Episode 4 – The Future of Technology with Vivek Wadhwa

Welcome to the TRSA podcast. Providing interviews and insights from the linen, uniform, and facility services industry. Most Americans might not realize it, but they benefit at least once per week from the cleanliness and safety of laundered, reusable linens, uniforms, towels, mats, and other products provided by various businesses and organizations. TRSA represents the companies that supply, launder, and maintain linens and uniforms. And in this podcast, we will bring the thought leaders of the industry to you.

 

On today’s episode of the TRSA podcast, interviews and insights from the linen uniform and facility services industry, we’re going to take a look at emerging technologies. Vivek Wadhwa, a technology and innovation author and expert, academic and futurist, joins us to discuss the technologies that will shape the laundry of the future and how to prepare for those potential disruptions so that your business is primed for success. WADWA will also share his insights with TRSA members at the 100 and 5th Annual Conference and Exchange scheduled for October 16th through 18th at the Meritage Resort and Spa in Napa, California. For more information and to sign up for the annual conference, go to www.trsa.org/annualconference. You’re going to speak at TRSAs a 100 and 5th annual conference this October in Napa, California.

 

Can you give our listeners a preview of your planned topic? Jason, I’m gonna be telling the audience about how this is the most amazing period in human history when literally we can build the future that we saw on the TV Star Trek. I’m talking about having unlimited food, unlimited energy, being able to 3 d print our daily needs, and now being able to shoot for the stars. That this is a future we could be headed into. At the same time, I’m gonna be talking about my my concerns that we could rip society apart and instead end up in Mad Max.

 

Remember the, dystopia we saw in the science fiction series? That that’s also a possibility. It’s really the choices we make now that are gonna determine the future, and it could all be all of this could happen the next 10, 20, 30 years or so. That’s how soon everything is happening. And how do you see technological advances shaping the workforce of the future?

 

So you see already now, we are using, you know, you and I are talking over Skype. We’re using technology like in science fiction. We can see each other on our screens. Right? So this is already quite a an amazing advance that’s happened in the teleconferencing.

 

We take it for granted, but it’s incredible. Also, we’re connected all the time now that we’re always getting emails. We’re always able to, exchange messages with each other. We know where we are and things like that. So it’s just already happened.

 

Next step, we start having artificial intelligence now, making intelligent decisions, being able to analyze massive amounts of data and help us with decision making. We now have, the ability to put on virtual reality headsets and interact with each other, as if we were to as if we were together. You know, we could meet in Tahiti or we could meet in, in Hawaii and, still be in our homes. So this is the type of thing that’s that’s happening with technology now. And you’re undertaking a research project for Harvard Law School on the effects of technology on future employment and work.

 

Can you give us an overview of this project? Now this gets into the dark side of technology because, technology is gonna be able to do most things that humans do. That, you know, robots will be able to, to serve us. They’ll be able to look after us. They’ll be able to, you know, stock the shelves in in stores and do the work of manufacturing, workers.

 

AI will be able to reduce the amount of people we need, you know, analyzing information and doing the type of things that we do. Jobs are gonna disappear. This is the dark side of technology. Now we have 10 or 15 years before this happens, but the question is, what do we do with this? What you know, first of all, what exactly is the impact?

 

When are these things gonna happen? And secondly, what can we do to, ease the, transition to make it easier for people to work less? Because right now we’re addicted to work. I mean, we are what we work. And I mean, you know, this is how we identify ourselves.

 

Imagine when we don’t have jobs and we have the ability to ride the the ability to do anything we wanna do. Are we ready for this future? I don’t think so. So this is what I want to research at Harvard is exactly where, you know, technology is taking us and how we can ease the transition and make it easier to, you know, achieve Star Trek versus Mad Max. And how far along are you with that project?

 

That sounds really interesting. The project has just started or is just starting soon because, there’s gonna be a 3 year project. There are no easy answers here. I spent a lot of time, you know, about a year or 2 ago trying to develop policies for how do we deal with joblessness. I didn’t have the answers.

