Tech innovation creates some jobs, puts others at risk

This is an excerpt of the original article. It was written for the November 2017 edition of Supply Chain Management Review. The full article is available to current subscribers.

November 2017

There are strands of sustainability and corporate responsibility through much of this month’s issue. James T. Prokopanko, the former CEO and president of The Mosaic Company, details how corporate responsibility became his compass for leader ship when he took over the reins of the company back in 2007. Similarly, Joseph Ludorf, the executive director of supply chain for Cipla Medpro, details how revamping the planning process enables the South African pharmaceutical company to prof- itably supply drugs to underserved populations on the continent as part of its corporate mission. We round out the issue with five tips for intelli- gent risk taking in…

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The World Trade Organization (WTO) has just produced this year’s annual report addressing “Trade, Technology, and Jobs.” As one might expect, tracking all three trends is no easy task, especially when seeking solutions to global supply chain challenges. “The evidence collected in the report suggests that success in facilitating adjustment involves finding an appropriate balance between labor market flexibility and employment security,” says Roberto Azevêdo, the WTO’s director general. “While there is a range of approaches, and different policies will be appropriate in different circumstances, the core elements tend to include steps to facilitate labor adjustment and ensure that the benefits of economic progress are spread more widely.”

The upcoming wave of technological advances, in particular artificial intelligence and robotics, raises a number of issues, including their impact on the future of jobs.

Some experts argue that history will repeat itself and the next wave of technological advances will replace many existing jobs but create new ones. Other experts disagree, arguing that the new wave of technologies is without precedent (in terms of speed, scale and force) and will replace human jobs at a massive scale, leading to a “jobless future.”

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