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How can social responsibility help prepare you for the threat of technology replacing your industry?
Social responsibility is about taking actions meaningful to people– and it’s people with whom you must collaborate when radical change occurs. Focus social responsibility right, and you’re better prepared for anything.
Business faces a challenge similar to my son, Devin’s. Devin wants to be an engineer so he focuses academically on math, science, and robotics.
Devin also knows how critical relationships are. Despite being thirteen-years old, Devin chooses to skip owning a smartphone. He knows a phone would tempt him into hours of YouTube videos, and connection to family and friends would lose out.
Like Devin, business leaders must prepare for a future of digital technology-driven change. For example, the dairy and beef industry could face a 50% demand decline by 2030. In Rethinking Food and Agriculture, the authors suggest fermentation processes leveraging artificial intelligence-based analysis will soon produce less expensive, healthier meat and dairy products than cows can. If Tony Seba and his team are right, #cattle and #dairy ranching, #animal feed production, #farming, and many other business sectors will be unrecognizable in just a decade.
While critical, insight into the technology driving such existential threats isn’t enough. When change hits, the successful business is already poised for collaboration. Relationships with customers, suppliers, and other constituencies must robustly translate data into understanding of rapidly shifting opinions, perspectives– and purchases.
Many quality companies develop such connections through corporate social responsibility. Chocolate producers such as #Cargill, #Blommer, and #Hershey’s develop across-the-supply-chain relationships while strategically strengthening cocoa growing societies. HSRN’sExtending the Family initiative helps business develop meaningful connections with African American leaders at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. And #IBM strengthens affinity with the LGBTQ community by providing socially responsible tools including a guide to gender transition in the workplace.
You live in an economy in which data is king, technology is queen, and robots make decisions. Yet, despite technology all around, you still live in a human world. Your robust strategy must cultivate both people and the machines that serve us.
As you pass through your own day, consider, “What relationships do you most need to nourish? Maybe it’s time to pick up the phone to make a call rather than check email.
Please share your thoughts in the comments or by sending me an email: info@RodWallacePhD.Com.
Our society cannot just survive. For the sake of our children, it must thrive.
Rod
Dr. Rod Wallace is an economist, consultant, and speaker who helps businesses make more money by solving society’s problems. A Fulbright Fellow, he has led multi-organization billion-dollar initiatives worldwide and partnered with a Silicon Valley pioneer to explore the impact of Artificial Intelligence on society.
Rod speaks about how to integrate social responsibility into business to maximize profit and purpose. He highlights digital technology’s impact on society and the strategies and tools with which business can solve our big, systemic problems.
Contact Rod at info@RodWallacePhD.com.