HP INNOVATION SUMMIT 2020: 3D PRINTING AND THE INDIVIDUAL, THE FUTURE OF WORK
HP invited us to the 2020 edition of its Innovation Summit, an annual event in which we look at the future of the technological world, and beyond, through some of the company's leading personalities. Usually these initiatives are carried out live, but this year, due to COVID-19, everything was done online.
Thanks to the interesting discussions "put on the
plate" by the participants, including Enrique Lores, CEO of HP, and Ryan
Patel, a collaborator of CNN , an interesting and dreamy look at what will
happen in the next few years in the tech sector and in the world has been
drawn. general.
The single individual at the center of everything
We live in complex times, which are creating problems for
everyone. However, Enrique Lores, CEO of HP, provides another perspective: We
must not look at the pandemic only as a problem, but also as an accelerator of
innovation. Just think of how many people have begun to further approach
digital tools directly from their own homes, from the school world to the
workplace, where the term "smart working" has come overwhelmingly .
Six months ago, people's mentality was very different: working in the office,
relaxing at home.
Now, however, people have realized that they can carry out
many activities directly from their personal PC, used, in this case, as a
gateway to the school and working world.
We are facing a breaking point: once the pandemic is
overcome, people's mentality will be different . For example, children will
have to acquire some skills faster, in order to connect, for example, to
school. We are facing a real change of direction, which goes beyond the
technology sector, but which involves people's lives.
We no longer look at the office as a necessary place to
work, but the latter becomes useful for networking and interacting with others.
The individual no longer goes to work to carry out the classic daily
activities, those he can do from home, but he goes there when he feels
motivated to share his ideas and discuss them with others. It will then be up
to the companies to make the project intriguing, but the key point is the
increasing importance of the individual. Lores said that this could clearly
also lead to some inconvenience, which is already being seen in recent months.
For example, there is the issue of sensitive data in the
hands of individuals, who manage it from their home, making them potentially
vulnerable to attacks. However, HP is already working on solutions from this
point of view, in order to make the system safer for everyone.
What is clear is that the pandemic will have a major impact
on the future and that in the coming years there will be many changes in the
concept of work, both for workers and for companies. In fact, these will have
to try to stay closer to the customer, also in terms of production, and at the
same time aim to guarantee workers' rights and safety . This without completely
entering the digital world, but keeping the latter balanced with physical
experiences.
HP sells both computers, gateways to the digital world, and
3D printers, capable of transforming something digital into a real object.
Lores said the company wants to maintain some sustainability in all fields,
including the impact these changes will have on workers and society at large.
The goal is to innovate by making people's lives better, carrying out their
values and enabling them to do things that were previously unthinkable.
This is where 3D printing technology comes into play, where
HP is at the forefront. During the pandemic, enormous efforts were made to
provide doctors with what they needed using this technology. In addition, the
company is focusing particularly on Microfluids, or the ability to handle small
fluids, which could potentially lead to a revolution in that field. This is
only one of the potentials of 3D printing, given that with its spread people
will be able to build what they want at home and create new opportunities.
All this without going into the details of possibilities
such as those related to dentistry, bioprinting (combining cells, growth
factors and biomaterials)and cloning (making 3D figurines of people). There are
already those who foresee that in the next 15 years there will be more changes
than in the entire history of man.
For the moment, we are witnessing the birth of a new
professional figure , the Empowered Employee, who makes continuous training and
reskilling real strengths. An HP survey, carried out on 6000 employees, reveals
that 47% of respondents are now more inclined to pursue a personal passion as a
possible career opportunity, while half of the respondents said they spent an
average, in Italy, of 633 euros to work better from home.
Furthermore, motivation is leading 43% of Italian
respondents to dedicate themselves independently to reskilling and professional
training through online courses, mainly related to IT / Tech support,
leadership, team management, stress and well-being, language enhancement.
foreign and digital literacy. In short, we are facing a technological and
cultural revolution, also considering that 99% of the interviewees already now
believe that digital manufacturing can contribute to economic growth. All that
remains is to conduct this revolution in a healthy way.