 

All of the people I spoke to, I spoke to who’s who, they didn’t have the answers. In Silicon Valley, they throw things around like this concept of a universal basic income where you give everyone free money. The trouble is, where do you get the free money from? And then if everyone, you know, just has money and no work, what are they gonna do with their lives? No one has the answers to this question.

 

So the project is a is is a longer term project and, you know, we I’m gonna we’re gonna, bring together who’s who to try to understand all of this. And how far away are we from having robots in the workplace? Or is this something that’s already happening today? It’s already happening today. I mean, you know, the question is what is a robot?

 

We already now have washing machines and dishwashers. You know, you can argue they’re robots. I drive a a Tesla Model S that takes over on the highway. I just click a button and the car car gets it to autopilot and drives itself. That’s a robot.

 

Soon, we’ll have robots that walk around and serve us coffee, and then we’ll have robots that clean the floors. So the the robots are coming. And, you know, the question is, is it is it 3 years from now? Is it 5 years? Is it 10 years before, we, you know, start to say, hey.

 

These things are looking pretty human, but the robots are coming. How do you think robots can transform the laundry industry? Well, you know, we already have robots that wash laundry, don’t they? You know, we call them washers and dryers. Now imagine if they could fold laundry as well.

 

Imagine if they could automatically, feed the, the clothes into the washing machine and then take it out of the dryer and have them neatly stacked up for you. That would be pretty transformative. Now, yeah, there are a whole bunch of other advances happening, in nanomaterials. Imagine if you had new types of clothing that didn’t get dirty. Now that sounds bizarre and that may create other problems, but, there are some nanomaterials being developed, which, which basically become part of your clothing, which don’t may prevent them from getting dirty.

 

There are things like that happening. A lot of advances all over the, you know, all over the technology sector. So it’s not just on the production side, but it could be on the clothing that, the laundry is washed currently. Yes. Exactly.

 

It’s everything at the same time. And are there any other types of technologies that you think will shape the laundry industry in the future? I mean, yeah. First of all, you know, taking the the, the laundry to the, laundromat or to the machines and then, doing the beds and so on, that could be done by robots. The delivery could be done by self driving trucks and cars.

 

Now this is still the stuff of science fiction. It’s 10, 15, 20 years away. Right? So my advice is don’t panic about it. Just be aware and watch in amusement and and wonder, but be prepared for the things that are happening because it’s good and bad.

 

You know, if we have to work less, if we now the cost of everything drops to the point that it costs practically nothing, if we can get bionic enhancements, a lot of the people listening to this may remember Steve Austin from The 6,000,000 Dollar Man. Right? Steve Austin had all these enhancements which gave him superhuman strength. Well, what if we could get superhuman strength? What if we could get, not only knee replacements and hip replacements, but bionic implants that allowed us to climb mountains and that allowed us to, you know, be much healthier.

 

This stuff is also happening. How can companies and employees as well help themselves prepare for this type of future? Well, first of all, you know, you need to learn what what the key key components are. You need to learn what AI is. You need to learn what the advances are that are happening in robots.

 

You need to learn, you know, all of these things, and then start watching them coming together. The you know, this is happening relatively slowly. In other words, it’ll be several more years before we start seeing it. Just, you know, just like the Skype, you know, video conferencing crept out on us. We don’t even realize that this is what we saw on the Jetsons.

 

Remember Rosie Jetson and and George Jetson and Judy Jetson and so on? They talk to each other on these little tablets. Well, we have those now. Right? We didn’t realize that they came, but we have them.

 

We’re using them right now. The same is gonna happen with a lot of other advances. So what I’m gonna be doing in my talk is showing people what is happening and and change their outlook on, on it. I’m gonna tell them where to look, how to look, and I’m will I and I guarantee I’m gonna blow everyone’s minds. They’re gonna walk out of there with their heads spinning and saying, oh my god.

