Digital transformation in Real Estate

Digital transformation is here to stay. We must therefore constantly foster dialogue to increase awareness for all that is and will become digital. Digitalization brings not only opportunities, but also risks that need to be addressed and taken seriously. In my series “Dialogue Interviews” I discuss these topics with leaders in Switzerland, from our member organisations to digital shapers and the brightest minds in the fields of technology and innovation. 

For this edition, I talked to Mario Facchinetti, the driving force behind the innovation network SwissPropTech, a networking platform that bridges property technology startups with the Swiss real estate industry.

Nicolas Bürer: You are the initiator of the innovation network SwissPropTech. With digitalisation and new technologies, where do you see the biggest changes in the real estate market in the next five to ten years?

Mario Facchinetti: The digital revolution will help the real estate and construction industries find solutions to problems that could not be solved so far. It will impact this industry in the same way it impacted other economic sectors. Using new technologies will increase efficiency, transparency, use of data and enhance the user experience with new products and services. The real estate and construction industries will work on implementing these changes in the next five to ten years. Time will tell whether companies outside the industry will adapt more quickly to the new environment and accelerate change.

Nicolas Bürer: How will these changes be felt by customers in the real estate value chain?

Mario Facchinetti: In the short-term, customers will benefit from new products and services when it comes to renting and buying homes. Tenants already see this in more efficient rental processes. It is getting easier to find, view and apply for rental properties. Technologies like virtual reality and artificial intelligence can help select objects that meet specific criteria. This makes the property viewing process shorter, more targeted and efficient. The increased transparency brought on by machine-supported valuation and comprehensive property histories will have a long-term effect on the market and customer experience.

Nicolas Bürer: How do you rate Switzerland in the PropTech and Building Information Modelling (BIM) areas in a global comparison? And what measures do we need to take to become leaders in this field?

Mario Facchinetti: Switzerland can be proud to be named the most innovative PropTech country in the world by the international Real Estate Innovation Network in 2018. The country has great PropTech companies that tackle problems in the real estate and building industries and provide well-engineered, high-quality products. But engineering is not everything. Marketing and sales are essential to becoming a global leader. On that front, we still have a lot of catching-up to do. Offering startups better access to entrepreneurial role models could help, in my opinion, solve some of these problems.

Nicolas Bürer: What are the main topics you address at SwissPropTech?

Mario Facchinetti: With SwissPropTech, we foster innovation in the Swiss real estate and construction industries. We do that by building bridges between the young PropTech sector and the established players. We also connect decision-makers and tech companies to increase awareness and encourage mutual understanding. More precisely: we support PropTech companies in their three main challenges: access to established players, to investors and to talent. We are happy that the recent study Swiss PropTech, developed in partnership with Credit Suisse, confirms our purpose.

Mario Facchinetti: Nicolas, let me ask you a few questions. Is digitalswitzerland aware of the main challenges that the Swiss PropTech scene faces? Are they similar to what other tech sectors face?

Nicolas Bürer: The challenges the Swiss PropTech faces are similar across the entire startup ecosystem: there is a constant battle for the best talent, the need for a better political framework, difficulties in securing long-term financing and the challenge to scale and go international. I believe the Swiss PropTech is more advanced compared with other tech industries as there’s already an established ecosystem in place. And there is a greater awareness in general, thanks in part to your organisation! The more we discuss and define concrete measures, the better we all get.

Mario Facchinetti: What could collectively be done to face the challenges you just mentioned?

Nicolas Bürer: Different things on different levels. Keeping the bigger picture in mind, we should work on tax improvements on stock options and create a tech or start-up visa, which would help all sectors, not just the Swiss PropTech. At digitalswitzerland, we try to initiate and co-lead on such important national topics. For example, there will be a hearing with the Federal Councillor Guy Parmelin in the third quarter of 2019. In addition, it is crucial to help the Swiss Entrepreneur Fund grow. Investing in Swiss scale-ups is critical to help them prosper and attract new scale-up venture capital to our country.

The next two to three years will be extremely decisive, especially as other tech hubs are already moving fast. As Andreas Meyer, CEO of SBB often says: «In Switzerland, we have only three assets: our mountains, our infrastructure and our brains.» I whole-heartedly agree with this statement. Using developments in tech to improve our infrastructure is of major importance for Switzerland.

