Last year, Bill Gates named his 10 breakthrough technologies for the year. Among the technological developments he outlined were robot dexterity, new-wave nuclear power, customized cancer vaccines and the cow-free burger. It was the first time that the list, usually compiled by MIT Technology Review, was created by a guest editor. It is no wonder that Gates rightly predicted that home computers and the internet would infiltrate much of our lives. Yet, when I went through this list, it was not necessarily universal. Many of these breakthrough technologies made sense through Western lenses. We have to ask, which of these breakthrough technologies will have the most significant impact on the African continent?



Perhaps the most pressing issue for Africa now is agriculture. Climate change has had a devastating impact on the agriculture sector, which is particularly concerning when you consider that most African economies still heavily depend on it. A study by McKinsey &amp; Company found that more than 60% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is smallholder farmers, and about 23% of sub-Saharan Africa’s gross domestic product (GDP) comes from agriculture. Yet, increases in temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns and extreme weather events not only disrupt entire industries but reduce food availability and impacts food quality. This, of course, is coupled with the fastest-rising population, which places more strain on resources.



We have already observed in the last few years how devastating a drought can be. South Africa has become a significant food importer, while Kenya and Zimbabwe are on the verge of starvation. This has seen the regional and national economic growth take a severe knock. Yet, as the United Nations put it, “the continent has enormous potential, not only to feed itself and eliminate hunger and food insecurity but also be a major player in global food markets.” So how do we go about this? I would argue that tapping into the technologies of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) does not just serve as a way of revitalizing the agricultural sector but also realizing its potential. As the American financier Bernard Baruch once put it: “Agriculture is the greatest and fundamentally the most important of our industries. The cities are but the branches of the tree of national life, the roots of which go deep into the land. We all flourish or decline with the farmer.”



I have just bought a farm and have been looking at ways in which artificial intelligence (AI) can make farming more efficient. Farmers can tap into AI to combat disease and pests, which have been made worse by climate change and pesticide use. Drones and other robots equipped with computer vision can collect data points from the farms’ existing crops. If you were to ask me to spell out some breakthrough technologies, many of them would be inextricably linked with the agricultural sector.



For instance, it is estimated that humans would need to plant over 1.2 trillion trees to combat climate change. Here, we could use AI to automate this process.



Airlitix is a South African AI software that is currently being used in drones to automate greenhouse management processes. We could take this a step further. Airlitix can collect temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide data as well as analyse soil and crop health. 



Elsewhere, similar technology has been adopted. The Third Eye project in Kenya uses near-infrared cameras mounted on drones to survey and diagnose the plants for pests and diseases, water stress and nutrient deficiencies. This requires a combination of historical data and the use of AI. Last year, IBM developed an AI-powered app to test the quality of their soil and water on location, in real-time. The AgroPad is a technology that can rapidly perform chemical analysis of water and soil samples. In California, Ceres Imaging has mapped fields using images of farms, which are analysed using AI to ascertain whether crops are getting enough water. This technology helps farmers decide when to plant, water, spray and harvest their crops.



This conversation crops up as we scrutinize what it means to have a green economy. The 4IR does not merely provide tools for efficiency, but it presents a unique opportunity to interrogate how we can transform the industry as our natural environment deteriorates.



To a large extent, we underestimate the importance of the agricultural sector. Yet, without it, we would not have food security, we would see our economies crumble and there would be untold job losses.



-Tshilidzi Marwala

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Op-Ed: How To Be A Major Player In Global Food Markets

Some of these fads were slowly building in the previous decade, others are still nascent, but need your full attention to prepare your business for the times ahead.



1. AI and machine learning



Key takeaway: Automate repetitive tasks, but be wary of automating inefficiencies and biases.



You’re surrounded by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning: from the recommendations Netflix makes based on your viewing history to those pesky adverts that track you around the internet. As Bronwyn Williams, a trend analyst at Flux Trends in South Africa, explains, “Most of what you think is AI is actually machine learning.” Williams emphasizes that fears about AI “stealing jobs” are overrated, and most businesses will see the arduous, repetitive tasks given to machines, freeing up humans for analysis and critical thinking. She warns businesses to remember it’s the human interaction that differentiates one offering from another. “Don&#8217;t automate away your value. Look under the hood and make sure you understand why you are automating something – and be careful not to automate inefficiencies.” Looking at automated HR processes, companies have discovered that even unconscious human biases are learned by machines (for example, CVs belonging to certain genders and races are discredited. Machines are not born neutral – especially if they’re learning from humans.) Embrace machine learning, but do so with a pinch of salt.



2. Driverless cars and the supply chain



Key takeaway: Autonomous cars are still about 15 years away, but it’s best to prepare your fleet and supply chain choice now.



The automotive industry is going through some major changes: electric cars, the growth of services like Uber and Lift, and lastly, the development of autonomous vehicles. Though the first two will impact everyday consumer experiences, it’s self-driving cars that will massively alter businesses and their supply chains across Africa in the next decade. “As convenience and efficiency are the cornerstones of the fleet industry, there is no doubt self-driving vehicles will start making a play for their share of the fleet industry sooner rather than later,” explains Sudesh Pillay on fleet management company EQSTRA’s online platform. The supply chain will no longer be affected by driver fatigue and human error. Driverless cars will also dramatically impact accident rates (lowering them by 90%, according to some estimates) and supply chain efficiency. As Innovation Group’s Future Now report indicates, autonomous cars face some serious challenges across Africa before they can become a practical alternative to human drivers. “There is a vision, in the not-too-distant future, in which self-driving cars hold a lot of promise…. Others are more skeptical about the practical feasibility, especially in Africa where the infrastructural limitations (roads, electricity etc.) hold back the vision, at least in the foreseeable future. Our research indicates that self-driving cars may only become a reality in South Africa in [15] or more years and that this may spur innovative advances in infrastructure, energy services and ultimately the look and feel of roads and cities.”



3. Climate crises and



natural disasters



Key takeaway: Hire a Chief Sustainability Officer to



start building climate resilience into your business.



“Now is the time to start thinking seriously about resilience,” says Hugh Tyrrell, Director at Green Edge, a corporate mentoring initiative in Cape Town that helps businesses develop sustainably. “The big brands have Chief Sustainability Officers (CSO). This role is in the C-suite and is forward-thinking,” Tyrell explains. CSOs look at how businesses can start developing their own power, lower their eco-footprint and manage their resources better. Looking to the big corporate trendsetters, there are some major shifts in corporate strategy focusing on a sustainable business model instead of growth at all costs. Unilever, for example, is holding their suppliers to the same eco-friendly standards that they themselves are working at, says Tyrrell. Natural disasters associated with the climate crisis are already affecting African businesses too. Explains Tyrrell, “In agriculture, which is a big sector in Africa, we are seeing the effect of droughts or floods. Others have to work more closely with their suppliers to ensure supplies come in good condition and on time.” Mining is another industry heavily impacted by the climate crisis – and the push by consumers for more environmental-friendly solutions.&nbsp;



4. The age of cyberattacks and data breaches



Key takeaway: Make sure your IT department includes



skilled data protection specialists.



As businesses innovate and rely less on physical hardware like servers, and start instead relying on the cloud, they can expect to see a massive uptick in cyberattacks and subsequent data breaches. This trend increased exponentially in 2019 (even the City of Johannesburg in South Africa was held by ransomware) and is set to explode in the coming decade. Added to this, businesses are collecting more data than ever before, particularly for marketing purposes and to tailor their product offerings. Because of this, businesses should prepare themselves for the onslaught by firstly, taking their online security very seriously, secondly, training their staff (employees are the weakest link in any security chain) and thirdly, putting more budget behind appropriate security measures. “The demand for narrow cybersecurity expertise is driven by a constantly changing threat landscape, as well as evolving technologies, such as cloud or IoT. As a result, we see the bigger demand in, for example, threat intelligence analysts and dedicated threat intelligence services, and experts for cloud platform protection. The call for data protection specialists is seen in both technical and regulatory and compliance aspects,” says Alexander Moiseev, Chief Business Officer at online security software Kaspersky.



