(upbeat music)
- Hello and welcome.
I'm Çağlayan Arkan, Vice President
of Manufacturing at Microsoft.
This last year has been unprecedented.
Prior to 2020 digital transformation was a force of its own.
Then the world was hit with a global pandemic
and digital transformation itself was transformed.
The crisis was a huge setback for us all,
but especially for the Manufacturing Industry
that was disrupted in terms of supply and demand challenges,
zero operational visibility,
and most notably a displaced workforce.
Now coming out of the crisis,
we have the opportunity to use technology
to meet the next crisis head-on.
Those businesses who are thriving
are doing so because they have the right vision.
They know what technology is capable of today
and how it can transform the business for tomorrow.
They know how to bring everyone along,
accelerate cycles, leverage data and new insights
to reinvent everything about the business
and their value chains.
This is what I call the Art of Possible.
I want to spend this time talking
about how the Art of Possible
is empowering amazing opportunities
for the workforce as well as opportunities
for manufacturers to reinvent themselves
with an accelerated sustainability agenda.
Jacky Wright is the Chief Digital Officer
and Corporate Vice President of Microsoft US.
She and her team have been driving a lot
of fascinating and impactful work here
which is now more important than ever.
Jacky, thank you so much for being here with us today.
- Çağlayan, thank you for having me.
I'm looking forward to the conversation.
- So are we.
Jacky, we all know that industries, businesses, societies
have all been under tremendous pressure
on a macroeconomic level, obviously due to the pandemic.
Enabling remote workforce and skilling
and re-skilling employees with advanced technologies
is no longer a competitive differentiator.
It is a necessity for business continuity.
So let us start with economic recovery and societal impact.
Will you tell us about some of the re-skilling programs
you and your team are driving and the impact you're seeing?
- Thank you, Çağlayan.
You know, we are witnessing a drastically widened
skills and employability gap.
This digital divide
which has only been exacerbated by this pandemic
and really to succeed in this increasingly digital economy,
every person will have to have access.
They need access to technology,
to skills and the opportunity
to pursue these in demand roles of today and tomorrow.
Skilling and re-skilling have always been a priority
for us at Microsoft, but with the pandemic
we are accelerating our efforts
to close the skills and employability gap
to drive economic empowerment
and development in a more equitable way.
So as you may have seen last June,
we announced the Global Skills Initiative
and a commitment to re-skill 25 million people unemployed
as a result of the pandemic, especially in manufacturing.
We launched those efforts here in the US
with our Accelerate Initiative, starting in Atlanta
and quickly expanded to other cities such as Texas,
Kentucky, and Ohio with many more to come.
Our Accelerate Initiative
is driving this multi-sector approach
grounded in partnership and collaboration
across city, government, community organizations,
educational institutions and corporate partners.
And I'll use Atlanta as an example.
We've been able to bring in corporate partners
like Home Depot, Coca-Cola and Accenture
to really work with us in digital skilling efforts.
And we've grown a coalition
of over 15 multi-sector partners
supporting Accelerate Atlanta.
I also want to add that we're focused
on various types of training
to support the diverse learners in the market.
So we're bringing in more intensive skilling
through both national and local learning partners
to provide more instructor led training
that unlocks career opportunities.
In Atlanta, we've partnered with organizations
such as TechBridge
and we've graduated our first cohort in November.
And we're working with these organizations
to create jobs and really focus on employability,
which really starts in earnest right now.
These trainings span across all roles.
Data Analysts, Software Engineer,
to in demand training in Cloud Fundamentals,
Project Management, and even soft career skills.
It really covers the full gamut of what's needed
to really thrive in this digital economy.
And so since July, we've seen over 650,000
engaged learners through the Accelerate program.
And, you know, I'm really proud of this focus
of, even in underserved communities,
how can we really improve
the outcomes of individuals, the lives of individuals
through skilling and re-skilling.
- Jacky I'll say, wow.
This is just so encouraging to hear.
Particularly, I'm biased
leading manufacturing globally at Microsoft.
But I always think of manufacturing
as employment, as growth, as competitiveness,
as many, many things that are very important
for our economies and for our people.
