I.R 4.0 For Government: Adapt or Fail

Introduction

Governments will increasingly face pressure from their citizens to change their current approach to public engagement and policy-making, as their central role of conducting policy diminishes owing to new sources of competition and the redistribution and decentralization of power that new technologies make possible. As the physical, digital, and biological worlds continue to converge, new technologies and platforms are increasingly enabling citizens globally to engage with their governments, voice-out their opinions, coordinate their efforts, and even circumvent the supervision of public authorities.

Ultimately, the ability of government and public entities to adapt to I.R 4.0 will determine their success or survival. If they prove successful or capable of embracing this disruptive change, subjecting their structures and systems to new levels of transparency and efficiency that will enable them to maintain or improve their competitive edge, they will survive. If they don’t evolve, they will continue to face increasing trouble.

Adapt or fail

Given the I.R 4.0’s rapid pace of change and broad impact, legislators and regulators are being challenged to an unprecedented level and for the most part are proving unable to cope. This means legislators and regulators must continuously adapt to a new, fast-changing environment, reinventing themselves so they can truly understand what they are regulating. To do so, governments and regulatory agencies will need to collaborate closely with business and civil society. I.R 4.0 will also profoundly impact the nature of national and international security, affecting both the probability and the nature of conflict. The distinction between war and peace, combatant and non-combatant, and even violence and nonviolence (think cyber-warfare) has become uncomfortably blurry. As this process takes place and new technologies such as biological weapons become easier to attain and use. Such a new vulnerability will lead to new fears. However, the same advances in technology will create the potential to reduce the scale or impact of violence, through the development of new modes of protection i.e. greater precision in targeting. For example; An example of success is Estonia, who has digitally transformed their services to citizens (PBS News Hour, 2018), View video here

References

PBS News Hour, 2018, “How Estonia built a Digital first Government” Accessed here on 17 Feb 2018 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHiq5UfxePA&list=PLcjixfX8NwuS4PWO0ToHjy9DIrICW_Iwl&index=3

Business Embraces I.R 4.0

There is an underlying theme in any discussion about the 4th Industrial Revolution, this includes but not limited to, the speed of doing things, the vast storage capacity present to us, the ease of doing global business, the rate of technology adaptation or diffusion, and among these underpin the Fourth Industrial Revolution impact on businesses.

A trend, to watch out for, is the development of technology-enabled platforms or systems that combine both demand and supply sides to disrupt existing industry structures, making it very easy for customer and supplier to engage and exchange notes. These technology platforms and systems have been rendered easy to use by the smartphone, people, assets, and data—thus creating entirely new methods of consuming goods and services in the process. In addition, they lower the barriers for businesses and individuals to create wealth, jobs, altering the personal and professional environments of workers and new business opportunities i.e. mobile shopping, e-health, smart cities, etc.

In the main, there are four (4) distinct effects that the 4^th Industrial Revolution has on business—on customer expectations, on product improvement, on collaborative innovation, and on organizational methods. A world of customer experiences, data-based services, and asset performance through enhanced analytics, requires new forms of collaboration, particularly with the speed at which innovation and disruption is taking place. Overall, the shift from simple digitization (3rd Industrial Revolution which was underpinned by Information Technology and Systems) to innovation based on combinations of technologies (I.R 4.0) is forcing companies to re-look the way they are doing business. The bottom line, however, is the same: business leaders need to understand their changing business environment, challenge most the assumptions of their current operating teams and systems, and relentlessly and continuously innovate new ways in order to survive. For example; “Robots And AI: The Future Is Automated And Every Job Is At Risk [Automation, Pt. 1]” | (AJ+, 2018), See video Here.

References

AJ+, 2018, “; Robots And AI: The Future Is Automated And Every Job Is At Risk [Automation, Pt. 1]” Accessed on 17 Feb 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnBAdnNIIXk

I.R 4.0 is Upon Us

In the past two (2) we have all been mesmerized on how much advancement has taken place in the IT industry, I am talking autonomous vehicles, virtual identities, electronic signatures, mobile banking, Internet of Things, the list is endless. In short, we stand at a precipice of a new revolution, the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Let us rewind, the 1^st Industrial Revolution utilised water and steam power to run the factories into production. Then the 2^nd came up with electric power to propel mass production. The 3rd brought us information technology and systems to automate production. And now the 4^th Industrial Revolution (I.R 4.0) building on the 3rd, is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.

We have three (3) reasons why today’s revolution is not merely a continuation of the 3^rd Industrial Revolution, because firstly, there is a difference in velocity, speed and scope on systems impact. Industry is been disrupted in almost all sectors and parts of the world. Secondly, this disruption has brought about a transformation in systems of production, management and governance. The possibilities of billions of users or people connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge, are unlimited. Lastly, the possibilities of billions of users or people connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge, are unlimited. All these possibilities are in emerging technology breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy transmission and storage, and quantum computing.

All these technologies are changing how governments are delivering basic services to its people in terms of e-healthcare, e-tax systems, e-education, etc. Also providing new business opportunities to small and medium enterprises hence creating new jobs, however, also replacing some jobs i.e. autonomous vehicles do not need a human driver that’s one job less. For example; How technology is changing our society for better or worse (BlazeTV, 2018), see this video.

References

BlazeTV, (2018), “How technology is changing society for better or worse” Accessed on 17 Feb 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDlK9f7zHo4