5. The remote workforce



Key takeaway: Flexi-hours and working remotely are practical ways to combat challenges like loadshedding and traffic.



With intermittent power supply (particularly in South Africa), increasing traffic and less reliance on physical IT infrastructure like servers, the remote and flexible workforce is becoming a norm. Says Moiseev, “The working model is already being changed, with 40% of small and medium companies regularly allowing their employees to work at locations outside the office — from home or while traveling.” In addition, health scares like the coronavirus are amplifying these trends. “Apps that enable remote working are having a moment,” explains Williams. “You now get filters to add makeup to video conferences so you don’t have to dress up when you’re working from home.” Many employees expect the flexibility of remote working when job hunting, and businesses reap the benefits of agility.  



-Samantha Steele

Computing and malware concept

The Five Trends To Future-Proof Your Business

Topline:&nbsp;A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pepp-pt.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">pan-European team</a>&nbsp;of researchers announced Wednesday their plan to release a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-europe-tech/europe-to-launch-coronavirus-contact-tracing-app-initiative-idUSKBN21J4HI" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">smartphone app</a>&nbsp;that would notify users if they’ve been exposed to someone infected with coronavirus, the latest example of tech-driven coronavirus solutions that have also raised concerns about user privacy.



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>A European project called&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pepp-pt.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Pan-European Privacy Preserving Proximity Tracing</a>&nbsp;is working toward releasing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-europe-tech/europe-to-launch-coronavirus-contact-tracing-app-initiative-idUSKBN21J4HI" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a coronavirus tracing app</a>&nbsp;in the next week that would use anonymous Bluetooth technology to track when a smartphone comes in close range with another, so if a user were to test positive for coronavirus those at risk of infection could&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-europe-tech/europe-to-launch-coronavirus-contact-tracing-app-initiative-idUSKBN21J4HI" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">be notified</a>.</li><li><a href="https://www.who.int/features/qa/contact-tracing/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Contact tracing</a>, or determining people who may have been exposed to someone with a virus, is an established aspect of pandemic control and was used effectively to tackle coronavirus in countries like China,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-europe-tech/europe-to-launch-coronavirus-contact-tracing-app-initiative-idUSKBN21J4HI" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Singapore</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2020/03/13/south-korea-sees-coronavirus-slowdown-without-a-lockdown-but-with-nearly-250000-tests/">South Korea</a>&nbsp;in the form of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00740-y" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">smartphone tracking</a>.</li><li>University of Oxford researchers and the U.K. government are working on a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/coronavirus-location-tracking.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">similar project</a>— but unlike other smartphone tracking systems, the British version in development would be based on&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/coronavirus-location-tracking.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">voluntary participation</a>&nbsp;and bet on citizens inputting their information out of a sense of civic duty.</li><li>The U.S. government is in talks with companies like Facebook&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/facebook">FB</a>&nbsp;and Google&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/google">GOOGL</a>&nbsp;and other tech companies about tracking if users are social distancing using large amounts of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/03/17/white-house-location-data-coronavirus/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">anonymous, aggregated location data</a>— this information is less precise, and more likely to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/coronavirus-location-tracking.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">anticipate outbreaks</a>&nbsp;rather than pinpoint individuals who have been exposed to the virus.</li><li>1.5 million Israelis have voluntarily downloaded&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-israel-apps/1-5-million-israelis-using-voluntary-coronavirus-monitoring-app-idUSKBN21J5L5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a mobile app</a>&nbsp;that alerts users if they’ve come into contact with someone with coronavirus— but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has still ordered that potential coronavirus carriers have their&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-israel-apps/1-5-million-israelis-using-voluntary-coronavirus-monitoring-app-idUSKBN21J5L5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">phones monitored</a>, a controversial move the government says is necessary, as the 17% of the population using the app is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-israel-apps/1-5-million-israelis-using-voluntary-coronavirus-monitoring-app-idUSKBN21J5L5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">not enough</a>&nbsp;to fight off the pandemic.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Moscow&nbsp;﻿﻿, on a city-wide lockdown since Monday, announced Wednesday that a new phone app that will officials to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52121264" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">track the movements</a>&nbsp;of people diagnosed with coronavirus in the capital city would be launched on Thursday, saying the government will&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-russia/putin-takes-coronavirus-precautions-as-moscow-unveils-tracking-app-idUSKBN21J4W8" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lend a smartphone</a>&nbsp;to anyone unable to download the app.</li></ul>



Crucial quote:&nbsp;“We’re exploring ways that aggregated anonymized location information could help in the fight against [coronavirus]. One example could be helping health authorities determine the impact of social distancing, similar to the way we show popular restaurant times and traffic patterns in Google Maps&nbsp;﻿,” Google spokesman Johnny Luu told the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/03/17/white-house-location-data-coronavirus/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Washington Post</a>. He made sure to note it “would not involve sharing data about any individual’s location, movement, or contacts.”



Key background:&nbsp;Private and public entities alike are looking for ways to fight off coronavirus as the pandemic continues. On Wednesday, there were more than&nbsp;<a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">900,000 confirmed cases</a>&nbsp;worldwide and nearly 50,000 deaths.Officials told&nbsp;The New York Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/companies/new-york-times">NYT</a>&nbsp;that The National Health Service, Britain’s centralized national health system, is trusted by citizens— and paired with the strong data privacy laws in place, said they think people would&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/coronavirus-location-tracking.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">agree to join</a>&nbsp;the effort to share their private information to help trace infections. However, American tech firms are reported to still be skeptical about sharing substantial data with the U.S. government ever since&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/06/10/why-nsa-it-guy-edward-snowden-leaked-top-secret-documents/#2b8d9fa56737">Edward Snowden</a>&nbsp;revealed the NSA was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/coronavirus-location-tracking.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">collecting information</a>&nbsp;from the firms clandestinely.&nbsp;



Surprising fact: The information tech companies have access to data that sheds light on Americans’ behavior in light of the coronavirus pandemic. According to a <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/us/coronavirus-location-tracking.html" target="_blank">Facebook analysis</a>, restaurant visits fell about 80% in Italy and 70% in Spain— while Americans only stopped eating out at a rate of 31%.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/">Carlie Porterfield</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/business">Business</a>

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Surge Of Smartphone Apps Promise Coronavirus Tracking, But Raise Privacy Concerns

If you’re hunkered down at home because of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/coronavirus">coronavirus</a>&nbsp;pandemic and trying to go about your working day without any distractions, you’ll want to avoid being the victim of any attack on your computer or smartphone. Not only do you put your own personal data at risk by failing to take some extra precautions, but because of the sudden jump in folk working from home, you might be putting your business in danger too.



Some companies are sagely scoring brownie points with customers and the wider security community by making some of their services available for free. It’s responsible capitalism in action and a little ray of light in what’s been an otherwise bleak few weeks. “It’s difficult to predict what the next few weeks will look like, but we need to work together to protect our teams, loved ones, and local communities,” wrote John Shiner, CEO of 1Password. “Reduce unnecessary travel — including travel to and from the office — and be empathetic to the challenges that remote work can bring to your teams and their families.”



If you haven’t already got a password manager or two-factor authentication, you might be wise to avail yourself of some of these offers.



Free password managers and more for remote workers



Networking giant&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.cisco.com/security/cisco-expands-free-security-offerings-to-help-with-rise-in-remote-workers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cisco</a>, for instance, is letting customers of its Duo Security tool go above their user limit as their employees increasingly work from home, whilst new customers can get a&nbsp;free license. Duo Security’s primary service is a two-factor authentication tool that can be added to web and mobile apps. When a user wants to login, they have to get another key from Duo. That can come in the form of a simple phone call, text or a code from the Duo app. Cisco’s offering the same deal for its web security tool Umbrella and its VPN product AnyConnect. It’s making those deals available until July 1.



Canadian company 1Password, meanwhile, has <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://blog.1password.com/covid-19-response/" target="_blank">removed</a> the 30-day trial period on 1Password Business, meaning the first six months are free. The usual cost is $7.99 per head. Its password manager keeps all your logins in one place so you don’t have to remember them. Like competitor products, like LastPass or Dashlane, it’ll suggest more secure passwords too. If you or your company doesn’t already have a password manager, it’s not a bad place to start.



