Text Ariana 4_ Corporate Digital Responsibility.docx

**Corporate Digital Responsibility** Like any revolution, the digital transformation of our world brings endless possibilities for good and countless prospects for bad. Anyone that categorically says "digitalization is GOOD" or "digitalization is BAD" probably hasn't given the issue more than a sup...

**Corporate Digital Responsibility** Like any revolution, the digital transformation of our world brings endless possibilities for good and countless prospects for bad. Anyone that categorically says "digitalization is GOOD" or "digitalization is BAD" probably hasn't given the issue more than a superficial level of thought. The truth is: it's BOTH. And in the end, HOW "good" or HOW "bad" your OWN organization's digital transformation will be, depends on how much Corporate Digital Responsibility you assume for the result. And that includes YOU, as an individual employee. Let's look at a couple of stakeholders every organization has and see how this plays out. We'll start with kind of an important one: our planet's environment. As you can see on the screen: there are numerous ways in which your organization's Enterprise Information System can both HELP and HARM Mother Nature, depending on what YOU do. If you plan and act RESPONSIBLY, then digitalization can reduce emissions, slash paper consumption, lower water consumption, curtail pollution, and cut down on the unnecessary wastage of resources. But if you plan and act IRRESPONSIBLY, then the opposite will happen. Your digitalization is going to boost energy consumption, overburden the local electric grids, cause deforestation, raise air pollution and noise pollution, release greenhouse gasses and toxic materials into the environment, and generate a bunch of nasty, additional waste. So who ARE you? As I said earlier, digitalization is never a matter of ENTIRELY "good" or "bad". Instead, try to imagine a continuum for every organization like this. Where exactly along this continuum your organization lies -- so 'HERE... or 'HERE', for example - ultimately depends on how seriously your management and all the employees take your Corporate Digital Responsibility. The same is true for a second major stakeholder of yours, your Customers. We all know that digitalization offers incredible benefits for customers: 24/7 access to goods and services -- often at locations where customers previously couldn't get these goods and services at ALL. We also benefit from the CONVENIENCE and the SPEED that comes with accessing services digitally instead of having to get off our collective couches and physically travelling to a place of business. The OFFERS that we as customers receive from companies are far more CUSTOMIZED than they were in the past -- simply because companies collect and analyze our buying behavior a lot more easily when it's tracked digitally. And in the LONG run, tracking consumer behavior ALSO allows organizations to understand OVERALL customer demand much better, which helps them to prioritize the development of the goods and the services that we REALLY want. But all that comes at a price. How often have you interacted with a chatbot or an automated phone service and been frustrated that you're communicating with a standardized algorithm rather than a living, breathing human being? An increasingly heard customer complaint is that customers feel 'lonely' or 'unheard' in their customer communication because of OVER-automatization. And then there's that consumer data tracking we just talked about. All the potential benefits quickly pale in situations where our customer data has been collected in an unethical - or even ILLEGAL - manner and is being misused. Unfortunately, some organizations -- whether knowingly or unknowingly - try to manipulate customers with their AI. In fact, there's even a gender and a racial bias in some current AI systems due to the type of data those AI were fed with. And then there's that constant invasion of our customer privacy DUE to all the tracking technologies. I'm sure there are days where you feel like you're being bombarded by an endless armada of intrusive, non-stop online marketing campaigns. Who wants THAT? You and your Organization: are you going to be 'HERE' when it comes to your customers or are you going to be 'HERE'? It's up to you entirely. Let's turn to your organization's responsibility towards its employees. There are SO many benefits that digitalization offers employees -- let's count them up. There's the previously UNTHINKABLE access to information that employees now have at their fingertips. Then there's the SPEED at which artificial intelligence analyzes MASSIVE loads of data for you. There's the EASE with which employees can now store and organize NEW information, and IMMEDIATELY make it available to others around the world. Then there's the ability to collaborate with colleagues, customers, and suppliers directly on digital platforms, rather than needing to sit at the same table. Connected with that is the ability to WORK remotely - maybe even from home. There's the ever-growing ability to automate repetitive tasks. There's the improved WORKPLACE SAFETY that comes with letting the robots do the dangerous stuff, as well as from the 24/7 tracking of any risk data with sensors. Last, there's the greater reach that every organization now has to geographic markets EVERYWHERE, which allows organizations to grow and ideally offers higher job security. But just like with our earlier cases, that's only the ONE side of the coin. Sure, employees have far more access to information than they've had in human history. But that's a blessing AND a curse. 'Information ACCESS' can quickly become 'information OVERLOAD', crushing employees under mountains of information they don't need but are STILL required to work through. The same goes for communicating digitally. As human beings, we have a profound need for face-to-face, human connection. And as Abraham Maslow pointed out, this social need is at least PARTIALLY fulfilled at our places of work. Communicating digitally and working remotely IGNORES this, increasing the very real risks of employee isolation and loneliness. Then there are the SENSORS. The improved workplace safety that digital sensors offer, can, simultaneously, threaten employee privacy and evoke the uncomfortable feeling that EVERYTHING around us is being monitored. Automation and the support of AI free employees from tedious tasks. So much is true. But without proper foresight, they ALSO lead to a substantial loss of employee AUTONOMY and DECISION-making authority. Both of which -- if I refer to Maslow again -- are SUBSTANTIAL motivational human needs at the workplace. And last, we'll address the elephant in the room: job security. While it's TRUE that a company can now offer its goods and services in the remotest of geographical locations, the reverse is ALSO true. We're no longer competing with just the shop down the road, we're competing with ALL the shops down ALL the roads of our blue planet. Combined with automation and AI, it's a harsh reality that many types of jobs that exist TODAY won't exist TOMORROW, or even later today! Which understandably frightens employees, unless their organization is taking steps to proactively train them in the types of jobs that WON'T be secured by international competitors or delegated to machines tomorrow. In all these cases -- and many more - Corporate Digital Responsibility becomes THE major determinant of whether your organization will rank on THIS end... or on THIS end of the spectrum. It's not enough for your Communications Department to publish a few polite blanket statements about your commitment to Digital Responsibility. Your responsibility needs to be implemented in the very fabric of your strategy: in your RULES and PROTOCOLS, in your BUSINESS processes, your hard- and software choices, in the way in which EACH of your employees handles data on a day-to-day basis, AND in the way you measure performance and do your controlling. Unless Corporate Digital Responsibility is anchored in the very DNA of your organization, even the BEST of intentions will leave you standing on the shallow end of the pool.