Over the last decade, cloud software has delivered new business applications across multiple environments, enabling the rapid launch of market disruptive products and services, cost-saving business processes and added capacity. New software innovations have rendered existing business models, even whole businesses, rapidly redundant.
The accelerating advance of artificial intelligence and quantum computing are driving a perfect storm of technological change around business, disrupting assumptions about how things get done and the sort of people needed to keep firms at the forefront in their markets.
Big Data builds value for companies. Opinion and intuition are downgraded in decision making and replaced with ‘data-decision’ making. Robotics and digital solutions have transformed manufacturing and distribution models.
Cyber-Security is the growth industry. Internet inventors never predicted the need, but the creativity of the criminal mind has forced us onto the defensive. In the last few months one password is believed to have been all it took for a ransomware gang to destroy a 158-year-old company and put 700 people out of work. Tens of thousands of UK businesses have been hit by such attacks including big names such as M&S, Co-op and Harrods.
What does it mean for organisations and talent?
The most prized assets in pathfinder businesses are now the truly brilliant software designers and engineers who can invent the new world and destroy competitor’s business models.
Zuckerberg’s recent recruiting spree has reportedly included multimillion-dollar pay packages to lure top talent away from key rivals and kicked off a talent race within the AI industry. Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed Meta was offering his employees $100 million signing bonuses to switch companies. And just this week, Google CEO Sundar Pichai was asked during earnings call about his company’s status in the AI talent war, a sign that Wall Street is now also invested in the competition.
Cognitive agility is a differentiating ability. Those who re-invent and re-engineer business are key to the future. Data from the World Economic Forum identifies technological literacy, competence in AI and big data as way ahead of other core skills needed for successful businesses in 2030. Out of 9 core skills employers identify as necessary for 2030, the majority are cognitive and involve strategic intelligence founded on analytical and systems thinking. Digital fluency – AI, cybersecurity and technical literacy – are no longer optional for executives in a tech-driven world. Continuous learning and development going beyond basic tech skills will be necessary to engage with and stay ahead of technological advancements, along with resilient flexibility to adapt to change and navigate uncertainty in a rapidly evolving workplace.
TQ is replacing EQ?
Empathy, active listening and self-awareness just about make the cut in the list of WEF requirements for 2030, but they’re rated as much a ‘steady skill’ as a ‘core skill’. Teaching and mentoring is identified as an ‘out of focus’ skill relative to proficiency in working with AI technologies, analysing large datasets, understanding how technology works and can be applied across different industries. To be sure, leadership and social influence skills, including the ability to inspire and motivate others, are in the mix for success. Talent management is there, too. So, core skills will be a blend of technological abilities and human-centric qualities. Yet, it would be wrong not to see a shift in the skills grid for 2030.
The acceleration of artificial intelligence, mind-machine integration and technology change puts tech talent at the heart of the business agenda. Disruptive, competitive, market-transforming change is achieved by distinctively clever architects and engineers of technical systems, of organisations and leadership relationships.
Finding these people is the test for pacesetting organisations. Hiring and reward models are changing. A key question then becomes how we identify, assess, value and recruit for the new skills? Are our measures of reasoning, personality and motivation evolving fast enough to be relevant?
On the reasoning front, if the heroes of the organisation are those who can really outsmart the market with design led thinking that makes the business agile, finding selection methods (tests) which really predict differential mental processing and memory capacity among a population of already highly intelligent designers and engineers is a key challenge. It’s probably beyond the ability of our current standard reasoning tests. And in terms of our hiring criteria, are our measures of motivation and personality tapping into what’s relevant to the mindset of this generation of software engineers?
Are your talent strategies keeping pace with technology’s disruption?
Let’s explore how to future-proof your leadership assessment and selection methods.