And&nbsp;<a href="https://www.onelogin.com/press-center/press-releases/trusted-experience-platform-virtual-learning" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">OneLogin</a>&nbsp;has made its Trusted Experience Platform free for all K-12 schools, colleges and universities doing remote learning over the coming weeks and months. The product includes single sign-on (SSO), so students and teachers don’t have to keep signing into different apps. It remains secure as each app checks in with a trusted third-party who can verify they’re the right user. OneLogin’s tool also provides multi-factor authentication (a Duo competitor).



As&nbsp;Forbes&nbsp;reported earlier this week,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2020/03/13/zoom-video-coronavirus-eric-yuan-schools/">Zoom has made its videoconferencing tools available free to K-12 schools</a>&nbsp;too.



This page will continue to be updated as we learn about other COVID-19-coping security tech.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/">Thomas Brewster</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/cybersecurity">Cybersecurity</a>

Security system of circuit padlock hologram in network space.

Get This Free Cybersecurity Tech To Cope With Your Coronavirus Chaos

Twitter published its latest diversity report on Wednesday, revealing, for the sixth consecutive year, that the bulk of its staff is white or Asian and skews male.



Still, the social platform did make good on its two-year&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/company/2018/growingtogetherattwitter.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">diversity targets</a>&nbsp;for female, black and Latinx employees—meeting and, in some cases, exceeding its goals.



Globally, women represent 42.5% of all roles, just half a percentage point shy of Twitter’s 2018 target, and a bump from 38.4% two years ago. Black and Latinx employees make up 5.8% and 4.9% of all roles, compared to 3.4% for both groups at the end of 2017. Twitter’s two-year timeline was 5% for each.



While Twitter’s 2018 goals weren’t exactly ambitions, the results are a promising step in the right direction and show a slight headway on an issue that has long eluded the tech industry.



Broken down by technical and leadership roles, however, the diversity numbers aren’t so laudable. Women represent just a quarter of all technical positions and nearly 36% of leadership positions, while black and Latinx employees combined make up almost 8% of technical roles and 8.7% of leadership roles. Interestingly, a majority of the small percentage of black and Hispanic employees are in leadership positions: 86% and 76% respectively.



Twitter says that its vision is to become the world’s “most diverse and inclusive tech company,” but the company’s relatively homogeneous workforce still mirrors the broader industry’s, and doesn’t fully reflect the community that it serves.Take, for instance, the popularity and influence of Black Twitter. About&nbsp;<a href="https://www.walterkaitz.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/nielsen-from-consumers-to-creators.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">28% of Twitter’s 67 million users</a>&nbsp;are African-American, though they represent just 14% of the total U.S. population, and 40% of African-Americans are on Twitter.&nbsp;



“The stakes are incredibly high and we don’t have the luxury of time or incrementalism. We have a unique responsibility to be bold, move fast–and get this right,” Dalana Brand, Twitter’s head of inclusion and diversity, writes in a blog post.



For Twitter, that means committing to new diversity goals. By 2025, the company pledges to have women comprise half of its global workforce, 42% of technical roles and 41% of leadership positions. The company also set a 25% target for the representation of minority ethnic and racial groups–specifically black, Latinx, Native American, Alaskan or Hawaiian/Pacific Islander or multiracial–and is launching an Inclusive Hiring Program, although no details were given on when that initiative will begin.



Later this year, Twitter plans to publish its progress on workforce representation of military veterans, employees with disabilities and LGBT+ workers for the first time.



Since introducing diversity targets in 2018, the company’s global representation of women has increased by 4% and the figures for black and Latinx employees in the U.S. has climbed by 2.4% and 1.5%. In 2019, nearly half of all new hires were women, 47.1%, and 15.7% of U.S. hires were black or Latinx.



&#8211; <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ruthumoh/">Ruth Umoh</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/diversity-inclusion">Diversity &amp; Inclusion</a>

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Twitter’s 2020 Diversity Report Shows Modest Gains As Company Sets New Goals For Representation

Even
our thoughts about disruption are being disrupted. Is it radical change? Is it
total displacement? Do we need entire new paradigms? Can we manage it? Is it
avoidable? Is it permanent or temporary? Is it reversible? The common mistake
we make is to minimize its effect and then “beat” it into a shape that we
understand and manage it from there. The challenge is to lead inside a wave of
disruption, the art is to initiate disruption to our own benefit. If we only
respond to disruption, we have lost the game already.



We
are increasingly engulfed by a disrupted world. Our ways of work are
irrevocably changed. Our futures will not be the same as where we come from and
are presently. Disruption and the future go hand-in-hand.&nbsp; How do we prepare for disruption?&nbsp; By making sense of the future landscapes that
we will navigate on. How do we lead others into coming revolutions, such as the
Fourth Industrial Revolution that we experience at present?



What
is disruption? Disruption is the interruption or disturbance of the accepted
norm that becomes a force that changes the way things are done, values,
societies and often beliefs. It is so abrupt and impactful that there is often
not time to prepare for it. To thrive in disruption, we need to navigate
landscapes of the future. When is this future? The future is at this moment,
tomorrow and thereafter, often stretching beyond an era in time yet to realise,
that lies outside the everyday planning, strategic management and intervention
scope. 



The
future approaches at different speeds for different business environments. We
can thus shape the future to create landscapes from our imagination. To thrive
in the unknown, even the short-term unknown, we need leaders with the courage
and skills to venture into and beyond the immediate future. Leaders shaped for
disruption are at ease with fast evolution, revolution and the transitions
which take place among eras of technology, business and economies. Although
they cannot always anticipate disruptions, they are prepared to be thrown into
them and guiding others through the turbulent and complex eras of change.



The
Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM) of the University of Pretoria
and the Team Building Institute (TBi) have joined forces to create a leadership
development concept – Leadership in a Disrupted World. This is a learning and participative
journey that puts future perspective to themes that leaders need to address to
shape, influence and navigate disruptive landscapes that they will guide others
on. The journey will unlock the combined knowledge of future aware leaders for
being at ease with disruption and creating an environment where collaboration,
teaming and personalisation are used to draw on experience and to lead towards
future leadership qualities to deal with disruptions of many kinds. This experience
is ideal for all leaders in a broad spectrum of industry where, especially
engineering and technology management play a disruptive role, and change leads
to complex environments evolving rapidly and need to be dealt with. Leaders
that find that existing leadership theories fall short to assist them in
handling current and future challenges should be seeking new ways of thinking
about the future and to prepare themselves and their organisations for
disruption.



The
GSTM has graduated many Masters and PhDs in Engineering Management, Project Management,
and Technology and Innovation Management students over its existence of more
than 30 years. This has resulted in a common body of knowledge of engineering
and technology management. Engineers that qualified through the GSTM are
playing a leadership role in their industries, academia and government in
Africa. With the speed of change brought about by technology, lifestyles and
geo-political influences, these leaders have to remain resilient to future
disruption. The GSTM has built future thinking into its courseware and research
and now offers this understanding in the context of future leadership as a
continued service to its alumni and other industry leaders through this
workshop. 



