S1E8. The future is now, but be careful how you apply technology. Guest Vivek Wadhwa.

05/04/21 • 28 min

I met Vivek several years ago in Houston, TX and have been in contact every now and then. With his knowledge and expertise in technology shaping the future and his engagements with Harvard, Stanford, Carnegie-Mellon, Duke, I thought it was great to hear Vivek’s opinions on where we are heading.

Here we are, still enduring the pandemic; we are able to create new deadly viruses and look at how quickly we, humanity, have been able to develop solution. This shows on how quick technology development is taking place. For just a few years ago this would not have been possible.

The next 8-9 years will be more amazing than the previous 80-90 years. This decade will bring more progress than the last 100 years.

What we see happening now is our adaption of technology with electric vehicles, autonomous drive, clean energy and cleaning up our planet. We will see more drone technology and 3D printed housing and food. Living will get cheaper. This transition will create a big mass of new jobs, however the automation and robots will then take over the jobs. Some of Wadhwa’s views on technology you can read about in his book “the Driver in the Driverless Car”

Technology adoption is key, find ways to embrace the new and share the knowledge. We need to work jointly for the benefit of humanity. Sharing equally is key.

(NOTE: listen to the episode with Ernesto Sirolli, he has the same message).

The future needs to give us freedom of choice, not just rigid control.

AI, what is it? Are we overhyping it or are we able to utilize it properly? The bias in pattern recognition is happening many places, which can be scary and dangerous, so we need to be very careful in how it is put in use.

And is the innovation and venture capital going to stay/grow in Silicon Valley, is the magic still around? We ended up discussing the quality of life in the Silicon Valley vs. other regions.

As a matter of fact this is the cliffhanger - as a follow-up we are going to have a second round of discussion in a couple of months on how innovative and good life is in Silicon Valley but also the Nordic region. And we need to discuss his most recent book also - “From Incremental to Exponential”. Until then, I hope you enjoy this episode!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com

The next 8-9 years will be more amazing than the previous 80-90 years. This decade will bring more progress than the last 100 years.

Technology adoption is key, find ways to embrace the new and share the knowledge. We need to work jointly for the benefit of humanity. Sharing equally is key.

(NOTE: listen to the episode with Ernesto Sirolli, he has the same message).

The future needs to give us freedom of choice, not just rigid control.

And is the innovation and venture capital going to stay/grow in Silicon Valley, is the magic still around? We ended up discussing the quality of life in the Silicon Valley vs. other regions.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com

Previous Episode

S1E7 Startup life is like race driving. Race Driver Matt Cowley as guest.

Host Mika Tienhaara. Guest Matt Cowley, professional race driver.

Finland has a long history of successful race drivers. We go with pace, also in the world of business, creating successful startups. In this episode we explore the world of race driving. UK has a fantastic infrastructure and eco system for breeding talent in motor sports - a young UK talent with a fantastic merit list is Matt Cowley. He has been racing since he was 16 years young, he has won championships in UK and the Americas. Race drivers have many similarities to entrepreneurs and we explore a few of those sides in this episode.

You have to be mentally top, Matt spent time alone in the US and becoming a champion. Meditation is a key element, according to Matt. Stress is around you constantly (just like in a startup) so staying mentally fit is very important.

Being active and spending time outdoor helps, says Matt.

What about the team? It is hugely important, without the team support from day-to-day the driver cannot make it. This sounds similar to being the CEO for a startup that has to build a motivated and competent team to be able to achieve the goals and being able to execute.

With your natural gifts you can only get so far. You have to have determination, set higher goals and put in the efforts of training. For instance, in racing the reaction time can be a deciding factor on the starting grid. For entrepreneurs - have a strong hands-on mindset, don’t let things slip!

Matt has shown grit, persistence and determination, for instance starting from the back of the pack and overtaking 150 cars to get on the podium! A startup is an underdog, but with speed-to-market and good traction you can overtake the old dogs!

We see change in racing also, for instance we now have Formula-E with electrical racers. A lot of innovation happens in racing, the technology and knowledge transfer into consumer products (CARS) is of huge importance.

Matt has set his target on LE MANS 2023, the biggest GT race in the world. He is determined not only getting there, his ambition is to WIN.

This is of course requiring fund raising, Matt is looking for sponsors and investors to support him to reach his goals. He has proven to be a winner, he has the determination and the talent to make this his next successful milestone. Matt and his team are looking at raising 2 million GBP, reach out to him to get onboard!

Check out his driving and pit talks on his YouTube channel.

Concluding this episode I learnt how many similarities there are between race drivers and entrepreneurs, we just compete in different fields building our dreams.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com

Next Episode

S1E9 / Fighting for minerals and advanced manufacturing - what's a winning strategy? With Goran Roos.

Guest: Professor Göran Roos, a Swedish academic, technologist, author and businessman. He is a specialist in the field of intellectual capital and an expert in innovation management and strategy. (wikipedia)

Pandemics come and go. We are still in a pandemic, but hopefully coming out of this pandemic soon, we have an altered society and world. Apart from being a very bad, difficult and devastating COVID-19 pandemic, there is a dramatic change ongoing in how we interact using digital and online resources - with virtual meetings (like this podcast as an example), online shopping, deliveries and streaming. All this is now part of the new normal.

But also as supplies drawing from international sources have been difficult and partly impossible impacting the sovereignty, the national strategies are incorporating more of manufacturing of critical equipment to have secure supply sources.

The supply chain disruptions have also impacted large corporates. That is also reshaping their strategies, having a deeper direct control of even the raw materials.

We have to go green and that means for mobility and transportation we are going electric. This is not the only impact, but materials, such as steel, will in the future be produced with carbon neutral processes. That in turn means that there is a need for green hydrogen - en mass. For this transition taking place, there is an enormous need for electricity.

According to prof. Roos the world is shifting from a dependency of petrol (OPEC) to a dependency of metals (China).

The semiconductor supply shortage recently is showing also how this is a critical and strategic product. Semiconductor development and production is an extremely high risk venture every time. The winners will be those with unique and required tools, machine and process knowledge.

All in all, there are great opportunities for science, technology and manufacturing.

Don’t stay in a dying business, for instance in automotive business, you need to shift to a strategy and product architecture with batteries/electrical motors and away from internal combustion engines. A lot less components, meaning also that this will be a challenge for the supplier companies.

Above picture is from Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times, by coincidence I watched it recently. We are up for a new big transformation which also creates a vast amount of opportunities.

There will be fights over the scarcity of talents, and in Europe, there is the dilemma -EU has about 1 million unfilled IT positions presently. The Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence is not stopping; automation will continue to grow in sophistication, at the same time, there will be a huge amount of new jobs created.

Speed is critical. You need to be agile. Not just as an individual or company. It applies also for the nation and the administration.

Discussion between journalist and union representative:

Journalist: "Are you not afraid of jobs disappearing with new technology?

Union rep: “We are not afraid of new technology, but of old technology. Companies with old technology go under.”

For Prof. Roos the technology shifts in the sectors of agriculture and aquaculture are behind but the potential is enormous and we can expect some deeper insights from these areas from him in the times coming.

NOTE: For a discussion on technology readiness, TRLs and MRLs, you may listen to the See Beyond episode with John Saiz, S1E5: https://mikatienhaara.substack.com/p/s1e5-sometimes-its-ok-to-fail-from?r=foifx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=copy

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mikatienhaara.substack.com