I know you also have been doing work
with the governments and private and public sector,
academia, I know Purdue and Texas A&M University.
We are also partnering
with the National Association of Manufacturers, MxD.
It's all about closing the skills gap
and empowering the next generation of workers.
So can you share a bit of the other work?
- Yeah, and this really relates
to this holistic approach that I described
in closing the skill gaps.
And so, yes, we're really starting to partner
with academia, private, public sector
and these key industry coalitions
such as MxD, NAM and CESMII
and also other government organizations.
The disruptive resilient supply chain activities
within MxD, Dow, RAD, Llamasoft and others,
it's been really foundational for us
in leading industry-wide innovation.
It's become a focal point for many government organizations
such as the Defense Logistics Agency
and other key federal sectors.
Some of the work we've been doing
with academic institutions
also leading the cybersecurity initiative
with Siemens and the University of West Florida,
building the foundry of the future with Purdue University,
PTC, Caterpillar, and our partnership with Texas A&M
to lead the secure manufacturing with the US Navy.
Last but not least our leadership with our partners,
it's really enabled us to co-lead
with impactful societal initiatives.
And I want to highlight the partnership
we have with Texas A&M and the US Navy,
which is about skilling our next wave of manufacturers
graduating from black and minority colleges.
HBCUs like Morgan State in Baltimore.
So again, this notion of creating an ecosystem,
government, public, private sector,
academia, industry organizations,
is where we really start to get and see
the greatest impact and really gain traction at scale.
- Jacky, at some point you must share with me
how your days are 48 hours and mine are 24 hours.
I need to learn your secret.
So, please let me in at some point
but let's come to the elephant in the room.
There's a conversation happening
about technology taking jobs away today
particularly artificial intelligence.
We know, we believe that's not really the case,
World Economic Forum research
suggests that over the next decade, yes
artificial intelligence technology
will maybe take away 75 million jobs,
but the same set of technologies
will create 133 million new jobs
per the same research.
These are AI jobs, these are digital jobs,
software jobs, data jobs.
And also you talked about re-skilling.
It may be the same job, but done differently
in terms of disruptive technologies
and how they impacted
that particular profession or workflow.
So we are in this point in history
where we really have to transform the workforce
from a skillset and profile that sets up a point of view.
So that happened when we were going
from agriculture to industry.
Now we're going from industry to digital
and we have to do it all over once again.
So can you share your point of view
in terms of the opportunity of AI
on the workforce specifically, Jacky?
- Yeah, absolutely.
And you know, there are a few things for me
as I think about it.
In this time of rapid change,
we really can't move ahead
without considering the impact
of new technologies like AI on people,
businesses, the environment, and society more broadly.
AI, when used ethically and responsibly,
it's really there to augment human capabilities
but unless I can see where I fit in
as an individual in this AI enabled future,
I'm not willing to take that leap.
I have opinions and views about myself
being displaced out of a job.
And so when you think about this skilling
and re-skilling, it becomes critical for adoption
and keeping pace with the speed of innovation
so everyone can participate.
In re-skilling how you design a product,
a service product, what you do on the shop floor
relative to manual functions versus acting on data.
The nature of the jobs have changed,
and we're moving to what we see
as higher value added jobs in manufacturing.
So many new professions and jobs
and disciplines to be put into the curriculum.
And for us to train people,
it is really a net new opportunity.
And then the importance of frontline workers.
We like to call them
and have traditionally called them blue collar workers.
Now it's a very high value add
and these frontline workers
are going to be equipped with technology.
And when you think about underserved communities,
the traditional manufacturing jobs
are the jobs that have been there
that are now going to be higher value add
with technology augmenting that capability.
We're seeing these technologies transform manufacturing
in a way that we never had before, boosting productivity.
That really is augmenting people
with team collaboration tools, mixed reality guides,
remote assists, IoT enabled machines
and AI enhanced applications to really keep pace
with operational maintenance and process complexity.
I mean, just think about what it can do
to allow us to operate in a more agile environment,
a safe environment, secure factory floor
and really where everyone can participate.
So I think to your point Çağlayan, yes
while jobs are changing, people's jobs are changing.
