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To enable proximity triggers to work for you, start by identifying the character you want to emulate
Our behaviour is shaped by the people we are in close proximity with. I once worked for a trigger-happy executive who was ready to declare war on the competition and ruthlessly remove employees who disagreed with him. Initially, I found myself being swayed by my boss’s character, and I noticed myself becoming less patient and tolerant of others. However, this was not my character, and fortunately, I was able to redress this.
In the same manner, as we grow up, we learn from our parents about how they manage conflict, and this becomes imbued within our own character. We observe how colleagues get results at work and we tend to follow their example.
One study tracked 12,000 people for 32 years and found “a person’s chances of becoming obese increased by 57 per cent if he or she had a friend who became obese.” It works the other way, too. A separate study found that if one person in a relationship lost weight, the other partner would also slim down about one-third of the time.
Elsewhere, research suggested that the higher your best friend’s IQ at age 11 or 12, the higher your IQ would be at age 15, even after controlling for natural levels of intelligence. The proximity triggers around us seep into our own practices and, ultimately, shape our character.
One of the ways you can enable proximity triggers to start working for you is to identify the character you want to become. What are the traits and behaviours you want to hold? Are you someone who wants to be defined by what you do? Become a writer, a cyclist. Or are you someone who wants to be defined by your actions, to serve others by showing love and compassion? Clearly, it could be both – what you do for yourself and for others. Once you are clear on this, find people who are following those practices. Join a group that has the characteristics you desire. Allow proximity, closeness to them, to trigger the behaviours.
However, the reverse can also happen – when we inherently disagree with the group, but we go along with what they are doing anyway.
One of the classic psychology experiments that demonstrate conformity was undertaken by Solomon Asch. Every experiment began in the same way: a subject entered a room with a group of participants who were all strangers. The strangers were actually actors planted by the researcher, and they were instructed to deliver scripted answers to certain questions. The participants were shown one card with a line on it and then a second card with a series of lines. Each person was asked to select the line on the second card that was similar in length to the line on the first card. It was a very simple task.
The length of the line on the first card was clearly the same as ‘line A’. The experiment always started in the same manner, with some easy trials in which all the participants agreed on the correct line. After a couple of rounds, the participants were shown a test that was as simple as the previous ones, but this time, the actors in the room deliberately selected a wrong answer. For example, they would respond ‘line C’ to the comparison shown in the diagram, even though the answer may have been ‘line A’. All the other actors agreed the lines were the same, even though they were different.
The subject, who was not aware of the deception, became puzzled, laughing nervously, checking the reactions of others. Over time, they became agitated as all the other participants (actors) answered with the incorrect response. After a while, the subject doubted their own eyes, eventually providing an answer they knew was wrong.
Asch conducted the experiment in multiple formats, and what he discovered was that as the number of actors increased, so did the conformity of the subject. If it was just the subject and one actor, there was no effect on the person’s choice. They just assumed there was something wrong with the other person. When two actors were in the room with the subject, there was still little impact. But as the number of people increased to three actors and four and all the way to eight, the subject became more likely to doubt themselves, and by the end of the experiment, 75 per cent of subjects agreed with the group response even though it was incorrect.
When unsure, we often default to the group. As human beings, we are tuned into what others are doing around us, and the normative view of the majority becomes our standard. As a result, if we want our environment to positively trigger good practices, we should encircle ourselves with others who have the practices we want to acquire.
With International Women’s Day around the corner, tell us how women are trailblazing their way to the top of the corporate ladder.
I believe it all starts with your mindset and embracing a winning mentality. Women are recognising their power, claiming their space and working hard to get where they want to be. They’re not afraid to speak up, and they don’t wait for opportunities to be handed to them. It’s amazing how far you can go when you think big, and believe in yourself and your work.
Having women in visible, leading positions is so important, as it’s encouraging and empowering for young women starting out in their careers. It’s down to us to set an example, show up, share our stories and encourage others to step out. I believe in building supportive networks with other women, providing career advice or mentorships and advocating for more women in business. That’s exactly why I’m so proud to be doing what I do at Business Incorporation Zone.
Tell us about your own journey as an entrepreneur. What have been your key learnings along the way?
I started my career in telecommunications and then moved to banking, but I’ve always had bigger aspirations to help people with their businesses in any way possible. Today, I head one of Dubai’s leading business setup companies thanks to the experience I’ve gathered over a decade.
The main thing I’ve learned in my journey is you’ve to believe in yourself, your idea and your vision. Congratulate yourself on your wins, but also be prepared to fail. Failure allows us to learn from our mistakes and keep growing. And finally, give back where you can. There’s nothing more fulfilling than helping people and watching them flourish, that’s what drives me every single day.
