Building trust in a smart society

Managing in a modular, agile and decentralized way

by Nart Wielaard Sander Klous
Building trust in a smart society
Available as:
Paperback
 
Ebook
 
Pub Date: December 2018
Kindle ISBN: 9781910902912
Print ISBN: 9781999619398
Pages: 160
Price:
£25

We are moving at the speed of light towards a smart society where almost all decisions are affected by systems and algorithms. In such a world it is more important than ever to be able to trust the analysis of the data. Despite all the noise about them, algorithms actually make our lives more comfortable and efficient. Just look at self-driving cars or software that helps doctors make better diagnoses. Algorithms make for a smart society, but they do cause some problems. As machines play an increasingly important role the level of complexity in society increases and some serious ethical dilemmas arise. How can organizations deal with this unprecedented complexity? How can they excel in the smart and careful information management that has now become the make-or-break factor? Can we trust algorithms and the organizations that use them? How do we ensure proper supervision of this smart society?

It is no surprise that Building trust in a smart society has become one of the fastest selling titles in Europe. Klous and Wielaard convincingly show that we need a fresh perspective based on the three principles of modularization, agility and decentralization (MAD). These principles clearly drive progress in areas such as traffic management, the internet and the energy landscape. They will also be fundamental to the design of the next generation of organizations and business platforms.
The stakes are high. Organizations need greater speed and flexibility to be successful in the longer term and to exploit the full potential of platform strategies. Current platforms fail to deliver breakthrough progress in domains such as healthcare, logistics and communication as they cannot cope with the often misaligned interests of their multiple stakeholders. The MAD principles give organizations a crucial toolkit to build the trust they need to engage, grow and innovate safely in the digital age.