The CEO of Siemens UK told an audience of 150 business and academic leaders that they shouldn’t obsess about AI until they’ve identified the problem that it will solve.
Carl Ennis was the headline speaker at Wednesday’s packed Pioneers Innovation Forum, which was organised by Rochdale Development Agency.
After delivering his keynote speech he took part in a panel discussion alongside Philippa Glover, CEO of Rakem Group, and Prof Andy Miah, Chair of Science Communication & Future Media, at the University of Salford.
The discussion was followed by a series of workshops and the event also included nearly 30 exhibitors and a demonstration by Spot the robotic dog, provided by the Northern Engineering and Robotics Innovation Centre, highlighting the potential of robotics in education and technology.
Among those attending were representatives of GM Business Growth Hub; MIDAS; CEAMS – Henry Royce Institute; Innovate UK; Hopwood Hall College; Made Smarter; and five universities.
Rochdale roots
Ennis started his career at Rochdale Training 41 years ago and was appointed CEO of Siemens UK in January 2020.
He said businesses shouldn’t get too giddy about AI and new technology until they’ve identified what the problem is they’re trying to fix.
“Often new technology comes along and people start to say ‘I’ve got a solution, now what’s the problem?’ That’s the wrong way to tackle any development and any innovation,” he said.
Pioneers Innovation Forum, which took place at Rochdale Town Hall
“Whether you’re a business or an individual, you need to start with ‘what problem are you trying to solve and how can you deploy technology to solve the problem?’
“The mistake that many people make is they’ve got this shiny new toy and they’re looking for a problem to solve. That’s the wrong way around.”
Ennis advised delegates to focus on what’s important and not just what’s urgent.
Focus on what’s important
“Often in our personal and business life we are reacting to situations we find ourselves in and that’s just natural, whether you’re running a small business or a big business,” he said.
“It’s incredibly important to find time, not just to deal with the urgent, but to find time to think about the important.
“What do I want this business to be doing tomorrow and the day after as opposed to be only thinking about what I need to be doing today?
“As a leader you can be drawn into only worrying about the urgent and not find time about the important.
“In my experience if you don’t plan where you’re going you wouldn’t be surprised to find out you don’t get where you wanted to go.”
Productivity woes
The boss of Siemens also highlighted how the UK ranked 24th globally for robot density.
“When people start to talk about productivity it’s a little bit of a taboo subject because it sounds as though we’re saying it’s about lazy people and people tend not to want to talk about it,” he said.
“That’s the wrong way to think about it. It’s not about the effort that an individual puts in at work. It’s actually a measure of our ability to embrace and deploy new technologies.
“One of the challenges we have as a nation is we value history and making things last a long time.
“The analogy I give is when I go to a plant manager in a European site, the first thing they’ll take me to see is the shiniest piece of equipment that they’ve just invested in, which is digitally-enabled, uses AI modelling and is driving their productivity.
“You do the same in a UK environment and the plant manager will take you to see the oldest piece of kit they’ve got and, with a level of pride, tell you how he or she is making it last much longer than it was intended without realising the irony of the fact that it’s holding back his productivity.
“The world is a global marketplace so we’ve got to compete on a global stage.
Spot the robotic dog, provided by the Northern Engineering and Robotics Innovation Centre, at the Pioneers Innovation Forum
“Of the G7 countries we are the only one which is outside the top 20 when it comes to robot density – and it’s getting worse.”
The successful event was took place at Rochdale Town Hall and was organised by Alison Salas and Nikki Staley, of the RDA, and hosted by Chris Maguire, executive editor, of BusinessCloud.