Throughout February the BBC is interviewing key innovation experts as part of its Future of Work series. Recently, the corporation spoke to Google’s Sebastien Marotte about mobile technologies and how they will shape innovation and the workplace.
He is responsible for developing business strategy and identifying new growth opportunities for Google Enterprise in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and believes that practices such as social networking and the use of cloud computing will radically accelerate the speed with which ideas are developed and brought to fruition.
For many people communicating in the online world is almost second nature; we text and tweet to arrange birthday parties, comment on meals we’ve eaten, spread jokes and debate issues of the day. But the adoption of social media in our business lives has not been as immediate or as extensive.
However, according to Marotte, this is about to change, and that over the course of the next decade the sharing and developing of ideas will be dramatically accelerated by social media, mobile and cloud computing. And this will have a major impact on companies; from how they are run and bring products to market, to how talent is hired and rewarded.
A Google commissioned study with the Future Foundation, gathered opinions from 3,500 employees and 12 innovation experts and concluded that there are three principle areas where future working practices will be drastically transformed.
The message is clear: those companies that engage in online collaborative practices and encourage employees to use the same social media tools in their business lives as they do in their private lives, will be the ones who are best placed to succeed.