Local and global connectedness is one of the success factors of a startup ecosystem. This is especially evident looking at a mature ecosystem like the Silicon Valley, which boasts a high level of interconnectivity on a local and global scale (Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2019, Startup Genome). The better connected and transparent the local ecosystem, through the support of investors, experts and founders-helping-founders, the more agile and mature it becomes. Naturally, global connectedness is crucial to scale solutions on an international level and stay at the forefront. These are the two main challenges the Swiss ecosystem needs to tackle: unite and grow its local connectedness and its global presence. Most of the leading ecosystems arise around big cities like San Francisco, Beijing and London. Most of them have a bigger population than Switzerland. We should not compete as individual cities like Lausanne, Basel and Zurich. We should compete as one nation! Already a well-established brand for quality, chocolate, and beautiful landscapes but not yet for its fast-evolving Swiss-made DeepTech startups. This is something that needs to change, and we need to change it together – as Switzerland.

Israel is a great example of what is possible when a country succeeds to connect locally. With a similar population size as Switzerland, it has managed to brand itself as a startup nation and combine its hubs of Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem and Beer-Sheva under one flag. Israel started this process over 30 years ago and has a 15-year head start on Switzerland. It is interesting to see how most people know and promote the story of the startup nation and its main success stories like Mobileye, Soda Stream, and Netafim. And it encompasses even technical B2B startups that are also rightfully promoted as success stories. In Switzerland, we are not there yet. According to a recent study, the best-known Swiss startups are Farmy, Amorana and Doppelleu (Startup Studie 2019, Rod). Unicorns and workhorses like Getyourguide, Mindmaze, Avaloq and Sensirion are hardly known. For the world to hear about amazing deep tech startups still to come, we need to expand the narrative beyond chocolate and mountains!

Part of digitalswitzerland’s role is as a national platform for the Swiss startup ecosystem. We help connect the various hubs within Switzerland and strengthen the connections both within and outside the country.

For example, almost three years ago, digitalswitzerland initiated Kickstart Accelerator – at a time when there were hardly any accelerator programmes. Fortunately, this has changed over the last years. Kickstart Accelerator now operates independently and digitalswitzerland founded the Swiss Accelerator Network last year. The goal is to bring together the best accelerator programmes in Switzerland. Today, over 11 accelerators work together, exchange knowledge and strengthen connections between the different hubs. In May, we jointly held the Swiss accelerator stand at the Startup Days event and also welcomed 41 scale-ups to the Market Entry Bootcamp.

The Swiss Accelerator Network is an excellent illustration of how we can work together on a national level and showcases the role digitalswitzerland plays in the Swiss startup ecosystem. We strengthen and expand ties in the Swiss ecosystem and foster its maturity. There is still a long way to go, and on this path, we must begin to speak more and more as one nation.

The labour market is not tender to the youngest and oldest. On the one end of the spectrum, the 16- to 25-year-olds struggle, on the other end, the 50- to 65-year-olds do too. In May 2019, the Federal Council in Switzerland proposed measures to assist these particular populations, conscious that with the ageing of the Swiss population, there will be a severe lack of qualified professionals in Switzerland within the next fifteen years.

Recognising that people over 50 have valuable qualifications and, at the same time, great difficulty finding work again if laid off, the Federal Council has proposed access to vocational assessment and guidance and cost-free career advice for people aged 40 or older. The Federal Council furthermore stated that training and lifelong learning should be more easily validated and that over people over 60 should have easier access to training and employment measures. Furthermore from 2020 to 2022, CHF 62.5 million will be allocated annually in the unemployment office (ORP/RAV) stimulus programme for the elderly unemployed.

According to the WEF, “businesses are set to expand their use of contractors doing task-specialized work, with many respondents highlighting their intention to engage workers in a more flexible manner, utilizing remote staffing beyond physical offices and decentralization of operations.“ Furthermore, there will be severe workforce transformations, which become apparent in “1) large-scale decline in some roles as tasks within these roles become automated or redundant, and 2) large-scale growth in new products and services—and associated new tasks and jobs— generated by the adoption of new technologies and other socio-economic developments.”