TBi supports a vision to improve self-understanding, intra- and interpersonal relationships in a social or team context. This unique value proposition (scientific method of training) distinguishes TBi from other service providers. TBI’s approach is to integrate inter- disciplinary concepts that are usually viewed as separate entities The TBi methodology also known as Adventure-related Experiential Learning (AEL), finds its roots in the disciplines of Psychology, Philosophy, Human Movement Sciences and Business. The AEL method of learning guarantees immersivity, novelty and engagement of participants in discovering new perspectives to facilitate change.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Anthon.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-43062" width="206" height="206" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Anthon.jpg 221w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Anthon-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Anthon-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Anthon-80x80.jpg 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 206px) 100vw, 206px" /></figure></div>



Dr Anthon Botha is a physicist, strategist and future thinker. He has more than 30 years of experience in the management of science, engineering, technology and innovation. He spends a lot of time imagining the future, creating mental images for leaders of what is to be. He developed novel ways for future thinking and has used this in both academia and consulting to assist leaders to think strategically about the future after painting future landscapes and making choices on their preferred futures. He currently provides extensive business consulting in the management and commercialisation of knowledge, technology and innovation and facilitates debates and events in the field of science, engineering and technology. He is a part-time academic at the GSTM



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Chris.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-43063" width="208" height="208" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Chris.jpg 195w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Chris-100x100.jpg 100w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Chris-150x150.jpg 150w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Chris-80x80.jpg 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 208px) 100vw, 208px" /></figure></div>



Dr Chris Heunis holds a DPhil from the University of Pretoria. He specialises in Organisational Development and has been consulting locally and internationally for the past 25 years. He co-founded TBi as a niche company that specialises in interpersonal and intrapersonal behavioural dynamics. He appeared on several radio and TV- programmes including Carte Blanche, Business Beat, Maatband, Take 5 and recently on Prontuit. He believes that the success of business leadership starts with being mindful of the needs of others. 



Content provided by the University of Pretoria

Best media technologies. Mixed media

Leadership In A Disrupted World

Renowned New York-based futurist Faith Popcorn was in South Africa recently when she also spoke to FORBES AFRICA about the trends that will shape the future. Here are some of her mind-boggling predictions.



She is the TREND-SPOTTER who famously coined the word
‘cocooning’ in 1981, and got most of her predictions right. Faith Popcorn was
in South Africa in November at a Virgin Atlantic and Investec event titled
‘Business Is An Adventure’. As the founder &amp; CEO of Faith Popcorn’s
BrainReserve, a future-focused trend consultancy, she applies her foresight to
reposition established brands and create the products and services of tomorrow.
The best-selling author lives in Manhattan and Wainscott, New York, with her
two Chinese daughters. We ask her to tell us more:



What are the Top 5 trends for the future?



Being Alive: We are a wellness-obsessed culture – it’s our way of feeling in control in an out-of-control world. The era of the ‘quantified self’ means we can parse our biometric data to find out exactly what will optimize our health, and emotional and spiritual wellness are becoming critical. Tech and AI – ‘embeddables’, ‘swallowables’ and AI – will anticipate our needs and help us achieve optimal health. A little chip will sense, ‘oh, bad mood coming… let me dose you with CBD or change your brainwaves to get rid of that’.”



Save Our Society and AtmosFear: This pairing of trends recognizes that our planet is in peril – beyond peril, it’s dying – and says we must do anything and everything to save it. Values are the ‘new value’. No person, brand or business can survive in the coming years without a commitment to heal our earth. If that means solving for fossil fuels or building an asparagus farm on Mars – just do it.



EVEolution: I thought this would have accelerated beyond where it is today, but in the years ahead, it will be absolutely primary. The biggest wealth transfer in history – over $20 trillion – will mostly benefit women. Women are earning more degrees than men at every educational level, are starting businesses at two times that of men and refusing to put up with oppression – look at #metoo and #timesup as the seeds of this. In the future, the discussion won’t be about parity and closing the gender gap. It will be about women superseding and leading men.



Vigilante consumer: If you thought the consumer was already at its peak demanding accountability and transparency, brace yourselves. Companies will have to divulge everything. Your consumer will demand to know about your inclusivity policies on staff; what your political values are; they will know your recycling and plant-friendly policies in full detail – and when you’re green-washing. Many conglomerates will flounder and fail due to this… and disruptors will be waiting to dive in and take their business.



What do the terms ‘gender fluidity’ and ‘gender-free’ mean to you?



Gender fluidity means the person, regardless of what gender
they were assigned at birth, feels that their identity fluctuates from the old,
binary norm. So maybe you are a man who one day feels feminine, wears earrings
and nail polish; another day, you feel macho and wear a suit. Or maybe you feel
somewhat feminine all the time… but you do not adhere to the old-school gender
norms. This is not about sexual orientation, to whom you are attracted. It’s
about how you feel in your own skin, relating to the world. Gender-free is the
response to gender fluidity. It’s why P&amp;G removed the female Venus symbol
from menstrual products to be inclusive of trans-men. It’s why Mr. Smith makes
haircare for all; Jecca makes cosmetics for all; and the Phluid Project in New
York sells clothing for all. Doesn’t matter what your chromosomes say – express
yourself however you like. I think we need to stop thinking of the ‘male’ and
‘female’ product aisles and recognize a third, gender-free aisle will soon rise
and take their place.



How will robots evolve?



Right now, robots are fairly limited and clunky. They are not the intuitive, anticipatory, seamless partners, friends, advisors and care-givers they will be soon. Their form will become miniaturized and ultra-mobile, with articulated limbs that can complete all kinds of chores. Thanks to AI and what i call Emo-Surveillance (they will read our expressions and body-language cues), they will be able to comprehend our moods and respond before we articulate our needs. IoT and biometric data will let them know if we are stressed, sad or sleepy, and they will be there with a kind word, an elixir, a pep talk, a nap programmed with a fabulous, uplifting dream. They will become the curator of our best futures.

Faith 300DPI credit to Victor Jeffreys III

‘Robots Will Curate Our Best Futures’

Raja Rajamannar, Mastercard’s New York-based Chief Marketing Officer, was in Kenya recently. Having been a marketing guru for 35 years, he discusses key strategies for brands to stay relevant in the digital age.



Future technologies shaping marketing In the last seven to eight years, the technology change has dramatically altered the field of marketing and is probably more than what happened in the preceding 25 to 30 years. The changes happening now are going to be even more dramatic. There’s a plethora of technologies coming in such as artificial intelligence that is going to touch every single part of the marketing ecosystem and that’s going to affect how we understand consumers, how we do data analytics, how we come up with insights. Blockchain has also been in the financial space but is going to the marketing space. For example, the advertising space has a ton of intermediaries; between the brand owner and the publisher. That leads to a lack of transparency, efficiency, and a lot of middle men are getting their cut of the entire advertising dollar. Some statistics indicate that 30 percent of the advertising dollar that marketers are spending on the media goes to the intermediaries. So there are possibilities here for Blockchain to take root and make the dollar work harder. The third one is augmented reality. It is going to add a layer or series of layers of information on top of their physical environment or even the digital environment which makes consumer interaction with their environment very different. That gives marketers a tremendous opportunity to engage consumers in unprecedented ways by providing information layers that are most relevant and appropriate for the consumers and compel them to take decisions that are right for them. Virtual reality is evolving and has yet to take real root but the moment it does, it will take off. 5G has got tremendous speed; it has got close to zero latency and that brings a whole different dimension to how we can engage consumers. 3D-printing is another area that’s coming pretty hard and fast and that’s something marketers have not exploited a lot. So tomorrow, the number of technologies coming at us are so many more and this is going to alter the landscape for marketers completely. If you know how to tackle it, you’ll be at the top of your game, but if you don’t understand, you risk being obsolete quickly.



Revisiting the engagement model with consumers It is estimated that on average, 3,500 to 5,000 commercial messages are bombarded at each consumer every single day. That is an incredible level of information overload. On the other hand, consumer attention span is reducing. They are responding to that by tuning themselves out, putting ad blocks on their devices and those are big risks for marketers. What you do as a marketer is not just improve the ads but to rethink your entire communication and engagement model with your consumers. Mastercard took a very interesting step six years back when we decided not to be purely about advertising, which is story-telling, and said our future will be in story-making, which means we create and curate experiences that money cannot buy but which you can get only through Mastercard. So we went from pure traditional marketing to experiential marketing in a big way and that has really paid off and it’s evident as [in 2019] Interbrand has rated Mastercard the fastest-growing brand across all categories and industries.



Africa’s marketing space Africa is a collection of a diverse set of markets and each market is at a different stage of evolution, with unique cultural nuances, and has its own unique opportunities and ecosystems. Like, for example, in Kenya, the telecom ecosystem is one of the most sophisticated you have. And if you look at South Africa, there is a tremendous amount of sophistication in terms of advertising and marketing and you have got a whole bunch of other countries in different stages of evolution and specialization. So Africa is a continent of huge opportunities that every single company and brand is very seriously focused on and we at Mastercard are no exception either. The population is huge, it is very resourced and there’s an upward mobility of the population and that’s where the biggest of opportunities come for any brand.



