Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Leadership Dilemma

RSOG Leadership in Action

Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Leadership Dilemma

 with

Professor Tan Sri Dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak

Framework of the Session

The Fourth Industrial Revolution or 4IR received a lot of attention of late ranging from business leaders, policy makers to academia.  Such responses are understandable given the expected profound impact of 4IR on businesses, society, and even humankind. In ensuring the best possible impact is gained from 4IR, the debates on it should be wholesome and inclusive.  For instance, artificial intelligence, which adds value in the ageing developed nations, may not be pressingly required by others.  Perhaps, the latter may consider investing in education (“natural” intelligence) and public infrastructure more rather than jump into the bandwagon inadequately.  As evidenced in the past, striking a balance when a huge notion like 4IR comes into the picture has always been challenging, especially when they are constrained in many ways.  What do leaders do in such situations?  What skill sets that leaders may need to lead in such complexities?  These are some of the potential areas that the Guest Speaker will focus in this session.

Key Takeaways from the Session

At the advent of the First Industrial Revolution, a statesman profoundly said that “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power”.  Looking at the destructions that humans afflicted to the planet as a result of technological empowerment derived from the revolution, there was some truth to the said statement.  Figuratively, that was also the underlying spirit of the Guest Speaker’s presentation that could be summed as follows.

The first dilemma is on how leaders look at the 4IR – either as an event or a continuum of events?  If the choice is the former, they can always download a guide in leading 4IR, which is abundant in the internet with seemingly as simple as 10 or less steps.  On the contrary, leaders who chose the latter look at the complete picture as far back as the First Industrial Revolution; from machine aided production days to industrialisation, and the internet era.  The previous revolutions, which is apparently motivated by economic interests, brought along negative consequences such as climate change, species extinction, and ozone depletion which affects the entire humankind.  Even the positive consequences such as longer life expectancy and improvement in quality of life is still beyond the reach of many.  As rightly pointed by the Guest Speaker, there are plenty of gaps created along the way that require leaders to reflect and take actions to ensure that the previous mistakes are not repeated in 4IR.

The Guest Speaker expressed his concern on the extreme dependency that humankind has with digital technology in 4IR, which brings about the second dilemma that he has identified – technocentrism vs anthropocentrism.  In short, it is about values that humankind cherishes in life today.  Technocentrics have absolute faith in technology and industry, firmly believing that humans have control over nature.  Anthropocentrics, on the other hand, believe that humans are the only, or primary, holders of moral standing.  Whilst both school of thoughts may have their own merits, it is the duty of the leaders to ensure balance between the two.  For instance, education for digital-natives and exponential world need to focus on both technology and science as well as humanity, creativity, and ethics.

If the second dilemma is considerably related to heart (faith), the third dilemma is centred around the human brain (mind).  It seems that in 4IR leaders are torn between artificial intelligence and primordial intelligence.  The former is essentially a machine-powered brain which is evidently fast, accurate, large capacity, and relatively easier to upgrade as compared to the latter.  Research showed that artificial intelligence has seen an exponential growth since the new millennium.  Interestingly, world renowned scientists have repeatedly warned of the potential dark side of artificial intelligence which may only surface after an apocalypse to humankind.  It is indeed hard for leaders to resist the allure of artificial intelligence, especially when a lot things in life are measured by dollars and cents.

Mid this year, a leading research centre anticipated that issues such as lack of trust, safety, and privacy may move those with fears to withdraw from the 4IR’s picture.  In other words, leaders could expect some forms of “disconnect” in the society.  The gaps that are created and carried forward from the earlier revolutions are likely to get bigger.  Failing to address such gaps could potentially contribute to security and civil liberties related reaction.

Going forward, leaders are expected to equip themselves with self-awareness, curiosity, and empathy skills as they can expect more unprecedented things to take place given the trends exhibited in 4IR so far.  A good sense of imagination is a plus point in navigating the inherently limitless possibilities that 4IR offers.  Wisdom and spirituality elements should anchor around the resolve of leaders.

Key Issues Raised

• Though Malaysia is a small component in the super large international system, there is always room to shape its own set of values which are more compatible with the local context.  For instance, some of the local concept such as “sejahtera” can also be practised in other countries like Indonesia and South Korea.

•  Losing jobs in the future due to rapid growth in artificial intelligence and robotics is expected.  Having said so, the situation then could be different.  For instance, super food could have been invented where one small intake a day should be sufficient – less urge to work to meet basic need.

• Without doubt, education plays an important role in shaping humankind in the future.  As indicated earlier, the students should be made aware that humans still have many advantages over their automated counterparts if they are to possess qualities that every human should have such as wisdom, spirituality, empathy, self-awareness, and curiosity.

• If it is true that lack of confidence is a contributing factor to Malaysia in stamping its mark globally, one small step in addressing it is by providing space for people to express themselves and interact with others meaningfully through open discourse programmes.

• At a more sophisticated level, dependency on foreign expertise should be gradually reduced by ensuring robust internal capacity building.

• By and large, Malaysia met the industrialisation target that it aspires.  The challenge now and the future is to make a breakthrough to differentiate itself from the masses.

 About the  Guest Speaker

Professor Tan Sri Dato’ Dzulkifli Abdul Razak (or for short, Dzul) serves the 14th President (2012-2016) of the International Association of Universities (IAU), a UNESCO-affiliated organisation, based in Paris. Prior to this, he served as the President of Association of Southeast Asia Institutions of Higher Learning (ASAIHL) from 2007-2008.  Currently, he is the Chairperson, Board of Directors ofUniversiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) after being the inaugural holder of the Chair of Islamic Leadership and Principal Fellow at USIM from 2014-2016. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Nottingham since 2015, and recently appointed Senior Advisor at Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya, and Honorary Fellow at Centre for Policy Research and International Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).  He was awarded the prestigious 2017 Gilbert Medal in recognition of “his long term commitment to an integrated approach to internationalisation

Contact

To get more information on this event, you can contact us via email at programmes@rsog.com.my