Global Peter Drucker Forum: Day 2 highlights

The 2018 edition of the Global Peter Drucker Forum was convened in Vienna, Austria this week. This post summarises insights from the second day (click here for insights from Day 1). I didn't take as many notes on the second day, preferring instead to sit, listen and dwell on what was said. (I also missed a couple of sessions, one to finalise my own preparations to speak; another to spend time privately with a two inspirational thinkers.) However, there were, for me, two speakers that really stamped their mark on the day, as follows:

Hermann Hauser,​ director of Amadeus Capital Partners and chair of the European Innovation Council, delivered a strong message, arguing that humanity is on the cusp of an inflection point (moving beyond evolution to design thinking) that has the potential to 'change everything' in the reasonably near future. He identified four significant disrupters:

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning: Allows for smart processes and removal of menial work
• Block chain and smart contracts: Enables automated [process] execution to be designed into systems
• Synthetic biology: Enables biological patterns of life to be modified, at the will of man
• Quantum computing: Nascent technology with the potential to render security systems useless

The implications of these disrupters are, frankly, rather daunting. Synthetic biology offers the prospect of defeating disease, but at what cost? Quantum computing has the potential to render electronic security systems useless. One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to realise the massive implications for commerce, banking and warfare. Researchers and technologists are committed to bringing these capabilities to market. But at what cost to humanity? The ethical implications are not insignificant. Recognising this, Hauser suggested that the state has an important role to play, to ensure appropriate regulatory boundaries and safeguards are established. But it must act quickly, before the genie gets out. 

Martin Wolf, chief economics editor of the Financial Times, spoke passionately about the role of the state; in his view, the single-most important institution in human history. I first heard Wolf speak a few years ago. He left a strong impression on me then, and did so again as he spoke. Addressing the question of how states can 'work better', Wolf named several important roles that the state 'must' fulfil par excellence:

• To ensure society is both collective and inclusive (no one left behind)
• To provide a fair and effective judicial system
• To underpin the monetary system
• To regulate and control sovereign borders
• To finance innovation (in effect R&D, not product development)
• To regulate and guide economic activity
• To protect the commons
• To collaborate with other states, to ensure stability of 'global' governance
• To establish the laws, roles, purposes and legitimate operations of all business

Such roles need to be implemented with aplomb. Failure to do so will inevitably lead to anarchy, in Wolf's view.