Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

The value of a great team has never been questioned. What thriving teams have in common is a single vision, a customer on which they can focus, a coach or leader to help them focus, and the authority to work within guardrails without having to stop to get permission to make decisions.

The demonstration of human resilience may end up being more noteworthy than the disruption experienced through the COVID-19 pandemic. Managers, mentors, coaches, and colleagues who are able to identify moments of low resilience can be of the greatest help to the individual employee and overall workplace morale and productivity.

Simon Schillebeeckx proposes a focus on regeneration as a way for small carbon footprint firms (e.g., consulting, financial services firms) to make a positive sustainability impact. He highlights that service industry firms can proactively contribute to the regeneration of common pool resources, such as forests and lakes, which often become neglected or overused. What makes regeneration different compared to more traditional donations to a conservation nonprofit is the use of digital technology that enables an organization to lay claim to the eco­system benefits it generates through its support. The digitization of benefits claims provides a transparent accounting system for environmental benefits. Schillebeeckx explains how transparency and accountability can lay the foundation for firms to work together to preserve and restore common pool resources.

Rohit Nishant and Thompson S.H. Teo explore the environmental impact of AI and ML. Specifically, the applications where these technologies add the most value are those that require heterogenous data in complex settings (e.g., optimizing smart cities, modeling climate change). In the process of creating value, these large AI and ML models require energy-intensive computing, leaving a huge carbon foot­print. To counteract these concerns, Nishant and Teo offer the “Align, Reduce, Measure” (ARM) framework for mitigating the environmental impact of AI and ML algorithms. The framework encompasses the organiz­ational structure, addresses data heterogeneity, and measures results to create accountability.

Jacek Chmiel draws attention to the increasing energy consumption by the electronic devices integrated into our daily lives. In addition to the ubiquitous mobile devices we all carry around, there are billions of devices, not to mention back-end servers, all of which consume energy. Exacerbating this problem are ML and distributed ledger technol­ogies, such as blockchain, that require intensive computing cycles, and use even more energy. The good news is that a greener software development strategy can have significant impact on energy usage of electronic devices. Chmiel explains the challenges to implementing this strategy and how organizations can overcome them.

Cutter Consortium Senior Consultant Curt Hall presents intriguing examples of how corporations and governments use AI and compatible technologies to move us toward a more sustainable world. He explains how many companies are using AI to reduce the energy consumption of … AI(!) and other digital technologies. He illustrates innovative technology-based solutions being developed for tracking carbon emissions and presents a selection of companies targeting key infra­structure areas for carbon reduction initiatives (e.g., data centers, transportation, waste management).

A challenge we face today is how to leverage technology to move us toward a more sustainable future, while mitigating its own impact. This issue of Cutter Business Technology Journal explores the dual sides of the technology sword — the potential for environmental benefit and harm — and, in true karmic spirit, how technology can help itself be more sustainable.

Cutter Consortium conducted an interview with Dejan Jakovljevic, CIO and Director of the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), on how FAO uses technology to reduce world hunger. Jakovljevic tells us how FAO has embraced digital technologies to not only improve its own internal processes but also to develop tools for its members. He explains how FAO transformed from a traditional sequential project management process to a nimble, risk-taking process better suited to addressing the needs of our rapidly changing world.