“Already, up to 162 million people in Europe and the United States — or 20 to 30 percent of the working-age population — engage in some form of independent work.” Indeed, McKinsey qualifies four groups of independent workers: “free agents, who actively choose independent work and derive their primary income from it; casual earners, who use independent work for supplemental income and do so by choice; reluctants, who make their primary living from independent work but would prefer traditional jobs; and the financially strapped, who do supplemental independent work out of necessity.” Redundancy and the reluctance to permanently hire older workers in Switzerland may be contributing to the rise of independent workers, so older workers need to have the skill sets to set up shop as independents.

According to WEF, “The extent to which the working population — both today’s and tomorrow’s — acquires the right skills to carry out the tasks required of them in the workplace is one of the most impactful and uncertain variables for the future of work.” Within this context, lifelong learning becomes an imperative for survival in an increasingly digitalised and fast-moving technological world.

The Institute for the Future, states baldly: “To be successful in the next decade, individuals will need to demonstrate foresight in navigating a rapidly shifting landscape of organizational forms and skill requirements. They will increasingly be called upon to continually reassess the skills they need, and quickly put together the right resources to develop and update these. Workers in the future will need to be adaptable lifelong learners.”

Everyone needs to pull in the same direction: The Federal Council’s measures are a beginning, but only if we make use of them. When are you signing up to your next training course?

Digital transformation is here to stay. We must therefore constantly foster dialogue to increase awareness for all that is and will become digital. Digitalization brings not only opportunities, but also risks that need to be addressed and taken seriously. In my series “Dialogue Interviews” I discuss these topics with leaders in Switzerland, from our member organisations to digital shapers and the brightest minds in the fields of technology and innovation. 

For this edition, I talked to Elena Cortona, Head of Digital Transformation at Schindler. The company famous for its elevators and escalators is more than 130 years old and firmly rooted in tradition. It is also very much involved in adapting to the opportunities offered by digitalisation. 

Nicolas Bürer: You are Head of Digital Transformation at Schindler. The company is more than 130 years old and successful worldwide. I assume new digital technologies do not have the highest priority at Schindler, as you mainly manufacture products like elevators and escalators, or am I wrong?

Elena Cortona: In fact, you are wrong about that assumption. Schindler has a long history and tradition, but has always been at the forefront of technology. This was key to Schindler’s tremendous success. It’s no different with regards to digitalisation. Schindler is very active in applying new digitised processes and in developing new digital products.

Nicolas Bürer: What are your main digital priorities in the next few years?

Elena Cortona: On the product side, Schindler is already connecting its global portfolio. By collecting data, we aim to increase the quality of the services to our customers.  In cooperation with Dassault Systems, Schindler aims to digitise and optimise certain processes to create for every elevator installed its “Digital Twin”. This means that for every installed piece of equipment, there will be a digital copy containing all the data from the design phase to the on site installation.

Nicolas Bürer: Some industries, for example the media industry, have to deal with a high degrees of disruption caused by new tech companies. Do you see a similar threat for the elevator and escalator industry?

Elena Cortona: Global mega trends like ongoing urbanisation and an ageing population won’t disappear in the coming years. These two trends imply a global increase in tall buildings and the continued need for vertical transportation. Our market is and will keep growing, both for new installations and for our service business.

Nicolas Bürer: How do you rate the Swiss manufacturing industry with regards to digital innovation in a global comparison? Where are we making progress, where are we ahead and where are we behind?

Elena Cortona: In the past years, a lot of manufacturing activities have been transferred to countries where manufacturing costs are lower. We must ensure that the same doesn’t happen to engineering and other related activities. Digitisation is a good example of how the proverbial creativity and long-term view of a country like Switzerland can be used to leverage its competitive advantage in terms of effectiveness, efficiency and quality.

Elena Cortona: Everybody is constantly talking about digitalisation and, from time to time, I have the impression that it is not quite clear what this term really means. What is digitalswitzerland’s role in giving context to the word? And by doing this, what parts of the population do you try to target?