What I’m truly passionate about is advocating for young women to be more ambitious and aim higher so they can reach their full potential. My happiness lies in helping people launch their entrepreneurial careers, and during my time with Business Incorporation Zone, I’ve assisted multiple clients in successfully achieving this goal.
Our company is all about supporting new beginnings; we pride ourselves on giving our clients the best possible start to their business. We support entrepreneurs through every stage of their business. Not every person and business can fit into a one-size-fits-all plan, so we make sure we’re very personal in our approach. Once our clients are fully set up, we like to be there for them if they need any additional help, whether that be marketing, e-commerce solutions or other consultancy services.
What are some of the main challenges that women face in the workplace?
The gender pay gap is still a huge issue. Women are not earning as much as their male counterparts, and don’t feel confident enough to ask for pay rises. They often feel they’re not being taken seriously or aren’t being given the same opportunities as men. This plays into the imposter syndrome a lot of women unfortunately experience. I recently came across a study that showed women will only apply for a job if they meet 100 per cent of the job description, men on the other hand, will apply even if they meet 60 per cent. This is why I feel so strongly about a creating a supportive and inclusive space for women. There are so many challenges that women face in the workplace, even though it’s 2022. We’ve come a long way but there’s still a long way to go.
What are the opportunities available to women to become successful entrepreneurs?
Entrepreneurship truly is the path to leadership and today, it’s easier than ever for women to launch their own successful businesses. Women can be empowered to be their own boss, pay their own salary, work the hours they choose and create the worklife balance they want. Being an entrepreneur also gives women the chance to collaborate with or hire other women.
To make the best of these opportunities, women can hone their knowledge and skills through courses or a business degree and have a crystal clear vision when it comes to their business. I also suggest cultivating relationships with people who will challenge, motivate, inspire and support you, be it friends, colleagues, mentors or us, at Business Incorporation Zone.
Growing consumer awareness and increased government initiatives around sustainability and climate change are adding pressure on industries to adopt sustainable practices.
This is particularly true of the food and beverages (F&B) sector where food production is responsible for one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Left unchecked, this figure will only rise due to the combined impact of a rising population and growth of the middle class – wealthier people consume more resource-intensive, animal-based foods. According to the World Economic Forum, by 2050, the demand for food will be 60 per cent greater than it is today.
There is, therefore, an urgent need for the F&B industry to address its carbon footprint. According to research, only 15 per cent of F&B firms are on track to meet their sustainability goals.
To address the challenges climate change poses for food systems, various initiatives have been implemented in the region in line with global sustainability goals. The UAE was the first in the region to announce a net-zero pledge ahead of the upcoming UN Climate Change
Conference 2021 (COP26). The UAE also partnered with the US to launch the Agriculture Innovation Mission AIM for Climate, a global initiative aimed at accelerating investments in R&D for climate-smart agri-tech.
From a regional perspective, other GCC countries have also joined the sustainability race. For example, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have pledged to reach net zero emissions by 2060. Meanwhile, Kuwait pledged to achieve a sustainable living environment under its Vision 2030, while Qatar has targeted to cut 25 per cent of local greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
Due to the urgency of the situation, the region is actively adopting sustainable and climate smart agricultural methods and promoting sustainable production and consumption habits. Research shows 49 per cent of global consumers consider sustainability attributes when purchasing food and beverages.
So, how can the food industry evolve its sustainable business models?
An excellent place to start is data analysis. Using the data generated by food production companies, data analytic tools can be used to define and track against the metrics that align with an organisation’s goals and initiatives. Having access to such information allows for optimisation of resource productivity.
Organisations will be able to improve budget certainty, evaluate supply-side adjustments, identify demand-side actions, and monitor project performance to track and report progress towards their goals.
Secondly, sustainability is a collaborative effort and engaging partners up and down the supply chain is vital. Apart from optimising its production processes, the F&B industry should look to decarbonise end-to-end operations by transitioning to green power options. Securing renewable power sources such as solar thermal solutions and on-site generation among others, will reduce carbon emissions. Research shows companies sourcing renewable electricity outperform their rivals financially, with the difference ranging from 0.3 to more than 7 percentage points.
Additionally, shifting fleets to lowcarbon transportation, changing to low-carbon cold chain technology, optimising transit routes and retrofitting improves energy and water consumption. Further, by integrating energy efficiency into plants, warehouses and processing centres, manufacturers can cost-effectively lengthen plant lifecycles while meeting decarbonisation goals.
