When I published my book, The Transformational Entrepreneur, back in 2011, one of the fundamental premises I put forth was that Knowledge Workers are the new raw material of our age. As steel and the assembly line was to Henry Ford, people; their creativity, collaboration and innovative capabilities, are the drivers of value creation today. This is especially true for companies competing in the global life science, biotechnology, pharmaceutical and medical device markets.
Aging populations combined with global, emerging markets continue to drive demand for new drugs, devices and therapies. Unfortunately, in the race to deliver innovative, cost effective therapies and interventions, there’s a throttling effect slowing all of these industries. The shortage of scientists and engineers, the Knowledge Workers to which I speak, is an ongoing drag on innovation and growth for many organizations. And it’s only going to get worse.
According to a survey by Deloitte, 83% of pharmaceutical and life science companies struggle to find skilled talent, with 75% of respondents anticipating this shortage will worsen over the next five years.
Currently one out of three engineering jobs in the U.S. are going unfilled.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the U.S. will need ≈ 400,000 new engineers, annually. By 2031, the number of unfilled software, industrial, and electrical engineering jobs is projected to reach a staggering 186,000.
H-1B visas for recruiting foreign engineers and scientists has long been limited at 85,000 people per year. And foreign countries are facing the same shortages, with Japan projected to have a deficit of 700,000 engineers by 2030 and, according to the German Economic Institute, Germany is already incurring a shortage of 320,000 STEM specialists.
One path is to develop Human-Machine Teaming, leveraging custom AI to augment and enhance Knowledge Worker creativity and productivity. Unfortunately, 70% of digital transformations fail.
So what’s the solution?
We believe the solution demands a strategic, integrative approach. One that starts with taking your insights and understanding of the dynamics at play between your organizational culture and leadership, and how work is actually being done, to a new level.
Armed with these new insights, and in collaboration with your Knowledge Workers, you can then begin to identify and strategize around applying AI in ways that alleviate tedium and enhance creativity and accelerate innovation. Only from this vantage point, are you then ready to deploy a custom, phased approach to integrating AI into your core, value producing processes. Highly collaborative processes guided, once again, by your Knowledge Workers.
If you’re interested in learning more about our tools and approach, please don’t hesitate to get in touch! Thanks so much and Happy Holidays!
© Terry Murray, 2024.
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