Need for innovation As marketers, we have to understand digital technology and we have to leverage data while fully respecting and honoring the privacy of consumers. At Mastercard, for example, we created the Priceless digital marketing engine which tries to understand and predict the micro trends that are going to be happening in the overall society. After identifying the trend, we then try to figure out its relevance and commercial and communication opportunity for us. That’s one example of how we’re trying to break through all the noise.



Competition If you look at the penetration of digitization of the entire economy, cash is still dominant. The digital economy is less than 15% globally and less than 5% in some countries and that’s a huge opportunity. So, the competition is not with some brands out here, it is cash and cash is our competition. So we compare ourselves with what consumers are exposed to and we want to be at the top of their mind. People have been using cash for a long time and it’s not easy to change habits; it takes time.



Avoiding consumer mistrust When you are trying to constantly keep selling something to consumers and if the consumers’ experience is different than what the brand has promised them, there’s a big break of trust and today, the trust amongst consumers about brands and brand communication is, generally speaking, very low; there is a trust deficit. So brands have a lot of work ahead of them. They have to strive to rebuild, regain the trust, and to do that, there are a few key principles that are critical. Brands have to be authentic by not trying to fool consumers, be consistent in terms of commitment and follow through with action as well as respect consumers, practically, when it comes to privacy. Lastly, it’s extremely important for brands to be relevant to consumers as well as have a purpose.



Challenges for marketing Reaching people at the right time, fashion and right context is not very easy. It requires a lot of technology and a lot of talent locally to deploy technology effectively. So the first big challenge for marketers is how do you find the right talent? And it’s important to develop, attract and retain the talent. What we have to as marketers, therefore, is to connect with the professors, go through them and help them come up with the most contemporary and useful curriculum. How do you enable these marketers to do the best marketing that they can by creating common standards across the industry, having the right kind of tools and methodologies? Getting these going off the ground in any given country or region is not an easy thing but something we have to do.



– Interviewed by Steven Muvunyi

Screen Shot 2020-01-13 at 8.48.56 AM

‘Cash Is Our Competition’

UJ, 4IR, and the CloudebateTM concept



UJ is the
University of Johannesburg. 4IR is the Fourth Industrial Revolution. CloudebateTM?
Well – it’s a place where really interesting questions are asked, such as: is
the academic thesis a thing of the past? Have books outlived their physical
form? Are we witnessing the demise of childhood? Will eye-tracking, sip and
puff, or exoskeletons lead to true equality of opportunity? Will society change
Africa? Will Africa help change society? Will education teach our children what
they really need to know? And if so, how?



As 4IR
sweeps the world, sending many preconceptions, predilections, and presuppositions
tumbling as it goes, UJ sees the asking of questions like these as a
fundamental response. And it’s responding because, since 2013, when it first embarked
on its strategy of global excellence and stature, the university saw a clear
need to take the lead in exploring the applications, implications and potential
of 4IR. What’s more, it saw a need to do this not just as part of its
positioning as a thought-leader on the continent, but as part of making a
proactive and positive contribution towards African society, education and
enablement.



A vision
of width, a platform of depth



It’s a
significant vision, and as part realising it, UJ has been investigating new and
challenging ways, not just of identifying the issues at stake, but of
presenting them in depth. It sought a way that would bring medium and content,
idea and action, debate and initiative, together on one unique platform.



And that
unique platform, one that UJ has not only created, but given a unique name to
as well, is the CloudebateTM.&nbsp;




The
CloudebateTM



The
CloudebateTM has essentially taken the traditional debate/panel
discussion and reimagined it, placing it firmly within the realm of its own 4IR
scope, and using the latest live-streaming technology. It is the place where 4IR
ideas that have been identified as relevant, meaningful, challenging and
thought-provoking are placed before an expert panel as well as an online
audience who are invited to participate in real time, online, in a very 4IR way,
in the discussion, analysis and dissection. &nbsp;



There have
been seven Cloudebates held so far, and their names provide an insight into
their capacity to provoke thought: The Way Tomorrow Works; Digitally Equal; Is
4IR the Demise of Childhood? Questioning the Answers; Obsolete or Absolute?
Should Books be Shelved? Adding Muscle to Open Doors. 



When
thought is action



It’s all
about the kind of world we are creating for our children to inhabit. What will
the elimination of jobs do to society? Are children growing directly into the immediacy
of adulthood? Are academic theses outdated? Are libraries passé? Can technology
enable opportunity equally for all? 



The digital
reach has been immense, not just in South Africa but globally, where it has
found a worldwide audience. Moreover, UJ’s CloudebateTM initiative
is set to continue into 2020 with further challenges to our received wisdom,
our perceived way of doing things. So, if you have any stimulating 4IR topics
that you would like to see discussed, send them to marketingbrand@uj.ac.za – UJ
would love to hear from you. And if you’d like to see the discussions that have
already taken place, then just go to uj.ac.za/4IR, where you can watch, and
take a view of your own.



Creating
tomorrow



With its innovative CloudebateTM concept, UJ’s pursuit of global excellence has been a most rewarding journey that will continue to develop and expand along with 4IR, and along with UJ’s ongoing commitment to creating tomorrow.



Content provided by the University of Johannesburg

Cloudebate image for Forbes 3 Feb 2020_1910x600px

Where The Medium’s The Topic And The Topic is Topical

Chika Uwazie helps small and medium businesses find the right people and scale up with more sophisticated human resource systems in Nigeria’s booming economy. 



Nigeria is projected to add no fewer than
200 million people to its current population of 196 million between 2018 and
2050. The country is also expected to surpass the United States (US), according
to a 2019 Nigerian economic outlook report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
With such a swell in its population, the need to find the right talent has
become a strategic imperative for organizations. 



That is where Chika Uwazie comes in. The
31-year-old tech entrepreneur helps SMEs automate their human resources (HR)
tasks to ensure they have the right processes in place to help them scale and
be successful. Her own journey to success has been far from easy. The
Georgetown University graduate, who spent 10 years as a competitive cheerleader
in the US, made the decision to relocate to Nigeria after her little sister
died due to complications from sickle cell anemia. 



“When everything happened with my sister, I
was at a crossroads. I had finished Georgetown and when you finish from a big
school like that, you go into consulting with one of the big four. I said I
don’t want to do that because that was not enough. I used to always get excited
and light up when I spoke to my sister and we spoke about potentially starting
something in tech and building a tech company,” says Uwazie.



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-medium"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="233" height="300" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-233x300.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42567" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-233x300.jpg 233w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-300x386.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-600x772.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-796x1024.jpg 796w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-768x988.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1-1194x1536.jpg 1194w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/53743431_10101002861460225_7087836493951008768_n-1.jpg 1492w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 233px) 100vw, 233px" /><figcaption> Chika Uwazie. Photo provided</figcaption></figure></div>



After her sister’s death, Uwazie decided to
take the leap and build a company that was not only profitable but also made an
impact. She started a tech company called TalentBase, a HR software company
that provides an affordable and easy-to-use HRM platform solution enabling HR
managers and growing businesses to simplify and organize their HR processes.
Uwazie was determined not to let the vision she shared with her sister die. But
first, she needed funding.&nbsp; 



“As you know, it is very hard for black
people to raise money in the US, the bars are extremely high. I felt it would
not necessarily be easier in Africa but I felt I would have more support if I
came back to Nigeria to start a tech company and so that is why I came. And I
felt like I wanted to have an impact. Tech is so oversaturated in the US and I
felt like in Nigeria, there are so many things that need to be done.”



After almost a year of knocking on the
doors of prospective investors, Uwazie got her big break through a colleague at
Google who connected Uwazie with 500 Startups, a Silicon Valley-based venture
capital firm, which provided funding and support. The program required Uwazie
to stay in San Francisco for six months, after which she was able to
successfully raise more angel investment a year later to scale her business.
This year, Uwazie stepped down from the CEO position at TalentBase to move on
to her next venture, Career Queen.



