- Title
- The readiness of the South African private and public sector for the fourth industrial revolution
- Creator
- Putzier, Mark Ludwig
- Subject
- Technology and civilization
- Subject
- Sustainable development Artificial intelligence Industrial revolution
- Date Issued
- 2018
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MBA
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10948/17422
- Identifier
- vital:28332
- Description
- The exponential growth of technology over the past few years led to it being given prime slot at the World Economic Forum held in Davos in January 2016, with Forum founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab coining this potentially disruptive phenomenon as the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’. Since then, the term Fourth Industrial Revolution (FIR) has gained ever increasing relevance and importance. Schwab (2016) emphasised that the world is on the edge of “a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to one another”; and that in the pure “scale, scope and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before”. What is certain is that the FIR is predicted by many to impact significantly on jobs in the world as robotics; automation and artificial intelligence become more prolific. This shift will have a direct bearing on South Africa as well. With the challenges facing the country, such as infrastructure constraints, frequent industrial actions, rising costs and shortages of skills, the loss of further jobs should be of concern for government and the private sector alike. The outcomes of the in-depth analysis of future studies practice and theory in this research study give credence to the argument that the manner in which planning for the future of the FIR in the South African context is taking place requires profound adjustments. The development of fresh insight through the application of futures studies is essential to this planning process, as is progressively evidenced in the tendency for present day business to make collaborative decisions and strategies that are founded on and informed by futures studies. This research has tried to gain insight into the possible future of the FIR in South Africa through the creation of four scenarios towards 2035. These are outlined as follows: The Fifth Element, which is the ‘best case’ scenario, to which the country aspires; Terminator, the ‘worst case’ scenario, in which everything goes bad; The Matrix, the outlier future based on a surprising, disruptive, emerging issue; and The Day the Earth Stood Still, in which no change takes place, making it ‘business as usual’. The research furthermore endeavoured to discover the preferred future for the FIR in a South African context, as a basis for the Future Vision of the FIR in South Africa towards 2035. All through this study, Inayatullah’s (2008) pillars of futures studies were applied as a guide in mapping the present and future, further deepening and broadening the future through the development of scenarios, and, finally, transforming the future by narrowing it down to the preferred. It is up to the South African public and private sectors to determine which path is to be followed in the decisions surrounding the embrace and acceptance of the FIR as the country moves towards progress and sustainable development. Through a novel and innovative methodology, the creation of an atmosphere of trust, and the sharing of purpose, values and benefits, a national Future Vision of the FIR in South Africa towards 2035 is attainable. All stakeholders have to commit to working in co-operative partnerships, with government, society, local communities and labour striding boldly together into a world of technological, commercial, environmental and social innovation.
- Format
- xviii, 171 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- Nelson Mandela University
- Publisher
- Faculty of Business and Economic Sciences
- Language
- English
- Rights
- Nelson Mandela University
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