Innovators should not get carried away by the fascination that technology produces, by its multiple possibilities, by its capacity for infinite improvement, which technologists describe with one word: wow. It would be good for innovators to remember that any entrepreneurial initiative must be subordinated to ethical limits and must give meaning to social improvement. This is how engineer Carles Grau thinks, after a long career in the watchtowers of technology companies, he praises the importance of purpose, of “good purpose”, in his work The New Wow Seurat Effect).
These are times of transformation and uncertainty. His vision of the future is far from aligning with catastrophic hypotheses due to technological transformations. On the contrary, he believes that technology helps to innovate and that will take us to a better horizon. “It is already taking us to a better place,” he emphasizes the relevance of innovation. But any advance has a head and a tail (cyber attacks, identity theft, bullying…). “That is why it is important to anticipate the impacts,” advises the former CEO of the Mobile World Capital Foundation.
He also remembers that “80% of jobs will require digital skills and a percentage of the population has been isolated from this knowledge. Our duty is not to leave anyone behind.” Hence the importance for innovators to anticipate the negative effects that technology can bring and seek improvement for the social majority. Paraphrasing the Nobel Peace Prize winner and creator of microcredit, Muhammad Yunus states that technology is important, but what is done with it is much more relevant. “It is important that we open our eyes and understand that the path that collaborations, alliances and open innovation offer us is the most effective and fastest to open the doors of our I D i and grow our organizations exponentially without deviating from our purpose ”.
Grau shares his reflections in this work after working in management positions at companies such as Telefónica, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Barrabés, Salesforce and advising, in his new stage, technological leaders. “We must look to the future without fear, with prudence and responsibility.”