At Dell Technologies World 2019, Kevin L. Jackson, CEO and founder of GovCloud Networks, and Aongus Hegarty, President of Dell Technologies for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), sat down to discuss the recently published forecast report “Realizing 2030: Future of the Economy” by the Institute of the Future (IFTF) and Dell Technologies.
[edited for clarity]
Kevin L. Jackson: Aongus, I really appreciate your time. I’m interested to hear how you see information technology shaping the economy. What are your views on the new research “Future of the Economy”?
Aongus Hegarty: It’s very, very exciting. We worked with the Institute of the Future to put together a view of what the economy will look like in 2030. And for me what’s most exciting is the scale of job creation. I know there’s a lot of concern around machines taking over jobs. But actually over 70% of the jobs that we will have in 2030 haven’t been created yet. So there is lots of opportunity to strengthen our skills and develop even new skills. Continuous learning and rescaling skills will be absolutely critical to this.
In your job, you meet with customers of all shapes and sizes – from those conversations what insights do you have, especially in terms of customers being ready for the future?
As I travel around the region and meet with customers, we look at what’s happening in the different economies and areas. EMEA is a highly diverse set of countries and cultures, but actually in some ways there’s quite a lot of similarity. Everyone is looking at digital and enablement of digital for the business, and how it’s creating new business models, new opportunities. We measured the status quo in what we call the Digital Transformation Index. Here, companies and industries get a view how far they are on that benchmark.
Interesting enough, there’s a lot yet to do. On average, only 4% [in EMEA] are digital leaders. But in countries like Portugal, Italy, South Africa, there are as much as 10% digital leadership in particular industries. And from that perspective there’s a lot of opportunities with customers and how they can unlock that potential.
One critical area is workforce transformation. Every economy and country are looking for the skills and requirements around STEM and its capabilities to survive in the digital world. Workforce transformation allows us to unlock a lot of potential for future economies.
We see radical technology drivers impacting the future of the economy and data is key to that. With real data sovereignty laws, the protection of data, and question of privacy of data, what does that mean to your customers?
Customers have to think about how they use the data. And it’s not just about how or what kind of data the company secured. It’s also about the people, the process, and the technology. For instance, how can you create a culture within your company around how you handle and manage data responsibly? How do you define processes and put them in place? This is where GDPR as a regulatory requirement helps us to shape the processes across many areas.
From a technology point of view, you have to think about the abilities of the applied technologies. How do you keep data and infrastructure secure? For instance, Secureworks or other cybersecurity solutions and services from Dell Technologies can help. Customers are thinking [about data and security] in a holistic way and GDPR admittedly is a good mechanism for us to instill a way of managing data effectively and securely.
Thank you Aongus. It was a pleasure talking to you.
For more details on the future of the economy, be sure to check out the forecast report and how Dell Technologies can help you with your business transformation.
If you want to hear more from Aongus Hegarty on what he believes will be the key to leading though this change successfully, listen to this Luminaries podcast: