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Innovation

Innovation, aggregation, emancipation and why everything’s going to be alright

By Dylan Williams, global chief strategy and innovation officer

June 23, 2015 | 6 min read

To paraphrase Frank Zappa: writing about innovation is like dancing about architecture. Jack Dorsey doesn’t write about innovation. Nor does Pep Guardiola. Or Hedi Slimane. Or Andrew Weatherall. They’re too busy innovating. But as I have the ‘I’ word in my job title and am keen for our new incubator, The Publicis Drugstore, to fulfill its potential, I’m compelled to scribe opinion on technological innovation.

Dylan Williams

My perspective has it roots in an incident that happened in my years as an undergraduate at LSE many moons ago. It was during one particularly dull lecture, amidst a general hubbub of incredulous sniggers, that a Brazilian mature student, in a fit of intellectual Tourette’s, shouted “THIS IS FUCKING BULLSHIT!”.

I’ve wanted a beer with that guy ever since. He was right. We all kind of knew it. The focus of his ire was the now much maligned central premise of classical economics – that human beings are inherently rational agents who, served with similar information, will make similarly predictable decisions. An assumption that reflects reality about as accurately as Kim Kardashian’s Twitter feed.

Following Mr Brazil’s outburst, I stupidly turned my back on Goldman Sachs and early retirement to pursue a career in advertising. As the 1990s unfolded, the heavyweight account planners of the day, people like Paul Feldwick and Jim Carroll, seemed light years ahead of academia. They were completely at ease with what really made people tick and successfully developed strategies that nudged and shaped human behaviour through all manner of overt and subliminal communications. Chimps sold tea, clowns flipped burgers and evil beavers made us dream of cold draught beer.

And during every awards season in the 20 odd years since I joined the ‘Mad Men’ I’ve heard more effectiveness case stories. More pointed examples that prove that we can influence people’s choice architectures in all manner of instances.

What we’ve not been so hot at is looking at aggregate effect. So focused have we been on encouraging consumers to switch between competing brands that we’ve paid relatively little attention to cumulative build. The consumer culture we all helped create has become the world’s dominant paradigm. We don't just enjoy more choice, we purchase at a faster rate and at greater scale than ever before.

The aggregate effect of all those brilliant case stories is an infantilised shopper mindset and an overconsumption epidemic that is mortgaging the futures of our grandchildren. An industry largely full of morally decent people with brilliant creative minds and sensitive souls has nevertheless created a monster.

And so it could be with ‘innovation’. It’s so much easier to coo over the latest technological breakthroughs than consider their combined impact. So much more inspiring to skim Wired or TechCrunch for the latest on driverless cars or block chain payment systems. So much more stimulating to drop in on incubators like Publicis’ own Drugstore to hear about lab-grown leather and precision agriculture drones. It’s all 21st century culture-porn. It blows our minds and it melts the internet. By contrast, contemplating and guarding against the potential downsides of the digitisation of man feels a bit low energy and Luddite.

However, mounting evidence reveals the extent to which we are all struggling to acclimatise to our tech-fuelled, hyper-stimulated, always-on world. The World Health Organisation has estimated that up to 85 per cent of all deaths are now stress related, that stress increases the likelihood of death five-fold, and has dubbed the condition the “epidemic of the 21st Century”.

The UK lost 11.3 million working days, nearly 40 per cent of all work related illness, to stress-related ailments in 2014 according to its Health and Safety Executive. The American Psychological Association equated the US equivalent loss to $300bn last year. Insomnia, anxiety, panic attacks, self harm, cyber bullying, the threat of long-term unemployment as whole industries dis-intermediate and embrace automation – all these ills lie in the backwash of the much heralded new wave of Open Innovation.

Yet there are two sides to every story and, in this instance, I choose the positive outlook. A perspective beautifully articulated by Ben Southworth, former deputy CEO of the Tech City Advisory Board at 10 Downing Street, in an interview last week:

“The world changed, the march of the machines, the rise of the robots, it's all true, and best of all? It's amazing, for it heralds a liberation from tyranny. As we begin to teach machines to do simple tasks, we free ourselves up to be the one thing we can never replicate. We can be human again. We can connect with each other, we can spend more time learning and discussing the human condition, and most of all, being creative…

"We can easily create more flexible working policies, we can train staff more efficiently, monitor happiness, increase creativity, and re-organise our lives to be more human. I call this Humanscale. Building businesses, products, services, and structures that place the human first. Through empowering our employees to help us, unlocking the latent talent and creativity within organisations we give ourselves the chance to transform for the better.”

Like Ben, I think the aggregate effect of our new era of innovation will be positive. Technology will liberate us from the menial tasks and mono-dimensional roles that have stymied our development since industrialisation divided labour by process. We will come to eel a new sense of freedom and a more rounded sense of self.

Just consider the meteoric rise of Headspace – a “gym for the mind” – to see a rosy picture of tomorrow. Headspace started only five years ago and is already established in 150 countries. Its “get some – give some” initiative is an act of generosity, demonstrating good citizenship characteristic of this century’s innovators. The growth of the health tech scene is hugely encouraging and provides grounds for real optimism.

We’re starting to witness the tessellation of innovation and emancipation, creating a future where technology will help us become all the more human. I think everything’s going to be alright.

Dylan Williams is global chief strategy and innovation officer at Publicis Worldwide (With thanks to Ant Harris and Benjamin Southworth)

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