means a fundamental transformation
journey. That’s one of the key
aspects of the strategy that people
should become aware about and start
thinking actively how to approach
this in terms of a transformation
journey. The second element is where
it all starts. There’s a great degree of
uncertainty around it and a whole
series of different estimates around
impacts lying around. Companies
should start running dedicated
analyses that look at all the different
scenarios and forecasting the impact
of new technology on the workforce
in order to get a feel and direction of
where it might end. With technology
developing very rapidly there can
never be a specific target point, “in
five years we will need X,” but those
scenarios will help companies think
through the implications and get
to grips with what is lying ahead in
terms of their transformation journey.
Consulting: What will the direct
impact be on workforces?
Miller: If you imagine you had a clear
picture as to what kind of capabilities
and capacities companies will need
in order to implement their future
business models, people will probably
fall into four categories. One is they
will stay in their roles and develop the
capabilities more or less themselves.
The second category is they will need
to be retrained completely. A third
category will probably be workers
who won’t be able to continue in that
environment and will need to find
a new role or job, either inside the
company or outside. The fourth are
the ones that will need to be hired.
Consulting: What do you see as the
biggest consulting opportunities
around digital transformation?
Miller: I see it more in terms of
the big challenges that are there,
fundamentally a lot of companies
out there will need to transform
their business models and the way
they interact with external partners
in order to survive and thrive. In
that process, they need help. That’s
an area where we can help. On a
higher level, all of this obviously
has societal and public policy
implications. Pretty much every
country and government is asking
themselves what it means for our
educational system, for our vocational
programs, what kind of policies do
we need in order to address these
changes in the workforce.
