Bertolt Brecht and digital transformation

Joe Barkai

In my opening remarks at the Product Innovation Conference in Berlin, I talked about a famous Berliner, Bertolt Brecht. You might wonder what does the influential poet, playwright, and theatre director has to do with engineering, innovation and digital transformation?

One of the characters in Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children ponders a question worthy of an engineering conference: “What happens to the hole when the cheese is gone?”

But the motivation to mention Brecht in my opening remarks was another quotation: “Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are.”

The inevitability of change

The outlook for the second half of this decade can be best characterised as rapid technology acceleration at times of economic and business uncertainty. Global politics, technology investments, and the positioning of leading companies, all play a significant role the early stages of transition into a new 21st-century economy that will be fueled by pervasive connectivity, distributed cloud-based computing, and smart, sensor-rich devices, says Joe Barkai, consultant, speaker, author and blogger.

The rapidly evolving, always-connected world, in which everything and everybody is connected, brings opportunities (and threats, depending on your point of view) and drive unprecedented levels of investment in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 technologies and business models.

In a 2015 McKinsey report, the consulting firm stated: “If policy makers and businesses get it right, linking the physical and digital worlds could generate up to $11.1 trillion a year in economic value by 2025.”

Bertolt Brecht

Unlike the previous industrial revolutions, whose impact was fully comprehended only decades later, today’s IoT discourse unearths important open questions and concerns about the impending economic and business model shifts, and the morphing of traditional business and technology boundaries.

As McKinsey’s analysts astutely point out in their report, the ability to harvest the promised fruits of IoT depend on both policy makers and businesses to “get it right.” The IoT community must continue to explore and understand the societal and ethical implications of these changes, such as the complete loss of privacy, and the increased automation that will shape the workforce of the future.

Embracing change

Change is inevitable. In a subsequent presentation at the conference, I discussed the economic value of uncertainty. I asked whether uncertainty and volatility represent a risk or an opportunity, and posited that companies planning on launching IoT-based solutions must recognise and leverage uncertainty and volatility rather than try to eliminate them.

Mentioning Brecht in the context of digital transformation and product innovation, drew attention and requests for the presentation’s slide. While the opening remarks were ad-libbed, here is a link to the formal presentation.

The author of this blog is Joe Barkai, consultant, speaker, author and blogger

It was first published on joebarkai.com

Comment on this article below or via Twitter: @IoTNow_ OR @jcIoTnow

RECENT ARTICLES

Surrey leads new £8 million FORT centre for advancing secure networks

Posted on: March 18, 2024

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) announced that Surrey’s 5G/6G Innovation Centre will lead a new £8 million Centre for Doctoral Training in Future Open Secure Networks (FORT). 

Read more

Protecting assets with LTE, NTN & 5G LPWA

Posted on: March 15, 2024

In this compelling piece, part of the Key Industry Insights Series, Analyst Robin Duke-Woolley of Beecham Research and Kevin Guan of Fibocom, explain how LTE Cat 4/1/1bis/M, NTN and 5G LPWA are working to change the game for protecting goods and supply chains with total, global coverage asset tracking for reduced losses and improved operations

Read more
FEATURED IoT STORIES

What is IoT? A Beginner’s Guide

Posted on: April 5, 2023

What is IoT? IoT, or the Internet of Things, refers to the connection of everyday objects, or “things,” to the internet, allowing them to collect, transmit, and share data. This interconnected network of devices transforms previously “dumb” objects, such as toasters or security cameras, into smart devices that can interact with each other and their

Read more

The IoT Adoption Boom – Everything You Need to Know

Posted on: September 28, 2022

In an age when we seem to go through technology boom after technology boom, it’s hard to imagine one sticking out. However, IoT adoption, or the Internet of Things adoption, is leading the charge to dominate the next decade’s discussion around business IT. Below, we’ll discuss the current boom, what’s driving it, where it’s going,

Read more

9 IoT applications that will change everything

Posted on: September 1, 2021

Whether you are a future-minded CEO, tech-driven CEO or IT leader, you’ve come across the term IoT before. It’s often used alongside superlatives regarding how it will revolutionize the way you work, play, and live. But is it just another buzzword, or is it the as-promised technological holy grail? The truth is that Internet of

Read more

Which IoT Platform 2021? IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide

Posted on: August 30, 2021

There are several different parts in a complete IoT solution, all of which must work together to get the result needed, write IoT Now Enterprise Buyers’ Guide – Which IoT Platform 2021? authors Robin Duke-Woolley, the CEO and Bill Ingle, a senior analyst, at Beecham Research. Figure 1 shows these parts and, although not all

Read more

CAT-M1 vs NB-IoT – examining the real differences

Posted on: June 21, 2021

As industry players look to provide the next generation of IoT connectivity, two different standards have emerged under release 13 of 3GPP – CAT-M1 and NB-IoT.

Read more

IoT and home automation: What does the future hold?

Posted on: June 10, 2020

Once a dream, home automation using iot is slowly but steadily becoming a part of daily lives around the world. In fact, it is believed that the global market for smart home automation will reach $40 billion by 2020.

Read more

5 challenges still facing the Internet of Things

Posted on: June 3, 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) has quickly become a huge part of how people live, communicate and do business. All around the world, web-enabled devices are turning our world into a more switched-on place to live.

Read more