Meeting sustainability goals can overwhelm even well-resourced F&B giants, who would rather focus on their core business. Outsourcing energy management services to specialised firms enables food manufacturers to strengthen their economic performance by leaning on third-party providers for reliable energy supply, management of multitechnical projects and strict control of operating costs.
Most importantly, energy management firms can deploy specialised analytical tools to identify areas for improvement, analyse energy consumption trends, advise on purchasing energy, electricity and gas, and optimise energy performance. An example of such outsourced services includes tailor-made high-tech financed solutions for carbon footprint reduction. Here, customers only pay for the energy they use while the energy services company undertakes the capital expenditures investment. All risks related to engineering, procurement and construction and energy performance are transferred to the energy services provider.
Another sustainable model is on-site energy power generation, particularly solar, which eliminates the need to transport power across great distances, significantly reducing costs and energy losses. These services are delivered in conjunction with traditional offerings, including the optimised production and distribution of hot/cold/iced water, compressed air, compressors for steam, industrial gas, etc., process utilities such as refrigeration, process environment (e.g., HVAC), heat recovery installations and more.
Technology is a crucial driver of sustainability, with many digital opportunities to improve process performance and decrease costs. This has led to greater demand for the availability and efficient use of data, marked by an increase in apps.
With increased scrutiny of food sources, traceability is today a significant trend in the food industry. Traceability is the ability to follow the movement of a food product and its ingredients through all steps in the supply chain, both backwards and forward.
Blockchain has emerged as a powerful and efficient technology allowing consumers to trace their food from ‘farm to fork’ with a QR code scan. Demands for reducing food waste has led to apps such as TooGoodToGo, Phenix and Karma, which connect consumers with surplus food from local restaurants, bakeries and grocery stores that sell products at a fraction of the list price.
The discussion around climate change is becoming more intense, increasing demands to reduce energy and water consumption and mitigate carbon emissions. Even the most prominent players in the food industry would struggle to maintain a coherent decarbonisation strategy while delivering their core business objectives.
“WITH INCREASED SCRUTINY OF FOOD SOURCES, TRACEABILITY IS TODAY A SIGNIFICANT TREND IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY. TRACEABILITY IS THE ABILITY TO FOLLOW THE MOVEMENT OF A FOOD PRODUCT AND ITS INGREDIENTS THROUGH ALL STEPS IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN, BOTH BACKWARDS AND FORWARD”
As we emerge from a global pandemic, companies are reckoning with new modes of work and collaboration, while also learning how to deal with broken supply chains. Plus, innovation introduces its own challenges. Smarter products increase the complexity of product design, manufacturing and service, which is being compounded further by demands for greater personalisation and customisation options in products. While companies seek to support the demands of the modern marketplace, they must also develop comprehensive sustainability approaches that encompass global supply chains, product development, manufacturing processes and end-of-life.
Clearly, we have some mountains to climb on our path to the future. Enterprise-level digitalisation and the creation of a comprehensive digital twin will make climbing those impending mountains a whole lot easier, connecting teams and ideas, accelerating the development of advanced products, and enabling greater levels of efficiency and productivity throughout the lifecycle.
Digitalisation, or digital transformation, is all about creating digital threads between siloed or disparate areas of data and functionality. It is precisely at these intersections that the greatest opportunity for innovation lies to achieve greater performance, sustainability and efficiency.
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
First, it’s important to recognise the role of model-based systems engineering (MBSE) in enabling such a comprehensive, digitalised approach. They are the starting point for today’s innovative and smart products. As products and programmes grow in complexity, next-generation MBSE tools enable seamless interoperability of models through product development and across its lifecycle. MBSE connects all the sources of data and experts to create a comprehensive digital twin of the product, and harnesses the digital enterprise to weave together engineering, manufacturing and even outside suppliers to add value at every step of development. When concepting for a new product, system architects using MBSE can access models from previous product iterations, quickly and confidently derive new features and ideate fresh designs. The resulting product architecture leads to the creation of a digital twin that will eventually encompass every aspect of the product. Next, an MBSE solution provides the different product engineering disciplines – electrical, mechanical, software and interconnect – the flexibility to define and optimise their systems while cooperatively developing the interfaces between them. This single source of truth of the digital twin enables earlier and continuous verification and validation to the overarching product architecture even as the design moves into manufacturing and eventually into the real world.
Ultimately, the aim is to connect all these digital assets to the product in the field, enabling a comprehensive digital twin that offers an ‘as performs’ virtual representation of the product. These connections known as digital threads span the product lifecycle, from definitions through to in-field performance, ensure that data regarding the product, its attributes, performance, or functionality in the field can be traced to how it was defined, designed, manufactured and supported over its lifetime.
