Britain’s Chancellor (Treasurer) Philip Hammond got himself in a tangle on the Sunday news shows by suggesting that “there are no unemployed people” as a result of technological changes.
While the gaffe was avoidable, and his quip that “there are no more shorthand typists as a result of personal computers” was unfortunate.
He later redeemed himself on another program which you can watch in my edit below.
My view is that when senior members of a Government are talking about the near-term effects of robotics and technological change, we need to sit up and take notice.
Britain is in the middle of a divorce from Europe – lovingly called Brexit.
The government is positioning Britain 2.0 to lead the world in technology. As Hammond rightly points out in the latter part of the clip below, Britain needs to prepare its workers for this change, and start retraining and reskilling now.
As Singapore’s Prime Minister mentioned in his 2016 annual address, you cannot just look away, you need to actively embrace disruption and work with it.
The same applies to companies. You can choose to ignore the change or embrace it head-on and prepare your organisation for the future.