Tech must move from short-term tactics to strategy
If President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address last week achieved nothing else, it awoke a debate about the value of dreams of the future versus the needs of the present. The consensus seemed to be that his vision of smart cities was a necessary ambition, but counted for little when no detail was offered on fixing the problems facing SA now.
The debate was an appropriate backdrop to the annual Dell Technologies Forum held in Johannesburg this week. In particular, it resonated for visiting keynote speaker Patricia Florissi, originally from Brazil, and now vicepresident and global chief technology officer for sales at Dell Technologies.
“I’m inspired by SA,” she told about 1,600 delegates. “It’s the dawn of a new era where technology will help create a new future.”
Later, in an interview with Business Times, she warned, however, that societies such as Brazil and SA were not using technology “in a transformational way”.
“You only transform a nation through education and healthy feeding. You cannot teach a hungry child. Technology is being used in a tactical, short-term manner, instead of empowering and enabling the next generation to become more active in the digital economy of the future.”
Florissi said she was passionate about the use of technology in enhancing both food production and education.
“If you give people basic needs from a food and health perspective, and if you educate the masses, the world then can truly be transformed. That’s where we need to use technology for good, at a faster pace.
“It is about preparing the nation for the next decades, it is about how we are going to change where we are going and not just
where we are. We are using technology for immediate tactical issues without thinking strategically about the long term.”
She pointed out that if technology is used for controlling food production, waste of water and electricity, and the recycling and re-use of organic energy as found in food, we can create a far more efficient food chain, from the farm to the fork.
“It’s not just about delivering the best yields, but also to address production loss and distribution waste. We generate enough food to feed everyone, but efficiencies fall short. The insights from digital technologies can change that dramatically.”
She said she believes technology and telecommunications companies can play a massive role by rethinking the way they provide their services to those with limited means.
“Technology on the one hand creates opportunity, but the point is, how well are you leveraging that opportunity in the improvement of society? How much can we influence that?
“For example, I’d love to see a programme from telcos that says, the more time that you spend online actually taking lessons in literature or maths or education, the more credit you get to do other things. If you put the right incentives in place, you can empower society to change.”
Once such initiatives are in place, and as plans turn into actions and bear fruit, the president is likely to have a far more receptive audience for his vision of a smart future in SA.
‘If you put the right incentives in place, you can empower society to change’
Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on @art2gee