Fridays... for Digital!

Keynote speaker David Wallerstein - Chief Exploration Officer at Tencent - made inspiring statements.

The visual appearance of the Digital Festival and the bulky typography can be discussed, but not the content of what was on offer at this year's conference. The variety and quality of the contributions was remarkable and for those interested in digital, this event definitely belongs on the personal agenda for the coming years.

In his convincing presentation, David Wallerstein from Tencent made it clear that the growth of his company is still - or perhaps even more so - geared towards customer benefit. Tencent, although not so well known in Switzerland, is now the fifth largest company in the world.

For him, this is the most reliable guide for innovation management. Innovation is not about recognizing what the technology can and can't do - the technology has to put itself at the service of user value. For him, the process sequence is: What is the relevant customer problem and what technology can be used to solve it?

Another remarkable statement by Tencent's Chief Exploration Officer was that he consistently uses the three letters FEW in his search for new business and growth topics. In the case of initiatives in the food, energy and water sectors, there is a high probability that these solutions meet a real or even acute need.

This also shows that a tech company like Tencent does not focus on the ultimate new technologies, but on relevant issues. David used the example of seat heating in cars to illustrate that it is no longer enough for an innovation to focus solely on the convenience aspect, but also to take the ecological aspect into account at the same time. If companies like Tencent think like this, we can hope that something has started to move in terms of the global climate and global challenges.

It is hard to shake off the impression that the Federal Council, for example, has been praising and evoking Switzerland's digital fitness for years. On closer inspection, however, the hard facts for such a claim are not apparent.

Of course, we have a high level of education in our country and excellent institutions such as the ETH - but these are only prerequisites for achieving digital fitness. It still has to be done first. With this in mind, the title of this year's Digital Festival was very aptly chosen: "Get it done!" We have to agree with the exclamation mark and wish the organizers of the festival perseverance - such platforms contribute to the real implementation of initiatives in the digital field.