“In Africa, and not just Nigeria, there is
a human capital problem. Throughout the time I was running TalentBase, everyone
kept complaining to me about how it was difficult to find good talent and this
is why I started Career Queen, which is my second wind of entrepreneurship. It
has been a crazy growth cycle and I didn’t realize how challenging recruitment
is in Africa,” says Uwazie.



She spends most of her time recruiting
C-suite executives and executive assistants for organizations in Africa, with a
particular focus on women. And according to Uwazie, the numbers don’t lie.



“It has been proven, companies that hire
women are 30% more profitable than those who do not have women in the team. The
aim is to also get women a seat at the board table. A huge part of my vision
now is starting this movement among women, making an impact in organizations
and finding great talent for organizations.” 



Only if there were more who thought like
her.

GettyImages-1135564516

Female tech entrepreneur helps SMEs automate their human resources

A pick of some of the weirdest, coolest tech that could come hurtling our way this year. 



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>A bot that delivers
toilet paper</li></ol>



Forgot to instal toilet paper in the loo? The Charmin RollBot is designed to carry a roll of toilet paper on two wheels. With the press of a button on your phone, the RollBot will help with your sanitary requirement.



Using Bluetooth, the bot will commence its mission; an infra-red sensor able to navigate its way to you. According to Business Insider, there&#8217;s no price or release date for RollBot, nor is it clear if it will ever be released as a consumer product. Charmin calls RollBot a &#8220;conceptual prototype”. The brand unveiled the bot last month at the CES 2020 expo in Las Vegas.



2. The Cyrcle phone



If for any reason you got bored of your rectangular handset, the circular phone is always an alternative offering a different view and take. According to the makers, the phone was designed with the Generation Z, female audience in mind. It’s round and features two headphone jacks. The device was designed by a US-based startup delivering a shape that it says is more “sensual”. The company reckons it will be ready to launch in a year’s time.



3. A smart bed



There’s nothing like a good night’s sleep. But it’s not always possible to have the best sleep every day. Or is it? There is a bed that’s guaranteed to give you your beauty sleep the way you want it.



Sleep Number Climate 360 has a mattress with features that warm your feet to help you sleep faster. It will also help you stay asleep by cooling your body, and balance your temperature with your natural wake and sleep cycles.



But what’s most intriguing is the fact that the bed also gives you a Sleep IQ score for personalized sleep insights. It measures your heart rate, breathing and movement, tracks your circadian rhythms and can show how your heart rate varies. The smart bed received the CES 2020 Best of Innovation award and is only expected to be available in 2021.



4. Self-changing trash can



For those who dread taking out the trash, this device is possible a no-brainer. Apart from its motion sensors to detect when you need to throw trash, when it’s full, it will automatically seal the trash bag and line the bin with a new one, all with a press of a button.



Even if the bin is overflowing, the top compartment will lift up so it can still seal the bag shut without any mess. The bin, called the Townew bin, was designed by a Canadian company, Knectek Labs.



5. Vertical TV



Just when we were getting used to wider TVs, it seems taller screens may soon be coming to your living room. Samsung’s Sero TV vertical-oriented will soon be hitting markets.



The TV can not only work in the traditional horizontal format, but is also able to turn on its side for playing vertical videos in portrait style.This might come in handy when watching videos from social media platforms such as TikTok or Instagram that deal primarily with vertical videos.



It sits on a stand that prevents it hitting the floor when turning, and can be paired with a phone so that it automatically orientates it correctly based on what’s beamed from the handset. According to TechRadar.com the pricing and availability are yet to be revealed, but the Sero will be leaving Korea and is headed to the US and “several global markets” later this year.

GettyImages-1198129444

The Top 5 Emerging Crazy Tech

Blockchain technology is also revolutionizing supply chains in the pharmaceutical industry, in the process, helping track fake medicines. 



From genomics to robotics, technology is truly revolutionizing
the healthcare sector. And while it’s easy to become consumed by exciting,
futuristic trends like artificial intelligence (AI) diagnosis, digitized
patient records and 3D-printed medical tools, technology is also transforming
the pharmaceutical industry. How medication is prescribed, dispensed and
administered is big business with McKinsey predicting the value of Africa’s
pharmaceutical industry to be $65 billion in 2020.



But fake drugs are an ongoing and complex issue – they can
cause death, have unknown side-effects, fail to treat illnesses, and sometimes
even add to the spread of disease. According to World Health Organization (WHO)
statistics, 42% of detected cases of falsified (or substandard) pharmaceuticals
occur in Africa – reports estimate that between 72,000 and 169,000 children die
each year from pneumonia because of counterfeit antibiotics while fake malaria
drugs cause an additional 64,000 –158,000 deaths every year in sub-Saharan
Africa. Both antimalarials and antibiotics sit among the most commonly-reported
counterfeited drugs.



“Fake medicine distribution is rampant because business
processes are siloed between the various industry stakeholders, which puts the
industry at risk of fraud,” explains Heidi Patmore, a marketing consultant
specializing in technology that’s changing consumer behavior. 



“One solution to this would be cross-company process
automation which could easily be enabled by a blockchain data interchange. This
creates an open information system that all players can use to verify the
authenticity of medication because it can track and trace it from when it’s
manufactured to when it is dispensed to the patient.”



Companies such as IBM and SAP are working on blockchain
solutions to weed out Africa’s counterfeit medication network. When medicine is
returned to pharmaceutical manufacturers, for example, it is often re-sold
instead of being destroyed. How can a small local pharmacy ensure what is
returned is authentic? SAP are working with their existing client base – Merck,
GSK, Ingelheim, McKesson and others – on a blockchain project to verify that
any returned drugs are original. 



IBM Research’s solution for Africa (currently in development
in Haifa, Israel) includes a mobile interface and permissioned blockchain
backend that enables each certified and authorized party in the network to
initiate action, finish their transaction, and track its progress. 



“It also includes the monitoring of temperature to ensure
compliance with the proper conditions for transportation and asset transfer,”
adds Inna Skarbovsky, a blockchain architect from IBM Research – Haifa.
“Blockchain ensures full provenance for each medicine package, uniquely
identified with a barcode or a serial number. This makes it possible for all
authorized parties to track the drugs through the entire supply chain and the
drugs’ life-cycle.”



This also allows significant cost reductions by eliminating each participant’s need to manage a separate system for traceability of its components. “It also improves procedural efficiency for change-of-hands, make it much harder for counterfeit drugs to be introduced into the supply chain and to be distributed to end-users,” says Skarbovsky.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="768" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/IMG_20190927_124217-1-768x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42537"/><figcaption> Towett Ngetich, CEO of Uthabiti Health, a Kenya-based pharmaceutical company </figcaption></figure>



Towett Ngetich is the CEO of Uthabiti Health, a Kenya-based pharmaceutical company that has implemented blockchain to bring transparency and accountability back to a country where statistics show that 30% of medicines sold are counterfeit. Uthabiti, which means ‘verify’ in Swahili, was started after Ngetich’s first-hand experience with the effects of fake health products: “Back in university, a significant number of students fell victim to unplanned pregnancies and unsafe abortions. With deep research, it was uncovered that there had been a supply of fake contraceptives and backstreet abortion pills into the student market,” explains Ngetich. More findings showed the presence of fake antibiotics, antiretrovirals (ARVs) and non-communicable diseases (NCD) medicines in the Kenyan pharmaceutical supply chain. 



“Pharmaceutical science is the center of healthcare – one
mistake in any drug composition or formulation has the risk of endangering a
significant number of people. The need to access safe, affordable and quality
health products in its simplest form means life and death in diagnosed health complications.
Blockchain gives patients the ability to track and trace products using
attached IDs – it also gives Uthabiti Health the ability to know where all our
health products sit within each supply chain,” he says. Uthabiti Health
procures medicines from different pharmaceutical manufacturers. Once received,
they go to an internal laboratory for quality testing and are then labeled with
the product’s safety lab report – attached in their codes is a unique
blockchain ID. The medicines are then passed on to their partnering retail
points, ensuring that the medicines dispensed to patients can be verified with
something as simple as a text message. 