Nicolas Bürer: Indeed, digitalisation is a buzz word, used everywhere for everything. Our aim is to raise awareness for the digital changes taking place and ensure organisations see it as an opportunity. Many people fear digitalisation. It also requires understanding the potential risks for business models and society overall. Since digital transformation affects all industries and all people, we build our different initiatives for specific stakeholder groups: actors in the politico-economic arena, the education ecosystem, startups, SMEs and corporates. We also try to raise awareness for the entire Swiss population by organising the Digital Day, a national event to enable dialogue with the public on the impact of digital transformation on our society. Of course, digitalisation is an ongoing process and the focus will change over time as it steadily brings new developments. Our mission is never really over.

Elena Cortona: Many people think of digitalisation as awkward technical stuff that is best understood by engineers and computer geeks. How much will digitalisation affect large parts of the population and how do you make it more accessible to people who feel no affinity to technology? Do you see big differences between people from different age groups?

Nicolas Bürer: Digitalisation is only a means, not an objective. At the end of the day, it is about making things faster, more convenient and accessible. People want to improve their lives with new products and services. Some examples we all know are Uber, Spotify, Airbnb, cashless payment systems, voice tools, but also new AI services with e-mail providers. We are all affected by these changes. We see differences in the way people adopt them, younger people in urban environments tend to be earlier adopters. And that is not only true in Switzerland, but worldwide.

Elena Cortona: How do you think  an organisation like digitalswitzerland can make a difference in bringing our county to the forefront of technological advancement? How would you rate Switzerland in terms of digitisation?

Nicolas Bürer: We use a cross-industry and multi-stakeholders approach, which means we constantly try to bring people from different sectors together. Politicians, NGOs, SMEs, startups, investors, corporates and the population should have a joint dialogue on digitalisation. This is key to our mission. This approach seems obvious, but is in fact a big change: moving away from thinking in silos and collaborating across sectors. Just like digital transformation does. We also develop and implement specific projects that can be potentially of great importance for Switzerland: the Challenges to foster cross-sector innovation, our startup programmes to connect the ecosystem and our Vertical industry-focused projects. I feel positive about Switzerland’s future, many rankings rate the country very well on digitalisation and innovation. For example the newly published “Regional Innovation Scoreboard” from the European Commission in which 6 of the top 10 regions are located in Switzerland! There are still many areas where we can do better like keeping scale-ups in Switzerland, and addressing topics like eID, eGoverment and diversity to name a few.

The Swiss 2014 law called WeBIG, which came into effect in 2017, defined lifelong learning as a personal responsibility and set the framework to finance lifelong learning within strict parameters. Within this framework, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SEFRI) may grant financial assistance to organisations active in the field of lifelong education or conclude service agreements with these organisations for information and coordination, quality assurance and for the development of continuing training. The most recent figures mention CHF 5.3 billion spent on lifelong learning in Switzerland, most of which was disbursed by private enterprise and individuals.

At the digital#lifelonglearning event co-organised by digitalswitzerland and FSEA/SVEB, many of the presentations converged on one key message: to paraphrase Spiderman’s famous “with great power comes great responsibility”, with great changes come great learnings. As society evolves and the revolution 4.0 changes paradigms, behaviours and interactions, people will need to adapt to manage their relationship with technology and the new demands it creates. The question becomes do you want to submit to technology or do you want to manage technology in your life and career?

We live in an increasingly individualised world, captivated by screens. It is each of our responsibility to train and learn lifelong. That is a bit simplistic. While the online offer is broad, some people use these opportunities and others don’t, even though much of the trainings are free. Has free training lost its value in an ultra-liberal world? Have people not realised that ongoing training and learning is an imperative to remain employable? Is the decreasing income of the middle classes resulting in a focus on what is perceived as essential versus “nice to have” like continuing education? Are employers not engaged enough in the dialogue to convince employees that lifelong learning is essential?

Currently employers and employees bear the brunt of the financial load of lifelong education in Switzerland. Employers pay in direct and indirect ways: by paying for the training and giving time off to learn, providing equipment and space. At the session on lifelong learning at the Salesforce Basecamp, panelists debated on how much time should be devoted to lifelong learning. Many argue that learning should be embedded in a weekly practice, in one form or another, online or offline. Questions from the audience were about how to know what trainings to plan or how to convince employers to hire the over 50s. The discussion continues and the more people join, the greater the chance to embed lifelong learning in our culture!