 

It’s amazing what’s happening. And by the way, it’s a little bit scary also. But I’m gonna gonna teach you how to look and how to think differently. In addition to your talks, you also have a new book coming out. It’s called, Your Happiness Was Hacked, WhyTech is Winning the Battle to Control Your Brain and How to Fight Back.

 

Can you give us a preview of this book? Yes. But before you read that book, read my my my current, bestseller called Driving the Driverless Car, How Our Technology Choices Will Make the Future. That gives you an insight into what’s happening. Those are the things I just talked about.

 

Now the next book starts looking into the dark side of technology because Facebook and social media were supposed to bring us together and give us happiness by connecting us to our loved ones and so on and so on. However, they’re ripping societies apart. If you read the, you know, the Cambridge analytical revelations, you if you look at the rising anger and the widening gap between the not only the haves and the have nots, between the left and the right. That, you know, even within the same family, you know, parents might be more conservative and children are on another extreme. The gap is widening and social media is making it worse.

 

What the book discusses is exactly what’s going on. It shows us how the technology industry is making us addicted. The fact is that even people who didn’t use email 5 years ago now check email about a 100 times a day. They worry about how many likes they’re gonna get on Facebook. They’re sending text messages to each other all the time.

 

You know, even with our children, we send them text messages rather than picking up the the the phone and saying, hi, darling. How are you doing? I love you. You’re sending your stupid SMSes. Right?

 

So technology has made us addicted. It’s taking over our lives. My book tells you what’s going on. It gives you the inside scoop on exactly what is happening, and then it shows you how you can, live a balance. I’m pro technology, by the way.

 

I’m not a you know, I’m not saying we need to stop technology. We need to stop using social media. None of that. I’m addicted to social media also, but the book tells you how you can use it to your advantage and how you can help it to have it help you rather than hurting you. How can you create a balance in your life in which you have more happiness versus more addiction?

 

That’s what the book is about. Your happiness your happiness was hacked. It comes out at the end of June, and if people hear this before that, they may wanna order it and and listen to it and and listen or or read the book, you know, before my talk even. As we move along with the social media, it’s somewhat of a new technology, although it’s gaining an age now. We’re just now starting to find out how it’s kind of impacting employees both personally and professionally, you think?

 

Yes. We’re going to begin to realize live realize it right now. You know, with this Cambridge Analytical thing, this blow up about election hacking or not election hacking, whatever happened over here, people weren’t aware that information was being gathered by technology companies the way it is. They weren’t aware aware that they could be manipulated. You know, they weren’t aware how fake news could be spread instantaneously and and be targeted to the individual.

 

So we’re learning these things right now. So this is, I mean but this is just the the tip of the iceberg. There are 100 times more things happening than this, and that’s what I’m going to try to educate everyone on is to show them, you know, what’s happening on the the much much bigger picture, the good and the bad. And you talked some about the dark side of technology. Are there ways that technology can be used to increase wellness in the workforce?

 

Oh, yeah. Absolutely. To the extent that, we can now monitor burnout, We can monitor, you know, people’s emotions, and we can provide them guidance when they need it. To the extent that we can now, you know, create jobs that are suitable to the likes and dislikes of people. Everyone has their own preferences about what they wanna do.

 

To the extent that we can do all these things, we can create a lot more happiness. It’s it’s a matter of having balance. From your research, do you have any tips for the healthy use of smartphones and other devices such as iPads? Yes. Put them away as often as you can.

 

I mean, when you go to bed, 2 or 3 hours before you go to bed, switch them off. You don’t need to be checking email. Don’t take them to bed with you and and have those, you know, blue screens screw up your, sleep. Also, you know, go through every app and say, do I really need this thing? You know, if if I didn’t have Snapchat on my on my smartphone or if I didn’t, you know, use Twitter or Facebook on my smartphone, wouldn’t life be any different?