“This brings in consumers in safe-proofing the supply chain
of pharmaceuticals,” adds Ngetich. 



The proliferation of fake drugs throughout Africa is complex
– on average, medicine changes 30 hands before reaching the destined pharmacy –
but blockchain technology has great potential to help stop counterfeit medicine
distribution because it brings traceability and trackability to the entire
pharmaceutical supply chain, ensuring the immutability of information.&nbsp; 



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Blockchain ethics?</h4>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="709" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CandicedC-709x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42533" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CandicedC-709x1024.jpg 709w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CandicedC-300x433.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CandicedC-600x867.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CandicedC-208x300.jpg 208w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CandicedC-768x1110.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CandicedC-1063x1536.jpg 1063w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CandicedC.jpg 1329w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 709px) 100vw, 709px" /><figcaption>Candice De Carvalho</figcaption></figure>



While blockchain is still a relatively niche technology, it is slowly changing how organizations operate. Blockchain promises better security and transparency, but not necessarily for the customer, in the case of drug allocation: “Where blockchain technology could likely increase efficiency and simultaneously decrease the abuse of medicines, customers benefit. The pharmaceutical and related industries are unique however, in that the ‘consumer’ is also a patient – a vulnerable group with special needs and rights,” explains Candice De Carvalho, the founder of Easy Ethics CPD.



Although overall transparency in the supply chain increases
through the use of blockchain, and this confers patient benefits, these must be
weighed against patient privacy and confidentiality.&nbsp; 



“With emerging technologies more freely available, we’ve
observed an interesting shift in patient behavior, where data privacy is
regarded less as an absolute by patients, in favor of a kind of sliding scale,
where privacy itself is a currency that purchases medical benefits along the
way,” adds De Carvalho. “Patients, for the right benefits, are perhaps more willing
to part with some privacy privileges.”



De Carvalho questions the genuine knowledge that patients
have of any exposure they experience through their use of novel medical device
or systems innovations. The key drivers for the business are not necessarily
unified with the total needs of the patient. However, the more the technology
owners protect and balance the patient’s need for confidentiality and consent,
the more they will ultimately see business benefit.&nbsp; 



“In the context of a doctor-patient relationship, the doctor has a positive duty to enhance patient understanding so that the patient enjoys a truly informed consent. Does this then mean that technology providers are now responsible in the same way that medical health workers are?” she ends.



-Tiana Cline

GettyImages-1056482262

Cure For Counterfeit Drugs?

FORBES AFRICA is on the hunt for Africans under the age of 30, who are building brands, creating jobs and transforming the continent, to join our Under 30 community for 2020.



<hr class="wp-block-separator"/>



JOHANNESBURG, 07 January 2020: Attention entrepreneurs,
creatives, sport stars and technology geeks — the 2020 FORBES AFRICA Under 30
nominations are now officially open. 



The
FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 list is the most-anticipated list of game-changers on
the continent and this year, we are on the hunt for 30 of Africa’s brightest
achievers under the age of 30 spanning these categories: Business, Technology,
Creatives and Sport.



Each
year, FORBES AFRICA looks for resilient self-starters, innovators,
entrepreneurs and disruptors who have the acumen to stay the course in their
chosen field, come what may.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1024" height="685" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Under-30-online-2020-1024x685.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42458" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Under-30-online-2020-1024x685.jpg 1024w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Under-30-online-2020-300x201.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Under-30-online-2020-600x401.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Under-30-online-2020-768x514.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Under-30-online-2020-1536x1027.jpg 1536w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Under-30-online-2020.jpg 1920w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



Past honorees include Sho Madjozi, Bruce Diale, Karabo Poppy, Kwesta, Nomzamo Mbatha, Burna Boy, Nthabiseng Mosia, Busi Mkhumbuzi Pooe, Henrich Akomolafe, Davido, Yemi Alade, Vere Shaba, Nasty C and WizKid.



What’s different this year is that we have whittled down the list to just 30 finalists, making the competition stiff and the vetting process even more rigorous.&nbsp;



Says
FORBES AFRICA’s Managing Editor, Renuka Methil: “The start of a new decade
means the unraveling of fresh talent on the African continent. I can’t wait to
see the potential billionaires who will land up on our desks. Our coveted sixth
annual Under 30 list will herald some of the decade’s biggest names in business
and life.” 



If you think you have what it takes to be on this year’s list or know an entrepreneur, creative, technology entrepreneur or sports star under 30 with a proven track-record on the continent – introduce them to FORBES AFRICA by applying or submitting your nomination.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="724" height="1024" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/poster-1-724x1024.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-42456" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/poster-1-724x1024.jpg 724w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/poster-1-300x424.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/poster-1-600x849.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/poster-1-212x300.jpg 212w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/poster-1-768x1087.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/poster-1-1086x1536.jpg 1086w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/poster-1.jpg 1357w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 724px) 100vw, 724px" /></figure>



NOMINATIONS AND APPLICATIONS CRITERIA:



Business
and Technology categories



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>Must be an
 entrepreneur/founder aged 29 or younger on 31 March 2020</li><li>Should have a legitimate
 REGISTERED business on the continent</li><li>Business/businesses
 should be two years or older</li><li>Nominees must have risked
 own money and have a social impact</li><li>Must be profit generating</li><li>Must employ people in
 Africa</li><li>All applications must be
 in English</li><li>Should be available and
 prepared to participate in the Under 30 Meet-Up</li></ol>



Sports
category



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>Must be a sports person
 aged 29 or younger on 31 March 2020</li><li>Must be representing an
 African team</li><li>Should have a proven
 track record of no less than two years</li><li>Should be making
 significant earnings</li><li>Should have some
 endorsement deals</li><li>Entrepreneurship and
 social impact is a plus</li><li>All applications must be
 in English</li><li>Should be available and
 prepared to participate in the Under 30 Meet-Up</li></ol>



Creatives
category



<ol class="wp-block-list"><li>Must be a creative aged 29
 or younger on 31 March 2020</li><li>Must be from or based in
 Africa</li><li>Should be making significant
 earnings</li><li>Should have a proven
 creative record of no less than two years</li><li>Must have social
 influence</li><li>Entrepreneurship and
 social impact is a plus</li><li>All applications must be
 in English</li><li>Should be available and
 prepared to participate in the Under 30 Meet-Up</li></ol>



Your
entry should include:



<ul class="wp-block-list"><li>Country</li><li>Full Names</li><li>Company name/Team you are
 applying with</li><li>A short motivation on why
 you should be on the list</li><li>A short profile on self
 and company</li><li>Links to published
 material / news clippings about nominee </li><li>All social media handles</li><li>Contact information</li><li>High-res images of
 yourself</li></ul>



Applications and nominations must be sent via email to FORBES AFRICA journalist and curator of the list, Karen Mwendera, on <a href="mailto:Karen.Mwendera@abn360.com">Karen.Mwendera@abn360.com</a> 



Nominations
close on 3 February 2020.

poster 2-2

Nominations Open for FORBES AFRICA 30 Under 30 class of 2020

Forbes’ new list of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jilliandonfro/2019/09/17/ai-50-americas-most-promising-artificial-intelligence-companies/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">promising artificial intelligence companies</a>&nbsp;highlights how the technology is creating real value across industries like transportation, healthcare, HR, insurance and finance.



Naturally, the founders of the honoree companies are excited about the technology’s benefits and, in their roles, spend a lot of time thinking and talking about its strengths and limitations. Here’s what they think people get wrong about artificial intelligence.



Affectiva CEO Rana el Kaliouby says she’s too often encountered the idea that AI is “evil.”



“AI—like any technology in history—is neutral,” she says. “It’s what we do with it that counts, so it’s our responsibility, as an AI ecosystem, to drive it in the right direction.”&nbsp;



Companies need to be aware of how AI could widen bounds of inequality, she adds: “Any AI that is designed to interact with humans—Affectiva’s included—must be evaluated with regards to the ethical and privacy implications of these technologies.”