All the companies in digitalswitzerland’s Top Talent interviews and survey believe that lifelong learning is a critical success factor. According to the interviewees, as skills requirements change in the course of digitalisation, talents need to invest in learning skills and leadership.

The continuing education and adult training market in Switzerland is heterogeneous and mostly funded and organised privately. The first national law which regulates continuing education and training as a legal framework came into force in 2017 and regulates the entire non-formal continuing education and training sector. Even though this law exists, funding does not cover all the needs, notably of private persons who seek to reskill. While the regional placement offices may offer some requalification support, lifelong education goes beyond requalification; it is the will to learn and upskill continuously.

According to Mercer’s Global Career Trends report, “Organisations are in a new “Learn or die” environment where everyone must accelerate their learning to remain relevant.” Technology has facilitated access to learning opportunities, whether external or in-company, through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Learning Management Systems (LMS) and mobile microlearning. However, it is not enough to learn; employers need to ensure that learners can apply the learning and build new skills.

Shared responsibilities

Respondents to our survey underline the employee’s responsibility to learn continuously and invest in such skills. At the same time, organisations should provide talented employees with a broad set of learning opportunities, ranging from online courses and secondments to business case assessments. Selected talents can also benefit from executive mentorship. Lifelong learning opportunities are perceived as an essential tool for any organisation to attract and retain top talents. To achieve this, some of the respondents suggest the need for a shift in organisational culture: rather than understanding education and learning programmes in terms of workload loss, they should be understood as an investment in the sustainable productivity of their workforce. With the availability of digital learning applications, talent development programmes are tailored according to the individual preferences and competencies of employees.

In the qualitative interviews we heard that employers notices that people stop learning at a certain age, which may indicate that companies stop investing in lifelong learning for older employees. Older employees will need to ensure that they also keep up to date with technologies, trends and practices, to remain employable as long as possible. Interestingly, already in 2006 the Cedefop noted that “for lifelong learning to become a reality for older workers, ordinary workplaces must become primary places of learning.” And furthermore that “a strong learning culture in the workplace makes employees more receptive to change, regardless of age.”

The demographic challenge will affect all walks of life: lifelong learning and training measures that anticipate people’s needs in the different phases of their lives need to be put in place in all workplaces. This calls for cooperation between the actors in the economy – governments, employers, employees, institutions, training providers – all working closely together.

Mondays could always start like this: with a croissant and café at the beautiful Hôtel de Ville in Paris, talking about digital innovation and technology – in this instance, how it transforms the way government works. The first GovTech Summit on 12 November, gathered more than 3’000 corporates, startups, civil servants, investors, politicians and academics.

GovTech is about the future of government: how it well leverage new technologies to collect taxes, deliver services, distribute welfare, maintain security and much more. Increasingly, startups are taking over activities which previously were only done by governments. They help streamline them and make them more user-friendly for citizens. My aim was to gather insights on how other countries manage the challenges posed by digital transformation, how they harness the opportunities, and learn from international best practices from other governments that could be applied in Switzerland too.

Interesting, in my opinion, is the prioritization of this topic at the highest level: The GovTech Summit was supported by French President Emmanuel Macron, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and the European Commission. Hosting the 8th Internet Governance Forum and the GovTech Summit during the same week under #Parisdigitalweek sends a strong message.

Last May, French President Emmanuel Macron highlighted digital transformation by welcoming 140 of the most important tech leaders in the world at the Vivatech in Paris, and reminded them to use tech for good.

By loading the tweet, you agree to Twitter’s privacy policy.
Learn more

Load tweet

Always unblock Twitter Tweets

Seldom have I read an interview where a political leader was so invested in mastering a technical topic (or used expert advisers to brief him), as in Macron’s WIRED-interview on France’s Artificial Intelligence strategy.

Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, and Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada opened the first GovTech Summit. Macron himself was busy opening that same day the Internet Governance Forum in Paris on the topic of ‘Internet of Trust’.