Technology is here to augment those human capabilities.
- Jacky, amazing.
Love the examples, love the insights,
particularly your emphasis on the frontline worker.
Really whenever we engage the frontline worker,
whenever we show investment and we teach them new skills,
they will embrace it and they'll show emotional reactions
such as, "For the first time, what I do is important."
"It's perceived, it's accepted, it's invested in."
And so we're just delighted
by how the frontline worker is now adopting technology.
That's an underserved segment of the workforce.
Let's change gears a little bit, Jacky
and talk about sustainability.
I know this topic is very near and dear to your heart.
Within manufacturing, industrial processes
account for more than half of the world's
total energy consumption and one fifth
of global greenhouse gas emissions,
not to mention that we all use a lot of water
in manufacturing.
So it's an urgent problem we must address quickly.
Sustainable manufacturing is a driving force
for innovative products, processes
and systems for next generation manufacturing.
More and more companies are realizing
the urgent need to adopt practices
that drive new efficiencies.
And Microsoft has an aggressive sustainability commitment.
And our goal is to help companies with the same
but making sure that we make the translation
into sustainable manufacturing
and sustainable supply chains.
So Jacky, can you tell us how Microsoft
is partnering with the industry
to accelerate sustainability in manufacturing,
supply chains and beyond?
- Yes. And thank you for that.
And, as you clearly stated,
for me, my purpose driven mission
is all about how we address the existential threats
that are facing us today.
And sustainability by far is now
one of the top three or four priorities for CEOs
along with workforce transformation.
I mean, we are the North Star here,
walking the walk and really talking the talk
to make this really happen for all of us.
The manufacturing industry, as you've indicated
is really undergoing some major disruptions,
including operations and supply chain optimization
and actually doing all of that
while meeting the challenges from digital transformation.
And so following a response oriented focus
during the COVID-19 crisis,
Microsoft and many of our key customers and partners,
we were eager to rebuild and renovate
with sustainability at the core,
and really at the forefront of what we do.
Our current focus is on key sustainability areas
that are critical to our business
and where we believe we can really make a difference.
These are the areas such as circular economy,
climate protection and we define those as follows.
Circular economy.
Really what we're talking about there
is collaborating to close resource loops in key markets,
such as helping to make all stages of the waste life cycle
work more effectively in the environment.
Climate protection, low carbon future.
We are seeking there to accelerate climate action
within our own operations
and across the wider value chains
that we support and participate in.
The fact of the matter is
no one person or organization
can solve these challenges alone
but we believe that these are the areas
where we can make a difference using our science,
global relationships across our value chain
to really seek and create shared opportunity for society.
A sustainable supply chain is the major anchor
and foundation for this.
Our collaboration with key customers
has resulted in outstanding sustainability outcomes.
For example, with Corteva, a new enterprise
and brand in 2019 which came out of the DuPont spin out
is innovatively creating solutions
to drive new values to growers and consumers
by preserving a sustainable path
for our world food production.
We have a strong partnership with them
to really enable and provide the digital solutions needed
to maximize yield and improve profitability
with an abundant food supply for an ever-growing population.
The solutions target carbon reduction in farms
which not only help our environment,
but really allow growers to really earn revenue.
And you know, this agriscience disruption
will really trailblaze food production,
meet financial objectives,
and while at the core preserving our environment
which is by far the most important thing
we need to focus on right now.
- Jacky fascinating discussion.
I'm further amazed by how you're kind of dissecting
the notion of sustainability,
which is a very broad concept.
And then attacking it at the high value topics
and issues and really bringing the rest of Microsoft
to bear in terms of our manufacturing and supply chain.
I love how you're talking about circular economy
and we're just very, very excited to partner with you
or rather to those amazing opportunities.
I'm inspired by the work you
and your team are doing to help our industry
build the skills needed for the new digital age
and empowering the sustainability agenda across industry.
So thank you Jacky so much for joining us here today.
- Thank you, Çağlayan.
And the partnership we have, I really appreciate it.
We've been doing great things together
and we'll only continue.
So thank you again for your partnership
with you and your team.
- Absolutely.
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