Innovation creates productivity
By Katherine King
CEO/Co-founder of Dazychain
Governments around the world are calling on us to increase our productivity. USA’s productivity rate hovers around 2.16% per annum. Australia’s rate is down to 1.4%, which means it would take 64 years to double the economy. Yikes!
The definition of productivity is: “the effectiveness of productive effort, especially in industry, as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input” (Oxford Dictionary).
I’m not sure I could possibly work harder, but I’m willing to try to be more efficient. It’s all about output.
What does it mean for us? Declines in productivity mean years of low wage growth and increasing income inequality across the globe. Why? Parts of the economy that were easier to automate – agriculture, mining and manufacturing – occupy a declining share in the economy. The expanding services sector, now more than 70% of the economy, is difficult to automate, so it’s less productive.
The answer? Clearly, it is not just working harder. The most productive countries, Ireland, Norway, and Switzerland have the lowest hours of work, unlike the Mexicans who work harder than any nation on the planet with lower productivity.
The answer lies in training and education, market regulation, increased business investment, managing labor shortages, providing quality, cost-effective childcare, and a lot more technology.
We need to develop and embrace technology for the services industry. This is where we can make a real contribution. It’s not the same as growing food or manufacturing cars using machines or robots, but services tech is where we’ll start to build productivity. AI creates an obvious potential for increased productivity if it’s used and integrated into complex services management.
Our applications, Dazychain (legal matter management), ConSol (construction management), and Arnie (claims management for insurance companies/fleets) are designed to provide tech solutions to manage complex services for companies pushing for greater productivity, process automation and services management. It’s the new place to play.
