Human-centricity is going to hit society in a huge way – WebSummit
We attended a WebSummit like no other in early December, 2020. More than 100,000 attendees from all over the world joined the largest tech event in the world, all online. Despite the occasional patchy connection, the breadth and variety of talks gave plenty of food for thought (and action), and I was encouraged to see one theme in particular emerging across the board.
This idea of human-centricity in the business landscape.
Some of the biggest companies are speaking about human-centricity
- “We at Ikea have a big agenda on ethics, sustainability and human-centricity. We need to make the whole societal system human-centric and put humanity the centre. This requires leaders to be curious and step up.” Barbara Martin Coppola, Chief Digital Officer, IKEA
- “When Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014, he quickly reset our mission to ‘ empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.’ Every person. People-centric brands start with culture, and as we became people-centric, we moved from a know-it-all culture to learn-it-all culture” Mascha Driessen, Regional VP, Microsoft
- “We need to reclaim humanity, what it is to be human. Concepts like sustainability are not enough as a goal for humanity, we need to actively do something to make things better, do good, not just fix what’s broken.” Ruth Andrade, Chief Sustainability Officer, Lush
These are just a few picks of the names that were talking about human-centricity and its impact not only on organizations, but individuals and society as a whole. This idea that we need to move beyond sustainability, to something that puts humanity at the heart of the business is exciting. It moves businesses from just knowing their customers, employees, and other stakeholders to really understanding them as human beings. It enables businesses to understand the real problem that human encounters and offer solutions that have a bigger humanity impact than just one that appeals to a customer in the sales funnel.
Why now for-human centricity?
As Sir Ridley Scott said at a talk about how digital technologies can help reach the UN’s sustainability goals: “Humankind and Earth require intervention. We’re in a crisis state and we need to pull this together to fix the problem. Science fiction is fiction, but we operate in reality. Digital with Purpose is a movement and in race to deliver against the Paris Agreement. Putting humankind at its core.”
Or as Dominique Jaurola, CEO at Hunome puts it:
WebSummit has shown us that human-centricity is important to the likes of IKEA, Microsoft, Lush and many more. We know it’s important to you. This is why we are building Hunome, a collective platform that is set to revolutionize the world’s understanding of humanity.
Launching in 2021, we will connect perspectives and evolve insights to create a better understanding of the world arounds us.
Sign up for Hunome to join the growing number of individuals and businesses who are getting excited about the potential that human-centricity can have to shaping how the world works and should work so that it is human-aware.
