On April 20, I had the opportunity to hear Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon, speak at Southern Methodist University Bush Library lecture series.

Jeff Bezos is patient.

Somewhere along the way, possibly during childhood, he decided to take the long view.  He made a commitment to remain focused. To hold the line, regardless of what investors thought of his strategies or what Wall Street analysts wrote in their reports.

His focus is singular.

Relaxed, Bezos chatted about various topics while sprinkling tips and advice in conversation.  When talking about entrepreneurship, he stated, “In the future, if you are going to do anything new or innovative you will be miss understood.”

The word innovation invokes thoughts of new products, services, and technological software. Yet, taking a routine practice or process and completely rearranging the system is innovation.  Think Henry Ford and the assembly line.

At the core of innovation is thinking differently and envisioning the future.

Bezos is always focused on two things – customers and innovation grounded in his determination to take the long view of the business.

Bezos sits in the driver’s seat, observes the road ahead. He looks into the future to consider possible opportunities, potential roadblocks and notes upcoming changes in the landscape.

For any business to remain sustainable, leaders must keep their eye on the road instead of staring down at the dashboard. Refreshing sales and ROI on Salesforce or NetSuite, in an obsessive habit, does not drive innovation, especially if your mind is buried in the numbers or data.

Bezos, looks at the dashboard from time to time, keeping an eye on the process of the business.  He cares about developing long-term strategies as indicated by his 2-pizza memo styled meetings.  Time is given for everyone to read the memo; this action ensures an informed and educated discussion during each meeting.

Developing good strategy is difficult. It is the non-sexy side of business and requires everyone involved giving their full attention. Exceptional strategy requires asking “why” not the surface “why” which occurs during fun Friday meetings.

The “why” I am writing about is posing difficult questions, at times soul-searching answers about the business now and in the future.

These meetings require individuals to hold two competing thoughts in their mind at the same time.  Exceptional strategy requires small teams comprised of different thinkers, visionaries, and professionals who can bring a different perspective to the discussion.

To generate innovative strategy, that will make a profound impact in the future, requires being on the outside of herd mentality.  To look away from the dashboard, daydream, ponder why not? and to imagine what is possible on the road ahead.

Last week, I spoke with a tech recruiter who said, “most of the companies I work with are focused on what’s in front of them, the numbers and how they can reach the numbers.” Similar to the obsession with our mobile devices, that we check on average 2,634 times a day, our dashboards can be addicting, requiring a constant need to refresh.

Bezos is looking out the window. My guess is he is driving an old Ford pickup similar to what his grandfather owned in South Texas.

He’s looking into the future, thinking about Amazon’s customers, thinking how can he help them make a better purchase decision.

With advancing of AI and automation, allocating time for difficult strategy work is crucial. Companies staring down at the dashboard will either be purchased by Amazon or become obsolete.

For the past six years, I have been studying, researching, and talking with individuals around the world about the digital revolution.

As an avid runner, I use my runs to mentally digest and sift through all the information I’ve absorbed.  I think about the future, the potential paths we could take and then overlay human behavior to obtain practical viewpoint.

Imagine full automation real-time calibrated advancing AI. 

We’re not ready….nowhere close to being ready.

I’m not the only one thinking this thought either.

Last week, I attended an event hosted jointly by the French-American Chamber of Commerce and the Global Chamber – DFW Chapter.  In Stephane Mallard’s presentation, Artificial Intelligent Will Disrupt Everything; he repeated “we’re not ready” multiple times too.  Mallard provided one of the best and realistic presentations I’ve seen on the topic.

I think about potential employment for my son, who’s in high school.  I think about new markets and businesses that will need to be launched and created.  I envision how we will develop classes and train students and workers for the future.

I mentally twist and turn automation and AI backward and forward to imagine our world I would not recognize now.

Instead of waiting to see what happens, I believe in taking a proactive approach and have learned the hard way, when people say, “Oh, don’t worry about it.  It will all work out okay.” The opposite tends to occur as you are later blindsided.

So, why should we wait? A tech inventor, I know said, “the cats out of the bag” we need to plan now on how to manage this massive disruption that’s about to happen.

Action Plan for AI and Automation 

End Our Love Affair with STEM

STEM helped raise the awareness and increase the number of technology workers. However, we have reached a level where machines are creating software systems and languages internally without human assistance.

Many of the tech programming positions will be automated. Each day AI and robots manage more and more complex human activities from driving semi-trucks to being a personal home healthcare assistant to help your grandmother with her daily chores.

Tech workers of the future will be responsible for managing the IoT or teaching systems and robots how to learn. Imagine a room at Google or another tech center, where tech teachers teach robots, similar to children at a pre-k school, how to learn basic human functions. I believe we will have schools for robots and as they advance in their learning.  Similar to how humans learn now in public schools.

For anyone who has ever taught school, the job demands more skills than reading from a power point presentation.   It requires both a technical and liberal arts background.

Develop New College and Associate Degree Plans for All Forms of Higher Education

Many colleges have already taken this approach and have combined technology with liberal arts (thinking) classes to form ATEC degree plans.  We need to expand these offerings and include required classes in philosophy and ethics.

About once a week I read an article discussing the need for more philosophy majors. I would include history and art as well to ensure we do not make the same mistakes again.

Jeff Selingo has been talking about creating and promoting more career options instead of focusing solely on the four-year college degree route.

Vocational Training Will Be a Necessity

Who will fix our Internet of Things when they crash? A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post that listed possible jobs in the future related to the drone and robotics industry.

We will need individuals to develop a scalable business model for repairing these technologies and serve new undeveloped markets – the need will be there.

In 2016, the FAA issued 23,000 new drone licenses in three months.  Not everyone who purchased a drone will replace it when it crashes.  Think industrial drones for agriculture, construction, and similar industries.

So, who will be the first person to start a drone or robot repair service?

“Your One-Call Robot – Drone Solution” “We’ll Have Your Drone Back in the Air in Now Time!

Call today at 1-800-Fix-MyBot

I believe in the near future we will see more and more businesses open to serve areas we could not have imagined three or four years ago.

Time moves quickly when AI and automation are accelerating at exponential speeds, I would bet the line of acceleration is almost vertical.

We can’t wait longer. Nor can we keep our fingers crossed and think these jobs will magically appear when we need them.

As a former entrepreneur, starting and launching new businesses especially in undeveloped markets is extremely difficult.  However, we must move forward to ensure these new jobs will be available.  If we wait, I doubt will be satisfied with the options.