Digitalisation is the biggest disruptive factor driving change in today’s world, business leader Andrew Liveris said at an Ai Group webinar this week.
Mr Liveris, former Chairman of Dow Chemical and inaugural President of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee, joined Ai Group Chief Executive Innes Willox for a Q&A to explore key themes of his recently released book, Leading through Disruption.
The wide-ranging interview covered topics including artificial intelligence (AI), Australia’s aversion to corporate risk and skill shortages.
Innes Willox: Is this the most disrupted time in business history?
Andrew Liveris: The digital era overlays everything today. Since the dot-com era of the turn of the century to present day, we are besieged by digital tsunamis, forcing us to be in the moment and reacting in the moment. Unfortunately, it means the next generation is lost. We — stewards of the previous generation — have not served them well. I wrote the book with that in mind.
Q: Is digitalisation the biggest disruptive factor driving change?
A: It’s an S-curve and we’re at the beginning. We're ramping in an uncontrollable way. We are ill-equipped in the 21st century with our governance and government institutions to handle this. There are many questions confronting us: How do we corral this amazing technology? How do we harness it for good? How do we stop the bad guys doing what they're doing, which they're literally doing all the time?
Q: How do you lead, encourage and inspire the next generations (X, Y and Z) to have purpose through work?
A: The next generations look at things through a prism of information coming at them. If you go to the worst side of it, it’s a fake reality; it’s almost a fantasy of what the world is like. So, ‘work’ and ‘jobs’ are being redefined before our very eyes. This means we need to help young people figure out how to put solutions in place to improve the life of everyone on the planet, which is something they care about, and what will make them useful in their work. We need to give them skills that enable them to have their leisure while partaking in meaningful activity. We need a new generation of leaders to help us redefine what work and services will look like.
Q: Where do the skills come from to navigate this, both from a leadership and ‘worker’ level?
A: The one common unaddressable topic is not worker or job shortage, but skill shortage. We've got a skills gap that's widening. We blame Covid for supply chain disruptions or inflationary costs, but the true problem relates to skills. If I had to prioritise the policies that need to be addressed by developed nations to set the standard for the world, it's the education curricular and skill shortage, as well as health. Urgent public-private partnership models are needed to address these issues.
Q: What are the roles of government and business when it comes to AI? Should people be afraid?
A: Experts at a recent AI conference in Switzerland delivered a dire warning that AI might eventually signal the end of humanity. That creates an urgency for regulatory control. Just as we’ve controlled nuclear power, we need to do the same with AI to stop the downside risk. However, I don’t think we need to be afraid; it won't replace us.
Rather, the potential is enormous. AI is going to change our ability to interact with each other. Amazing developments like Elon Musk's Neuralink have the potential to change the lives of paraplegics and people with disabilities. Robots and AI are being used to take us to other planets. I'm part of an anti-aging foundation where we (are driving efforts to) not only stop aging but reverse it. If I can marry that with using AI intelligently, what will humans look like 50 years from now? I’m optimistic. I really don't think it'll replace us.
Q: How can a good leader turn failure into success?
A: Apart from possessing humility and being a great assembler of talent around you, develop the ability to ‘lift’ yourself out of your job so you can ‘see’ yourself doing the job. Judge yourself on how you are doing, and change yourself as a result. Listen to the people around you, and change yourself as you learn.
Q: Are corporates in Australia risk-averse or blind to opportunities? How can we address it?
A: I lament our risk-taking attitudes. Our entrepreneurs leave the country to scale. We seem to lack the ability to commercialise the incredible entrepreneurial research in our universities. We just don't have a venture capital mindset. Other countries have figured out how to take their incredible human capital and take risks and scale in country. So where are we on adoption and adaptation? We're very slow. We're waiting for signals from government, which is the last place to wait for in the time of technological change. It's for business and leaders to identify a longer-term purpose and for business to be part of the broader community.
In Australia, risk is not endorsed nor taken at the top of companies. You don't get promoted in this country if you take risks in scaling technologies. However, there is a new class of Australian business people who are increasingly taking risks by leaving the corporates and doing their scaling as small companies. And they're finding money to do that. Not a lot, but it's begun. At least it's happening now. Five to seven years ago, it wasn't. This is the American vein of gold; the universities in the US encourage their graduates to do that whereas in Australia, when we join corporates, the boardroom is risk averse.
Q: How are you approaching your leadership of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games? As a leader, what communication tips would you give to organisations undergoing major disruption to their operations?
A: You cannot listen enough to the communities that will be impacted and the communities of interest. Conduct listening sessions with every aspect of society, from the directly affected to the people who should be at the centrepiece but are not — like those with disabilities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. You need to absolutely integrate them into the product.
To do that, keep your eyes wide open and instead of going deep at the beginning, go broad, then deep. This is a tool I mention in the book: going broad, then deep. Broad is context, deep is content. Context, content, context, content. You're not going to get it 100 per cent right, so get to the famous 80/20 and go. Then have the feedback loops in place so if you haven't got something right, be willing to change.
Q: How is business seen in Australia as opposed to elsewhere in the world?
A: I divide my life between the US and Australia. When I go back to the US, I feel like I am in the business world and people, including the Government, really want to hear what the business world has to say. It's not lobbying, it's setting the standard on key policies. In the main, business leadership in America is welcomed. It sets the tone for the policy world to react to. It's the opposite here. We're over-governed here. If you pick up the newspaper to get information, you'll see what government thinks of something. Everyone's waiting for the Treasurer to set the tempo on key items that affect the business supply chain. The fact we are still a country that doesn't know how to do value add is an indicator to me that the business community lacks the impact it should. There are so many great stories of Australian businesses that impact communities in a positive way. It’s important we stand tall.
Q: What's the No.1 tip for leading a team to embrace change?
A: You need to help everyone around you to embrace reality. Put the reality of the case in front of the team, using subject matter experts. Then make a clear choice with that reality. Help people understand why that choice is the best choice by giving them the chance to give you alternative choices. Once you've got to that step, the people around you align to that choice and will do anything to ‘win’. You need that attitude in your team. Hunger through alignment and then you execute against that. Whatever you're going after, I found that formula to be successful. If people fall by the wayside, allow that. There will be attrition.
Q: What are the reasons for optimism?
A: Resilience and persistence are human traits. Marrying them with optimism will solve many issues. The book doesn't have all the answers but it lays out a prescription for how to approach things so we can get there — by engaging this next generation to figure out some of the issues confronting us.
Click here to order a copy of Leading through Disruption.
Wendy Larter is Communications Manager at the Australian Industry Group. She has more than 20 years’ experience as a reporter, features writer, contributor and sub-editor for newspapers and magazines including The Courier-Mail in Brisbane and Metro, the News of the World, The Times and Elle in the UK.
