Is Your Company Ready for the Future?

We are seeing change every day. It’s happening right in front of us. But we choose not to see it, we close our eyes. You need to get to the future. Lots of innovation is happening in the industry, quality is improving, AI is coming in. That’s why we need to be ready. Otherwise we will be left behind. It’s the first part of QCDMS Consultants founder Charanjit Singh Bawa’s speech at ASQ Toronto Event.

I teach Lean, mostly Lean and leadership which is Toyota production system but I didn’t work for Toyota, I worked for Honda. I am passionate about Lean and I’ve been learning a lot so I’m here to share some of my knowledge with you.

How many people have heard about word “Gemba”? That’s where I learned Lean, that’s where I picked up all my knowledge. You’ve heard about my experience; those are the organizations on the screen I work for. You’ve heard I’m motivational speaker and these are my certifications, plus I have more people on my team. I work in all the sectors, these are my clients on the screen or they have come to my trainings: manufacturing, service, public service, health care. These are the people we are either currently working with or we are planning to work soon.

Why am I showing you this? When I go to all these organizations, lots of people are looking for good people, so if you want to leave me your resume and your name – my booth is right here. I am looking for 2-3 people for my contracts, so see if we can work together.

People don’t like changes plus we are seeing changes every day. It’s happening right in front of us. We choose not to see it; we close our eyes. So before we go further, please, open your sheet and please answer me: number one, your name, your qualification, your certifications, your skills. Please, answer number one only, focus on it. Trust me, you have all the answers. We just don’t focus. I’m going to make you focus in this 15-20 minutes, please, take time, answer for yourself, talk to your brain, talk to yourself, you are going to find the answers today. Are you ready for tomorrow or no?

You are in current state and lots of things are changing here and you need to get to the future. Give me an example, what’s changing today in your industry, in your office, in your company. What’s changing? Automation, what else? Technology is changing, okay. Quality is improving. AI is coming in, okay. That’s why we need to change, that’s why we need to get to the tomorrow, otherwise you’ll be left behind.

Lots of innovation is happening in the industry, there is incremental, there is breakthrough and there is disruptive innovation happening. You guys are all seeing it. Lots of innovation is happening at home, people are trying something new every day.

How many people saw a Google helper, it will do all the work for you. It will call for you, it will book your appointments, it will do everything for you. You don’t have to do anything, it’s changing.

Let’s talk about Netflix vs Blockbuster. How many people have taken movies from Blockbuster? I have 2003-2005-2007 but they didn’t watch what was happening. What happened to the stores? Amazon just came along and took over everything. The people in New York when there were horse carts never ever agreed with the assumption that cars can work or the trains will work, but it’s the truth now. Look what’s happening with Uber, yes it’s on hold for now, but you will have self-driving cars. How many people believe self-driving cars will be truth? I believe it will be true.

Things are changing. Changing very fast.

Just to show you an example of disruptive change. Everybody must have seen this. The advertisement says: “Four years ago we started to wonder what would shopping look like, if you could walk into a store, grab what you want and just go. What if we could weave the most advanced machine learning, computer vision and AI into the very fabric of a store, so you never have to wait in life – no lines, no checkouts, no registers? Welcome to Amazon Go, use the Amazon Go app to enter, then put away your phone and start shopping. It’s really that simple. Take whatever you like, anything you pick up is automatically added to your virtual cart, if you change your mind about that cupcake just put it back. Our technology will update your virtual cart automatically. So how does it work? We used computer vision and deep learning algorithms… Once you’ve got everything you want, you can just go. When you leave, our adds up your virtual cart and charges your Amazon account and you can keep going. Amazon Go. No lines. No checkout. No, seriously.”

It’s awesome but what’s the problem? Big job loss is coming. Disruption change… No sector is untouched. I worked in all the sectors and I’m seeing lots of sectors where there are not enough people. Some of the easy jobs like admin jobs, like the counters – these jobs will be gone. People are even talking the doctors, family doctors, physicians will be gone. Things are coming, keep your eyes open. But there are lots of sectors who are dying to have people.