 

So, essentially, I walk you through what you need to do to make better decisions on how to use technology. The key here is to use it in a wiser way, to use it more judiciously, to use it where it helps to, and to stop getting addicted to it. This is like going to a casino and becoming addicted to slot machines. Yeah. You know, you can walk by slot machines, throw a buck or two into it, and have fun.

 

But after a while, you got to say that, look, I’m not gonna lose more than $5, and that’s it. I’m walking away from them. So having a healthy balance sounds important. That is the key here, my friend. We have to make sure that we we do things in a smart way, and we’re also aware of what technology is doing to us.

 

Realize it’s a game. That the game and and and we’re the ones who are being played by the technology industry. They’re using artificial intelligence. They’re using sensors. They’re using all of these new technologies as weapons against us.

 

The tech companies, if you look at the, you know, the valuation of these tech companies, they’re now the most valuable in the world. So these companies have become filthy rich by mining us, by playing us as games. We need to be aware. We need to learn it so that we can be smarter about, you know, how we use the technology. Again, we need the technology.

 

We shouldn’t stop using it, but let’s be smart over here. And you’ve given several talks on the gender gap in Silicon Valley. Have more women become executives at technology companies in recent years, or is this still an issue that the industry is grappling with? Jason, this is still an issue that the industry is grappling with, but the good news is that we’re talking about it. No one in the Silicon Valley denies now that it’s a boys club, that we’ve left women out.

 

There’s a widespread acknowledgment, and companies are doing all they can to level the playing field and to give women their rightful role in innovation because women are as innovative as men are. They’re even better entrepreneurs than men are because they’re more sensible. Right? You know, when you have diversity, you have greater innovation. So we can’t be leaving women out, and that’s what the message I’ve been hammering, to Silicon Valley over and over and over again.

 

I wrote a book about it called Innovating Women, in which I ripped apart the tech industry, and I, highlighted the things that they’re doing wrong. And I, you know, provide lots of examples how women can lead the world. So we need to have women take their rightful role. We need to to, be aware when there’s discrimination against them. And, you know, if we if we include, women and and minorities and and, you know, have diversity in every way, we’ll have more innovation and we’ll have a a better future.

 

And T RSA has a women in textile services committee for networking and information sharing among its members. How do you think groups like this help create opportunities for women in the workforce? They’re invaluable because what has to happen now is that women have to help other women. Women have to raise the alarm about things that have been acceptable in the past. Harassing women was acceptable.

 

We’re seeing all sorts of scandals breaking out about it left, right, and center. Well, so far, women were quiet. So women now have to raise the awareness and make men aware that the that they make, you know, that men make women feel uncomfortable when they touch them, when they talk about their their looks and and when they look at, them in the wrong way and so on. So men are often not aware. So women have to speak up now and raise their concerns, and then they have to help each other.

 

They have to help each other rise and achieve success. So groups like this are the key to achieving a balance and to making a level playing field for women. And what can industries do to increase diversity in the workforce? Well, first, let’s be aware that there’s a problem. Let’s, you know, let’s not pretend that it ain’t happening.

 

I mean, Nike, if you look at the revelations at Nike, Nike is a, you know, good old fashioned American company. Who would have thought that they had such scandals and such sexism all through the ranks of the company? When Nike’s executives were shamed into doing something about it, they cleaned house. Right? But why do we have to wait until companies are ashamed?

 

The executives of companies should start looking at it at things objectively. Look to see how many women managers do you have. Look to see the salaries of women versus men. Look to see how women are being treated, and then start correcting the problem right now. Don’t wait for a scandal to break out.

 

Don’t wait for people to complain before you start fixing it. Because if you do this, you’ll have greater employee satisfaction. You’ll have greater productivity. Your customers will will will appreciate you more. Your business will grow.

 

You will win by doing the right things. And can you talk a little bit about your background in business? I used to be a tech entrepreneur. I founded 2 companies. I took one public, and then I was building another company that could have been worth 1,000,000,000 of dollars, except my body broke.

