also serves our economy. Nevertheless, digitalisation, and artificial intelligence in particular, is generating an ever-growing start-up scene. Switzerland occupies a leading position in this, as Sunnie J. Groeneveld knows. The entrepreneur, board member, author and course director accompanies start-ups in the development of digital business fields and advises established companies in the digital transformation.

Many people can hardly hear the term "digital transformation" or "digitalisation" any more. Nevertheless, the question is: How "digitized" do you consider Switzerland to be in an international comparison?

Sunnie J. Groeneveld: Switzerland currently ranks fifth in the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking. However, "digitalization" now encompasses many aspects and megatrends, no longer just the contrast between "analog vs. digital". Today, we are talking about process automation, digital customer experience, disruptive digital technologies such as AI, blockchain, augmented reality, and so on. All of this goes hand in hand with increasing connectivity. This has also led to completely new business models such as AirBnB or Uber. The situation in Switzerland is different for each of these aspects. What certainly plays a major role: Switzerland is a leader in the research and development of new technologies, thanks to its excellent educational and research institutions such as ETH, CERN and EPFL. The fact that a company like IBM relocated its research base to Rüschlikon as early as 1956 can also be seen from this perspective. Other global corporations such as Disney or Google also operate their largest research centers outside the USA in Zurich today. In addition, the Chinese telecommunications supplier Huawei also announced last year that they want to create research centers in Zurich and Lausanne with over 1000 jobs, because Switzerland is a very strong research location, especially in innovation topics. Another example: In the development of drone technology, Switzerland is currently the world's leading nation alongside Japan and China.

And where is there a need to catch up?

Consumers in Switzerland are highly connected, and almost all of them now own a smartphone. However, there is still some catching up to do when it comes to the digital customer experience. Many SME websites are well made, but not always responsive, i.e. suitable for mobile devices. And I would like to see a little more courage from companies to simply try something out. After all, many are in competition and have to survive against foreign competitors who are sometimes much further ahead in this respect.

But despite everything, digitalization is currently serving as the biggest driver for new business models - for start-ups, for example - especially since many spin-offs are being created at the colleges and universities mentioned above?

Yes, although spin-offs also have to prove themselves on the market first. Many technologies that these spin-offs promote and offer on the market are initially industry-neutral. An entrepreneurial spirit is required to find the right application with the corresponding market potential. Scaling up to a mass product is very often difficult, so many of these spin-offs remain small. But every now and then, fast-growing companies emerge from them, such as Sensirion AG, a spin-off of ETH.

What role does AI play in new spin-offs?

An increasingly large one. The application fields of AI are very broad, and there are correspondingly many examples. Take the company Deepcode, for example: This company has developed an analysis tool that helps programmers to collect codes that have already been developed. In other words, an AI detects such program lines and can then suggest them to a programmer. This avoids spending a lot of time on code that someone has actually already developed. Other companies are developing AI systems for agriculture: using image recognition of plants, an AI decides whether and how much to irrigate or fertilize them based on their condition. And an acquaintance of mine is working on software for law firms that can use AI to automate wording in contracts. These examples show: Wherever unstructured data - Big Data - can be structured by algorithms, AI can be put to good use.

Technology not only brings new opportunities, but also changes the forms of organization in companies. How do you see these changes?

Are they fast, delayed, organic - or simply pragmatic? Indeed, for a long time, people were able to stick to the same organizational charts. But with the communication possibilities alone, this has changed a lot in the last decade. Today, top-down monologue is increasingly being supplemented by bottom-up dialogue. This goes hand in hand with an increasing flood of information. Networks are generally better able to deal with a multitude of information than hierarchical orders, because the information does not have to be distributed from top to bottom by one person, but flows dynamically. In addition, more and more projects require iterative and collaborative working - the IT sector in particular is making progress in this respect. In other words, driven by communication and collaboration technologies, organizational structures are changing with a delay. In the first steps, companies are taking a pragmatic approach. In many places, the realization then matures that it is more effective to work more in networks. However, I don't believe that hierarchical organizations will die out completely. Managers of the future will therefore need what is known as ambidexterity, which means that they must be able to lead in both network and hierarchical structures.

Change naturally triggers resistance in people, who like to cling to the tried and tested. How can such resistance be overcome?

The rate of technological change is currently faster than the rate at which our society is changing. Technology therefore forces us to ask new questions. Closing the gap between technological progress and necessary social change must be the ability to learn new things - and to do so throughout life. Fortunately, Switzerland is well positioned in terms of education and, in particular, continuing education. Well-educated people are the only resource our country has. You can ask Google anything, but curiosity still has to come from people.

Is the younger generation more flexible or are older generations in danger of losing touch?

It is primarily a question of attitude and not of age. Basically, you should be open to new things. If a 15-year-old and a 45-year-old were enthusiastic about the first iPhone in 2007, they can both equally be considered "mobile cracks" today. My point is: there are just as many older people today who are interested in new things. It's all about trying things out. Perhaps younger people are a little less uptight about this because they are still in the "gaining experience" phase. For leadership, on the other hand, the equation age = experience no longer applies without qualification. Younger people can also have a lot of experience in certain areas.

How does this affect recruitment? To what extent can AI technology offer support here, for example?

The use of AI technology in recruitment will increase. However, some challenges still need to be solved: Because if you teach a system to only look for people with certain characteristics, you will always hire the same people, even if people who fall through a defined grid might be just as suitable for a position or could even bring new skills to the table. There are many ethical questions behind this that need to be answered first. This requires digital leaders, i.e. responsible executives who on the one hand have a pronounced understanding of technology, and on the other hand are able to strategically minimize the risks of AI and at the same time channel its enormous potential into value-creating paths.