Gary Coleman: Global disruption wave provides Africa’s leapfrog opportunity

For over a decade, I’ve had the privilege of sharing the same WEF-week Davos hotel with a team from Deloitte. That provided a fast track to the firm’s global leaders, including super-smart Gary Coleman who has shared many insights over the years on the way he sees the business world moving. Coleman is at WEF Africa this week and in this fascinating interview shares some thoughts on how disruption engulfing the world gives Africa an opportunity to leapfrog. – Alec Hogg  

Gary Coleman from Deloitte is at WEF Africa out here from the U.S.

I am from the U.S. I’m based out of New York. We have an office at 30 Rockefeller Centre, right by the skating rink.

Why did you come to the Africa Forum?  What was so interesting about this one?

I am Deloitte’s Senior Partner for the World Economic Forum and so I head the delegation for the majority of our regional summits and our Global CEO is head of delegation for Davos. Any time I can get a chance to come to South Africa, whether it’s Johannesburg or Cape Town; I’m going to be here.

Challenges in South Africa are similar to those all over the world. Digitisation is disrupting many sectors of the economy.

Digital technology is disrupting just about every sector that I can think of. The secret really, is to understand it, be ahead of the curve, take advantage of it, and not be exposed to being disrupted yourself. In relation to manufacturing and maybe just a spin on Africa and South Africa for a second, I think the leapfrog effect for Africa could very well be advanced process technology. We know that infrastructure, particularly around energy and water for example, are a challenge here. I think digital technology has a place on the agenda, to make energy and water development, construction, and operation more efficient, more effective, and that’s going to help Africa.

We’ve had a good Renewable Energy program in South Africa and seen how solar power prices are dropping. For a sunny continent, that can’t be a bad thing.

I was going to say that whenever I visit Africa and look down on it, it’s pretty sunny. It’s inevitable that with the drop in solar construction, solar operation, and solar power, I think it’s just a matter of time before Africa takes advantage of solar power.

I was talking to Peter Diamandis from Singularity University and he said, “Anyone building a nuclear plant today, needs to have their head read”. Do you agree?

I’m probably not quite as adamant about that as he is, but I will say that he has a very good point. I know Peter rather well and battery technology, solar technology…just like Moore’s Law, it’s really changing and so he has a good point. I think that needs to be something that governments and private utilities who provide power to cities and nations, need to think about that.

Power plants take decades to build. With the way technology is trending, who knows where we’ll be in ten years’ time?

That’s what disruption is all about. It’s a very big challenge and it’s not just the energy sector. We talked about manufacturing many times when you and I chatted before. Consumerism (smartphones) I think are changing everybody’s daily lives and eventually, it’s going to work itself back to the education system.

Think of the billion minds in Africa. They are certainly, no dumber than those elsewhere in the world. If you haven’t had access to this information in the past with technology bringing it to you, isn’t this an opportunity for Africa to leapfrog?

I think the extractive industries in Africa does have a chance to help your country leapfrog. The advances in process technology, automation, robotics for example that can withstand environments that humans cannot, has an opportunity to leapfrog Africa. I would say while that’s true, that doesn’t mean that Africa has a competitive advantage because others are going to have access to the same technology. Getting Africa to take advantage of it can certainly improve the prosperity of your country.

You didn’t talk about driverless cars yet – is that a reality? Are we all going to have driverless cars one day?

I would say yes, but I’m really an end user to that, so I’m not in the prediction game for wireless cars. However, if you just look at the way technology has changed the world in the last five years compared to how it has changed in the last 20 years, it is exponential and I’m sure driverless cars are going to be here sooner than we all think.

I’m sure Deloitte have many motor manufacturers amongst their clients. What do you say to them? Where should they be going?

I would look at the technologies that are likely to have the biggest impact on business in society and particularly, for a continent like Africa or a country like South Africa. I think of drones and I think of smartphones as changing the way consumers are going to live their lives, how they’re going to be educated, and how they’re going to be trained. It will eventually, create a greater confidence in your people. Confidence breeds creative thinking. Creative thinking, breeds innovation and innovation is going to bring better prosperity to your country.

You’ve spoken about innovation and education. You’ve also spoken about Peter Diamandis and his XPrize. Are you up-to-date on the latest XPrize of ‘educating Africans’?

No, I don’t know his latest XPrize, but I know it ranges anywhere from space exploration to battery technology to whatever else goes through Peter’s brain. Peter was at one of our Deloitte dinners in Davos this last February and he talked about XPrize. He talked about Singularity and it’s a great business model. It allows people to become energised in their own way, in a business model that is different to most other games and prizes, and the challenges we have. He’s done a great job at that and I think it’s a great concept.

You touched on drones. How are they going to change our lives?

What do drones provide a competitive advantage to, over the helicopter, for example? Obviously, it’s the ability to take something that is lightweight, small, but extremely highly value-added and get it to somewhere remote. What comes to my mind is healthcare. If you look at the remote places of Africa where it historically takes so much money, time, and effort to get drugs from Point A to Point B, I believe drones are going to be a solution to where you’re going to get high demand drugs. Highly value-added), are lightweight, and you’re going to get them out into the urban areas. When that happens, you’re going to have greater health in those communities. When people are healthy, they become more confident. When they become more confident, they start thinking more creatively and I think you’re going to see growth being developed in the urban area from a prosperity perspective over time, and I think drones are going to play a role in that.

Do you have kids?

I have three children.

In this new world, what line should they be following?

Well, I’ll tell you. Whatever I tell them, they’re going to do the opposite. I have a firefighter and I have a nurse. My youngest son who has been a wild land firefighter for four years and is now back at San Diego University in Business Administration, so he’s the one person who listens to me.

We used to send our kids to school to become accountants, doctors, and lawyers. What are the new industries that you would be suggesting that they do?

That’s a very good point, Alec. Many studies out by many different consulting firms look at what careers are more likely to be disrupted, versus those that are not and you’re correct. People like paramedics and firefighters: disruption there is only going to occur by making it more efficient and making it safer. Firefighting (particularly wild land firefighting) is a very dangerous career and so I think the use of technology is going to still allow that career to occur, but it’s going to make it safer. More people who collected information and did research, owned that information, and had proprietary use of that information – those are the industries and the sectors that are going to be really, disruptive. What I’m telling my kids is, “It’s the basics. Be aware of what’s going on in the word, not just the city you live in, not just within the continent or country you live in, and not just within the industry or sector in which, you participate. Think globally. Be aware. Read a lot. Stay up on technology. Stay up on how changes are occurring in the marketplace and don’t forget geopolitics. It’s just as important as technology is. Stay educated. Have confidence in yourself. Be disciplined. Be creative and enjoy life as well.”