A strong flow of data from initial definition and concept stages through to the product in the field will enable faster product innovation through enhanced cross-domain collaboration, fewer errors that contribute to development cost, and a wealth of information and insights from real-world product usage data. In short, it will help a company to become more efficient with its resources, more informed when making decisions, and more agile when responding to dynamic market demands. Now, let’s see how this is taking shape today.
PRODUCT DEFINITION
AND DESIGN
The digitalisation of product definition and design involves the capturing of requirements, goals and concepts for the product in a digital format that is traceable and manageable. Such a format provides a ‘single source of truth’ that will guide not only the product design, but also verification and validation programmes, manufacturing design, materials selection and much more. Indeed, as we move into the age of smart, complex and sustainable
products, requirements are more numerous and more varied than ever. Take, for example, the autonomous vehicle (AV). Even a lower-level AV – whether a passenger car, an aircraft or an automated guided vehicle (AGV) – comes with a slew of requirements around safety, compute resources, connectivity both internally and to external systems, thermal management, energy consumption and more. Then, design and engineering teams must find ways to bring all these requirements together in a vehicle that is nearly flawless in operation, often with advanced features and functionality and a high-quality user experience.
A comprehensive digital twin is perfectly suited to the demands of tomorrow’s advanced products. Product requirements are captured in an intelligent, digital format that follows the product throughout its entire lifecycle. Meanwhile, integrated engineering software enables cross-domain collaboration, early design verification and validation through simulation, and the ability to more rapidly evaluate and select the best of numerous design alternatives.
Rather than operating in siloes, design teams will be able to collaborate to find the best solutions, resulting in advanced and exciting products. Underneath it all, MBSE tracks design iterations, functional models, test results and more, tying them back to the initial product definitions and requirements.
MANUFACTURING TOMORROW Complex products often require complex manufacturing processes, increasing the cost and time of production.
The push for product individualisation increases complexity further, as manufacturers must devise increasingly flexible and autonomous production systems to meet demand. And manufacturers are also determining how to do all this while using fewer resources, less energy and more sustainable materials. Each challenge also presents an opportunity, where new technologies and new methodologies can help companies create efficient, flexible and reliable production systems.
One such technology is additive manufacturing (AM). The flexibility of AM makes it a potential boon for manufacturers hoping to create highly personalised products for their customers, while the relative lack of manufacturing constraints allows engineers to reimagine product designs to integrate new technologies or design philosophies. For example, AM can print complex lattice structures that maintain structural rigidity while also improving thermal performance and reducing the weight of the product or part. This means that manufacturers can produce higher performing products and better serve their customers while also reducing the waste created during subtractive production.
Digitalisation is key to adopting AM and other advanced manufacturing technologies, such as automated logistics systems and the industrial internet of things, or IIoT.
For AM, a tightly integrated digital twin is critical to achieving quality products while minimising design iterations. Before printing, designs must undergo rigorous simulations of the printing process to mitigate risks, optimise the printing and, thus, improve yield. At the facility level, the digitalisation of production lines enables machine monitoring, predictive maintenance, and the analysis of entire production processes to optimise material delivery, line balancing, and more.
The digitalisation of supply chain management plays a role here as well. The global pandemic has exposed some cracks in how supply chains are constructed and managed today. Fortunately, digitalisation can help us take advantage of this situation, opening the doors to communication and collaboration between original equipment manufacturers, suppliers and partners involved in the supply chain ecosystem. Within such a connected ecosystem, all parties can share information and predict outcomes to avoid disruptions in the delivery of raw materials or sub-assemblies.
IN-FIELD SUPPORT AND END-OF-LIFE
Finally, companies are considering how they can best support their products in the field, and how to process these products at end-of-life. Support procedures, whether physical repairs or software updates, are key to ensuring long-term value for both the manufacturer and its customers. This value can be further extended by connecting products to the digital thread, enabling data capture and in-field optimisation. This data can also be used to predict when products require service and maintenance, rather than relying on generalised schedules. Such information may also guide when a product has reached the end of its service life and is ready to be replaced by a newer model.
End-of-life procedures will also continue to be important as industries strive towards sustainability and profitability goals. As products reach the ends of their service lives, recycling or proper disposal of materials is critical to reducing the environmental impact of a product. If these recycled materials can be incorporated back into production, at the original manufacturer or elsewhere, then the advantage may be compounded. Outside of the material realm, companies may also learn a great deal from newly retired products. These lessons can be incorporated back into the digital twin of new models, creating a loop of learning and product improvement.
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