Making Digital Globalisation Inclusive

This week at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, world leaders and top CEOs came together in the spirit of the WEF’s collective mission statement, to "improve the state of the world".

Michael Dell participated in a discussion on the topic of Making Digital Globalisation Inclusive. The panel was chaired by Heather Long, The Washington Post’s Economics Correspondent and alongside Michael were Keith Block, Co-CEO of Salesforce; Gayle Smith President CEO of ONE; Erik Brynjolfsson, Director at MIT’s Initiative on the Digital Economy; Michael Froman Vice-Chairman & President, Strategic Growth, Mastercard; C. Vijayakumar, President and CEO of HCL Technologies Ltd.

The panellists discussed how a lack of skills in the market and a real grasp of digital literacy are some of the biggest dividing factors preventing the progress of digital globalisation from being truly inclusive and broad-based. Michael shared one of his main concerns is the skills shortage we are facing and how this impacts upon the globalisation of digital technological progress. Michael, very much in harmony with his co-panellists, stated that there is a global talent and skills shortage which must be addressed as a matter of urgency if we are to keep up with the pace of technological change. He highlighted Dell’s commitment to this change whereby Dell is currently investing c. $50m in STEM initiatives and our focus on attaching true value in the upskilling and retraining of our existing workforce. This is particularly visible here in EMEA where one example of helping to plug the regional skills gap is our STEM Aspire programme, a 12-month mentoring program aimed at undergraduate females from science, technology, engineering and maths subjects. Students are paired with mentors from Dell EMC, who provide them with 1-1 support and guidance to help bridge the gap between education and employment.

The fact that there really is no sense in stealing talent from the competition especially resonated with me – the numbers simply would not add up if we were all to act this way – as Michael said we’d all be losers.

The subject of Diversity & Inclusion was also highlighted of key importance for businesses to take action and really make D&I an intrinsic part of their consciousness, and how gender diversity is just one part of the puzzle – we must have diversity across every area of the spectrum. The panel also referenced the great opportunity the digital revolution brings, the hope and positive outlooks we can expect, and how the data revolution will be the fuel of the future.

You can find out more by listening to the replay here: https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting/sessions/making-digital-globalization-inclusive#