人力资本…在技术世界中成为人…教育、医疗和工作的未来

Peter Fisk Humancapitalisanation’smostvaluableasset,andthekeytoitsfuturegrowth.Howeverinaworldofdisruptivechange,weneedtodeveloppeopleinnewways–education,healthcareandwork–inordertoensureabetterhumanfuture. “The world is endowed with a vast wealth of human talent. The ingenuity and creativity atour collective disposalprovideus with the means not only to address the greatchallenges of our time but also, critically, to build a future that is more inclusive andhuman centric” says Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum All too often however, human potential is not realised. It is held back by short-termism,by a blinkered focus on partial solutions, or by inequality. The World Bank’s HumanCapital Index claims that the world has developed only 62% of its human capital, leavingmuch of the talent and dreams of people across the world unrealised. This matters because human capital is an investment–in all of us-our personal health,talentandachievement–to sustain economic growth, and to compete in a rapidlychanging world. If we don’t invest then we decline. And in today’s world, if we don’tinvest then we decline dramatically. We live in the most incredible time. The next 10 years will see more change than the last 250 years. From self-cleaningclothes and digital personal assistants, DNA profiling to automated cars, intelligentmachines to missions to Mars. None of this is new, yet we approach it with trepidation. Dowe need and want this change? Change is inevitably scary and disruptive. Whilst the last centurysawhuge improvementsin living standardsaround the world-inreducing poverty and unemployment, improving literacy and health-the years aheadwill see new challenges. Challenges to the dreams to which we aspired.Challenges tothe current models of success.What will happen to jobs, to the aging populations, tosmall businesses, to emerging countries, to local cultures? Today we see how digital technologies are transforming every aspect ofour lives-howwe go shop for food and clothes, how weget information and advice,how we learn andwatch movies,howwe travelorlisten to music, how we connect with ourfamilies andfriends.Amazon to Baidu, Coursera to Dalian Wanda,Kululaand Spotify, WhatsApp andWeChat–these new businesses, new products and services, emerge out of every cornerof our world, to change what we can do, our expectations and aspirations. And at the sametime,we face many new socialandenvironmental challenges. We seethe effects of climate change, extreme weather and rising sea levels, its threat to Pacificislands and low-lying cities, and its impacts on agriculture and food economics. We seeconflict and tension, often the result of misunderstandingorintolerance, itsconsequences in war but also in diverting investment. We see increasing inequality,despite the new opportunities increasingly accessible to all. And in a world of chatbotsand fake news, we struggle to know who to trust. The UN’s sustainability goals identify and guide us inindividualand collaborative effortsto address these issues.These are issues thatchallenge life as we know it, andthepotentialof each one of us to achieve our hopes and dreams. Our ability as individuals to participate in thisnew world, as businesses to compete inthis new world, and as nations to grow in this world requires new capabilities. Mostfundamentally it requiresthe foresight to make sense of this new world,theimaginationto understand how capabilities shouldevolve further,the knowledge and skills todeploythem practically,the vision and empathy to work together,in every aspect of our lives,and within our communities. Rethinking how we achieve progress. Consider, as an example of the changing approaches, the different growth journeys ofthreewell known retailers–Sweden’s IKEA, America’s Walmart, and China’s Taobao(which is the consumer retail platform of Alibaba). Whilst IKEA has sought to grow traditionally, by replicating its home furnishing storesacross almost 50 countries, Walmart has instead focused on partnering or acquiring localbrands in different markets,includingmost recently India’s online retailer Flipcart–30times more stores. Whilst the Swedes have rolled out their standard model, Walmart haslearntnewcultural andrelationship skills, to connect vastly different organisations, tounderstand differentaudiences, and to creatively embrace new business models. Meanwhile,China’sTaobao, has only emerged in the last decade. Itwas born as anonline business, and is already twice as big as Walmart, 20 times the size of IKEA. Likemany of today’s most disruptive innovators–think ofAirbnb to Uber-itis built on adigital platform,connectingmillions of small businesseswith billions of consumers inover 200 countries.There are no limits to its size, helping millions of entrepreneurs findnew markets.TheChinese company’snetwork-based model drives exponential growth,fast and accelerating, unlike anything imaginable ina more traditional business. Comparing these three com