Anne Hidalgo made a strong pledge to use technological progress for the benefit of all, that it should serve humans and the social good, and help tackle global challenges like climate change and the protection of democracy. In her view, the underlying values are the basis for digital transformation.

Justin Trudeau reiterated this belief and shared his vision, which is a positive and liberating one. Technologies should be used to enhance democracies and empower its people instead of undermining them and fostering polarization. He also made clear that technology can be used to the detriment of the people. He sees it as the government’s responsibility to do a better job and offer an alternative. How to empower and involve citizens on the topic of tech is key to him.

Even though Trudeau admitted that he sees developments such as AI with a critical eye and calls for a common framework in the future, Canada is making an optimistic and confident choice to become a leader in this field: ‘When faced with tech disruptions like AI, societies can either embrace status quo or ‘dive into the future, accept that there are going to be transformations but if you are faster, dig deeper, then you can come out ahead.’

China and its use of data was a popular topic throughout the summit. Trudeau believes China has an advantage through its ability to access large volumes of data, but this could be detrimental to the country’s citizens. He also proposed to establish a common framework for the ethical development of artificial intelligence.

European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel recognised that people are worried about AI and privacy issues and underlined the need for common values: ‘Our citizens are concerned about AI. AI doesn’t know any borders. Our approach is on values. We need to talk about privacy protection.’

Marietje Schaake, a Dutch Member of the European Parliament also expressed concerns about the use of data in China: “In Europe, we haven’t really comprehended the fundamental challenge that China and its top down governing of technology is coming our way. We need to understand what’s at stake and start designing for the outcomes we want.”

Many speakers emphasised the need for Europe’s increased involvement in technology and to not leave this area solely to China and the US. In parallel to the GovTech Summit, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke at the Internet Governance Forum and called for a European internet, which carries European values and ideas.

With challenges such as changing demographics, ageing populations and the rise of medical costs for instance, it is in the interest of all to seek more efficient ways to afford the same level or better healthcare. The same goes for most public services. Building digital competencies right at the center of government makes processes and operations more effective and thus, creates value that serves the citizens directly. New technologies open up possibilities to the government to first understand better their citizen’s opinion and second, which services are actually used and needed. A more citizen-centric approach is the result.

Jennifer Pahlka, Founder of Code for America, in an interview with PBS calls it a ‘delivery-driven government’: “If the interactions between citizens and the government drive creation of policies and operations, it is a fundamentally different game.” She recommends to take what we have learned in the tech world and apply it to more bureaucratic systems – to hack bureaucracy. However, it is not just about creating new fancy apps for the government, it is about a new way of thinking, a system change.

GovTech and Civic Tech will certainly grow in importance in the future – especially in Switzerland, where according to certain rankings, we still fall short. The IMD Digital Competitiveness Report positions Switzerland behind when it comes to E-Voting for example. 

For my part, I believe that GovTech can make government services better and serve the common good and the people. Understanding new technologies isn’t easy for everyone. It requires education and the involvement of the people to prevent a social and generational divide. And importantly, GovTech will never be a substitute for elections or citizens’ involvement. It can be a bridge and a new means to communicate with governmental officials and the administration to make processes more efficient, transparent, accessible and user-friendly.

In parallel to the Digital Summit Switzerland (Digital Gipfel Schweiz), the Websummit took place in Lisbon on the first week of November. Over 70,000 participants from around 160 nations came together at the largest tech conference in Europe: start-ups, investors, corporates, researchers, politicians, location promotion initiatives – all stakeholders from a lively and dynamic innovation and technology ecosystem were present. Based on my impressions from the Websummit, I will attempt to identify what Switzerland can do and what elements are missing to position the country as a leading digital innovation hub, worldwide!

