We are fully in the fourth industrial revolution. Digitization has revolutionized everything. The new technologies, the improvements in connectivity, have changed our daily life and, sometimes, we have it so internalized that we are not aware of it. We can buy online, take courses from the dining room table at home or meet with people from all over the world without having to travel. But this revolution has also deeply affected companies. Most have adapted to the possibilities of growth and internationalization offered by these new tools. And be careful, because international studies predict that between 2025 and 2030 jobs that we are currently unaware of will appear.
As in any industrial revolution there will be jobs that will be destroyed, that will disappear, but others will be created. Half of the companies will accelerate the automation of work and more than 80% will expand the digitization of work processes. These are the forecasts of the World Economic Forum, which calculates that automation will destroy 85 million jobs, especially manual or repetitive ones. But, in parallel, they also calculate that more than 97 million linked to artificial intelligence and content creation, caring for people or the green economy will emerge from the new reality. We will have to learn new skills to continue doing our job or a new one.
About all these possibilities, the path that remains to be traveled in the digitization of companies and the future challenges have been discussed in Dialogues in La Vanguardia with Chema Casas, general director of Telefónica in Catalonia; Ricard Mas, IT director of the AWWG group; Josep Medina, general director of the Manusa group, and Isabel Vidal, general director of the Grup Focus. Companies from very different sectors, but with something in common: they have seen digitization as an opportunity to grow.
Experts agree that companies have to rush to digitally transform their organizations and bet on new technologies. They also note that the pandemic has accelerated this entire process. Chema Casas explains that “on March 16, 2020, when the strong wave of the pandemic and confinement began, we had an increase in traffic to the networks of more than 50% overnight. Streaming, YouTube connections, videoconferences... and the networks endured”. Telefónica had done a previous investment job and at that moment it valued all the infrastructure that the company and other operators had put in place throughout the country. “In deployment of the fiber optic network, Spain is the first country in Europe and the third in the world. The small cities here have better connectivity than London or Berlin”, stresses Casas. The figures show it: 75% of the Spanish population has access to fiber optics.
And there is to get muscle because digitization "for companies is integral. It is something generic that extends throughout the company”, defends Josep Medina. The Manusa leader adds that his company made a strong commitment to implement the necessary technological infrastructure to face the challenges of the future. “We did it in 2014 and all this has allowed us to grow and build digital tools, software, that make processes evolve towards more efficient ones.” Medina explains that digitization has opened up business opportunities for them: "remotely control access to automatic doors, access smarter maintenance services and improve the relationship with our customers."
Efficiency is one of the common words in all these business models when talking about digitization. In the case of fashion it is very clear. Ricard Mas explains that the AWWG group “has implemented digitization with an approach focused on competitiveness and growth. We have set ourselves a three-year roadmap to reduce costs, be more agile... You cannot focus on a tool because it is fashionable, but think about what is behind it and how it can help you”. In their case, the change has allowed them to strengthen online sales, develop products with designs designed for distance selling. 3D technology has enabled them to reduce costs of between 30% and 40% in the product design process. All this only using digital tools. How have they achieved it? “You no longer have to carry tissue samples. With the 3D designs, you can do everything on the screen: you have an idea of the touch, of the drape of the clothes, of how that piece would look on”, explains Mas.
In the world of entertainment, digitization may seem more unlikely. In fact, as Isabel Vidal explains, they had never thought that their contents could be digitized. Until the pandemic arrived and they generated content for the networks. They adapted. And from here a whole string of opportunities. "In the creative process, digitization helps to make the show acquire levels of dramatic power that are higher than those it would have in the conventional system." For example: an unplugged one has a technology behind it that gives that solo a grand concert dimension. Or beyond the stage, “we didn't know the public before. Now we have information about the targets, the viewer can see previous content of the rehearsals, and can interact with the artists. We are even considering that there is a council of viewers that says what they would like to see ”, advances Vidal. She also remembers that her company organized the First Congress of Theater Spectators, with participants from all over the world. “Without the metaverse of Telefónica it would not have been possible. It allowed many people from different parts of the planet to participate. Now we are thinking about how to give the congress a more powerful format with the tools at our disposal”.
All these examples can be summarized with one piece of information: "there are studies that show that good connectivity and digital tools, which help processes to be digitized, make companies' productivity grow by between 15% and 20%", assures Casas. Ricard Mas corroborates this: “The new digital tools have made it possible to carry out specific actions that have increased our sales. Omnichannel has allowed us to better combine online and face-to-face sales, in stores. We have also created virtual assistants who advise clients ”.
To make it possible, companies have to choose one of the technologies on the market. “They have to choose the one that best integrates with the one you already had. It is not so important what new technology you choose, but what are the tools that allow you to carry out the transformation process. You have to analyze the set of processes that you have in the company and decide what digital transformation step you can take in each of them. And then choose the ideal technology”, explains Casas. And here we must also take into account another key element: cybersecurity. Digitization helps companies to be more productive, but it also exposes them to new dangers, especially since teleworking has been implemented. But the truth is that there are many providers like Telefónica that we can prevent and avoid these attacks. The important thing, according to Casas, "is to have a joint vision of the protection of the entire system."
Introducing new technological tools to companies forces them to train workers. It is that of renewing or dying. "The training has changed radically," explains Chema Casas. “Before, you had to send a person to do training and they did it sporadically. Now, the training is more agile, the way of communicating audiovisually is more attractive and more accessible. The challenge is that the workers who carried out the work up to now can carry out new ones”. Telefónica has a project, that of Escuela 42, which goes in this direction. With offices in Barcelona, Madrid, Bilbao and Malaga, it is a free, face-to-face campus on programming, open to all types of talent, without qualifications or previous studies. Precisely, Medina believes that “the most important thing in training is people's ability to adapt. It is a key factor. That people get out of their comfort zone, that they are not nostalgic for the accumulated experience and that they adapt to changes”. Isabel Vidal is clear that since new technologies have changed the work model there is a phrase in her company that has been prohibited: that cannot be done. “For a long time this expression had been part of company policy. But the digital revolution has changed it for us. And now everything is possible”.
In a context of alert due to the acceleration of climate change, due to the lack of resources, the digitization of companies can also play a key role. Chema Casas considers that “the green and digital transformation go hand in hand, they are twins. An example is 5G, which will change companies and cities and, in turn, will benefit citizens. 5G is a technology that is needed for the increase in the concurrence of wireless sensors. Connected devices that allow you to regulate streetlights in cities, garbage containers, irrigation systems in parks... You will save millions of money and there will also be savings in energy consumption. 5G will change many things ”, predicts the Telefónica manager.
Medina believes that digitization "has changed our mentality, companies are more permeable and are more attentive to learning from other businesses and other sectors." We are going faster and it will take more capacity to implement innovative ideas. Because we already have the tools to move them forward.