 

I had a massive heart attack because I was working too hard. I burned myself out. So I transitioned from being a a CEO of technology companies to being an academic and a researcher. So now I teach. I try to give back to the world.

 

I try to educate and inspire entrepreneurs to make the world a better place. Did you learn anything about managing stress from that experience? You bet that, you know, the fact is that I I was obsessed with making money. I was working 80, 90, even a 100 hours a week. And for me, it was all about being a billionaire.

 

That was gonna have my company being worth $3,000,000,000 and I’ll be a billionaire. And then what? I’m in critical care dying. And I’m sitting there thinking, oh my god. Even if I was worth $1,000,000,000, who would have cared?

 

What would I have done in life? What would I have done for the world? So that was my wake up call, that you need to, first of all, get over this obsession with making money. Money isn’t everything. It’s about creating balance, creating happiness, getting back to the world.

 

The greatest happiness you have isn’t helping others and helping other people succeed. So, you know, learn your own weaknesses, have a balance in life, and give back to the world. Those are the lessons I’ve learned. And how has your background in business helped you in your research of issues in the workplace like diversity and technology? Because I understand the issues.

 

I mean, I understand what, the business world is like, and I don’t talk like, you know, starry eyed academic who’s sitting in a glass tower connected disconnected to the world. I know the real world because I’ve been there. I’ve been one of the bad guys. I’ve been one of the good guys. I’ve done it all.

 

And now I can tune my research to the things that are important. The primary research I’m doing right now is about the impacts of technology. I know what, and, you know, I’m not attacking businesses. I’m basically helping businesses transform themselves. I actually teach business executives how to reinvent their companies.

 

These are all line, you know, $1,000,000,000 companies all across the globe. I spend a day or 2 with them, teaching them intensely about technologies, and my focus is in helping them gain a strategic edge and leap forward, not to get not to be a casualty of technology, but to be a leader and to build the next $1,000,000,000 businesses. So I I, you know, I used to be one of them, and now as an academic, I can apply all the knowledge that I’m gaining from, my technology research to helping businesses improve their processes, improve their thinking, improve their strategy, and to now understand what technology can do for them or if they don’t wake up, what technology will do to them. And and that bracket will do to them is make them toast, put them out of business. If they don’t learn the advances in technology, they will not have a future in business.

 

So you gotta learn this and with the stuff I’m talking about is not science fiction. It’s happening. You gotta learn it and use it to to now gain a strategic edge. That’s what I teach. So having a strategy for the future is key for business.

 

You gotta understand these changes. That if, you know, companies say, hey. Nothing happened over the last 30 years, and my business is doing just fine. You’re not gonna be in business 5 or 10 years from now because technology is now advancing exponentially. Things are happening much, much faster than we ever imagined.

 

And just because we didn’t have the robot to science fiction, just because we don’t have Rosie, the robot from Jetsons, doesn’t mean we won’t have her. My expectation is that Rosie from the Jetsons will be a reality in the year 2025. You know how far 2025 is? 7 years from now. 7 years ain’t that far.

 

So we’re gonna have the robots we saw in science fiction pretty fast, and we need to understand what they are. Business executives need to learn this, open their eyes, open their minds, and then figure out how they can use technology to give them the strategic edge. How they can they benefit from technology and build the next $100,000,000 businesses or $1,000,000,000 businesses. Well, these advances are really fascinating, and we look forward to hearing you speak in October at TRSAs annual conference. I look forward to being there.

 

And, again, I’m gonna blow people’s minds, guaranteed. We look forward to it. Thanks for joining me today. Thank you. As always, thanks for listening to the TRSA podcast, interviews and insights from the linen, uniform, and facility services industry.

 

Special thanks to today’s guest, Vivek Wadhwa, for sharing his thoughts on emerging technologies and their impact on the laundry industry. Mark your calendar for TRSA’s 1 105th Annual Conference and Exchange scheduled for October 16th through 18th in Napa, California. WADWA is slated to give a keynote address on the morning of October 17th. For more information, visit www.trsa.org/annualconference.