What these two events have in common is that, in times of increased networking, they highlight the need and value of face-to-face meetings. At the Digital Summit Switzerland, Credit Suisse CEO Tidjane Thiam said: “The more digital and complex the world becomes, the more important it is for people to meet in person.” Alexander Karp, the co-founder of the software company Palantir, also confirmed the need for physical meeting places in an increasingly digitized world: “Even in the age of digitization, people still need people to build trust for business.” (Blick article in German)

The Web Summit’s Website lists success stories that emerge from physical Meet-ups: Jamal Hirani, COO from Snatch, a brand marketing startup, with a free to play, augmented reality treasure hunt app, recalls from his Websummit visit in 2016: “We met with Unilever Ventures during Office Hours at the end of Web Summit Day Two. That night, they contacted us to see if we could come and meet their board on Friday. We met Friday lunchtime, and by Monday we had an agreed term sheet.”

The Websummit brings together international participants. Lisbon can present itself as an established hub for innovation and technology and thus position itself internationally. This in turn strengthens Lisbon’s positioning as an international player, making it better known in the tech and innovation community than Switzerland.

If one compares Portugal with Switzerland, however, you can observe that in other elements that are required to create a thriving ecosystem, Switzerland is ahead: We have a larger research network with two leading polytechnic universities EPFL and ETHZ, a much greater density of internationally active companies, and one of the best talent pools in the world. In addition, Switzerland already has a number of established technology and industry clusters, such as the Arc Lémanique, Basel, and Zurich, as well as a number of smaller emerging clusters in the Grisons (tourism), Zug (Blockchain), Sion (energy and mobility), Ticino (fashion and e-commerce) and others. This raises the question as to why Switzerland cannot stand out from other hubs internationally?

Switzerland is poorly represented at international tech- and innovation gatherings. We seldom see Swiss speakers on stage at major conferences.

In 2017, Martin Vetterli, Rector of EPFL, was invited to the Websummit to participate in a panel on education in the digital age. This year there was no Swiss representative on stage. Such visibility would strengthen the image of Switzerland as an international hub.

Despite Switzerland’s ability to find compromise, the players in the Swiss ecosystem (i.e. foundations, accelerators, start-ups, innovation parks, corporates, national and cantonal location subsidies and the Röschtigraben) lack a common vision of how to position Switzerland internationally as a leading digital innovation hub. Switzerland has impressive clusters with top international networks. Unfortunately, these clusters operate separately from each other. An interdisciplinary integration could make it possible for the clusters to benefit more from each other and from each other’s international networks. The aim would be to learn from peers who have already faced similar challenges in different settings.

Another step would be to open up the entire ecosystem (taking all clusters into account) internationally. There are no events in Switzerland that attracts an international tech audience. The Swiss events that I have attended offer great content but don’t attract an international audience that could foster an exchange of experiences and best practices. Top international speakers are exciting, but the challenges many Swiss entrepreneurs face are dated for the very successful entrepreneur from Silicon Valley – it would be more beneficial for Swiss entrepreneurs to talk to peers. The goal should shift to problem-solving approaches instead of looking only for international inspiration.

This could mean creating more meeting opportunities to promote networking between cluster-specific ecosystems. This nationwide and interdisciplinary ecosystem needs to be opened internationally too.

With this objective in mind, digitalswitzerland is delighted to be a partner at the SWISS Pavilion at CES Las Vegas in January 2019. The SWISS Pavilion is organized by Presence Switzerland (PRS) in collaboration with Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE), with the support of strategic partners Innosuisse, swissnex, ProHelvetia and digitalswitzerland. It is an essential step towards the integration of different ecosystems across Switzerland.

For the second year running digitalswitzerland ran a video competition for all Swiss schools, at all levels. As one of the numerous successful Digital Day activities, schools in three linguistic regions of the country participated in the video competition. The jury judged according to several criteria – technical, creative, originality among others.

The theme for this year was “Play, talk, exercise – what does a playground 4.0 look like?”; students were free to interpret the question as they wanted, within a 90 seconds timeframe. Submissions ranged from drone delivery of school snacks, to drone warfare, to virtual gaming through wifi free playgrounds and cyberbullying.

The video competition stimulates discussion on the implications of digitalisation. There has been a lot of talk of FOMO (fear of missing out) and loneliness due to social media, as people no longer talk among themselves. We see this also in the videos that were submitted, with a playground where children sit around and chat with each other over social networks rather than speak to each other and play becomes something to be questioned. The beauty of the video competition is that students can team up and work on the video as a small project, involving several people or in some cases a whole class.