Sarjoun Skaff, CTO and cofounder of Bossa Nova Robotics,&nbsp;says that the biggest misconception he encounters is that artificial intelligence is actually, well, intelligent.&nbsp;



“The truth is much more mundane,” he says. “AI is a very good pattern-matching tool. To make it work well, though, scientists need to understand the details of how it internally works and not treat it as an ‘intelligent’ black box. At the end of the day, making good use of great pattern matching still belongs to humans.”



Similarly, Aira cofounder Suman Kanuganti says that the public has “over-inflated expectations” for artificial intelligence.



“Garry Kasparov sums it up nicely: ‘We are in the beginning of MS-DOS and people think we are Windows 10,’” Kanuganti says. “AI realistically is still like a 3-year-old child at this stage. When it works, it feels magical. It does some things well, but there’s still a long way to go.”



So, no, we are nowhere close to “<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/27/18114362/ai-artificial-general-intelligence-when-achieved-martin-ford-book" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">artificial general intelligence</a>,” or AGI, where machines are actually as smart as humans.



“We’re still a long way from AI having the general intelligence of even a flea,” says David Gausebeck.



Despite the tendency to overestimate what artificial intelligence can do, the difficulty of building an effective system is often underestimated, some founders say.



“The systems you need to implement and manage machine learning in production are often much more complex than the algorithms themselves,” says Algorithmia CEO Diego Oppenheimer. “You can’t throw models at a complex business problem and expect returned value. You need to build an ecosystem to manage those models and connect their intelligence to your applications.”&nbsp;



Put another way, you can’t just “sprinkle on some artificial intelligence like a magic sauce,” says Feedzai CEO Nuno Sebastiao.



One of the most common tropes that a handful of founders brought up was the idea that artificial intelligence is primarily a job killer.



People.ai founder Oleg Rogynskyy says that AI should be seen as a creator of new opportunities instead of a destroyer of jobs.



“In a nutshell, AI does two things: It automates repetitive low-value-add work for humans (which will indeed take low-complexity jobs away), which we think of as ‘Autopilot,’&nbsp; and it guides people on how to do their work or other activities better (which makes humans more effective at what they do), which we call ‘Copilot,’” he says. “While Autopilot can take simple, repetitive and boring jobs away, Copilot is absolutely the best way to guide, train and educate humans on how to do new things.”



&#8211; By <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jilliandonfro/">Jillian D&#8217;Onfro</a>, Forbes

Artificial Intelligence, technology

AI 50 Founders Say This Is What People Get Wrong About Artificial Intelligence

Can mines become more efficient – and safe – through tech? Robots, drones and virtual reality tools are now being used for sophisticated drilling operations.

The mining industry has been pivotal to the economy of South Africa for many years, but the current climate is tough.
Investor confidence in the sector is waning, with the country’s mines struggling in the face of a declining economy and regulatory uncertainty. The industry used to contribute almost a fifth of the country’s GDP, but this contribution has been declining by about 0.2% per year.
In the meantime, input costs are rising, with the end result being an almost 50% decline in investor profits, while dividends have fallen by more than half. As a result, employment has fallen. In the gold mining sector, for example, almost 50,000 jobs have been lost since 2009. In a bid to make the sector more efficient and increase margins, mining firms are turning to tech.
The old technologies – pneumatic drills and the like – being employed by individual miners are slowly being phased out. Robots, drones and virtual reality are the new order of the day.
At Kumba Iron Ore, one of the largest producers of iron ore globally, drilling is going high-tech. Whereas miners used to sit for up to eight hours at a time on a truck-sized machine, drilling holes in which to place explosives, now they can do it from the comfort of an office. Kumba is one of only two iron ore mining firms globally to have started using autonomous drills.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/focus/2018/04/17/mining-charter-back-square-26/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Mining Charter Back To Square 26</a>
The decision to use this drill was a response to the volatility of the commodities market. Investing in tech, the company believed, would make its operations more efficient.
Between 2014 and 2017, Kumba has spent R748 million (about $52.5 million) on the implementation of new technologies.
Drones took flight over its Kolomela mine in South Africa’s Northern Cape province in December 2015, and Kumba now has a fleet of 10. Fitted with state-of-the-art cameras and laser scanners, they have taken over drilling operations, as well as providing up-to-date, real-time data on the mine’s operations. Surveyors are safer as they do not need to physically visit sites.
“The technology projects are aimed at creating safer work environments by removing people from harmful environments, improving productivity through the implementation of real time, efficient solutions that results in driving down costs and maximizing the utilization of current and future resources in order to remain competitive in the long-term through the development of low-grade beneficiation technology,” says Bongi Ntsoelengoe, Technology Manager at Kumba Iron Ore.
The results have been impressive, with Kumba’s productivity rising dramatically. Operating hours are up by 20%, according to Ntsoelengoe, while drill hole quality has improved and the company will need fewer drilling machines over the mine’s lifetime. Not only have efficiencies and production improved, driving down operating costs, the mines are also safer.
<div id="attachment_37243" style="width: 245px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-37243" class="size-medium wp-image-37243" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IMG_9689-2-Bongi-Ntsoelengwe-235x300.jpg" alt="" width="235" height="300" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IMG_9689-2-Bongi-Ntsoelengwe-235x300.jpg 235w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IMG_9689-2-Bongi-Ntsoelengwe-300x384.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IMG_9689-2-Bongi-Ntsoelengwe-600x768.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IMG_9689-2-Bongi-Ntsoelengwe-768x982.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IMG_9689-2-Bongi-Ntsoelengwe-801x1024.jpg 801w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IMG_9689-2-Bongi-Ntsoelengwe.jpg 1601w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 235px) 100vw, 235px" />Bongi Ntsoelengoe, Technology Manager at Kumbe Iron Ore. Photo Supplied.</div>
<blockquote>“Benchmarking studies have shown that South African mining industry has lagged behind in the adoption of technology until recently,” Ntsoelengoe said.</blockquote>
That is slowly changing. Another mining giant becoming increasingly tech-savvy is Rio Tinto, which has the largest fleet of driverless trucks in the industry.
These trucks are remotely controlled from a state-of-the-art operations center 1,500 kilometers away, and hauled one billion tonnes of ore in February alone.
Rio Tinto is also establishing the world’s first fully-autonomous heavy haul, long-distance rail network, and is the first mining company to achieve fully-automated hole pattern drilling without human intervention. Its iron ore business currently operates seven fully autonomous rigs for drilling production blast holes.
“Our Autonomous Drill System enables a single operator from a remote location to operate up to four autonomous drill rigs simultaneously. This technology is much safer for the operator and has improved both precision and equipment utilization,” says Stephen McIntosh, Rio Tinto’s Group Executive, Growth &amp; Innovation.
Meanwhile, 3D visualization technology RTV delivers real-time 3D models of ore deposits located far beneath the surface that previously couldn’t be measured.
“This enables more accurate drilling and blasting, reduced explosive use and better waste classification,” says McIntosh.
Like Kumba, Rio Tinto is also improving its data collection through tech. Its Mine Automation System (MAS) allows it to combine myriad streams of data to deliver operational insights in real-time to step up productivity performance.
“It helps give us a better understanding of what grade is where before we mine and is a powerful resource to drive productivity improvements from mine to market,” says McIntosh.
Meanwhile, the environment is also benefitting.
Rio Tinto has launched the world’s first certified low CO2 aluminium, RenewAl, and cutting-edge AP smelting technology, which reduces electricity use and lowers emissions.
“As we look to develop more mines at greater depths, we’re using technology to keep people safe – such as sensors to monitor conditions, autonomous vehicles to haul ore, and complex ventilation systems to create a comfortable working environment,” says McIntosh.
He says Rio Tinto’s early adoption of automation was across the board, helping it drive productivity, lower costs and increase safety. This was the direction in which the industry is headed, he says, with more mines likely to jump on board and invest in tech in the future. This could help pull the whole industry out of the doldrums.
“As an industry, we have achieved incredible things through scaling and ever refining known technologies,” says McIntosh.
&#8211; By Tom Jackson

Tag: Technology

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA