Fourth Industrial Revolution and Future of Skills

By, Manoj Kumar Trivedi

Founder, CEO & Business Mentor

iGlobal Research and Analytics

According to the World Economic Forum, we’re now living in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Not unlike the first three, the Fourth Industrial revolution is changing the way we work—except instead of steam power or assembly-line manufacturing, the technological advancements are digital in nature. Many believe these new digital technologies will increase economic inequality and make many careers obsolete. After all, how can a person possibly compete with a more efficient, more reliable machine?

Around the world, traditional manufacturing industry is in the throes of a digital transformation that is accelerated by exponentially growing technologies- IoT, Intelligent Robots, Sensors, 3D Printing.Companies and their industrial process need to adapt to this if they do not wish to  be left behind this rapid change of development and their competitors.

The development is now paving way for disruptive approaches in production, value chain and logistics chain.

Emphasizing knowledge

The World Economic Forum’s report on the future of jobs predicts the emergence of new roles which blend these technical and social skills together, such as specialized sales reps and senior managers who can successfully steer companies through the upcoming change and disruption.

WEF focusses current shift towards 10 top skills-

The ability to learn and continually skill up is key. Particularly for technical skills that change often, online and on-demand learning is a way to keep skills current on an ongoing basis. New digital platforms that streamline learning are a great way to incorporate education as an ongoing practice and keep pace with the speed of innovation.

While UX designer who are concerned with the overall feel of the product shall undergo complete overhaul, adminstrative jobs shall also not be the same.

AI, IoT, Sensors will remain tool and supportive to maintaining brand through quality & service, importance of human intellectual will increase multifold through knowledge expansion and integrated economy, both at macro and micro level, analysing data enduring economic growth of organisation.

What skills will change most

Creativity will become one of the top three skills workers will need. With the avalanche of new products, new technologies and new ways of working, workers are going to have to become more creative in order to benefit from these changes.

Artifical Intelligence may help us reach fast increasing productivity, it cannot be as creative as humans.

Impact on labor market will be huge unless they are reskilled on required parameters.White Collar jobs will become more challenging while doing away with conventional jobs for more analytical jobs.

Machine will not be able to negotiate neither will be flexible for economic adjustment. Economic adjustment through Resource Management and Operation Management will remain remorse to IR 4.0 environment.

Organisational and professionals will have to ensure datas generated are interpreted into business insightfuls through Critical Thinking beside ability to build something out of ideas with quality of randomness for Creativity. In allowing to do so organsation will have to allow Industrial Democracy for value addition shunning objective heirarchy of commandent. Ability to analyze and understand resource behavior through curiosity will be mandatory  that leads to third stage of cognitive development when we start realizing- " different disciplines make very different assumptions leading to very different conclusions about what is right" - a stage of creativity with empathy, or, Emotional Intelligence through economic reasoning skill.

Judgement and Decision Making will no more will be the responsibility of C-Suit employees. It will now be automatically delegated to execution class employees through real-time data condensation and analysis into insightful interpretations and measured decisions. Shifting ability of different personas towards the common goal accomodating different challenges of various disciplines and functions will be important for economic and organic growth of organisations leading to Cognitive Flexibility.

Challenges and Solution

As a tool supporting productivity IR 4.0 is set to revolutionise cross-functional efficiency revolution through process integration. Real-time algorithm based demand forecasting and intelligent pricing leveraging operation will facilitate competition.Value creation will not be limited through network alone, but it will also be extended to resource optimisation and utilisation through out the process. The question of resources is key for companies across sectors. Similarly smart purchasing will result from increased integration transparency with suppliers, access to a wider range of suppliers and greater flexibility in make-or-buy decisions. 

Even though acceleration and integration using smart technologies, both vertically and horizontally, is guaranteed, value engineering of entire process and product life-cycle for economic value addition will be mandatory.

New business models and new models for co-operation constitute the real added value of Industry 4.0 in an area which is not easily apparent.

Profiling white-collar worker

Disruptive yes, but these changes can also create opportunities for the firms and white-collar workers that embrace them. Doing so will require flexibility and a willingness to gain digital savvy, compelling employees to learn different ways of working and to take on new responsibilities. While clerical and administrative white-collar positions are vulnerable to Industry 4.0 disruptions, with the right training and experience, people in those jobs can begin to transition to roles that rely on human problem-solving capabilities and creativity—human talents that algorithms can’t as yet match.

Tomorrow’s white-collar worker will require a different set of skills to succeed. Just as blue-collar workers of the future will need better training and education, focusing particularly on rudimentary Science, Technology, Economic Engineering, Mathematics and Statistic disciplines, white-collar workers will also need their own refresher courses. 

While quality and service is essential to create a "Brand", business viability and sustainability to win pricing tug of war  maintaining margin for profit and growth in the value chain will help maintain a "Brand" consistently in the long term. This is possible through dramatic improvement in pereformance altering its future trajectory.

Implementing digital platform alone will not help. Business transformation has to represent a fundamental and risk laden reboot through value creation and value addition across operation with ECONOMIC ENGINEERING AND ECONOMETRICS, a future business building block, for productivity analysis and operational efficiency to complete characteristics of IR 4.0.

Second to none, we help through practical application of Economic Principles with Econometrics neutralizing macroeconomic implication at micro level of operation through rational thinking at margin, reading operational economic fine prints and economic value addition determining opportunity cost through creativity to maintain "BRAND" and help predicting wealth of any economic entity 10 or 15 years into the future.

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