The key to thriving in uncertainty

The late Harvard economist, John Kenneth Galbraith, first coined the phrase, ‘the age of uncertainty’ in the 70s. Fast forward 50 years - the pace and depth of uncertainty we are experiencing today is something we could never have predicted.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) uses a set of economic criteria to measure the degree of uncertainty in which we live. Their World Uncertainty Index tells us that uncertainty peaked in 2020 and remains 50% above the historical average from 1996–2010¹. This economic uncertainty accounts for all the factors that impact growth, including resources, climate, conflict and economies. Through this lens, we can see uncertainty is the only certainty.

How is it possible to plan for the long term when the future is increasingly unknowable? For business leaders today, it means adopting a new, agile mode of thinking and planning in the knowledge that uncertainty will happen. It also means having adaptation strategies sitting tightly alongside mitigation plans.

Alan Iny from the Boston Consulting Group calls this ‘the uncertainty advantage’.² He believes businesses can thrive in uncertain times by predicting changes, acting on them and building resilience. This also presents the opportunity to excel in the competitive space for enterprise-scale operations. Taking a future-thinking rather than optimisation approach to planning means seizing opportunities as they arise rather than trying to control the outcome.

The uncertainty advantage means taking an innovative approach to age-old challenges; without new perspectives, this approach will stall. Diversity of thought means bringing people with a mix of backgrounds and skillsets to find solutions to problems and opportunities for innovation. This approach has become critical to businesses faced with complex, intertwined problems such as those seen by COVID-19.

Singtel’s corporate venture capital fund Innov8 works on the principle that the key to quantum change lies in a diverse portfolio of investments. By investing in a range of start-ups, Singtel brings a diversity of thought into the business and creates partnerships with industries outside telecommunications, such as gaming, fintech and blockchain.

Bringing a diverse skillset to a problem allows for divergent and convergent thinking – both brainstorming and seeking the final solution. It also breaks down the walls of our old processes that established businesses created in a time when we had more economic and environmental certainty.

Diversity of thought creates an innovation mindset which, in turn, uses a process of constant iteration to develop products and services. It is this process that will help businesses thrive in uncertain times.

Singtel combines this diversity of thought with innovation to produce efficiency-focused technologies such as Singtel Paragon. Working with partners and customers to bring different perspectives on 5G use cases helped build the revolutionary platform and create an industry-first for 5G edge computing and cloud services.

There is no doubt that uncertainty requires innovation. Without knowing if raw materials, factories or the workforce will be available tomorrow, business leaders cannot thrive without adopting new technologies and approaches to these challenges. Increasing efforts to digitise operations and automate processes will allow us to tackle never-been-seen problems at the pace at which they arrive.

Digitalisation

Climate uncertainty impacts multiple areas of our business, so we must commit to decarbonisation. But this move to a global, net-zero economy is not without cost, and an estimated USD$3.5 trillion must be sourced to fund the transition. Taking into account the rising cost of energy, steel and concrete, this eye-watering figure is still less than the cost of doing nothing.³

Digitalisation will play a critical role in this transition by reducing overhead costs from resource use and waste. In industrial processes, for example, digitalisation from IIoT will direct energy only where needed and shut down parts of the production line that are otherwise idle.

Singtel’s collaboration with Intel is one of these digitalisation efforts in practice. By creating a 5G Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) incubator, the collaboration aims to help enterprises adopt 5G-powered services and infiltrate more aspects of daily business operations. In times of rapid uncertainty, this means deploying applications that need low-latency processing at the edge and accelerating the transition to digital services.

Automation

Using AI to complete tasks removes the uncertainty of workforce availability and downtime. These savings are significant; using Robotic Process Automation (RPA), it is possible to automate up to 70% of a typical, rules-based process.⁴

With fossil fuel energy sources becoming increasingly unreliable and costly, the switch to electricity-powered, automated machines also builds resilience in uncertainty. Electric machines create significantly fewer emissions than fossil-fuelled, manually operated ones and deliver the flexibility, scalability and consistency that human-driven machines cannot. Also, robots don’t have the energy requirements of humans, who need lighting, heat and cooling to work.

Singtel joined forces with Accenture to create an efficient, automated operation in the form of a 5G-connected warehouse for the pharmaceutical company Zuellig Pharma. The warehouse uses automated solutions to improve efficiencies such as inventory visibility, worker safety and throughput (the number of orders fulfilled). Applying 5G in this way allows for automation at a speed not seen in the pre-5G era.

By adopting the uncertainty advantage mindset and drawing on diverse approaches to solving problems, businesses can continue to grow. For businesses committed to transforming to fully digital operations and automated processes, this shift will come at the pace we need to thrive.

Choose Singtel as your partner for building an uncertainty advantage.
 

References:

¹ IMF, 2022, World Uncertainty Index

² Boston Consulting Group, 2020, Building your Uncertainty Advantage

³ World Economic Forum, 2022, Digitalization is the key that can unlock net-zero for industry

⁴ AI Multiple, 2022, What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?