comments on the strategy of the federal council for an information society in switzerland

© Laurent Haug 2015 3

Comments on the Strategy of the Federal Council for an Information Society in Switzerland

29 April 2015 | Laurent Haug | [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

© Laurent Haug 2015

Times have changed, government is moving

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Yet challenges remain Approximate word count on Strategy of the Federal

Council for an Information Society in Switzerland 2012.pdf

risks (x18) crime/cybercrime (x6)

danger (x5) potential (x4)

gains (x3) opportunity (x3) innovative (x3) advantage (x1)

29


What can I tell you in 20m that would be useful?

Suggestions from my partial, subjective experience

30


4 axis

Create a religion of innovation

Foster entrepreneurship

Improve hard and soft infrastructure

Better politics

31


I. Create a religion of innovation

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Chief Innovation Watch Officer

33


Detect and discuss upcoming shifts

before they happen Change is an opportunity if you anticipate it, a threat if you don’t

34


Detect the emerging

industries of the future Drones, artificial intelligence, biotech, medtech, gene

therapies, big data, wearables, blockchain, etc.

Invest in and develop those

verticals

35


Develop a culture of

anticipation instead of reaction

36


In my experience, innovation watch

is the only way to change a culture!

37


My recipe to change the culture of large organizations:

Daily inputs on trends

Weekly summaries

Quarterly presentations

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Raise awareness about the opportunities

39


People only see the threats(often imaginary)

40


Phaedrus, c. 370 B.C.

”If we depend on writing, we will lose the ability

to remember anything”

Seneca (4-65 A.D.)

“distringit librorum multitudo”

(The abundance of books is a distraction.)

Barnaby Rich (1580-1613)

One of the diseases of this age is the multiplicity of

books; they doth so overcharge the world that tit is

not able to digest the abundance of idle matter that

is every day hatched and brought forth into the

world. (1613)

"Superficial, sudden, unsifted, too fast for the truth, must be all telegraphic intelligence. Does it not render the

popular mind too fast for the truth? Ten days bring us the mails from Europe. What need is there for the scraps of

news in ten minutes? How trivial and paltry is the telegraphic column?"http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/in-1858-people-said-the-telegraph-was-too-fast-for-the-truth/375171/

In the early days of the telephone, people were told that the

device was creating a "race of left-eared people—that is, of

people who hear better with the left than with the right

ear,”

The radio, in 1924, was debatably a nuisance that produced

"loud and unnecessary noise."

Then came television, which was dangerous because it was

too spellbinding. Oh, and because, as the Times reported in

1937, people reported being spied on through their TV sets.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/in-1858-

people-said-the-telegraph-was-too-fast-for-the-truth/375171/

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/in-1858-people-said-the-telegraph-was-too-fast-for-the-truth/375171/


While change is an opportunity

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© Laurent Haug 2015 43http://qz.com/383109/the-music-industry-has-hit-its-rock-bottom/

Small players became big in < 10y

http://qz.com/383109/the-music-industry-has-hit-its-rock-bottom/


Always possible to disrupt established players


“The business plans of the next 10,000 startups

are easy to forecast: take anything and add AI.” Kevin Kelly

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/future-of-artificial-intelligence/

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/future-of-artificial-intelligence/


Turn citizen from consumers to actors

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We (barely) teach our kids how to use technology.

We should teach them how to master technology.

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What we should be teaching kids:

Coding / how machines think

Design (visual, information, UX)

Data analytics

Digital communication

Information research

Networking / collaboration

Lean startup / business model generation

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From one shot education to

continuous education.

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The illiterate of the 21st century will not be

those who cannot read and write, but those

who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.Alvin Toffler

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II. Foster entrepreneurship


Why? Because entrepreneurs

invent the future

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No candle-maker has become a bulb manufacturer.

No carriage-maker has become a car producer.

The post office did not invent email Marc Giget


Why? Because entrepreneurs

create long term leadership

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Make entrepreneurship easier

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Still 20k (3k) to create a sarl

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Cheaper offices, shorter leases

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We need a better ecosystem (mentors,

investors, buyers, incubators, conferences,

media) so that startups don’t leave the country

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We need better core services (zenefits,

zenpayroll, expensify, harvest, indinero, xero)

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Make entrepreneurship safer

61


Swiss safety net applies to those who

take less risks (employees), not those

who take risks (entrepreneurs)

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Closing a company still a nightmare

(and you have to keep the files for 10y!)

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System designed for the worst

case scenarios, not the best ones

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Concentrate support

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Create a venture capital

fund with the state’s money

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Concentrate more resources

on good projects

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It’s not about quantity.

We only need one Swiss unicorn.

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Let bad projects die.

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III. Improve hard and soft infrastructure

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Switzerland is paralysed

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Switzerland rewards immobilism (cf rents)

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Impossible to build in cities

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No landmark projects.

We need big, crazy, exciting projects

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Accelerate deployment of basic services

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Wifi, fiber, 5G, etc

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Government as a platform

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Force organizations to open their data

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Every organization should

have an API by 2016.

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Create a government SDK

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All basic govt services online (and automated),

ready to be built on

81


Just look at what Apple did with the iPhone

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IV. Better politics

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Work permits & naturalisation

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Yesterday ---> Today

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I was trained at UNIL and kicked out of the country.

I paid 560/semester for my studies.

The government way paying 120’000/y for me.

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Give an automatic work permit to foreign students

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Create work permit for investors

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Create work permit for entrepreneurs

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Create work permit for exited entrepreneurs

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Create “magic words” that equal work permit:

Facebook, Google, Amazon, “Data analyst”,

regardless of country of origin

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Facilitate access to CH passport

93


Give Swiss citizenship to anyone who created 5+ jobs


Count entrepreneurship years as double


Stop concentrating on multinationals

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Linear 20th-century corporations will be

supplanted by small, nimble teams that can

impact a billion people in a dematerialised,

demonetised, information-driven world. Peter Diamandis, Singularity University

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Whatsapp: 55 employees, 800M users

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Mojang (Minecraft): 47 employees, 100M+ players

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AirBNB: 1600 employees, 800’000 listings

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Give fiscal incentive to those lean

21st century organizations

102


Government as a startup

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Name CDO / CIO / CTO

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Use lean and agile methodologies

105


Adapt faster to the new realities

106


/ 4 axis

Create a religion of innovation

Foster entrepreneurship

Improve hard and soft infrastructure

Better politics

107


1 missing point in current strategy

Sovereignty (hard / soft / data)

108


Policy-makers have to choose between

protecting the past from the future, or

protecting the future from the past. Tim O’Reilly

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[email protected]

+41 78 696 64 80

@laurenthaug

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comments on the strategy of the federal council for an information society in switzerland