The primary category first place winner imagined a selection of online and offline activities for their film, illustrated with animated Lego pieces. The second grade class in Igis (GR) underlined the importance of having a wifi free zone, although some activities required QR codes. The video closed with a Scrabble word, showing that board games too are important as social and learning tools, not just online games.

The theme of cyberbullying was the focus of a winning team in the middle school category, in Poschiavo (GR). This is a major concern for parents and children alike. There is no single agreed-upon definition of cyberbullying. The following elements have been identified as common features of cyberbullying: the use of electronic or digital means; the intention to cause harm; a sense of anonymity and lack of accountability of abusers as well as the publicity of actions. The problem with cyberbullying as opposed to real life bullying is that it can go viral, it never stops and neither parents nor child can easily close the door and switch it off.

The use of digital tracking and imprints on the city was the subject of the winning video, in the high school category from the Collège Voltaire in Geneva (GE). The second and third prizes in each category covered different subjects. All the creators  who submitted films used filters, cutouts, and lighting very imaginatively.

The videos came in from all over Switzerland, which shows that students today have talent, imagination and drive. They are also thinking about major issues and advantages related to digitalisation. Let’s make sure we keep these discussions alive to keep humans at the centre!

With the increasing application of digital technologies, talented employees are expected to become an even more important component of successful business models. According to digitalswitzerland’s Top Talent study, evidence suggests how in complex occupations, the productivity differences between high and average performers increase dramatically. For example, the impact of talented software engineers, data analysts and creative designers on a company’s success will likely increase with the amount of data it has at its disposal as the result of using digital applications. Technological innovation and talent are therefore connected through a mutually reinforcing relationship: where talent increases the application of technological innovation, those technologies in effect disproportionally contribute to the importance of the highly talented in a company’s success. Digitalisation will change skill requirements as employers seek agility, adaptability, flexibility, ability to learn lifelong and social skills in their top talents. In order to attract this talent, companies need to make their value proposition clear.

A Gallup poll among “star employees” identified some of the important features they look for in a new position:

• the ability to do what they do best
• greater work-life balance and better personal well-being
• a significant increase in income
• the opportunity to work for a company with a great brand or reputation.

The working environment, a culture which allows error, having fun and job variety are also important to top talents.

The talents of today (and tomorrow) are looking for more than income – they are looking for purpose, opportunities to grow and associated career support. Development practices such as training, personal coaching and clear performance feedback are vital tools for companies to meet these demands.

Work-life balance has been a perennial desire in the growth years of the 20^th century. What has changed is the weighting given to work-life balance in the 21^st century. The overall wellness trend – healthy eating, regular exercising, stress reduction – is affecting the workplace too. Desk research has shown that top talents, amongst others, look for a “greater work-life balance and better personal well-being” when changing position or employer. For top talents, a better work-life balance translates in the possibilities that are offered to “work remotely when they can without compromising work quality or productivity”. This includes flexibility, fairness and wellness.

On a broader level, top talents demand personalised plans that allow them to take time off for executive education or for important moments in their private lives, such as paternity leave. Companies which adhere to the “no pain/no gain” maxim must rethink their positions if they are to remain attractive to the coming workforce. 30% of the current workforce is currently either Gen X or Millennials, with strong work/life balance values; by 2025, Millennials will comprise 75% of the global workforce. Millennials are the largest and most educated workforce in history, one that is digitally native, has grown up to multitask, like to do “work that matters” and working in teams. According to one study, Millennials expect to stay less than 3 years in any one job. like to do “work that matters” and working in teams.

The brand or reputation of the organisation can give employees a feeling of pride and purpose. Top talents want to work for organisations that offer a higher sense of purpose and “whose values are aligned to their own personal values”. Various surveys indicate that for Millennials, the social impact and purpose of an organisation are among the most important decision criteria to choose among different employees.

For Swiss companies to remain competitive in the talent market, they thus need to clearly identify and communicate their value proposition, the promise of what value the company delivers. It goes beyond just a statement however; companies need to walk the talk too. As consumers become more critical, verbal and mobile, so will employees. It is by having a clear value proposition coupled with appropriate organisational behaviours that companies remain attractive to top talents.