Leadership - Ep. #13: Short bites with Patrick Kilcline Novak

Name: Leadership - Ep. #13: Short bites with Patrick Kilcline Novak
Uploaded: 2020-06-03T20:55:47+00:00
Duration: 1 min 44 s
Channel: Virginie Glaenzer
Description: In this segment, the speaker reflects on the rapid acceleration of technology over the past 15 years, noting how platforms like Facebook have intensified…

3 Jun 2020 · 2 min

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In this segment, the speaker reflects on the rapid acceleration of technology over the past 15 years, noting how platforms like Facebook have intensified social separation and forced society to address problems that would have taken millennia in a compressed timeframe. They critique modern product‑based companies—exemplified by Jeff Bezos’s enterprises—that operate with minimal direct human interaction, relying on third‑party resellers and automated fulfillment, which creates a "humanless" business model. The speaker argues that while such companies may continue to push automation, the larger challenge lies with organizations that still engage directly with people; these firms must navigate evolving leadership dynamics in an increasingly automated world. The speaker calls for a balance: allowing product‑centric firms to become more automation‑driven while preserving human connection in other businesses, and preparing for a future where robots may operate in many environments. The overall tone is contemplative and urgent, emphasizing the need for leaders to make the most of the limited time we have to adapt.

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We've got 15 years on this whole technology run, right? You know, since Facebook and all those other technology platforms have risen, we've been in this instance of separation or forced separation or technological separation in a drop of a time, in a very small amount of time, right? And so we're looking to solve millions of years' worth of problems in a shorter period of time because our technology has compounded that problem. So, I mean, when I think of, if you talk about Jeff Bezos or certain kinds of companies that exist today, it's a product-based company that largely caters to third-party resellers that never get to meet their customers in person. They don't ever have to talk to them, they don't have to have a video conference with them. There is zero connectivity. I click, I order, and someone from somewhere across the country spent their time and their effort and their wonderful energy making something for me and it comes to my doorstep. And so, it takes— the business is largely humanless as it is. So maybe we get to the point of automation where those kinds of companies are not as risk for part— worse leadership dynamics, but for the vast majority of the rest of the companies that deal with more of the people, that's where we're going to have to focus. So hopefully you make product companies more product and automation oriented, and our human companies can return to a more human place and we can focus on there because some of those other companies, they may be, it may be too late and we may need to make robots operate in those environments more than we would in the hemodynamic. But as far as I know, everyone here on this call and the rest of the humans that are on the planet, we're not going anywhere for a long period of time, I hope. So we need to make the most of it.